43 Collecting The Spoils

Hearing this, Long Yu looked towards the direction that Xixi was pointing. Something huge was indeed flying in the sky.

'Hmm? Why does it look so familiar?' he thought as he saw the object.

The creature's entire body was covered in thick brown feathers. It has a hooked shape beak which seems to be partly stained with dried blood. As the creature spread its wings in the sky, its size rivalled that of a small plane.

'It's the same kind of mutant eagle that I saw previously!' Long Yu suddenly recalled.

Back at the hotel, he had witnessed a similar looking giant sized golden eagle hunting other mutant crows. However, this eagle looked even bigger in size.

He did not know if it was the same eagle or a totally different one, but it looked daunting nonetheless.

Under its sharp talons was a 10 feet long green snake with a body thicker than a tree trunk. Its lifeless body was dangling off the eagle's talons. It was obviously a prey that the eagle had just killed.

'That bird must definitely have a mutant core…' he thought to himself.

Regardless if it was the same mutant eagle or not, Long Yu was sure that a core must have grown somewhere inside its body. Assuming that it was the same for all bird species, it was likely to be located in the heart. The question now was whether he should attempt to hunt it.

There was a big difference between facing a flying creature and a land creature. Not only is a creature like the mutant eagle agile, but it also has the advantage of attacking and retreating whenever it wanted. That was why it could easily kill a snake of such a size.

Of course, with his arsenal of weapons, Long Yu had a good chance of killing it. The problem was the flying speed of the mutant eagle.

To give a comparison, a normal golden eagle's top speed could already rival that of a super car. Then what about a mutated one?

Of course, it was unreasonable to ask an armored car like the Black Shark to run as fast as a super car, as it is simply not built for such a job.

Luckily, Long Yu had the system to help his car accomplish this. He had used the upgrade function on the Black Shark, and its current speed was now slightly slower than a Bugatti Chiron.

However, he was not confident that his car could keep up with the mutant eagle if it really decided to escape.

Looking at the bulging red veins on the back of his hand that was holding the steering wheel, Long Yu felt like he had no choice. He was running out of time. If he didn't obtain mutant core soon, he would surely turn into a zombie. He had previously thrown it to the back of his mind due to not being able to do anything about it. But he now encountered an opportunity and he had to take it.

"Xixi, sit tight, we're going to hunt that giant bird down," he said with a serious expression.

The little lass nodded her head and sat back obediently.

Long Yu stepped on the pedal causing the engine to roar as they sped along the road. He needed to maintain a fast speed in order not to lose sight of the giant eagle. Fortunately, it was carrying a prey and therefore only flew at a leisurely pace.

Half an hour later…

The mutant eagle finally started to land on the ground along with its prey still in its grasp.

Long Yu had been keeping his distance while following it, as he was afraid he would accidentally alert it. Along the way, he had also exchanged for information about the mutant eagle from the system.

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[Golden Eagle] (Mutated)

A common golden eagle that has mutated. Due to consuming several mutant cores of other creatures, its mutation had been hastened, resulting in its rapid growth in size. In addition, its physique and agility have also improved tremendously.

Special abilities:

-Sixth sense (Able to accurately perceive the aura of mutant cores in other creatures)

-Enhanced sense of impending danger

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Having seen this information, Long Yu was able to confirm that it is the exact same eagle that he saw at the hotel. However, he was unhappy when he learnt about its latter ability as it would be tricky to deal with.

The mutant eagle released its talons, dropping the snake onto the ground. It then landed next to it, intending to dig into its prey.

Long Yu, who was looking through a sniper scope in the distance, was surprised at what happened next.

Unknown to the eagle, its presumably dead prey was actually alive. It was just feigning dead!

The moment the eagle landed next to its head, the giant sized green snake shot up and quickly tried to coil itself around the eagle's body.

Unfortunately, it was still destined to be killed by its predator. With a flap of its wing, the snake was slapped back down to the ground. Before it could retaliate any further, a sharp beak immediately pierced its head, killing it.

Long Yu was amazed at the sight. Eventhough both creatures were of similar size, the snake had been easily dominated without being able to do anything. He shivered at the thought of having to battle it in close combat.

After killing its prey, the mutant eagle raised its head at the sky and let out a loud cry, as if proclaiming its victory.

'Crack'

A suppressed but still fairly audible sound came from afar. The head of the mutant eagle that was in the middle of its cry, exploded. The entire area was splattered with chunks of its brain matter.

Long Yu let out a sigh of relief when he saw the headless eagle with outstretched wings, powerlessly fall over the snake's corpse. He had went all out and fired a powerful gun like the Barrett .50 cal sniper rifle, intending to instantly kill his target. Of course, he also did not forget to use a suppressor and subsonic ammunition. Otherwise, it would have definitely attracted the attention of other mutated creatures around the area.

Regardless, Long Yu taking down the mutant eagle, was also attributed to luck. It was fortunate that he was able to kill it while it had let its guard down.

His instincts told him that things would not have gone so smoothly if the eagle was in a vigilant state instead. That was why Long Yu only fired when he was sure that his shot would hit.

"Anyway, its time to collect the spoils," he said with a big smile on his face.