"And most importantly, if possible this time, I plan to capture the Great Izuchi."
"Ca-Capture, meow?!" Zhu Pa seemed startled by Gordon's words.
It wasn't that there was anything wrong with capturing as a hunting method.
Many Hunters choose to capture when hunting large monsters; while it's more laborious, it's relatively safer and allows them to obtain more monster materials.
In comparison, the expense of trap tools and capture paralyzing balls is practically negligible.
However, in the two years since it became Gordon's partner, it had never seen Gordon use a trap to capture a monster. It had thought Gordon particularly disdained capturing, or perhaps had some special trauma related to it.
Noticing Zhu Pa's surprised expression, Gordon felt a bit helpless.
The reasons the former assumed were all baseless; he never captured monsters before, mainly because there was no need.
He could easily hunt Two-Star monsters like the Blue Velocidrome, and when cooperating with others on Three-Star quests, there was no demand for capture, as no one wanted to bother setting up traps.
But this time.
To defeat the powerful Great Izuchi, he was willing to use every means at his disposal.
Due to severe injuries and a critical situation at the time, Gordon and Zhu Pa didn't have time to mark the Great Izuchi with a Paintball when they retreated, thus losing track of it.
But this wasn't a major problem. They had already confirmed the location of the Great Izuchi's nest before, so even if they just waited near the nest, they would eventually see the Great Izuchi return.
They had originally prepared for a game of hide-and-seek with the Great Izuchi, but a discovery shortly after leaving the Hunter Camp saved Gordon and his team a lot of time.
As he crested a small mountain ridge, Gordon, with his good eyesight, noticed an observation hot air balloon hovering not too far from them, high in the sky.
These observation hot air balloons are typically jointly funded and staffed by the Royal Paleontological Scribes, the Hunter's Guild, and the relatively mysterious academic institution "Ancient Dragon Observation Bureau."
Besides the necessary pilot, the crew also includes Scholars from the Shushi Team and the Ancient Dragon Observation Bureau.
Normally, the main task of these observation hot air balloons is to observe the mountains and wilderness from high altitudes, and the specific content is quite complex.
This includes, but is not limited to, observing whether dangerous large monsters or monster groups are approaching human settlements, observing changes in the local mountain wilderness ecology, providing monster intelligence to the Hunter's Guild, and alerting to the migration of "Ancient Dragons" which possess disaster-like destructive power, and providing early warnings, etc.
Most of these responsibilities were irrelevant to Gordon, who was still only a Two-Star Hunter at the time. However, very often, Hunters in the Hunting Field could derive great convenience from the hot air balloon.
"Hey~! Hello!!!~~~" Gordon waved his hands, stretching his voice to greet the hot air balloon several kilometers away in the sky.
Unfortunately, due to the great distance, the other party did not notice his presence.
Gordon scratched the back of his head awkwardly, but the full-coverage metal helmet of the Refined Ore Set made him scratch nothing.
"Hmm?"
Gordon suddenly had an idea. He took off his helmet and used a relatively flat metal plate on the helmet's faceguard as a mirror, reflecting sunlight towards the hot air balloon.
In a natural environment, such abrupt reflections are very conspicuous. Soon after, the crew members on the observation hot air balloon discovered Gordon's presence on the mountain ridge.
Through the telescope, seeing Gordon waving his arms, they immediately understood his needs.
For a hot air balloon nearly a thousand meters high, the scenery within tens of square kilometers was visible. The two Scholars searched with their telescopes for a while and quickly found the orange-red figure in a river valley.
After simply calculating the direction and distance, they pulled the built-in reflector on the hot air balloon and sent a reply signal to Gordon.
On the mountain ridge, Gordon squinted, carefully deciphering the flashing Morse code signals from the hot air balloon.
"Great, Izuchi… West, twenty degrees north, two, kilometers, river valley… Aha!"
Gordon was overjoyed to get the accurate coordinates of the Great Izuchi. He waved at the hot air balloon again, then gave a thumbs-up.
The hot air balloon also sent a blessing.
"May your martial fortunes prosper."
Bidding farewell to the hot air balloon, Gordon and Zhu Pa left the mountain ridge and rushed to the river valley at their fastest speed.
They had to make contact with the Great Izuchi and mark it with a Paintball before it left, otherwise, the Great Izuchi, being good at flying, would cause them to lose their target again.
Fortunately, the Great Izuchi was leisurely strolling and foraging in the river valley, seemingly with no intention of leaving anytime soon.
Gordon and Zhu Pa exchanged glances and decided to strike first.
A Paintball and a Sonic Bomb were thrown one after another. As the strongly scented dye from the Paintball burst into a splat on the Great Izuchi, alarming it, the Sonic Bomb was also thrown in front of it.
The Sonic Bomb, no bigger than a fist, exploded. There was no fire or smoke, only a high-frequency sonic blast, undetectable by human ears, that instantly spread and swept all around.
The Great Izuchi trembled all over as if electrocuted, then began shaking its head and staggering, clearly entering a dizzy state.
Gordon, who had already begun his charge the moment he threw the Paintball, precisely reached the Great Izuchi's side. He stepped, lowered his waist, drew his Great Sword, and instantly entered a Charged Slash stance.
Seconds later, the Charged Slash, with its power accumulated to the limit, erupted with a roar from Gordon.
The dizzy Great Izuchi was powerless to resist. The heavy sword head of the Giant Scissors, covered in sharp serrations, thus slammed down without reservation onto the base of its wing.
That's right, Gordon's chosen Attack Up position was again the wing.
The tactical thinking of destroying the Great Izuchi's wings to make it unable to fly or difficult to fly is correct. Every melee Hunter would choose this, and moreover, the wings are already the Great Izuchi's weak point with softer flesh!
The incredibly powerful Three-Stage Charged Slash and the initial upward slash from their first encounter were simply incomparable in terms of destructive power.
The scythe-shaped blade of the Giant Scissors maximized the force of the slash. The not-too-thick carapace at the wing root joint instantly shattered into pieces, followed by the tough hide, muscle, and bone.
Gordon could feel the blade of the Giant Scissors cutting directly into the Great Izuchi's joint by several inches deep, even getting stuck in the gap between the joints.
This was a very precise strike. If it were an Upper-Rank Great Sword User with a sharper weapon and greater strength, this single blow might have directly severed one of the Great Izuchi's wings.
Gordon felt no regret. Regardless, the Great Izuchi was severely wounded.
Even though it was still in a dizzy state, it let out a miserable shriek.
His faceguard hid Gordon's slightly grim smile. He roared, forcefully pulled the Giant Scissors out of the Great Izuchi's wing root joint, used the momentum for a horizontal slash, adjusted slightly, then hoisted the Great Sword onto his shoulder, entering a Charged Slash stance again.
He planned to deliver another Charged Slash to that bloody wound.
"Watch me cut your wing right off! Haaah!"
--+--
T/N: While I am an inexperienced Translator, I have a Patreon! While it may seem empty as of now, webnovel will get 2 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
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