“Haste!”
Quickly downing the potion he picked up, Hawkeye planted his feet firmly on the ground. That was the 1st tier potion Haste potion. With the great increase in speed, he arrived behind the Bloodlust Tiger with a single leap. Firmly gripping his battle axe, he took a heavy downward swing at the beast.
But who would have thought, without even turning its head, the Bloodlust Tiger simply swung its tail with force. With a heavy bang, Hawkeye was instantly sent flying as blood seeped out of his mouth. He was a Level 42 Battle Adept, but this 4000 year old Bloodlust Tiger had the power of a Level 60 Sky Master. The difference in strength is monumental.
The tail swung right before Hawkeye’s chest and instantly shattered his breastplate into powder as faint lines of stone skin appeared on Hawkeye’s chest. That was the effect of the Stone Skin potion. In all honesty, if not for the Stone Skin, Hawkeye would have been one-hit-killed by the Bloodlust Tiger.
Taking a few steps back with his axe sliding across the ground, Hawkeye spat out a mouthful of blood as he loudly commanded, “Don’t let this bastard regenerate his strength, attack now! Archers, use Paralysis poison!”
Twenty or so archers jumped out of the bushes and sent arrows wildly at the beast. However they can’t seem to pierce the skin of the Bloodlust Tiger. A 4000 years-old spirit beast’s skin is really too unyielding.
“Roar!”
With a leap, the Bloodlust Tiger killed its way into the crowd. Swinging its sharp claws wildly as blood splattered around it, a mercenary’s head was forcefully smashed into pieces.
With a crunch, the Bloodlust Tiger snidely munched on another mercenary’s head. Behind it, a spear-holding mercenary rushed forward with a low growl. Lifting up his spear, he struck it right at the tiger’s rump. With a low scraping sound, only the tip of the spear managed to pierce the skin and was unable to go any further. Instead, with a single swing of its tail, the Bloodlust Tiger smacked the mercenary’s back in half.
The scene of fresh blood spilled everywhere is just too cruel!
……
Hua Wan gripped his sword as his face became green and panically asked, “Commander Hawkeye, wha-what should we do? This.. This Bloodlust Tiger is basically unaffected by the paralysis poison!”
Hawkeye took out a bottle of paralysis poison and smeared it on the blade of his axe; the poison emitted it’s unique glow as it was applied on the weapon. With this much, the poison could probably last about 10 minutes. Hawkeye softly instructed, “Don’t be frightened. Attack, my brothers. If we can kill this Bloodlust Tiger, the bounty will be enough to for us to live for the rest of our lives. You can probably live in a mansion and build a harem if you wanted!”
For the riches that can only be obtained from perilous means, the group of mercenaries rushed towards the beast with their weapons in hand. Even the archers dropped their bows and ran forward with long spears.
“Roar!”
The Bloodlust Tiger furiously roared once more as red fiery energy started forming around its neck.
Lin Mu Yu cursed under his breath and immediately picked up Chu Yao, then jumped into the nearby pond.
“What’s wrong?” Chu Yao asked in shock.
Lin Mu Yu silently pressed himself on top of her and did not let her speak another word.
The next moment, the surrounding temperature quickly rose with a loud blast as flames enveloped the surrounding grass floor. Chu Yao looked at Lin Mu Yu with widened eyes as a wave of fire passed over his head, even burning a few strands of his hair.
“Ah Yu…”
Chu Yao was shocked speechless.
Lin Mu Yu calmly flipped himself over and laid down on the ground. Enduring the numbing pain on the back of his head, he took a deep breath and pressed down onto the floor to squash out the remaining flames. In his head he quickly noted that the strength of the Bloodlust Tiger is definitely stronger than the one in-game, how frightening a thought!
Chu Yao carefully leaned against the edge of the pond and raised her head to look around, only to be stunned by what she saw. On the open grounds, two dozen Flamehawk Mercenaries were turned into charcoal by the tiger’s fire breath. All of them had their weapons in hand as they stood; their bodies were burnt black while the pungent smell of burnt flesh wafted through the air.
“Ah…”
Chu Yao knelt on the ground in shock. She had never seen even a corpse in the past, and now in front of her were so many bodies that had died right before her eyes.
……
“Steady!”
Still holding his battle axe, Hawkeye bellowed, “A 4000 years-old Bloodlust Tiger will need at least another 3 minutes before it can spit flames again. This is our best chance. One of you, use iron net formation to trap this bastard!”
Following the command, a dozen mercenaries mounted their horses and charged forward, each holding a corner of the iron net. They casted the net right as they reached the Bloodlust Tiger. With a whoosh, the near 10 meter long net was spread out above the tiger and immediately began to cover the tiger’s immense body.
“Roar!”
The iron net was sturdy yet flexible, so although the Bloodlust Tiger furiously tried to break free, the net just tightened up the more it struggled. Slowly but surely, the tiger ceased its movements.
“Heh. That’s just what I expected from this bastard, it’s a stupid beast after all!” A mercenary loudly laughed, “Boss, it’s time. Let’s all go at it together and slaughter this 4000 year old spirit beast. It’s been a long time since anyone from Silver Fir City, perhaps even the whole Seven Star Forest, could kill a 4000 year old spirit beast. We’ll be the first ones! Hahahaha…”
Wordlessly, Hawkeye channeled the zen energy surrounding his body into wild flames enveloping his battle axe. With a sudden charge, he jumped into the air and slammed down with his full strength onto the Bloodlust Tiger’s head.
BAM!
Cut apart by the slash, the iron net began to break open. At the same time, a layer of blood covered the flame colored hide of the Bloodlust Tiger. It finally received direct damage as a long gash could be seen on its head.
However, although it was injured, the beast did not show any signs of anger. Only a mocking gaze could be seen in the tiger’s cold brown eyes… Everyone, Hawkeye included, froze upon realizing that the tiger in front of them was not merely a wild beast, it is as if this 4000 year old spirit beast had the intelligence of a human. It even purposely allowed Hawkeye to attack it to borrow his strength in order to break the iron net.
“Whuaa!”
Swiftly leaping out of the iron net, the Bloodlust Tiger opened its bloody jaws and chomped down onto Hawkeye. Only a brutal cry could be heard as fresh blood spilled out while the beast pushed Hawkeye down to the ground as he struggled. Seconds later, his whole right arm along with the axe in hand was ripped from his body.
“Commander!”
The group of mercenaries yelled in shock and anger. Each of them rushed forward holding their bladed weapon and stabbed their swords and spears into the Bloodlust Tiger’s body. Once it was injured, the defensive strength of the tiger’s skin greatly fell, it couldn’t continue to defend against the mercenaries’ attacks. Additionally, these mercenaries were not at all lacking in skill. Lin Mu Yu and Chu Yao stared wide-eyed at the few using martial skills!
That’s right, martial skills were not things easily learned by the average person. At the very least, they would have had to break through the first tier of human realm to earn the rights to learn such skills!
……
“Roar!”
The Bloodlust Tiger roared in fury as it sweeped everyone around it. In the blink of an eye, of the dozen mercenaries left, only a few survived the slaughter.
“Game over man… game over…”
Hua Wan gripped his sword but it was as if all strength had dissipated from his body. Shaking his head in disbelief, he cried, “This 4000 year old spirit beast is way too strong, the Flamehawk Mercenaries are no more… Retreat… Retreat now!”
The four guards wearing a purple Yin Flower brooch nodded simultaneously and guarded their young master as he mounted his horse. Following behind, they took off without sparing a single thought for the heavily injured mercenary commander.
A rush of pain struck Lin Mu Yu’s arm so he quickly helped Chu Yao to her feet and said, “Big sis Chu Yao, let’s leave quickly… or else the Bloodlust Tiger definitely won’t leave us alive.”
The two limply stood and were about to leave as Hawkeye roared, “Mother fuckers. So many of my men died today and the two of you still want to run? Kill these two because they will accompany us to our graves!”
A mercenary with an injured arm dashed forward with his sword, but he barely took two steps before getting ripped in half by the Bloodlust Tiger’s tail.
“Roar!”
The tiger roared loudly and charged at the remaining few mercenaries. However, its speed seemed to be slowing down, it’s movement couldn’t even catch up to the speed of a war horse. Finally, the paralysis poison started to take effect!
……
Chu Yao’s face is ghastly white as she whimpered, “Ah Yu… We should go…”
“No.”
Lin Mu Yu pointed behind them and calmly said, “Big sis Chu Yao, you run towards that direction. I’ll catch up to you when I can. Quickly!”
Chu Yao didn’t argue with the command and started walk, but it seemed like her leg was hurt, thus she was unable to walk very fast.
“Sheeen!”
Walking pass the corpse of a mercenary, Lin Mu Yu pulled out the sword on the dead man’s back. It was a well made sword with a fuller that lightened the weight. These exquisitely made weapons were not commonly seen. Holding the sword in hand, he slowly walked towards Hawkeye.
Having lost an arm as well as taking a huge bone-shattering hit to the chest, not even a Battle Adept could sustain that much damage. Hawkeye had already lost a large part of his strength, thus he could only look at Lin Mu Yu with his lone eye and growled in anger, “Bastard, what are you thinking of doing?”
“Taking care of the loose ends!”
Lin Mu Yu coldly answered, he knew that if he didn’t kill Hawkeye now, were Hawkeye to survive and return to Silver Fir City, not only himself, but everyone at Bai Ling drugstore would be in danger. Hawkeye will never forgive him, especially since he suffered a brutal loss like this. He would definitely not want anyone to speak of it.
“You dare?! I’m the fuc…”
Without even letting Hawkeye finish his words, Lin Mu Yu’s sword already slashed at Hawkeye’s neck. Fresh blood squirted out of his slashed artery, this mercenary commander that once freely roamed the lands met his end as his eyes widened with resentment.
……
Looking up, the Bloodlust Tiger had already killed the few remaining mercenaries. Although it was clearly affected by the paralysis poison, the poison seemed to only affect its movement speed. Right now the beast wasn’t merely hunting for food anymore. It wanted to kill every last person around..
Picking up a nearby bow and a bag of arrows, as well as a sword to wear on his back, Lin Mu Yu turned and tried to run. But it’s already too late, the Bloodlust Tiger roared and charged towards him. It wanted to kill Lin Mu Yu!
“Shit! I’m dead meat…”
Lin Mu Yu cursed under his breath and anxiously looked in Chu Yao’s direction. Behind him, the Bloodlust Tiger is breaking rocks and smashing trees as it chased. It was almost caught up with his speed!
A short distance ahead, Chu Yao slowly limped away and became ghastly white when she turned her head to look. “Ah Yu, what should we do?”
“Run!”
How could Lin Mu Yu even think about that much when it’s a matter of life or death at hand. Picking up Chu Yao by the waist, he ran away as if he was flying. In his legs were zen energy that seemed to regenerate his strength, thus his mind became much steadier. Using all his strength, he kept running wildly down the path.
……
In the forest, unending roars were heard as the Bloodlust Tiger chased with Frenzy while Lin Mu Yu sprinted with life on the line. This frantic running lasted near an hour, yet Lin Mu Yu didn’t feel a single hint of fatigue even while carrying another person in his arms. Conversely, it was as if a strange power instantly entered his legs as each of his steps became like meteors hitting ground. Suddenly, a shattering tone resounded in his thought as an image flowed outward. It was the image of a running man. This signified the first new ability that Lin Mu Yu had unlocked in this world: Starfall Step!
Starfall Step, SS Rank Skill, the signature ability of the War God. The best skill for both chasing and running away. It could probably be considered a peerless ability in this world now!
“Ah…”
Chu Yao looked at Lin Mu Yu with a shocked expression and was unable to say anything. She had never seen another person who could run like this!
As he ran, the Bloodlust Tiger chasing him couldn’t catch up any longer, so Lin Mu Yu stopped to wait for it.
Not long after, with a single tragic cry, the Bloodlust Tiger fell on its belly and laid silently on the ground.
“Is it dead?” Lin Mu Yu turned around and carefully observed the carcass of the Bloodlust Tiger.
Only to see the large tiger lain down on the ground without a single hint of movement while faint streams of fiery red energy slowly emerged from the tiger’s body and gathered in the air.
……
“It’s dead!” Chu Yao assured, “Spirit beasts will release their beast spirit upon dying. Ah Yu, you ran a 4000 year old Bloodlust Tiger to death…”
Yet Lin Mu Yu could only gasp for breath as a heavy sensation overcame his legs. The aftereffect of using Starfall Step had came! Even though the pain was excruciating, he was still overjoyed on the inside. He barely escaped from death’s grasp when he had already given up all hope, thinking that both him and Chu Yao were going to die right there and then. That would have been such a shame. A beautiful senor like Chu Yao, if nothing ever got to happen between them before they died, then it really would have been such a shame!
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