Move away! Run from there!! Nuan screamed desperately through their telepathic link, her heart pounding against her ribs. She prayed Kael would use his instincts and retreat before those massive antlers lined him up for a final, lethal impalement.

The bull moose charged toward Kael once more, a wall of pure muscle and bone. Even with his foreleg buckled and ribs bruised, Kael managed to throw his body sideways a mere second before impact.

The moose slammed full-force into the thick tree trunk, the impact so violent that the massive animal actually wobbled back a few uncoordinated steps.

That’s it! Run away! That’s your chance for a retreat! Nuan thought frantically. She expected him to use the disorientation to disappear into the thick treeline as fast as his paws could carry him.

But instead, Kael’s stubborn alpha pride flared again. He used the moose’s split second of dizziness to launch another furious, desperate attack, sinking his teeth deeply into the beast’s upper back.

"Stupid, stubborn idiot!!!!" Nuan hissed out loud.

Realizing his fragile ego was going to get him trampled, she abandoned her safe cover.

Forgetting the pain in her ankle, she slipped rapidly through the brush to close the distance, getting as close to the thrashing titan as humanly possible.

Her eyes scanned the towering beast, calculating the anatomical logistics of a single-hit kill.

The heart? Nuan analyzed, looking directly behind the front shoulder, low in the chest cavity. No, the hide and fat are too thick from summer grazing. A spear throw won’t collapse a 1,500-pound beast right away.

Her sharp eyes instantly traveled upward, tracking the spine to the base of the skull. There. Where the neck vertebrae meet the back of the cranium.

Found it, Nuan thought, maneuvering into an offensive throwing position. But just as she braced her weight, the worst-case scenario unfolded right in front of her.

Frustrated by the wolf on its back, the bull moose reared violently and delivered a devastating, blunt-force kick with its heavy hooves, striking Kael directly across his already injured shoulder.

The force ripped Kael loose, sending him crashing into the dirt. He rolled badly through the wet mud several times before letting out a painful, strangled growl.

The moose aggressively stomped its hooves into the shoreline, lowering its massive, forty-pound antlers to scoop Kael up and toss his broken body into the air.

But Kael wasn’t dead yet. Refusing to yield, he threw himself sideways to dodge the oncoming prongs.

With a final surge of primal strength, he dug his massive front claws deep into the moose’s neck, lunging upward to clamp his powerful jaws shut, burying his fangs even deeper into the bleeding throat hide.

In a frantic bid to shake him, the moose violently thrashed its head, lifting both of its heavy forelegs high into the air.

Kael was pulled up with it, dangling precariously over the mud. Nuan knew the survival outcome—if the moose dropped its full weight down now, the secondary impact and follow-up stomp would kill Kael instantly.

Knowing she had no more time, Nuan took one deep, stabilizing breath. She spun the heavy wooden spear in her palm once, Forgetting all safety protocols, she stood upright out of the bushes, took two explosive, limping strides forward to gain momentum, and locked her eyes on the target.

With every single ounce of force her upper body could muster, she hurled the spear from a few meters away.

The wooden spear tore through the air in a perfect, flat trajectory.

CRACK!

The sharp point struck the moose flawlessly at the base of its skull. The impact severed the brain stem, instantly piercing the central nervous system.

A total structural shutdown.

The colossal bull moose, still suspended in the air on its two hind legs, instantly lost all motor function.

The giant collapsed backward with a massive, earth-shaking thud.

Kael fell along with the carcass, but because the animal went over backward rather than forward, the lethal crushing impact was completely avoided. Even in the dirt, Kael kept his jaws locked onto the throat, his eyes wide with shock.

Nuan didn’t take any chances on a second muscle spasm. Ignoring her throbbing, broken ankle, she scrambled across the wet mud toward the unmoving, collapsed body.

She pulled her heavy hunting knife from her waistband, scrambled right up onto the moose’s massive shoulder, and kneeled over its chest cavity.

Leaning her entire upper body weight over the handle, she thrust the steel blade deep between the ribs, aiming straight for the heart.

She practically slept flat against her own chest, pushing with everything she had until the entire length of the knife was buried inside the beast.

The moose gave one final, dull shudder, and then went completely still.

"Hufff... hufff... hufff..." Nuan panted heavily, her forehead resting against the coarse, brown fur of the beast, sweat dripping down her face as the adrenaline finally began to recede.

Kael’s chest was rising and falling violently, matching the erratic, heavy pattern of Nuan’s own breathing.

As his heart rate slowly started to normalize, he finally let go of the moose’s shredded neck. With a soft, abrupt puff of smoke, his giant silver fur dissolved, and he was back in his human beastman form.

He flopped completely to the side, laying flat on his back in the wet mud. His uninjured right arm spread out helplessly against the earth, while his right hand clutched tightly at his bruised, buckled left shoulder.

"I told you.... told you.... not to interfere...." Kael mumbled through gritted teeth, his golden eyes staring up at the canopy in stubborn, wounded pride.

Nuan sat up on the massive moose shoulder, wiped the sweat from her eyes, and slid down the beast’s flank into the mud beside Kael.

Without a single second of hesitation, she raised her hand and gave him one powerful, echoing smack right on the back of his head.

"What kind of idiot predator are you?!" Nuan yelled, her survival-host voice echoing across the quiet lake. "A hunter who doesn’t understand when to logistically retreat is nothing but a dead idiot! Even the Tiger Clan the other day had the basic brain cells to retreat, knowing the cost they would pay to win wouldn’t be worth it! You almost got yourself trampled to death over your fragile alpha ego!"

Kael let out a fierce, low growl, his eyes flashing as he tried to push himself up to challenge her. But the absolute second he put weight on his left side, his injured shoulder buckled, and he collapsed back into the mud, hissing in pain.

Nuan slapped his head again, though with a bit more restraint this time. "Stay still! Don’t move your structural framework!"

Ding!

[ Congratulations, Host! You have successfully hunted a Mature Moose. ]

[ New Skill Unlocked: Vital Strike ]

[ Type: Active Combat Skill ]

[ Information: The User can instantly identify the structural weak points of any living creature and deliver a precise, high-efficiency attack to force a total central nervous system or organ shutdown. ]

Well, that’s a cool skill, Blue Buddy, Nuan thought, briefly nodding at the holographic display before tapping it away in a hurry.

But for now, look at the immediate medical logistics! Do we have anything in the system inoventory or rewards to help Kael’s shoulder?