The Martial Unity

Rui had spent the next few hours placing the explosives in the right locations. He had to be very precise and accurate in his placing.

If he threw them around haphazardly, then the beast might simply not take the risk to come hunting at all. He placed all the explosives on the other side of the hunting areas away from the heartland of the Shaia Plains, lining them inwards.

This would make it seem like very distant predators were approaching each hunting zone from the other side. These explosives were all placed extremely far away from the hunting zone that Rui wanted to guide the beast too, to ensure that they wouldn't prevent the beast from going where he wanted it to.

This plan did require a bit of luck. Rui needed a herd of deer or gazelle of significant number to graze in the grazing lands where he hadn't placed any explosives, where he intended to hide, lure and ambush the target of his mission.

Once he had placed the explosives, he had three hours before it was time. He went over his plan once more.

('First, I need to find a herd of deer and gazelle in the area I haven't placed any explosives before dusk arrives.')

He couldn't do this after dusk arrived like he did before, because by then the creature would undoubtedly be awake and active. If he used any Apprentice-level techniques after the creature was awake and alert, then it would immediately detect him and avoid the general area he was in. And he couldn't possibly travel far without any Apprentice-level techniques.

Thus, he ideally should have found at the very least one herd of deer in the location he was planning to lure the beast in. If there were more than one, then he should probably round them up or monitor the largest herd out of all of them.

He had initially intended to merely gain intelligence; however, the Martial Union and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment had already confirmed that the difficulty of the second objective; the beast's extermination was within the difficulty grade initially set by the Martial Union. After reviewing all the evidence at hand, they had come to the conclusion that even if a grade-five Martial Artist may not be able to succeed in exterminating the beast before it escaped, they were likely strong enough to at the very least escape with their life in a fight against Martial Artists.

And if they wrong, well, that was the life of a Martial Artist. Every Martial Artist knew that traversing their Martial Path in the Martial World meant a life of peril, they were expected to endure all of it.

Once Rui had received word of this decision, he had to alter his plan a little and prepare himself for potential combat.

('Still, the first objective takes priority.')

Rui got up, there wasn't much time before dusk, he needed to find a herd, the largest herd before the sun dipped and begin trailing them before the beast grew active.

It hadn't taken him a particularly long time before this happened. Over the past week his familiarity with the seismic radiation of the Shaia Plains had risen immensely, and he had become more proficient with tracking down herds of herbivores. He immediately began running towards the herd, but abstained from using any Apprentice-level techniques, although it was still some time before the beast likely grew active, Rui didn't want to take any chances at all. He didn't think the Ministry would take kindly to a request for yet another set of explosives.

He slowed down once he ran into a big enough herd, and thankfully the only large herd of gazelles in the area, perfect for his plan.

This time, instead of laying on the ground, he sat atop a humongous boulder the size of a small skyscraper and watched the herd from above. Against normal predators that relied on normal senses, this may have been a bad decision, but against a beast with a seismic sense, this was the best option.

The seismic radiation he produced would have to travel through the gigantic boulder and only then through the ground, muffling and distorting the readings to a good degree. Even though the seismic radiation and the location of the source would very much be sensed, it became much harder to interpret the data accurately, this was one of the shortcomings of his Seismic Mapping as well.

Now, everything was finally in place, and dusk had come, the beast was on the hunt.

Rui grew taut with alertness and he dismissed all of his senses to focus his mind utmost on the beast. He didn't want to miss anything.

He glanced at his pocket watch. ('Any time now....')

Suddenly, his seismic sensing picked up a bunch of impacts in the ground across the Shaia Plains.

Rui grinned. The explosives had gone off exactly when he had timed them to.

He had timed the outermost explosives to go off before the inner explosives. To his Seismic Mapping, it seemed as though giant creatures were taking big burly steps one-by-one, as they walked towards the various grazing areas of the Shaia Plains.

This was exactly what Rui had intended, he had placed and timed the explosives in such a way, that any seismic sense would think that the seismic sounds were caused by big scary giants.

Furthermore, in all direction except one. The direction Rui was in. The creature would have no choice but to go to the location Rui was at if it wanted to avoid these giant creatures making these huge explosions.

Just as the explosives all finished exploding, Rui detected a sharp seismic signature roughly moving towards his location at incredibly high speeds from somewhere in the center of the Shaia Plains.

Rui laughed out loud with immense ecstasy and excitement, to think this would work out as well as it seemed to be.

He calmed down, regaining his composure, as he got up and prepared himself.

The time had come.