Zhang Lie instinctively stepped forward before stopping short once more. Their excursion to the Desert of Silence was meant as a training exercise, and there would be no point to it if he were to step in now. Furthermore, this was a relatively easy lifeform to defeat by the outskirts of the desert. If they weren't able to defeat it, then how would they be able to proceed deeper into the desert?

Zhang Lie steeled his heart and stood in place.

The beetle's claw swiped downward, raising such a storm of wind and sand that it was difficult for the hunters to keep their eyes open.

Fang Yi raised his spear to the skies. Activating [Rondo of Wind and Storm] with a shout, electric currents spiked up and down his body, and a bolt of lightning flew out of his spear.

"Sun Mengmeng, I need your help!" As expected of someone who became a prominent hunter in Zhang Lie's past life, Fang Yi responded quickly and decisively in the face of danger.

Sun Mengmeng nodded. Fang Yi concentrated all his attention on the spear in his hands; as genetic energy surged out of his body, he suddenly thrust his spear upwards. Thunder rumbled in the distance, and snakes of lightning sparked from the tip of his spear, glinting with the effect of [Heaven's Judgment].

Sun Mengmeng followed up with [Baptism of Hellfire]. Purple flames shot toward the beetle's claw, instantly vaporizing any grains of sand they touched along the way. As the flames made their way past Fang Yi's spear, they burned even more brightly and shot forward even more rapidly.

Fang Yi and Sun Mengmeng had used all their strength for this one blow: the beetle's claw seemed like a devastating attack, one that they couldn't take lightly.

Zhang Lie, watching the scene from behind them, inclined his head. Given how quickly Fang Yi and Sun Mengmeng had been able to launch their combination attack, as well as how remarkable their improvement had been, it seemed as though they were really quite compatible with each other.

As lightning, fire, and wind smashed against the beetle's claw, it cracked and split apart, raining sand down all the combatants below.

An unusual insect's cry came from underground, and the grains of sand that had made up the claw suddenly started to condense. The cracks in the claw were filling up, and the beetle seemed able to hold its own against even Sun Mengmeng and Fang Yi's combination attack.

Sun Mengmeng frowned, but she believed that Fang Yi would be able to overcome this obstacle.

"[Heaven's Judgment: Tribulation of Lightning]!" Fang Yi shouted. His eyes opened wide, pupils glowing with yellow light. His spear, once again sparking with energy, thrust toward the heart of the claw.

As though it had been struck by lightning, the grains of sand that made up the claw exploded and slowly drifted back down to the desert.

Zhang Lie exhaled. In the end, Fang Yi had managed to defend against the beetle's attack, but the beetle itself was still underground. The hunters of Team Zenith would need to find its body before they could truly end the battle.

How would they proceed?

Following Sun Mengmeng and Fang Yi's example, the other hunters of Team Zenith also paired up and got into position. They were carefully scrutinizing their surroundings. Yang Ze's body glowed with energy, and Sun Xiaowu and Zhou Ying were glancing all around them.

Under such circumstances, Zhou Ying's elemental attunement would be somewhat restricted, and she wouldn't be able to make use of its full power.

Li Feng wouldn't be able to find the beetle on his own, and his light attunement wouldn't be able to do much damage. Instead, he chose to shore up his reserves of genetic energy to support another attacker, a reasonable choice.

Yang Ze seemed as though he were about to make a move, but why would he do so out here in the desert, where the heat and dryness would both counteract his elemental attunement? 

It seemed as though he had uncovered the beetle's crucial weakness. Just as he was unsuited for the desert, so was the beetle of the sands unsuited for him. His water-attuned genetic energy could be condensed into a fair amount of water and fed into the sands. This would result in the formation of a layer of mud, far thicker in consistency and therefore harder to control than individual grains of sand. Furthermore, escaping from the mud would likewise be a challenging task.

To Zhang Lie, it was apparent that his teammates had gotten a grasp of the situation in front of them, and that they knew exactly what their role in the group was. This alone represented significant growth: after all, they weren't having a mock battle at a training ground, but were instead engaged in a life-or-death battle in the Desert of Silence itself. They would need to bear responsibility for their own lives, as well as those of their teammates.

With a dull thud, Yang Ze pounded the ground, using [Fists of the Silent Sea] to send waves of water seeping into the sands. An outsider might have thought that Yang Ze was just practicing a technique, but his repeated applications of [Fists of the Silent Sea] had succeeded in concentrating water-attuned genetic energy in the air and sand around him, causing the grains of sand to stick together as a result of the sudden moisture.

The dry sand began to shift and swirl, and the sudden change caused the beetle of the sands, mired deep underground within a protective shell of sand, to twitch in discomfort.

Zhou Ying's eyes sparkled. She wouldn't have been able to do anything in the dry desert, but now that Yang Ze had created a patch of moisture, things were different.

"[Storm of Leaves]!" Zhou Ying buried her hands amidst the mud as her body shone green. Vines and tendrils dug into the sand, trying to find where the beetle of the sands was hiding. "It's here!"

As the beetle screeched from underground, Fang Yi and Sun Mengmeng, who had since charged up their respective techniques, struck at once. [Baptism of Hellfire] and [Heaven's Judgment] sank into the sands right where Zhou Ying pointed.

The screech turned shrill. The combined force of Sun Mengmeng's purple flames and Fang Yi's lightning caused an underground eruption, and a mud-colored beetle flew out from a cloud of sand, dyed in bright green blood.

"Not bad! It's very impressive what you all have managed to do against this superior-grade lifeform on your own," Zhang Lie commented.

The beetle had been wrapped up in Zhou Ying's vines, causing it to take the full brunt of Fang Yi and Sun Mengmeng's blows. Its chitin was charred black and smoking, and it had clearly taken significant damage from the combination of attacks.

The beetle screeched again, waving its eight legs as it madly tried to dig its way out of the mud.

Of course, the hunters present wouldn't let it escape. The moment it jumped up, they swiped their weapons at it. How could they let a superior-grade lifeform escape so easily? Not only would it provide needed superior gene fragments, soulshards from such lifeforms would form the basis of their future growth.