Fatal Shot

Perhaps a single Bladed Beetle would have no strength to fight back against a large Commander-grade monster like this, since even if it was the Level-35 Elite Bladed Beetle, it would not be able to withstand one swipe of the tail or one hit from the Earth Spike of the Level-38 Desert Rock Lizard Commander.

Similarly, no matter how strong a hunting dog was, it would not really be able to have any effect in front of a tiger.

But! There were 10 Bladed Beetles. Moreover, each of them possessed high movement speed and jumping methods, as well as uncommon attacks. The high movement speed, paired with the long leaps of the Bladed Beetles due to their beetle wings, made it very difficult for the Desert Rock Lizard Commander’s fatal Earth Spike to hit them as they kept dodging them.

Although the evasion rate was not 100 percent, in the end, it only cost two Bladed Beetles. The remaining eight Bladed Beetles succeeded in charging to the side of the Desert Rock Lizard Commander. After that, they tackled the Swamp Rock Crocodile like before and attacked as if their lives depended on it while attached to the target’s body!

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At the same time, the two Spray Beetles that had hidden behind a sandhill crawled back out again as they again began “spitting” at the Desert Rock Lizard Commander that the Bladed Beetles were entangled with.

The light-green corrosive poison liquid steadily struck the Desert Rock Lizard Commander’s body, permeating through its rock-hard skin and weakening the defense that the big, sharp claws of the Bladed Beetles hadn’t been able to cut through before. And because the Bladed Beetles were members of the Beetle group, the poison liquid of the Spray Beetles did not have any effect on their dark red carapaces even when it landed on them. Clearly, the Bladed Beetles had the same poison immunity.

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The coordination between two types of beetles—one close-range, the other long-range—was equivalent to two Manipulators and eight Light Armor Warriors.

Although the Desert Rock Lizard Commander possessed incredible defense, it did not have any area of effect skills, so when faced with eight tiny bugs crawling onto its body, it was clearly in a bit of a bind. Its tail swung from left to right and created a yellow sandstorm that covered practically the entire battlefield. A Level-20 Bladed Beetle that failed to avoid the tail on time also died directly from the blow.

Its unbelievably tough yellow skin covered in thick scales became weak due to the corrosion of the liquid poison, and under the continuous “scythe” attack of the Bladed Beetles and the stabs from their six limbs, the blood and number of wounds increased as the damage amounts that appeared over its head also slowly went up.

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In truth, when faced with these sorts of “tiny bugs,” it should have possessed an ultimate weapon—its long, difficult-to-evade, bluish-green tongue, which was as fast as lightning and almost as long as its body. Even when faced against the Desert Fire Ants, nicknamed “Bullet Ants,” which were extremely fast in the desert, it could easily catch them in the air and devour them as delicacies!

However, its ultimate hunting weapon was blown to pieces because it had eaten the wrong thing just now. At the moment, it was still bleeding and could not be used. As such, for the moment, the hunting dogs were actually on even ground with the fierce tiger; one might have even said they held the advantage.

Apart from that, since the attention of the Desert Rock Lizard Commander was focused on the Bladed Beetles on its body, Feng Luo, who was around 50 meters away from it, could finally stop running. The released Feng Luo did not hesitate to cast the Rapid Shooting skill. He raised the Eye of the Thunder and continuously fired multiple shield-breaking energy bullets at the Desert Rock Lizard Commander.

Bang, bang, bang!

The shield-breaking energy bullets looked even clearer under the gradually darkening scene. Most importantly, after a few seconds, Feng Luo finally seized the chance and blew up the remaining right eye of the Desert Rock Lizard Commander. Now, it had finally turned it into a “blind beast.”

The pain that the Desert Rock Lizard Commander felt made it even angrier, and, by relying on its very sensitive nose, it could still fight. It even caught a Bladed Beetle on its back and threw it off its body due to the range. It then used its scale-covered leg to stomp heavily on the beetle, reducing it to insectoid mush. However, it could not prevent the tide of the battle from turning in Feng Luo’s favor.

Bang, bang, bang!

Feng Luo continued shooting. Although the enraged Desert Rock Lizard Commander continued to spin its body, making it hard for Feng Luo to hit its vital spot—and only three bullets were left inside the Eye of the Thunder magazine—and even after triggering the special effect of the rifle for a total of three times, the HP of the Desert Rock Lizard Commander was still at less than one-fifth.

By then, only four out of 10 Bladed Beetles were left. However, it was a good thing that a Level-35 Elite Bladed Beetle was still alive, so the losses were still acceptable.

“Roar!”

As its HP was reduced to 15 percent, the Desert Rock Lizard Commander that finally sensed death roared. It dove headfirst into the sand and cast the skill Escape!

However, by performing this action, it allowed Feng Luo, who seized the opportunity, to fire a shield-breaking energy bullet to strike the injury on its eye. The bullet rotated at high speed and pierced and entered its skull.

Red lethal damage that reached over 6,000 damage dropped its remaining HP to less than 5 percent and put it in the “heavy injury” status, meaning it could no longer move.

Bang!

The next shield-breaking energy bullet followed quickly. It neatly took out its remaining HP of just over 1,000.

Several “battle trophies” emanating a white glow in the visual field of players dropped and scattered on the ground around the Desert Rock Lizard Commander’s corpse the moment it fell. At the same time, the system notification rang in Feng Luo’s ears: “Killed Desert Rock Lizard (Level 38, Solo-type Commander). Contribution: 70.9%. Obtained Experience: 5,072. Obtained Merits: Five.”

After that came the white flashes that signified the level-ups of two of the four remaining Bladed Beetles and one of the Spray Beetles, as well as 24K’s experience moving up to 92 percent of Level 29. It was now only 8 percent away from Level 30.

“Finally got rid of it!”

Feng Luo held the Eye of the Thunder with the now empty magazine. He was still panting heavily, and his combat uniform was soaked in sweat.

As a Sniper, the high-speed running had caused Feng Luo to consume a lot of stamina, and his endurance was left with less than 30 percent. If he hadn’t been wearing the Assassination Reconnoiter Combat Boots that he’d gotten in the Forest of Exiles, which reduced endurance consumption by 35 percent when moving, even if he’d used one endurance recovery potion, his endurance would definitely have been less than 10 percent by now. Moreover, once a player’s endurance was low, the recovery rate would be greatly reduced. For example, recovering from 90 percent to 100 percent would only require a few seconds, but recovering from 10 percent to 20 percent would probably take a few minutes.

After over a dozen seconds, as Feng Luo’s endurance recovered to 35 percent, he raised the Eye of the Thunder and ran toward the Desert Rock Lizard while examining his loot from this battle.

In this battle, his contribution toward killing the Desert Rock Lizard Commander was 70.9 percent. The reason it wasn’t 100 percent was that the attack damage dealt by the normal beetles was not counted toward his contribution. However, the contributions of the commanding beetle, 24K, were also his, which was why it was so high.

Of course, the contribution did not really mean anything. For him, the reward of five points of Merit was much better. Like killing the previous rebel army Elite captain reconnoiter in the Forest of Exiles, the five Merit points signified extra rewards from this kill, which would move the loot from the Desert Rock Lizard Commander up a few tiers.

Just what kind of items were dropped?

The answer to this question became clear as Feng Luo walked to the side of the corpse of the Desert Rock Lizard Commander. Normally, the loot that had the highest proportion were crystals. Over a dozen gray and white crystals with different varieties of shine were scattered on the ground, their total worth being around 1,000 credits.

If only these had been dropped, then it definitely wouldn’t have been worth it for him to have emptied an entire magazine of shield-breaking energy bullets, as well as waste six Bladed Beetles, two Suicide Bombeetles, and one Spray Beetle. That was the cost of almost half his Beetle Squad, which had not yet been completed. Fortunately, apart from these energy crystals, there were four other items on the ground.

One light-yellow, diamond-shaped crystal; one energy crystal overflowing with Earth energy; one translucent skill chip; one muddy yellow ring with a small rock lizard pattern sculpted on it.