The Breaker?tier hunters rushed forward again, determined to finish off the Undying Salamander for good.

  Even a creature with absurd regeneration couldn’t survive being chopped into eighty pieces.

  But just as they moved in—

  The Undying Salamander’s entire body erupted in a blinding orange evolution glow.

  A surge of life energy flooded through its flesh.

  And then—

  Its limbs regrew.

  Its tail reformed.

  Its skull sealed.

  Its heart regenerated.

  In the span of a heartbeat, the monster restored itself completely.

  Even decapitation and a crushed heart—fatal to any other creature—meant nothing to it.

  It truly lived up to its name: the Undying Salamander.

  The moment it recovered, it burst out of the Breaker?tiers’ encirclement, putting distance between them.

  That miraculous regeneration skill clearly had a cooldown.

  It couldn’t use it again so soon.

  And the beast wasn’t stupid—it now understood how close it had come to death.

  If not for the Beast King’s Roar forcing it to stay, it would’ve fled already.

  With the salamander no longer charging recklessly, the pressure on the Breaker?tiers eased dramatically.

  More Chrysalis?tier hunters freed up and joined the fight, and the tide slowly began to turn.

  Before long, with coordinated effort, Wendy Lewis managed to land another mental strike—this time on a Tier?2 D?grade Ironclaw Crab.

  Unlike the salamander, the crab wasn’t built to tank hits.

  The hunters swarmed it and beat it to death in seconds.

  “Hold on! Less than two minutes left!”

  By now, nearly half the hunters were injured.

  Two Breaker?tiers were completely out of the fight—one poisoned, one missing half a hand.

  Three Chrysalis?tiers had died.

  Several more were badly wounded.

  But the beasts were in even worse shape.

  Tier?1 corpses littered the ground.

  One Tier?2 was dead, three were heavily injured, and the Undying Salamander was keeping its distance, unwilling to engage.

  Victory was finally within reach.

  Just then, Evan spotted movement in the trees.

  A limping figure emerged—covered in blood, clothes shredded, dragging two beast corpses behind him.

  Li Carter.

  Evan wasn’t the only one who noticed.

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  The hunters stared in surprise.

  He hadn’t run?

  “Li Carter, where the hell were you?” someone called out.

  “Went to take a dump,” Li Carter said, wiping blood from his forehead.

  “When I came back, you were already surrounded. I couldn’t break through, so I intercepted the beasts rushing in from outside.”

  He tossed the two corpses onto the ground.

  The hunters exchanged looks.

  Given his condition, the explanation seemed believable.

  Maybe I misjudged him… Evan thought, though he kept his guard up.

  At this point, only a handful of beasts remained.

  They could no longer form a proper encirclement.

  Surviving the final minute was all but guaranteed.

  The man in the black suit—still locked in combat with Yvonne Hart—looked increasingly grim.

  His plan had been flawless.

  The only variable he hadn’t accounted for was that damned relic.

  Without the Wailer’s Skull, the escort team would’ve collapsed long ago.

  “When did you get that relic?” he snarled. “Last time we fought, you didn’t have it!”

  Yvonne didn’t answer.

  She knew he was right—if they’d had the skull earlier, the casualties wouldn’t have been so devastating.

  Only she and Wendy had survived that escape.

  The Wailer’s Skull was the perfect counter to Beast King’s Roar.

  It shredded the swarm strategy completely.

  The suited man abruptly disengaged, leaping back into the shadows of the forest.

  His plan had failed.

  If he stayed until the Beast King’s Roar ended, he’d be surrounded and killed.

  Yvonne took a few steps to chase him—but stopped.

  Her first duty was protecting Wendy.

  Leaving now would expose her.

  “Yvonne! Help me out!” Evan shouted, waving frantically and pointing at the Undying Salamander.

  He even clasped his hands together in a dramatic pleading gesture.

  “Don’t call me that. I’m old enough to be your mother,” Yvonne snapped.

  “Okay—Mom Yvonne.”

  Evan said it with such obedient sincerity that she almost choked.

  He had no parents anyway.

  Why not adopt a powerhouse?

  Yvonne sighed, but the heaviness in her chest eased a little.

  Then she vanished in a blur.

  The Undying Salamander sensed danger and tried to flee—its stubby legs pumping furiously—but it barely made it a few steps before Yvonne grabbed it by the back of the neck like a misbehaving puppy.

  She lifted the two?meter beast effortlessly.

  Its venomous skin sizzled against her hand, but she didn’t flinch.

  Before it could struggle—

  A surge of electricity exploded from her palm.

  A hundred thousand volts.

  Even from a distance, Evan could smell roasted meat.

  No regeneration skill could save it now.

  The Undying Salamander went limp.

  At that moment, the ten?minute mark passed.

  Beast King’s Roar ended.

  The remaining beasts scattered in all directions.

  The hunters collapsed where they stood, gasping for breath.

  No one even bothered to chase the fleeing beasts or collect the loot.

  Wendy and Yvonne immediately began treating the wounded, using the medical kits they’d brought from LifePharm.

  Evan silently cursed himself for not preparing any.

  After everyone rested, it was finally time for the moment every hunter cared about most—

  dividing the spoils.

  The battle had been too chaotic to track every kill.

  Only a few beasts could be clearly attributed to specific hunters.

  Everything else would be split evenly.

  They counted the corpses:

  Two Tier?2 beasts.

  Fifty?six Tier?1 beasts.

  The Tier?2 kills were:

  A D?grade Ironclaw Crab

  An S?grade Undying Salamander

  Evan’s gaze locked onto the salamander’s corpse.

  He didn’t care about the rest.

  He wanted one thing.

  Its extract.

  The Undying Salamander is finally dead — but the real fight is just beginning.

  Hunters don’t risk their lives for glory.

  They risk them for profit.

  And an S?grade extract is enough to turn allies into enemies.

  If you were in this team, would you fight for the extract… or walk away alive?