X-Rank Hunter

Knowing that it was just his uncle Chad guarding his younger brother from the shadows, Jim retracted his consciousness to watch and enjoy the show instead. He could tell that his uncle still didn't sense his presence.

Well, they were pretty far away though. If not for Jim becoming so sensitive to illusions, Jim was more than sure that he wouldn't be able to realize the presence of his Tito. After all, his hearing range didn't reach in there. That was the only asset he could use to detect someone. If anyone was out of his range, or in the level of his mother, Jim was of course wasn't able to detect them.

Rumble!

As he was watching the fight, and as the Tree-Merger Apes couldn't touch the three Spirits, the ground started to shake so suddenly. The apes held their ground as they raised their awareness to the max level to see what would happen next.

But who would have thought that after a few more seconds, the ground beneath them would suddenly fall as they all fell to a huge pit. As they landed, the apes immediately and frenziedly tried to jump and climb up from the pit when suddenly, strong blows of the wind pushed them down making them fall on the pit once again.

Screech!

The apes were furious. They looked around them to seek their wolf friend they were protecting, only to find the other party from nowhere. At that moment, they could tell that the rapid wolf managed to avoid falling on the pit. They didn't know whether they should be grateful or not though.

If the wolf fell with them, then it was surely a bad thing. But if the wolf was left alone up there, then it couldn't be considered as a good thing as well. The Sprits might gang up on it and the wolf might not be able to hold its ground.

If only all of them didn't fall on the pit then probably, they could help the wolf...

But the Tree-Merger Apes stopped thinking about the wolf for they realized that they have something to worry about for themselves. Because not long after they fell to the pit, the apes felt that something was amiss. They felt that the temperature of their surroundings was becoming hotter and hotter. They instinctively gazed upwards and to their horror, the Salamander who was flying above became much bigger and was comparable to the size of a baby dragon.

What even scary was that there was a ball of fire forming next to its mouth. It became bigger and bigger giving scorching heat to its surroundings, especially to down below.

The apes didn't need to think so deeply in order to know what would happen next.

The apes knew that they wouldn't be able to escape and would definitely face such treatment. Even if they wished for themselves to hide in the tree, it was already pointless. They were in the pit, and no tree was in down there. How could they still think of merging with the tree?

They could only helplessly face the fire that was about to fall on them. Thankfully, they experienced a reborn. Their life force had increased to a great extent when they had been revived a while ago. And they were confident to survive such a level of fire.

With their ferocious gaze, they turned their heads upwards as if saying, "Come!"

The Salamander also felt that these bunch of monkeys didn't fear him at all. And just by looking on their eyes, the Salamander could tell that the other party was belittling his fire and wasn't enough to bring such threats.

The Salamander hated this. He was provoked to increase the level of fire. But he could still see the resoluteness on the monkey's eyes. He also wanted to increase the level of fire even more but what else could he do if his Master was still just a C-rank? His true strength was been limited by his Master's strength.

"Fine then, let's see your capabilities!" The Salamander could only roar those words as he finally delivered a pillar of fire!

"Breath Of The True Fire!"

The fire descended down to the bottom of the pit where the bunch of monkeys was trapped. A shriek of agonies could be heard down below, making the Salamander grinned in satisfaction.

After a few moments, Salamander then became smaller and smaller as he flew lower and lower until he finally reached the edge of the mouth of the pit. He then took a peek at the monkeys below who were suffering as he sneered coldly, "You deserve it!"

"Careful!"

However, at that moment, Salamander was still enjoyed hearing the cries of agonies when he heard Sylph shouting in worry. He was still yet to react when suddenly, he found himself in a similar situation from before.

He was yet again put into the mouth of the wolf! How could he become so careless to fall on such an attack, twice?!

The wolf tried to chew him to death but knowing that his flesh was a little tough and gristly, the wolf could only throw him away after gnawing for some time.

The Salamander was yet again injured. Standing with his feet was even hard for him now. He couldn't even flap his wings for at least once. He was astonished at the fact that he couldn't even detect the presence of this wolf! The other party was just appearing so suddenly that it appeared that this wolf was like a ghost.

What even worse was that its bite was a bit strange. It was as if the other party was sucking his life force directly making him fall into such a miserable state.

On the other hand, seeing that the Salamander was then again put into distress, Sylph didn't just stay and watch from the side. With a swoosh, she flew near Salamander as she carried him up and brought him to their master right away.

The wolf tried to stop them but suddenly the ground before it had popped up, obstructing its way. With a 'grrrr', the wolf's eyes glared above the boulder that just popped up and from up there, the wolf saw another little creature.

It was Gnome! Clad in yellow clothes, Gnome's little body revealed a well-built and muscular figure. His ears were a bit pointy and on his mouth was something like a cigarette. From up there, he was staring at the wolf below. He let out a grin and gave the wolf a thumbs-down.

The ground then shook. But the wolf reacted swiftly as it immediately jumped away. The ground that it was standing from before became another pit but unfortunately for the pit, no one fell from it.

The wolf then ran to the woods nearby leaving without a trace. The expression of Gnome turned awful as it immediately jumped from the top of the boulder to chase after the wolf. As if he jumped into a pool, Gnome entered the ground without digging on it. He was hoping that he wasn't too late as he could at least catch up to the wolf.

Meanwhile, Sylph finally brought Salamander to their master. Their master was surrounded by many Tree-Merger Apes so Sylph could see that their master was inside of some kind of water barrier.

But knowing about their arrival, her master, Jasper Jabat, opened a path for them to enter making Sylph enter it with a swoosh.

"Injured again?" Jasper was really surprised this time. He could see that his Salamander suffered from the same attack. He could only shake his head slowly with a helpless sigh, "Too careless."

But as helpless as he was, he could only let Nymph heal Salamander again. He was just hoping that this would serve as a good lesson for him.

"Ugh..." Seeing the disappointed look of his master, the Salamander couldn't find a word to refute his master. He really got careless. There was no way denying that. He could only bow his head down and accept his faults.

"The wolf is pretty strange... It has no presence." Seeing the Salamander became speechless, Sylph replied in his stead. There was a moment of pause before she continued and asked her master, "Is that an Evolving White Wolf?"

"Huh, you don't even know that?" Jasper was astonished. He just commanded his Spirits to catch the wolf at all cost but never he thought that his Spirits actually didn't even realize that this wolf was an Evolving White Wolf. "That's really an Evolving White Wolf, you can't tell?!"

"I..." Sylph felt ashamed. She was one of the four Basic Elemental Spirits so how could she not realize that. But well, "It's only a hunch for me in the beginning, but I never thought that it's actually an Evolving White Wolf. You never informed us, to begin with though."

"Well, I thought you already know." Jasper only sighed.

Well, Jasper couldn't blame as well his Spirits. An Evolving White Wolf was an extremely rare beast. Encountering it in a place like this was simply next to impossible.

It was already a mystery to them why did an Evolving White Wolf appear here.