Hunt

Ivory stood ready when the overgrown snake finally breached the water's surface. 

Though he held no weapon in his hands, he was certain of his ability to kill. 

Miles away, he felt the rumbling of lightning. He promised that once he finished with his businesses, he would rush back. 

It seemed that the snake too heard the rumbling as he felt its pace quickening. Only a second later a sleek snake loomed above. 

It emitted a presence of sovereignty, causing the surrounding critters to scurry away in a hurry.

Its blue and black scales shone despite the dim light from the cloud coverage.

Standing at a towering height of 40 feet it dwarfed the nearly six-foot Ivory. Currently, it wasn't even looking at him, instead fully intending to rush towards the heavenly tribulation. 

Ivory wasn't going to let that happen though, his prey was right in front of him after all. 

With them being in such close proximity he could sense that the snake was around the third star level. 

It was most likely the apex predator in the shallow ocean holding enough power to destroy a small continent back in the main universe. 

Though here in the source, it would find trouble destroying a mountain. Ivory hated to admit it but he had actually underestimated the creature. 

He had thought he could kill it with just his bare hands, but it seemed he needed something else. 

Grabbing a fallen branch from the ground, he readied to attack. Ivory only had two rules for a fight, be fast and be precise. 

Within the span of a few seconds, he crossed a little more than a mile reaching the back of the snake's head. Reaching a speed just below that of sound in an instant he impaled the back of its head with the stick. 

The source world held much stronger material than the main universe, but even then a tree branch was still a tree branch. 

With such tremendous speed and force the stick effectively disintegrated as it punctured the thick scales of the snake. 

Despite losing his weapon it did its job perfectly. Before stabbing the snake, he had manifested through it a very thin needle of spiritual energy at the tip aiming straight into its Jacobson's organ. 

Located right behind its nasal area, it held the organ responsible for its primary sense. Unlike humans who relied mostly on sight, many serpents used their sense of smell to navigate the world around them. 

With the damage done to its sense of smell, the serpent thrashed around in a panic. Its scales were hard enough to resist bullets from sniper rifles and yet something still managed to pierce it. 

Countless trees around fell in its rampage but despite that, she couldn't sense where her assailant was. 

In a desperate attempt, she sent out a wave of spiritual energy from her body, intending to find her attacker. 

Her spiritual energy covered a radius of a mile and yet she still found nothing. 

She had used up a massive amount of spiritual energy in that search, draining up to 10% of her reserve. 

In the exact second when her spiritual location detected nothing, Ivory pounced upon his target. 

This time around he had managed to grab 2 much sturdier sticks ready to deal some true damage. 

 Utilizing the same strategy, he launched the two sticks toward its head aiming to bypass the hard scales straight into its soft brain. 

Each strike gave no pain towards its target but the damage it dealt was not without consequences. 

The serpent's mental functioning grew duller, more erratic, and filled with a sense of urgency. A sense of fatigue and desperation surged within her whole being.

Feeling the fear of death, she turned back running back to the protection of the ocean. 

Her pursuer wouldn't let her though, despite mustering all of her strength to run as fast as she could the strikes kept coming.

The strikes were omnipresent, coming from any and all directions. Her scales, which had been her pride and joy, were failing her. 

She cast an armor of water to cover her head, in the hopes that it would block the attacks but it was to no avail.

Despite the sticks getting trapped due to surface tension, her condition continued to worsen with each strike. 

Sensing that her end was near, she decided to take a last stand. With the remaining of her spiritual energy and life force, she would self-destruct. 

The resulting blast would eradicate the surrounding terrain for miles and turn it into a wasteland. She cursed that her attacker would end with the same fate. 

Ivory wasn't going to let that happen though, he needed her blood for a ritual. It was also just a waste to let go of such premium materials. 

As soon as she released the shield of water that surrounded her head, Ivory pounced from a nearby tree. 

All it took was a good hit to the head to kill the creature. With a resounding crash, the serpent lay dead under him. 

With the battle over, waves of fatigue washed over Ivory. Although not a single hair on his entire body had been touched, he was drained of spiritual energy.

He had successfully hunted a monster that was two realms above his own. However, it was only possible due to his calculated start. 

For most of the encounter, he utilized a 7-star stealth technique to hide himself from the beast allowing him to employ a hit-and-run tactic. 

However due to him being only 1 star he couldn't utilize the technique fully to hide from the serpent's excellent sense of smell. 

That's exactly why the hit to its olfactory senses was the most important.

That didn't matter now though, he had finally gained the first ingredient to the ritual. 

Taking out one of the brown pouches he snatched from Alfie, he stored the serpent's corpse before he began limping back towards the settlement. 

By now the lightning strikes had subsided, and though logic dictated him to think that Alfie must've died he wasn't too sure. 

The kid might've outdone even him today.