Chapter 62 - Hunter Or Prey? (1)

"Another empty cave..." Zok mumbled to himself as they entered the third cave that was void of any kind of presence, "Let's go and look for some other cave, Cero. Maybe we will be able to find something else there."

It had been hours since they had been roaming aimlessly in the cold lands. The only clue Zok had was what Zus told him, a peculiar noise that resembled the growling of a creature. Other than that, he had no idea what he was even looking for there. 

"Cero?" Zok asked the beast next to him, however, it looked like Cero did not have any interest in leaving the cave just yet, "Did you find something?"

Cero snorted and kept walking deeper and deeper inside the dark cave. Seeing no other option, Zok followed him and moments later, he realised what Cero had picked up on... the smell of rotting corpses. 

As they kept walking further, Zok could finally see what he had been smelling but it was way worse than he had expected. The floor of the cave was littered with broken bones and half-eaten corpses. The most frightening part was that... there were several Prinora corpses there as well. 

Also, judging from how they had decayed, Zok assumed that all seven of them had been killed around the same period of time. Even Cero looked a bit tense after seeing hundreds of corpses and skeletons spread all across the deep end of the cave. 

Wasting not a second anymore, Zok took out his spear and was on high alert. Although he wasn't aware of what type of creature might be living inside the cave, he knew if it had managed to kill so many beasts, then it was a foe worth acknowledging.

Just handling the Prinoras was enough to put him on the edge, thus whatever this creature was... it was more than enough to make him start running away. 

"Running away is not an option."

He couldn't run away because he wasn't scared of whatever the creature could be, he couldn't run away because he had to get out of there and defeating this creature was the only way to get back to the Wilderness. 

Just then Cero turned around and raced towards the exit of the cave. Zok followed him as well because Cero had much better senses than he did and if Cero was running away or towards something, then it had to be important. 

And it was important indeed... because the moment they arrived near the exit, they realised that they were being followed the entire time. 

"Damn it... I got played like a fool." Zok cursed out loud as soon as he saw the shadow of a creature blocking the exit, "But for someone to not only fool me but also Cero's heightened senses... this is troublesome."

As the creature stepped inside the cave, Zok finally got a good view of what the creature looked like. And to say that it looked fighting would be an understatement. 

[You have encountered the Instance Dungeon boss: Mystic Cryo Giant.]

This creature was also humanoid like the Prinoras were, but it walked on all fours. However, he was much bigger than them and unlike the Prinora, its skin was comprised of icicles. But that wasn't all... the creature was covered in blood as it dragged the Prinoras that Zok had defeated. 

The moment Zok saw the giant, his index automatically registered the creature and the information he found there, was terrifying. The stats of the giant was nothing like he had ever seen before.

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Basic Information:

Species: Mystic Cryo Giant

Gender: Male 

Level: 40

Stats:

HP: 15000

Strength: 126-150

Defence: 180

Stealth: 210

Stamina: 200

Knowledge: 80

Agility: 77

Accuracy: 80%

Nest Location: 0 km away

Additional Information: An extremely dangerous humanoid beast with absurdly high intelligence for a beast. Prinoras might be on the top of the food chain in the cold lands... but that's only true till someone or something doesn't awaken this sleeping giant who only wakes up once every fifteen years.

Once this giant has awoken, then there is nothing that can stop him. He indiscriminately starts slaughtering everything in sight to quell his hunger after hibernating for years. This beast had evolved to be a predator and has heightened senses to back his hunter instincts. Usually likes to play with its prey before devouring them. 

Its icy skin allows him to even survive in the harshest of weather. But that's not the only thing it does. The skin makes him immune from poison, burns and even diseases. These creatures can live for over a thousand years and their lifespan increases with every generation. 

They are also asexual in nature, and a new offspring is born whenever the parent dies. In other words, this creature is a monstrosity even amongst the other beasts. 

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Zok was stunned into absolute silence by the time he read all that information. How the hell was he supposed to fight something like that? There was no way... no one could kill this thing. However, Zok had no other option.

For the first time ever, even Cero was hesitating from attacking someone like that. In fact, he was slowly backing up as the giant looked at his new prey. He grabbed the legs of the fallen Prinoras and threw them over Zok's head as if they weighed nothing. That itself was proof of the creature's insane strength. 

'This is bad... really bad...' Zok's hands were sweating like crazy.

He had never felt fear like the way he was experiencing it now. The worst part about it? The giant could sense Zok's fears and he was enjoying every second of it... every freaking second. The terrified look on Zok's face made the giant play with him more... as it had never before. 

'My depravity isn't high enough for me to use Backlash.... I swear there couldn't have been the worst time for me to go up against something like this.' A heavy bead of sweat traced down the side of his face, 'What do I do?'