Wu Rui solemnly watched the grotesque beast. 

“Let’s retreat,” said Li Zimo, brows tightly furrowed. It was obviously unrealistic to fight three Beast Generals after losing a team; they might not beat the beasts even if they put their lives on the line. 

“We can’t leave,” said Fang Rou, looking at the beasts encircling them from all directions. Any obstacle would be enough for the tier four beasts to catch up. They couldn’t escape the encirclement. 

They heard Charotis’ voice from their earpieces. “If we want to live, both of our teams have to work together or we’ll die fighting these Beast Generals.” 

“I’m sorry, we’ll never work with you,” came Liu Ruoxue’s flat rejection. Then she turned off her microphone and the truck fell to pin-drop silence, save for the roaring outside. 

Liu Ruoxue looked at the group, blushing. “I’m sorry, I made the decision on my own.” 

“Sigh, you got to it first. Why’d you have to hurry? I wanted to toy with them a bit,” laughed Wu Rui. 

The rest of the team smiled. They didn’t need help—or, more specifically, they didn’t need help from people like them. 

“Dammit!” Charotis cursed. He had been yelling through his microphone but didn’t receive an answer. Knowing that the other team had cut off contact, he slammed his earpiece to the ground. “Those damn lukangs! If we don’t work together, we’ll all die! Do they plan to die here?!” he roared. 

“What do we do? Our Karan blood and aura are stronger than those lukangs, the beasts will surely target us first.” 

“Team leader, calm down. It’s fine if they don’t want to work with us. There aren’t too many beasts surrounding us,” one of them chuckled. 

“Just spit it out. Our team leader’s in a rage now.” 

“Just like last time. When we rush out.…”

When he finished, the rest of them nodded and agreed that it wasn’t a bad idea, but changed their minds when they looked at Charotis. 

“No, Karans will never do such a thing.” 

“Team leader, if we don’t do this, you don’t expect us to actually fight those beasts, do you? The gap in strength is just too big!” Although the Karan tribesmen called themselves warriors, charging at a significantly stronger enemy was still idiotic behavior. 

But Charotis ignored him and got off the truck. Since when had the Karan tribesmen felt fear? So what if it was a tier four, eight-star Demonpede? 

Wu Rui and Charotis stepped out of their vehicles almost at the same time. Smirking, Wu Rui pointed at his own microphone. “I thought you guys would be waiting for us to attract the beasts and then run off, leaving them to us.” 

Charotis turned his microphone on. When he heard Wu Rui’s remark, he chuckled. “I hope you don’t regret this.” 

“Regret? We’ll only regret it if we work with trash like you guys. We wouldn’t know when we’d get stabbed in the back.” 

Charotis wanted to bite back, but shut up after recalling the dialogue in the truck. It looked like his team needed more discipline. However, they had to first get out of here alive. 

All of the participants exited their vehicles, fully suited up in battle armor. They had no choice; fighting without armor would be too dangerous. 

“Be careful! I’ll go block the Demonpede!” Wu Rui pulled out his rank five iridium rod, ten Hunter Mk. 4 flying knives orbiting around him. Wu Rui was currently a tier four, one-star martial artist and tier three, four-star spiritual cultivator. 

“Go!” cried Wu Rui. Using the Wu family’s breathing technique, a surge of power coursed through his veins, much to the astonishment of the Karan tribesmen. 

"I can’t believe there’s non-Karan tribesmen who can stimulate their Qi like that! He’s as strong as our leader!” 

“Leader, if you fought him, how confident are you in beating him?” 

“Sixty percent. You guys watch out—I’ll deal with the Demonpede. Our vitality is making us smell delicious to those beasts,” said Charotis. 

It was true. Both teams smelled delicious to the beasts, especially the Demonpede, who was currently tier four, eight-star. If it could devour all the humans there, it had a high chance of breaking through to nine star, or even achieve tier five. Tier four and tier five presented very different strength levels, as well. 

The battle instantaneously burst into action. Wu Rui and Charotis charged at the same time, while the Demonpede and other beasts did the same.

“What the hell? These animals have a battle strategy? Here’s a taste of fresh bullets!” Li Zimo pressed the attack button in the truck and dozens of rounds rained down on an area with more beasts. 

Within the fortress, Akting and Lei Zhongyuan watched the battle erupt on screen with grave expressions. To be honest, they each wanted their team to work with the other. From their side, it looked like both sides were working together, but also as if they were minding their own business. 

There were three people there at first, but one of them had left. That was the instructor whose team had been annihilated. 

“Should we fight too? This assignment is too difficult,” Akting solemnly said. Just as the students had analyzed, an ordinary tier four, eight-star beast should have been fine for them, but Demonpedes were beasts that ranked just beneath Grimclaws and Pale Moons. Their venom was no joke. 

Records showed that the first appearance of a Demonpede was eighty-seven years ago. During battle, it had released a barely detectable poisonous mist from its body, which would elicit all sorts of terrible symptoms after a human breathed it for more than ten minutes. It had a strong, durable exoskeleton, and mandibles that were strong enough to crush a tank that could usually withstand an attack by a tier four beast. 

Demonpedes were rust colored, with brown eyes that had a peculiar ability to disturb an organism's mental state. Research found that the first symptoms came after three minutes of breathing its poisonous mist, which included a deep sense of fear. As such, a Demonpede could then easily kill their prey with the lowest chance of being hurt. 

“I have two pieces of news. One good, one bad. Which do you want first?” Wu Rui smirked when he saw a name pop up on his communication device. 

“What’re you talking about?” Charotis cocked an eyebrow. 

“Good news is that reinforcements are here, you guys will live. Bad news, you’ll live... but I don’t know if you’ll return in one piece.”

“What did you say?!” Charotis’ voice went up an octave.

The MC is coming hohoho