It tried to recover, but Old Ni didn't give it a chance as he swung his sword while using his skill (Sever the Line).
The sweeping slash cleaved cleanly through the hippo's reinforced neck.
The massive head separated from the body in a single motion and fell to the ground with a heavy thud.
Old Ni didn't linger on the carcass as he pulled another mana potion from his belt and drank it without hesitation.
He exhaled lightly once, then turned to Kargan and said firmly. "Go help Riven."
Kargan only nodded in response and immediately broke into a run toward the far-left battlefield.
Old Ni instantly headed to Uncle Zan's battlefield.
He moved fast, his body already accustomed to the pace of consecutive high-intensity battles. As he approached, he felt the pressure of another 4th Rank clash pressing down on the area.
But the moment he arrived, the rhino was already on its last legs.
Uncle Zan stood before it with his sword stained. The beast's thick hide was split open in several places, but the worst wound was a deep, brutal gash across its neck, nearly severing muscle and tendon.
Blood poured freely, soaking the ground beneath its massive body.
The rhino staggered, snorting violently, its mana output was unstable.
Looking at the situation, he simply stepped forward and swung his sword as he used his (Sever the Line) skill.
The sweeping slash cleaved cleanly through its neck, its head slid from its body and crashed to the ground, while its massive body collapsed a moment later with a lifeless thud.
"Old Man, you've done me dirty again." Uncle Zan clicked his tongue and glanced lazily at the old man.
"If you still have that much energy to talk, you might as well use it to help the others and finish the battle right away." Old Ni chuckled and left him in the dust as he directly headed toward Harold's battlefield.
Ash smiled in satisfaction when he watched that everything went smoothly. Then, he directly went toward the hippo's carcass and put it into his inventory.
Looking into the deeper mountain, Ash's curiosity was piqued, but he held himself back since he knew his own limits.
Subsequently, he also picked up the bear and rhino's body. Just as he put the rhino's carcass into his inventory, he finally heard the system's notifications that he had been waiting for.
[Ding! Congratulations to the host!]
[Ding! You have completed the mission by killing the five 4th Rank Beasts!]
[Ding! Calculating your rewards!]
[Ding! Do you want to receive your reward(s) in points or an item?]
'I can choose my reward?' Ash thought to himself.
After thinking for a moment, he chose the item, as he was curious about what kind of item he would get.
"Hopefully it would be worth the hassle of spending all my points and doing all this." Ash sighed and waited for the notification from the system.
A few seconds later…
[Ding! Congratulations to the host for obtaining a Crimson Fire Dragon's Egg!]
Ash opened his eyes wide, never expecting that he would obtain such a thing from completing the mission.
He quickly took the Crimson Fire Dragon's Egg out of the inventory, as he couldn't handle his curiosity anymore. A crimson red with a bumpy structure that looked like a scale appeared on his hands.
At this time, the others came to him and were surprised when they saw the egg.
"Is that a beast egg?" Mira asked curiously.
"Of course, what else is there besides a beast egg?" Ash chuckled lightly.
Mira rolled her eyes, then snorted. "What kind of beast is it? The egg looks a little bit weird."
"It's a Crimson Fire Dragon's Egg." Ash smiled faintly.
"What?! A Dragon?" Mira opened her eyes wide.
"Yup and we'll see it in a bit." Ash nodded with a smile and ordered the system that he wanted to bind it, making it the first Tribe's Guardian Beast.
A moment later, an information flooded into his mind and he finally understood the process of taming the beast inside the egg.
He put the egg to the ground, then bit his thumb and dropped a blood on the egg. The blood slowly seeped into the egg.
After waiting for a few moments, he finally heard something crack from the egg.
Crack!
Crack!
Crack!
Crack after crack appeared on the egg, and as a part of the shell fell off, a small head popped out from it.
It looked around curiously and finally stopped when he saw Ash.
Feeling an inexplicable connection between them, more cracks appeared, and finally the little guy broke out of the shell and jumped into Ash's embrace.
The little guy was a Crimson Fire Dragon around 30 cm long and 10 cm tall, with deep crimson scales that gleamed like molten metal, as if faint embers glowed beneath its scales.
It has tiny, cute horns that have just started to sprout from its head. Even though its wings were small, they glowed like a blazing fire.
The little guy rubbed his head against Ash's chest happily, as it enjoyed the feeling of being embraced by its master.
Ash felt the warmth radiated softly from its body and became extremely happy. He never thought that the little guy was so cute.
He didn't understand why, but his affection toward him was extremely close even though he had just met the little guy.
Just as he petted the little guy affectionately, he heard the system notification rang in his mind again.
[Ding! Congratulations on successfully contracting your tribe's first Guardian Beast.]
[Ding! Congratulations to the host for obtaining 10,000 Tribal Points and 100,000 System Points.]
Ash raised an eyebrow, as he thought to himself. 'Well, at least I got my money back.'
"Ash, Can I hug that little dragon too?" Mira suddenly appeared in front of him, asking with shimmering eyes and a cute expression.
"Alright." Ash chuckled and handed the little guy to Mira with a smile.