Chapter 375: Sound Waves
Epoch of Twilight
Chapter 375: Sound Waves
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The next day before the sky cleared, Luo Yuan was already wide awake.
In truth, he did not sleep well last night because he had not ever slept in a mutant cave with a thunderstorm raging outside. Moreover, he could not get a wink of sleep as the air was filled with the buzzes, chirps and the occasional roaring sound of beasts of the jungle.
Luo Yuan put on his clothes which had been soaked earlier. The jacket was made of a low absorption material, thus, even though he dried it out when the night was cool, his clothes were all dried by the time he was up in the morning.
He stepped out of the cave and it was still dark. Fortunately, a thick layer of humus on the forest floor had absorbed the rainfall and flooding of the area were avoided.
There were only puddles of water that accumulated in the lowland areas.
The water looked clean and clear. Luo Yuan went back to his cave and returned with his towel, toothbrush, and a tumbler. He decided he would clean up and refill his bottle with water from the puddle.
He squatted in front of the puddle. Just as he was getting water to fill his bottle, he stopped.
The water looked clean from a distance, but as soon as he got closer, there were a lot of small moving spots on the surface. Some of them were long and thin like pieces of string and some were shaped like an arrowhead.
He knew that a clean source of water was very hard to find after the apocalypse. After living so comfortably in the Reconstruction Area for too long, he had forgotten what it was like in the wilderness.
Luo Yuan frowned and sighed. He placed his hand into the pool of water and focused his Will into it. Ripples were generated on the surface of the water. In just a blink of an eye, the water particles squirmed vigorously and splashed everywhere.
Despite the motion of the water particles, the water remained still and undisturbed.
Luo Yuan drew back his hand. The small spots in the water had disappeared. He did not summon much that much Will, but it was more than enough to kill the parasites.
He drank the bottle of water with no worry for the parasites. He refilled his bottle once more and started washing up.
He did not feel hungry even though he had not eaten anything since he left home. As the sky brightened, he decided to put the meal on hold till the afternoon.
He packed his luggage and resumed his journey.
...
Four days later, there was a dark shadow lying in the dirt not far from Luo Yuan, who was secretly observing the horror was before him. It was a giant beast that was approximately 30 meters tall.
It looked like an enormous frog but it was lean and muscular. The length of its body was almost double its height.
It slithered on the ground, its muscles were contracting as if there were countless pythons moving under its skin. He could easily identify the power of the giant beast, and it terrified him.
Its flippered feet were different from that of a normal frog. Instead, it had a pair of sharp claws which were a bright yellow. It had brightly colored skin with vertical stripes from its neck, all the way down its back.
The belly was black in color and was covered with fine, shiny scales. Luo Yuan was amazed by the secret power the scales seemed to possess. He felt dizzy and nauseous after looking at it for a moment and had to divert his eyes to control himself.
The giant beast seemed to be sleeping as it was not moving at all, apart from the breaths that could be seen filling and leaving its body. Luo Yuan noticed that it was creeping on its belly. To him, it seemed obvious that the giant beast had just had a meal. Oddly enough, Luo Yuan was a little relieved at the thought.
Luo Yuan wondered if he were lucky or unlucky as to encounter this mutant beast. He had no knowledge of what it was and did not anticipate to find such a force of nature so soon on his journey. The system information displayed that it was a level seven mutated beast.
The number of high leveled mutated beast increased rapidly as soon as he reached Sichuan. He came upon three mutated beasts on his way in, and this was his fourth one.
Among the three mutants Luo Yuan encountered earlier, he easily defeated two of them. One of them fled from Luo Yuan's attack but it was severely injured. There was, of course, a certain degree of risk to killing these mutated beasts.
One of the level seven mutated beasts had the ability to produce bolts of lightning. He did not know the ability before he attacked it, and as he had the element of surprise as the beast did not see him coming. The flash of lightning escaped the beast just before it died and the single bolt almost hit Luo Yuan square in the chest.
If Luo Yuan did not retreat right after he defeated the beast, he would have died. The power of these mutated beasts was extremely unpredictable.
Luo Yuan looked on for a while and walked forward, covering his body with a carpet of carefully dug up grass as a camouflage.
The giant beast seemed to have inherited the dynamic vision of frog as it was extremely sensitive to motion. It could sense any motions that were 500 to 600 meters far. It suddenly opened his eyes and stared at Luo Yuan, an ice cold look in its eye.
Luo Yuan did not dare move a muscle. In fact, this was the same technique used by the mutated beasts he previously encountered. After a short while, it closed its eyes and resumed its nap.
Human bodies were too small to satisfy the hunger of a beast like that. Moreover, the giant was still digesting the food that it just had and took little to no interest in him.
The behavior of mutated beasts varied accordingly. But, things like this would never happen at the Reconstruction Area. Anyone that got near the mutants that showed up would definitely trigger a battle between the two. Whereas in that jungle, it was rather difficult for them to realize the existence of human beings, let alone consider them a treat. It meant nothing to the giant beast even though Luo Yuan brought along the Green Hidden Creature's Sharp Horn.
A moment later, Luo Yuan continued moving and the giant beast did not bother to look at him. He smiled coldly and accelerated to build up his speed and momentum.
When he was about 50 meters away, something at the corner of his eye caught his attention and he immediately froze where he was.
He paused for a second and focused on his surroundings. He suddenly felt insecure, a chill running down his spine. Luo Yuan stayed calm as he understood that patience was the key to hunting. He knew that it would be ideal if he moved 10 meters closer but he was worried that he might trigger an attack.
He started moving again after 10 minutes. He was moving extremely slow and only after a few meters, he could predict the eventual outcome.
His ability to foresee how things would turn out two seconds in advance was perfect for him and could determine the victory of any battle, or severely sway it in his favor.
Beads of cold sweat dotted his forehead. He had never imagined encountering such a gigantic frog-like beast. He was too careless as his advance to attack was too quick, and he could not even respond to defend himself this close to the beast.
Before the apocalypse, the human knew how a normal frog would eat insects. The gigantic frog-like beast in front of him right now could make an attack that was easily a hundred times faster! He would not be able to react even with his 16-points of Agility.
His vision showed him that if he continued to move forward, a second later there would be an attack, and then his vision turned black.
He wondered if he should move forward or retreat a few steps back.
The next moment, he decided to move a step forward. Possessing the ability to predict the future, resembling a God's premonition abilities, provided him many second chances to decide outcomes for himself.
He moved gradually and the picture he had in mind changed according to the current situation and mental awareness. He predicted that the attack would come after 0.5 seconds. Its vigilance and alertness were increasing over time but Luo Yuan was confident with his abilities. With 0.5 seconds on the clock, he was well prepared for an attack. He would be able to dodge attacks and obtain the final victory in no time.
He tried his best not to make any changes and remain on the vision in his mind and timeline. The moment the giant beast tensed to launch an attack, Luo Yuan took a deep breath and he stomped his legs on the ground forcefully. The ground exploded around him!
At the same time, the gigantic beast struck forward to attack. His mouth dropped slightly open and a faint blur flashed and instantly struck Luo Yuan.
Before he was completely crushed, he was a shadow that flew through the air at his speed. Luo Yuan's was reaching the sound barrier! He fully extended his body and pulled out his Zhanmadao.
The air became unusually dense!
They were only 40 meters between prey and predator. The giant frog did not expect to encounter an evolved human like Luo Yuan. It could only defend itself as soon as the attacks missed its target.
The sound waves streaked through the air. He dove to avoid the attack and was injured. He fell before he could even feel the pain extending from its mouth to its forelegs.
Such an injury was not sufficient to kill him but it did give out a very serious warning to threaten him. It roared as in anger as the attack did not kill him instantly.
"Roarrrrr!" The giant frog roared and the sound waves it was emitting were horrifying and echoed throughout the whole jungle.
In an instant, ripples formed in the air, and it suddenly looked like a surface of a body of water.
Even big trees and rocks were crushed under the intensity of the vibrations from the high-frequency sound waves. The surrounding air was stirred and dust was flying everywhere. However, the sound waves suddenly stopped. A streak of blood that was six to seven meters long oozed down from the back of its head. Eventually, blood oozed out of the deep, dehisced wound.
Slowly, part of the beast’s head fell away. The part that he slashed fell away, exposing the brain that was cut into a clean half, sitting in its skull.
The giant beast was in so much pain after the hit Luo Yuan unleashed upon it. However, Luo Yuan who was standing aside was seriously influenced by its powerful sound waves.
It was so painfully agonizing and loud. His face turned a dead white pale. It took him awhile to regain his senses.
The giant beast struggled in pain and squirmed, swishing its body around knocking down trees and vegetation in its path. Luo Yuan dared not jump down as he was already injured. He held upon the beast body tightly and waited for a few moments.
He was only able to calm down after half an hour. He waited for a few minutes more and jumped off the beast’s body. He staggered to his feet and almost fell to the ground.