The Undying Salamander’s regenerative ability was monstrous.

  It excelled at close?quarters combat, its entire body coated in venom.

  Its arrival instantly pushed the six Breaker?tier hunters to the brink.

  Before this, the strongest beast present had only been a Tier?2 B?grade.

  But the moment the Undying Salamander slithered into the clearing, it became the unquestioned leader of the swarm.

  S?grade beasts naturally suppressed all lower?grade creatures of the same tier.

  Seeing the situation deteriorate, Evan hurried back to Wendy Lewis’s side.

  “How much time left?”

  Wendy immediately understood what he meant.

  “Six minutes have passed. Less than four to go before the swarm disperses.”

  “Only six minutes…?”

  To Evan, those six minutes felt like an eternity.

  And at this rate, their team wouldn’t survive the next four.

  He thought for a moment, then handed the Wailer’s Skull back to Wendy.

  “Yours.”

  Wendy instantly understood his intention and accepted it naturally.

  The moment the relic left Evan’s hand, he felt the greedy gazes aimed at him vanish.

  As long as the skull was in his possession, some hunters couldn’t help coveting it.

  But if he acted as though it belonged to Wendy all along—and returned it to her—no one would dare harbor thoughts of stealing it.

  Not while Yvonne Hart was still alive.

  There was a second reason Evan returned the relic:

  Wendy could use it to support the team.

  She wasn’t a fighter, but she was a peak Chrysalis?tier evolver.

  Her mental strength might even surpass Evan’s.

  If she used the Wailer’s Skull properly, she could significantly reduce the pressure on the group.

  And she did.

  Following Evan’s example, Wendy unleashed a barrage of mental attacks on the Tier?1 beasts.

  To everyone’s shock, she managed to help the team kill more than a dozen of them.

  Suddenly, the escort team had the numerical advantage.

  Several Chrysalis?tier hunters were freed up to assist the six struggling Breaker?tiers.

  But the Breaker?tiers were in bad shape.

  One had lost half a hand to the Undying Salamander’s bite.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Another was turning blue from venom.

  Still, the reinforcements gave them a moment to breathe.

  What surprised Evan most was Wendy herself.

  Even after launching more than ten mental attacks, she looked completely fine—no signs of exhaustion at all.

  Normally, two evolvers of the same tier wouldn’t have such a massive gap in mental strength.

  Wendy clearly possessed a skill that enhanced her mind.

  With her mental state still steady, she even attempted to target the Tier?2 beasts.

  The Wailer’s Skull couldn’t truly harm Tier?2 creatures, but it could disrupt them—just like when Evan had used it during the prison escape to stun the “Vampire” and the “Sickly One,” both Breaker?tier evolvers.

  In a battle, even a moment of distraction could decide life or death.

  But Wendy quickly ran into a problem.

  The Wailer’s Skull required eye contact to activate.

  And the Tier?2 beasts were fully focused on their opponents.

  No matter what noise Wendy made, none of them looked her way.

  She couldn’t safely approach the melee either.

  The best option would’ve been to hand the relic to one of the Breaker?tiers—but the skull was too valuable.

  Evan trusted Wendy enough to give it to her.

  Wendy would never pass it to someone else without his permission.

  At that moment, one Breaker?tier hunter shouted:

  “We’ll force the Undying Salamander to look toward the employer! Once it meets her gaze, she can hit it with the relic! If we’re lucky, we can kill the damn thing!”

  “Do it! Now!”

  The Breaker?tiers agreed instantly.

  The Undying Salamander was the biggest threat.

  If they could kill it, they had a real chance of surviving the remaining minutes.

  And, of course, its extract was worth a fortune.

  Even split among many people, it would be a massive payout.

  “Be careful not to look at the skull,” Wendy warned. “I don’t want to hit any of you by mistake.”

  The six Breaker?tiers coordinated, deliberately drawing the Undying Salamander’s attention toward Wendy.

  Wendy raised the skull, ready.

  But even when its head turned in her direction, the beast’s focus remained entirely on the hunters attacking it.

  It didn’t spare her a single glance.

  Wendy bit her lip and stepped closer.

  Then—

  One Breaker?tier hunter activated a bone?armor skill, his entire body covered in white plates.

  He lunged forward and wrapped both arms around the Undying Salamander’s head, forcing it toward Wendy’s position.

  The salamander thrashed violently.

  Its tail whipped around, smashing the hunter’s armor to pieces and sending blood spraying.

  But he didn’t let go.

  And finally—

  The Undying Salamander’s eyes flicked toward Wendy.

  Just for an instant.

  That was enough.

  Mental attack—activated.

  The beast froze, its mind stunned.

  “Now! Kill it!”

  The Breaker?tiers didn’t waste the opportunity.

  Three defensive specialists threw themselves in front of the other Tier?2 beasts, taking hits head?on.

  The remaining three unleashed everything they had.

  Blades, claws, elemental blasts—every attack they possessed slammed into the Undying Salamander.

  Its defense wasn’t exceptional.

  In seconds, its limbs were severed, its tail cut off, its skull split open, its heart crushed.

  “Don’t relax! It’s not dead yet!”

  Evan shouted from afar.

  He could see it clearly—

  the wounds were already knitting together.

  Even the severed limbs and tail were slowly regrowing.

  The thing was absurdly hard to kill.

  Evan’s eyes lit up with excitement.

  He wanted that extract.

  The Undying Salamander is down… but not dead.Regeneration this absurd should be illegal.If you were Evan, would you try to steal the kill, or leave it to the Breaker?tiers?

  Tell me — what would you do?