Though Reef was full of confidence before the battle commenced, some truths simply cannot be known without firsthand experience.

The very instant the boomerang struck him, Reef—who had already raised his shield in defense—was plunged into sudden darkness, followed by a dizzying spray of stars. Immediately after, it felt as if a transparent film had been slapped over his face, suffocating him completely, unable to draw a single breath. Behind him came the incessant crack-crack of trees being splintered, a testament to his instantaneous movement speed being augmented to an extreme degree. Even with his physique as a Reincarnator, he couldn't sustain respiration!

When Reef finally tumbled to the ground, it felt precisely like a freefall from an eight-thousand-meter airplane without a parachute, landing face-first. He managed to struggle upright, only for his legs to give way like a drunken man’s, collapsing back down. After gasping for several seconds, he used both hands and feet just to stand again, his vision swimming with double images of the surrounding landscape!

Reef reached up to touch his face and realized that blood was spraying outward from the corners of his mouth and the tip of his nose. The blood erupted with the force of a heavy truck speeding down the road, splashing pavement water sideways just as the tires churned through a puddle. This vividly illustrated the immense power of that single boomerang strike. More terrifyingly, Reef’s Stamina value had been hammered down by nearly eighty percent! He had come within a hair's breadth of entering the dying state!

Such power!

The three of them drew a deep, simultaneous breath, shook their heads with wry smiles—the Golden Branch Quest title was indeed well-earned... It seemed they wouldn't gain any advantage until they officially breached the extreme value threshold; the gap in strength was simply too outrageous, rendering any careful planning moot. Their previous sequence of plans would likely have to be scrapped.

And the boomerang thrown by the Knight, after sending Reef flying, did not lose its momentum. It continued to spin and rebound in the air, tracing an exquisite arc that swept through the two Raptor Beasts fiercely biting the armored horse, leaving two jets of black, foul blood trailing in the air.

The edge of the boomerang was not sharp, but the force it carried was terrifyingly immense, causing the bodies and heads of the two wolf-sized Raptor Beasts to be silently separated. From the cavities of the headless corpses sprayed not just blood, but also a significant amount of dark red organs.

The headless bodies slammed into a nearby tree, causing it to shake violently several times, showering leaves down—a testament to the colossal impact force!

Yet, even suffering decapitation, the heads of the other two Raptor Beasts stubbornly remained clamped onto the armored horse’s body, a display of ferocity that defied imagination. One could clearly observe the severed heads still engaged in a frantic swallowing motion; because they continued to chew after being severed, large clumps of flesh and viscera could be seen falling away from the ragged edges of their necks!

The sudden appearance and attack of these hundreds of Raptor Beasts threw all the Na’vi and the armored horses into utter panic. This was caused not just by the surprise of the attack, but because the Raptor Beasts were creatures they had never encountered before—their combat style, the emanating stench, their biological characteristics—everything was alien. These factors combined resulted in a completely one-sided situation during the initial seconds of the battle!

At least fifty armored horses and nearly half of the Na’vi forces sustained casualties within the first ten seconds of the ambush. As one of the meticulously cultivated combat organisms, and with the Black Spine Tribe having advanced to Level III, the Raptor Beasts’ attack, defense, and vitality values had all been comprehensively boosted. Compared to their counterparts in the Star River World, they were now incomparable, unleashing terrifying destructive power.

However, how could Oute, riding a legendary creature, allow the enemy's frenzy to continue unchecked? He instantly squeezed his legs against his mount, causing the massive Hammerhead Thunder Beast to abruptly stamp both front hooves into the ground before rising up on its hind legs!

One could feel the air in the giant beast’s mouth being rapidly compressed before it unleashed a terrifying roar. All Raptor Beasts within a thirty-meter radius were instantly swept away as if by an autumn gale, blown clear as if they were mere feathers!

Immediately after, Oute roared again, raising a hand to catch the returning bone boomerang. In the next second, his hands were already at his waist, and he tossed the two bone boomerangs in his hands outward again with ease. These two rapidly spinning projectiles traced two elegant arcs through the air, carving twin bloody swathes wherever they passed, leaving the lingering scent of (a bloody, foul wind) in the air long after they were gone!

Oute’s offense was overwhelmingly powerful; this single roar and throw had killed at least fifty to sixty Raptor Beasts. One could imagine that if he were allowed to kill freely, this raiding force of Raptor Beasts would be completely wiped out in a matter of minutes.

But since Fang Senyan had arrived here, he was naturally well-prepared for such a situation. Less than ten seconds later, the ground began to shake violently again, with trees snapping and breaking in the distant woods at an angle, as if four bulldozers were crushing their way through from different directions at high speed!

Next, four giant beasts, whose size was no less imposing than the Hammerhead Thunder Beast, burst forth in a high-speed run. Their small eyes, resembling those of crabs, blinked once toward this position before retracting back into their incredibly thick carapaces. They lowered their heads and charged directly at Oute, who was riding the Hammerhead Thunder Beast!

Setting aside all else, just looking at the long, sharp, ring-shaped tusks of these Mammoth Beasts conveyed a terrifying and powerful bestial instinct! In the previous collision between the Black Spine Zerg and the Earth Mother Eva, the intense warfare and brutal culling had given birth to a considerable number of elite creatures! The Black Spine Brain Bug was generous; upon hearing Fang Senyan’s request, it dispatched all its elite creatures and all its available troops for him to choose from.

Fang Senyan was not polite this time. Because the Mammoth Beasts’ massive size prevented them from burrowing into the earth like the Raptor Beasts, they had to be hidden in the distant forest to avoid early detection. Consequently, they arrived on the battlefield a few tens of seconds later than the Raptors.

In this coordinated maneuver, the four elite Mammoths encircled the Hammerhead Thunder Beast rider, Oute, from the front, back, left, and right. They scraped the ground with their forehooves, tipped with ferocious claws, and plumes of white vapor jetted from their nostrils, which were protected by thick chitinous armor. They held back, waiting for their opponent to reveal a weakness.

Seeing this formation, Oute’s heart was suddenly gripped by a sense of foreboding. He was one of the most outstanding hunters in the Mawsak Tribe, having slain countless wild beasts; he had even personally tamed the leader of this breed of Hammerhead Thunder Beasts he rode. Therefore, he was accustomed to confronting wild beasts that mostly charged forward with frantic roars and howls, eager to engage in mad combat immediately.

Oute was not afraid of facing such an enemy; what he feared most was the type of beast that remained silent, pausing to observe you carefully! Such beasts often possessed extremely high intelligence, with the Death Beast being the pinnacle of these powerful and sagacious creatures.

And precisely at this moment, Oute encountered such a powerful, intelligent creature! Furthermore, he was completely unfamiliar with this being, having no prior knowledge of it.

Facing these four giant beasts, which carried a calm within their madness and rationality within their fanaticism, Oute instantly felt an extreme sense of danger. What’s more, there were four of them! If he had the choice, he would flee immediately. But this herd of armored horses bore the responsibility of supplying at least one-third of the Mawsak Tribe’s food. If he abandoned them, what would his tribesmen think? What would Qier’ouke’e think? What would the relatives of the tribesmen he abandoned think?

Piercing screams and the dull moans of the armored horses could be heard continuously. Oute, the tribe's strongest combat asset, once restrained, meant that the entire grazing combat strength of the Mawsak Tribe was effectively ninety percent nullified!

In that instant, Oute made his decision. With a fierce cry, he hurled his bone boomerangs at the ferocious enemies to his left and right. Simultaneously, his Hammerhead Thunder Beast let out a muffled cry from its chest cavity and lowered its thick, U-shaped horns, charging ferociously headfirst toward the giant beast in front of them. Even though the two beasts were similar in size, the Hammerhead Thunder Beast held the advantage in raw brute force. It suddenly flipped its head upward, and with a peng sound, it violently tossed the Mammoth Beast directly in front of it into the air!

Likewise, the killing power of the bone boomerangs Oute had thrown was astonishing. With a kacha, they sank deep into the heads of the two elite Mammoth Beasts; their half-meter-thick chitinous armor proved as fragile as eggshells. A white, gelatinous substance seeped from where the boomerangs lodged, looking exactly as if the brain matter itself had been violently expelled! Even these two Mammoth Beasts, solid as heavy tanks, were shoved back five or six paces!

Seeing this scene, Oute felt an immediate surge of relief. In all his hunting experience, once a wild beast’s head sustained such a severe wound, it was almost certainly doomed!

But just then, he felt an urgent rush of air behind his head. The elite Mammoth Beast directly behind him had lunged forward with savage fury, its ring-shaped, serrated tusks snapping madly open and shut! It struck mercilessly into the rear of the Hammerhead Thunder Beast. The tough, thick hide of the Thunder Beast was sliced through as easily as a red-hot carving knife meeting butter!

A correction: The rank of the "Covering the Sky with One Hand" title is Silver tier; Platinum was an error. Sigh, it's just that I'm dreaming of being a Platinum writer...RO