The Ultimate Evolution
chapter-1102

The Violent Beasts even took away the bodies of their companions when they left, seemingly in order to not give the contestants any chance to gain battle spoils, but after giving it some thought, it was more likely that they had a habit of using the corpses of their companions as food.

The enormous black monsters had not appeared during the pursuit, otherwise Sheyan and the rest could never have retreated so smoothly. The M.O. of the black monsters was akin to assassins who hide in the darkness; there would be blood whenever they make an appearance, but if they were not confident in killing the enemy, they would never expose themselves.

It was unimaginable that something so strong would employ such a sneaky tactic to hunt. The contestants felt chills creeping down their spines just thinking about it.

After escaping from the pursuit, the four men sat down to recover for a while. They bandaged themselves and ate some food to slowly recover their stamina. When they had recovered some, all of them looked towards Sheyan with inquiring gazes.

There was no way Sheyan could shirk off the responsibility of being the team leader now. However, Sheyan also seemed to have expected this. He told them without any hesitation, "It's impossible that the Violent Beasts knew about us before, which means that they were most certainly not waiting to ambush us. We're merely a pleasant surprise delivered to their doorsteps. "

"Therefore, we can deduce that the captured humans have other companions with them, and these companions would likely go rescue them. In that case, we just need to go back to their camp to wait, and we should have a good chance of meeting the companions of those who were captured."

The others raised no objections to Sheyan's deduction. The group thus went back whence they came.

On the way back to the camp of the captured humans, they found an unconscious man in a state of near death not far from the camp.

The man was Paul, the metal-bender whom Sheyan previously concluded would likely live.

The battle robot Heracles had completely broken down. It stood solemnly like a statue behind its master, guarding its master even after its death.

Heracles was still emitting thick black smoke, and there were scorch marks all over its body. Evidently, this robot had protected its master as they fled all the way here, but its body had sustained a large number of negative conditions such as corrosion and petrification. When its master fell unconscious, he lost control of the robot, thus causing a lot of short circuits, burning, and explosions in the robot, and completely destroying it.

As for how Paul managed to escaped....Sheyan and the rest could see from his attitude towards Heracles that he must possess a more powerful battle robot, and it must be that battle robot that had led him all the way out of the encirclement. That robot must consume a lot of resources to maintain or have a time limit, so it had vanished by now.

The group, of course, would not just leave Paul there to die. After giving Paul a thorough examination, they found that he had no major injuries, just some external wounds. It was because there were too many negative conditions that had accumulated on his body that he was kept in a state of near death.

Because they did not expect to engage in any battle soon - and even if they did, they could just escape while carrying Paul - there was no need to waste precious medicine to treat him. Basically, by the time Paul woke up, all the negative conditions would have passed. He would be as good as new the next morning.

Aldaris patrolled the camp, mainly to guard against any potential Slaadi attack. He also placed four Sentry Wards around the camp. The Sentry Wards were like brightly-lit torches stabbed into the ground, but their flame was greyish-white. They could shoot fireballs to kill some of the weaker creatures and also issue warnings.

Now that the group of contestants were resting beside the campfire, a deep sense of frustration finally washed over them. Even Aldaris could not help lamenting, "Damn those Violent Beasts! None of my cyborgs managed to escape! My instruments are all gone!"

"Relax, the Violent Beasts have no interest in metallic objects. As for the cyborgs, the only part about them that would possibly attract the beasts are their brains, and the cyborgs realised that too. I saw them put on a special insulating layer on themselves to avoid the smell of protein from leaking out of their bodies. That's why, I believe that as long as the cyborgs remain motionless, they're as unattractive to the beasts as the reeds and mud in the swamp. You must believe in the intelligence of the cyborgs," Sheyan replied calmly.

"I hope you're right," said Aldaris weakly. "But even if you're right, it's not like we can retrieve them."

"Strictly speaking, it's not impossible. Like Sun Tzu said, if you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear a hundred battles. Since we've already found out all the cards the Violent Beasts had up their sleeve - at a great cost, but still - a retrieval mission is absolutely not impossible based on our current strength," muttered Sheyan.

Pokan interjected at that moment. "It's possible for us to kill all those monsters, but it'll take a long time. Unfortunately, our main mission on this damn planet is not to eliminate those disgusting creatures. Although those bastards in the space station didn't give us a time limit, I have a hunch that the sooner we finish this mission, the better. We don't have that much time to squander!"

"Well said," Sheyan nodded approvingly. "I've been thinking about this. I find that we've been heading down the wrong direction in our search of Pi ores since the very beginning. Is looking for Pi veins blindly like headless flies really the best plan we can come up with?"

"If I'm guessing correctly....finding Pi veins shouldn't be too difficult if we can get some specific information about this world. I believe that the humans who have stayed here for some time should have the information we need. The key lies in how to persuade them to provide the information to us. Maybe rescuing their companions can do this - see, the problem has miraculously returned to killing those damn beasts."

Pokan shrugged. "Fine. At the moment, it looks like you're still worthy of my trust, so I'll support you for the time being."

Since Sheyan had the intention of going back to attack the Violent Beasts, the rest started weighing that matter in their minds.

On a personal level, they were pathetically defeated by the Violent Beasts previously, and it was before they had the chance to display their full power. All of them were strong, so they were naturally prideful too. Of course they would harbour some feelings of frustration in their hearts and long for revenge.

On a business level, most of their detectors and extractors were carried by the cyborgs. The darker sides of them also whispered to them that some of their dead companions may have left behind soul equipments. How could they be satisfied if they did not go back for a visit?

Thus, they all agreed to Sheyan's proposal.

But just then, Ronnie, who had been silent, suddenly revealed an important piece of intel.

"We probably can't stay here for more than 10 days."

"I've had some dealings with the Dark General before, so I got some extra intel out of him. Based on prior records, the Predators will probably start their hunt on this planet soon. The first batch to arrive here will be the most elite warriors, because they first have to clean up the creatures that shouldn't exist on this planet to make sure the rite of passage of their young nobles go smoothly - creatures like us!"

Sheyan finally understood why Ronnie was hostile to him from the beginning. First, Sheyan had seized the spacecraft specifically prepared by the Dark General for Ronnie, and then he had stolen Ronnie's crushing extractor. When all these factors were added up, it was no wonder that Ronnie did not like him.

"Now that we've decided that our next target is the Violent Beast camp, we have to figure out what those monsters that can mysteriously travel underground are," said Aldaris.

Speaking of this topic, Sheyan said solemnly, "If I'm not mistaken, they should be the Predators' favourite preys. The reason the Predators like these preys is because they're strong, ruthless, sneaky, and dangerous enough to force the powerful Predator warriors into situations of life-and-death. Those situations are the most exciting moments for the Predator warriors. During those moments, they'll feel as if their lives have reached a new height!"

"You mean those things are the Xenomorphs? The Aliens from Aliens vs. Predators that can lay eggs in other organisms and absorb their genes?" asked Pokan in astonishment. "But those creatures in the swamp don't look very much like the Xenomorphs. First of all, their heads are really small, and secondly, they don't fit the description of Xenomorphs either in size or living habits."

(TL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_(creature_in_Alien_franchise) )

"In order to reproduce, the Xenomorphs may have let their facehuggers lay eggs in the organisms living in the swamp, then let the next generation evolve into Aliens that are suited to live in a swamp environment," claimed Sheyan confidently. "Survival is the first priority; everything else comes later."

He looked around and found that the rest of the people still had doubtful expressions on their faces, so Sheyan continued, "In fact, I've long suspected that the Xenomorphs are behind the Violent Beasts. You don't believe me, do you? You should know that, in theory, the Xenomorphs can lay eggs in any organism, but their favorite hosts are still the humans. That much is beyond doubt."