The Ultimate Evolution

Sheyan had personally seen the Arbitrator throw his spears several times and had also replayed a video of it countless times along the way here through the real-time recording function of Cyborg No. 1, so he had caught on to a fatal weakness of Arbitrator Bloodspear.

The Predator had a habit which many people would also have before throwing a spear – he could not help but take a step backwards.

Although the Arbitrator was no longer bogged down by a heavy set of armour, he would still instinctively perform this action out of habit! Sheyan paid full attention to the Predator’s every move and with his advantage in Perceptive Sense, he managed to jump in time.

The spear was originally shot right towards the middle of Sheyan’s chest, but because Sheyan had dodged ahead of time, he successfully blocked the edge of the spear and caused its aim to deviate a little. The spear ended up missing its intended target and pierced into Sheyan’s shoulder instead!

Amid splashes of blood, the scapula on Sheyan’s right shoulder was pierced through by the spear! This kind of injury was actually extremely serious for ordinary people; the entire hand would be crippled.

But for Sheyan and his tough Physique, the injury only looked terrible on the surface. The damage done was actually very limited. As the spear pierced through him, Sheyan rolled several times and cleverly hid behind a big rock. He now noticed that Arbitrator Bloodspear was carrying a limited amount of spears, which caused him great joy. This was no doubt great news for Sheyan.

Spear throwing may look cool, but a spear needed to be retrieved before it could be thrown again. If Sheyan could exhaust the Arbitrator’s spear supply, the Arbitrator would be lacking in attacking means.

Therefore, although Sheyan screamed in anguish after being hit by the spear, he retreated behind the huge rock which was deposited here when a flash flood broke out, and resolutely refused to come out.

If only the Arbitrator still had his shoulder cannons, Sheyan would have been in big trouble. Even if he had just one instead of two shoulder cannons, it was enough to blow any rock Sheyan hid behind, forcing him to run like a rat. Alas, cruel reality allowed for no ifs.

But if the Arbitrator came for Sheyan with a set of replacement full-body heavy armour, why would Sheyan still waste time fighting the Arbitrator on the river bank? He would just plunge straight into the river and ride the flow away. Unless the Arbitrator was so strong that he could finish Sheyan in a few seconds, all he could do would be to watch Sheyan swim away and sigh.

Previously, when Sheyan told Cyborg No. 1 of his plan of using the river as emergency retreat, the cyborg thought that it was too risky. The two of them might have to face attacks from aquatic creatures, and besides, why couldn’t the Arbitrator follow them into the river to chase after them?

Sheyan explained to Cyborg No. 1 that the Predator race most probably could not swim, and that there should be very little water on their home planet.

The reason was simple. According to the data they had on the Predators, the Predators’ stealth function could be easily undone by water. How could a routine and important combat capability such as the stealth function display such a vulnerability? What would happen if it suddenly rained during a key mission? Wouldn’t the situation become really dangerous?

Such a fatal flaw was as unforgivable as a human gun firing by itself when it touched water.

The technological level of the Predators was so high that it was impossible for them to turn a blind eye to such a huge defect. The only explanation was that water was very scarce on the original planet of the Predators and there was no rain or any other such natural phenomena. Combined with the high-temperature environment Sheyan experienced on board the Predator sub-ship, he easily came to this conclusion.

Cyborg No. 1 initially thought that Sheyan had dismissed the team because he had no other choice, but the cyborg now thought it might not be so. It seemed that Sheyan was a very careful person and had made all kinds of meticulous arrangements. He had even thought of a way out. That was not a sign of someone who had given up. Who knows, maybe the act of dismissing the team had some hidden intention behind it too.

Sheyan was currently huddling behind the rock like a tortoise, obviously not willing to come out no matter what. Bloodspear naturally would not give up his advantage and rush towards Sheyan to engage in close combat. After all, Sheyan had previously displayed two abilities that made him feel highly threatened.

Bloodspear had climbed from the very bottom of the Predator hierarchy to his present position of Arbitrator by relying on his spears! He had climbed up the ranks by stepping upon mountains of dead bodies! Could someone like that have no patience? If he actually chose to rush forward at this moment after having lost the protection of his armour, thus giving up on his advantage and fought the enemy with his weak point, that would be extremely foolish of him. Would someone like that have survived up to this point?

The Arbitrator patiently waited for Sheyan to make a mistake. The two sides thus fell into a deadlock.

But little did the Arbitrator know that he had fallen into Sheyan’s trap by responding this way! Sheyan’s ‘Pestilence Monarch’ was not completely ineffective against the Arbitrator, it was just not very effective. To break through the Arbitrator’s immune system and then invade the relevant organs (ie. the organs related to breathing) required a lot of time. The reason Sheyan had chosen this complex terrain for the fight was to carry out a prolonged battle. Of course, there may be other hidden intentions too.

***

Time trickled away. The Arbitrator had thrown two other blood-coloured spears. Although they could be considered to have hit their targets, Sheyan always managed to avoid being hit in vital areas by dodging ahead of time. The damage they caused which numbered in the thousands were pretty shocking, but for Sheyan, this degree of injury was not fatal.

More importantly, the Arbitrator also had to be wary of Sheyan’s attacks in this complex terrain! The Predator’s defence had dropped sharply now that he had lost the protection of his armour, and both the ‘Beast of Corrosion’ and ‘Verdict’ were things that he had good reasons to fear. This was especially so for ‘Verdict’ with its AoE attack that carried a stun effect. In the narrow lane between two boulders, no matter how fast one was, the attack would be difficult to avoid.

Such wariness often lead to the attacks by the Arbitrator not linking up well together.

Sheyan was not like the ordinary prey who would bleed and weaken after being injured. His powerful self-healing combined with the medicines he had would often recover hundreds of his HPs in a timely manner after taking thousands of damage.

This situation gave rise to a very strange situation whereby both sides had the confidence that they would come out victorious in this fight.

By relying on his advantage in speed and attacking range, the Arbitrator was in a position that was impossible to lose, or so he thought. The human may be very troublesome to deal with, but no one could remain perfect all the time. The man would definitely make mistakes, and with how powerful the Arbitrator’s spears were, how many hits could the man take? His defeat was imminent.

Meanwhile, Sheyan felt that the formidable opponent had completely stepped into his own rhythm. If this went on, achieving the final victory would not be too difficult.

At this time, the sun has sunk below the horizon. It was time for the creatures that liked to move in the day to return to their homes, while those that liked to move in the night were ready to go out to hunt. A relatively peaceful period descended upon the natural environment. As a result, some of the more vulnerable creatures from the bottom of the food chain took the opportunity to come here to have a drink of water.

Of course, the Arbitrator could not waste time and effort to kill each and every animal that came here. He seemed to have vanished into thin air. Obviously, he had hidden himself and was monitoring Sheyan’s every move from the dark. He only needed to make sure Sheyan did not run away.

Most of the creatures that arrived were herbivores such as hexapod horses, giant marmots and the like. After drinking the water here, they also liked to move to the weathered cliff in the canyon and dig out some stone powder with their legs, so as to supplement the minerals and salt they needed.

At this moment, Sheyan suddenly rushed out with coldness in his eyes. He grabbed a giant marmot that was nearly two meters long and pushed it down into the river until it drowned. He then dragged the corpse behind a rock and did something to it… After a while, he threw the corpse into the water, and the corpse was soon washed away by the river.

After the herbivores left, there were some other creatures that came to drink, but Sheyan had smeared on himself the ointment to cover his smell and he was crouching in the river, so he was not discovered.

By the time everything quietened down, the clear sky was already covered by a layer of grey. The slender figure of the Arbitrator reappeared at a high place. The blood-coloured spears on his back still looked sharp enough to pierce through the heavens. Suddenly, his body shivered, and he could not help grabbing his chest with his hand!

The disease finally broke out in the Arbitrator!

Sheyan was so happy that he almost had tears in his eyes. Finally! Waiting for this moment had not been easy!

Sheyan knew very well that the Arbitrator was an extremely dangerous and extremely cunning creature. As soon as he realised that something was wrong with his body, he could very possibly leave immediately and make sure everything returned to normal before coming after Sheyan again.

How could Sheyan give him the chance? Sheyan immediately rushed forward for more than 20 meters with no regards for his own safety before he used the teleportation ability on his dark gold ring and instantly sent himself another thirty or forty meters forward. The Arbitrator was now within range of his ‘Hornrage’! Sheyan activated it and charged forward!