Monster Hunter: Wild Pointer

But Elq doesn't have a catapult.

Seabuckthorn gritted his teeth and decided to take a risk while the Star Feather Butterfly broke free from its restraints. If he missed this opportunity, who knew when he would meet the next one?

With a slight "click" sound, the winch of the Spider-Man Unit 2 loosened, and the shaky restraint bomb fell off completely.

The Star Feather Butterfly, which was flapping its wings with all its might to fight against the rope, lost control of its flying posture for a moment and almost crashed into a tree trunk nearby.

Now is the time, meow!

Seabuckthorn decisively released the handle of the Spider No. 2 and threw the dye ball towards the Star Feather Butterfly in mid-air.

At the same time, a dye bullet came through the wind.

The dye ball and the dye bullet hit the target one after another. In terms of the time of hitting, the dye ball hit the target even a moment earlier. The bright pink pungent juice covered the entire body of the Star Feather Butterfly.

The panicked Star Feather Butterfly flapped its wings faster and staggered away into the shadows of the woods.

But it could no longer escape, leaving behind a clear scent trail in the dense forest.

Muxiang, riding on the Fang Hound, slowed down and stopped beside Seabuckthorn. She put down the water beast Storm in her hand and gave Seabuckthorn a thumbs up.

"That's a good hit! Looks like I wasted a dye bullet."

Seabuckthorn scratched his ears a little embarrassedly. If he had known that costus root could arrive in time, he would not have taken the risk.

The two strange-faced people were dancing and trying to chase after them, but Muxiang quickly stopped them.

Although they cannot communicate verbally, they can always understand each other through simple sign language such as "stop".

The leader of this group of strange-faced people must have ordered them to obey the hunter's command. Although the two strange-faced people were a little unwilling and restless, they still stopped obediently.

After waiting there for more than ten minutes, the other hunters arrived, and the professor and Eric also arrived at the scene with the hunters.

"How is it?" the professor asked hurriedly as he came up.

"The marking has been completed. This is all thanks to Seabuckthorn." Muxiang replied with a smile.

"Well done!" Orlan rubbed Seabuckthorn's head and praised him. Then he looked at the professor and said, "Star Feather Butterfly has nowhere to hide. Should we start tracking it immediately?"

The professor pondered for a moment and shook his head slightly, "There's a high probability that a frightened Star Feather Butterfly will return to its host, which is where the Star Dragon is. If you're lucky, it might even rub the juice of the dye ball onto the Star Dragon.

The smell of the dye ball will not dissipate for a while, so there is no need to rush to track it. It is recommended to wait at least half an hour before taking action to avoid following too closely and alerting the Star Dragon.

And, we have too many people." The professor pointed around.

As we were talking, several more members of the Qimian tribe and several field scholars from the investigation team arrived here. Such a large group of people is not suitable for tracking.

"Go back to the canyon camp first, prepare the airship for takeoff, and wait for our signal."

The professor first gave instructions to the members of the investigation team, and then looked at the leader who was surrounded by the strange-faced people.

He communicated in the Qimian language: "We will arrange one or two Qimian people who are most familiar with the terrain and are smart to follow us as guides."

"We can, help, fight."

"What we lack right now isn't combat power. We have to make sure we find that guy first. If we can't find him, having more people won't make any sense."

The professor's words convinced the leader of the strange-faced tribe. He nodded and asked two stronger members of the strange-faced tribe to go with him.

Among them is the "glass bottle" that Orlang and his companions are familiar with. Perhaps because of its contribution to contacting humans, it is now highly valued by the leader.

Leading two of his tribesmen, the leader of the Qimian tribe picked up the bone axe and said, "I will lead the way for you."

This time the professor didn't refuse. After arranging the members for the capture operation, he glanced at the disciple who was following him and talking to himself, and warned him coldly:

"You will assist me in taking photos and recording. If you dare to run around again and disrupt the battle plan, you will never dream of being able to go out into the wild again in this life."

"Okay."

The redundant personnel left one after another, and the hunters checked their equipment and recovered their strength on the spot. After a period of rest, they followed the traces and smells left by the dye balls and officially started tracking.

Chapter 285 Karst Landform

For hunters who have received formal training, tracking monsters marked by dye balls is the most basic of basics, not to mention that there are so many hunting partners with keen sense of smell in the team.

They quickly locked onto the direction in which the Star-Feather Butterfly left, and even roughly determined the Star-Feather Butterfly's current distance based on the changes in the strength of its smell.

"What's there?" the professor asked the leader of the strange-faced tribe.

This group of strange-faced people have lived in this mountain forest for generations. They are familiar with every tree and blade of grass and don’t even need a map. The leader of the strange-faced people gave the answer directly.

"Beside the big river, there are many ancient buildings, high and low."

"Ancient buildings, ruins?"

The professor held the map in his hand carefully, and after checking it carefully for a few times, he snorted softly, "There is no mark on the map about the existence of ruins in that area.

Deep in the jungle, a secret place no one has ever reached? It certainly sounds like a place where Star Dragon would stay.

"Muxiang, have the Fukumu rabbit hover in the air to keep watch. Hunters, be aware of the dense forest around you and set off."

Muxiang nodded, whispered a few words of advice, and released the Fukumu rabbit named Mochi from her shoulder.

The hunters protected the two scholars in the center of the team and moved steadily in the direction where the scent of the dyed fruit came from.

After walking a long way and following the changing terrain, Ao Lang and the others gradually understood the true meaning of "highs and lows" as spoken by the leader of the Qimian tribe.

Unlike the relatively flat dense forest near the camp, the terrain in this area is broken, with large and small protruding rocks and cliffs, surrounding a water network formed by the erosion of a large river, together forming a large karst area (karst landform).

Eric was very excited. The ecosystem formed under this special landform was of course very different from that of ordinary jungles. For example, the Otsu swallowtail butterfly that just flew by was somewhat different from the ordinary jungle subspecies.

His gaze drifted towards the beautiful swallowtail butterfly, but before he could think further, he felt a cold gaze from the professor.

Eric came back to his senses with a start and withdrew his gaze with regret. He stayed obediently in the center of the team and continued to write and draw on the map, filling in the details and blanks of this area.

The group stopped at the edge of the river. If they wanted to continue moving forward following the scent trail, they had to go into the water.

Several people looked at the professor. Swimming in unfamiliar waters was not a smart move.

The professor hesitated for two seconds, then asked the leader of the Qimian tribe in fluent Qimian language, "Do you come here often? Is the river here safe?"

The leader of the Strange-Faced Tribe shook his exaggerated mask and said, "This is no longer our territory. We don't like swimming, so we rarely come here.

There may be monsters in the river, but they are probably no match for you."

The professor frowned. He was not as optimistic as the leader of the strange-faced tribe.

Underwater combat and conventional land combat are two completely different systems. In this case, the safest approach is to let a hunter familiar with water combat enter the water first to confirm the situation.

He had worked with Olivia many times and was quite familiar with her. He knew that she was not a hunter who was good at water battles, otherwise she would not use a sledgehammer.

Needless to say, Orlan grew up in the desert and is an amazing swimmer, but there is no reason for him to be good at water battles.

Muxiang is an archer, and unless he uses a specially modified crossbow, he will be at a great disadvantage in underwater combat.

In the end, he could only look at Muti and ask, "Do you have any experience in underwater combat?"

Muti shook his head honestly, "No, but I can try!"

professor:"."

Muti is very courageous, but the answer of "I can try" is not really reassuring.

"Leave it to me, meow." Yuwan walked out from behind Muti, "I'm good at underwater combat, meow.

If it's just a water beast or a monster on the level of a lantern dragon, I can handle it myself, meow."

The professor looked at Yuwan with a little surprise, then nodded.

If there is no hunter who is good at water battles, it is also good to have a hunting cat who is good at water battles. Anyway, it is not for hunting, just to explore the way.

"Be careful." Muti rubbed Yuwan's head.

Yuwan suddenly seemed to have taken a strong walking drug. He puffed out his chest, put his hands on his hips, and said, "Look at my meow!", then dived into the water like a cannonball.

Through the clear river water, everyone watched Yuwan paddle with his limbs and rush out far away like a nimble fish, disappearing in the waves in the blink of an eye.

Five seconds, ten seconds. Suddenly, the surface of the river, about ten or twenty meters away from the shore, began to churn. Bright red blood surged up along with the bubbles, and was instantly washed away by the flowing river water.

Muti nervously drew his knife, and Muxiang set up a crossbow, ready to provide support shooting at any time.

The next second, a bright yellow figure about three meters long, like a big lizard, floated to the surface of the river with its belly turned up.

It was an aquatic beast, an aquatic carnivorous monster commonly found in freshwater environments. It had a ferocious temperament and loved to attack creatures that fell into the water. It would occasionally come ashore to hunt.

But the throat of this aquatic beast had been torn open, blood was gushing out, and its life was entering its final countdown. It was obvious that it no longer had the ability to attack other creatures.

Just a few seconds later, the same scene was repeated on the water farther away from the shore.

The second head, the third head.

After killing four aquatic beasts in one go, Yuwan returned to the shore.

It shook its body to get rid of the blood on its body. "It's okay, meow. There are only these four aquatic beasts nearby, meow. You can swim over safely, meow."

Orlan opened his mouth and asked, "Will this attract other monsters?"

"Don't worry, meow." Yuwan put away his weapon and said confidently, "The river is flowing strong enough. By the time we get in the water, the bodies and blood will have already been washed downstream, meow."

The professor glanced at the aquatic beast's corpse drifting away with the waves and nodded in appreciation, "The bleeding corpse is also bait. Even if it attracts monsters, they won't come after us.

This is a very clever idea, killing two birds with one stone. Let's get in the water and cross the river."

As he spoke, the old dragon man took the lead, tied up the cuffs and hem of his robe, and walked into the river.

Since the professors, who are scholars, have already gone into the water, the hunters naturally will not hesitate any longer and follow.

At this moment, Orlan was just thankful that he had found time to learn how to swim after leaving the desert. Otherwise, it would be too embarrassing to say "I can't swim" at this time.

Just as Yuwan said, this small section of the river had been "cleaned up" by it. Except for Aolang and Seabuckthorn who were not good at swimming and choked on the water, the group swam to the other side of the river safely.

There stands a huge rock mountain, and the traces of the smell of the dyeing fruit are left here.

(This feeling)

In other words, this rocky mountain that protrudes from the river and diverts the river is most likely the hiding place of the star dragon.

After climbing ashore with some difficulty, Orlang Seabuckthorn lay down and coughed several times before he staggered to his feet.

With their swimming skills that barely avoided drowning, it was really difficult for them to cross a river with a strong current fully armed. If it weren't for Xiang, who was a good swimmer, to help them, it was possible that they would sink halfway.

Without giving Orlan and the others much time to catch their breath, the professor simply wrung out his clothes and put them on. His movements were so agile that he didn't look like an old man at all.

"Keep quiet. From now on, everyone is to wear stealth clothing and follow the principle of covert operations."

Following the professor's instructions, only Olivia, Athos, and Yuwan followed him immediately. The other young hunters, including Eric, were obviously a step behind, and were obviously unsure of what to do.

The professor's face darkened, but thinking that these young people were unlikely to have received special training in covert operations, he could only control his temper and explain in a low voice.

"If you don't understand, just follow our route and act as if you were lurking close to the monster."

After his explanation, Orlan and the others finally reacted, lowered their bodies, stepped lightly, and followed the professor and his companions in a light-footed manner.

They followed the professor's and others' actions, sticking close to the rock wall, using the terrain and vegetation to cover themselves, avoiding possible gazes from above, and walked a small circle around the bottom of the rock.

Finally, we arrived in front of a narrow waterfall that was dozens of meters high, and the smell of the dyed fruit disappeared here.

The professor took a quick look and immediately made a judgment. "There's a cave behind the waterfall. Be alert and let's go in."

Chapter 286 Pounce

The mossy rocks were wet and slippery under the waterfall.

Several people braved the rush of the waterfall, climbed over the slippery rocks, and finally crossed the waterfall and arrived at the entrance of the cave.

Without the obstruction of the water curtain, the faint scent of dyed fruit reappeared in the air, which made everyone breathe a sigh of relief.

It seems that the Star Feather Butterfly did indeed pass through the waterfall and entered the cave, and their efforts were not in vain.

"How could the Star-Feather Butterfly fly over such a waterfall and not be knocked to the ground by the water? How did it do that?" Eric muttered to himself while rubbing his aching shoulder.

When they just crossed the waterfall, the hunters in armor were better off, but he and the professor in a light scribe's robe almost had their bones broken by the rushing water.

It is hard to imagine the scene of the star-feather butterfly flapping its wings and diving into the waterfall. If it were an insect of similar size, such as a giant bee, it would definitely not be able to break through this layer of waterfall water curtain.

Therefore, Muxiang's Fukuki rabbit was left outside. If its feathers were wet, it would not be able to fly. Moreover, the complex terrain and dim light inside the cave were indeed not suitable for Fukuki rabbit to fly.

The professor did not answer his disciple's question immediately. Instead, he quickly observed the situation around him and then made a few gestures.

Yuwan and Athos nodded in unison, quickly ran away from their spot, and went into the cave several dozen meters deeper to stand guard.

Outside the cave entrance was a waterfall, and on the way deeper into the cave, there were two hunting cats guarding the road, giving them a temporary safe zone.

"Hurry up and adjust your condition and light the gas lamp." The professor spoke in a slightly higher voice.