"It was just a dog chasing me all this time!" Feng Bujue felt really irritated knowing that. Moreover, his skill was activated, so if he stopped it now and fought with his normal status, it was like he had just wasted more than half a minute of his Survival Value.
He seized the time and wormed out, wanting to use the shortest time and the cruelest way to smash that hunting dog into a pulp.
Feng Bujue glided away while his left hand was holding the flashlight. He shone it ahead of him as his right hand clutched the wrench tightly, as if he was about to conduct his criminal act at any moment.
However, when the dog came into his vision after being illuminated by his flashlight, Feng Bujue got shocked. He couldn’t help but feel glad that he had activated his [Body-Spirit Congregation Technique].
After a burst of rapid footsteps extruded the humid atmosphere, in a large area covered with fog, a scary, giant figure was crossing over and approaching him.
The dog proudly craned its neck. It had almond-shaped eyes, a flat head, and erect ears. The white and rigid scissor-shaped teeth were ready to bite. The dog’s body was sturdy with developed muscles; its neck was slim and gradually expanded, connected to the sturdy body, which had a strong and firm back and four long and wide thighs. In short, the monster had a perfectly proportional body.
These good, special features came from strict training and good breed. Of course, being a monster in Thriller Paradise, it was created to scare people or be a killer, not to participate in Westminster Show (1). Thus, it had something that normal canines didn’t have.
The hound’s entire body was as black as charcoal while its eyes were flaring up like fire. The body of the dog was incredibly large that it wasn’t different from a tiger, and wasn’t much different from the largest cat species.
As it was baring its fangs, its saliva was constantly dripping from its teeth. The most exaggerating feature was the dog’s mouth. Under its neck was a mane shining that looked exactly like the legendary hound in Hades. Anyway, this monster had only one head instead of three.
"This stuff must be made from alchemy!" While Feng Bujue was exclaiming in displeasure, the dog strode across.
If the monster stood on its two back legs, it could chew off Feng Bujue’s neck directly. So, Feng Bujue didn’t dare to act carelessly and jumped backwards, causing the hound to miss its attack.
This time, Feng Bujue could jump quite far that he was startled himself. The Body-Spirit Congregation Technique had brought him a boost that was beyond his expectation. This was the first time he had experienced the boosts that were over ordinary people bodies’ standards. However, it was even beyond what he was accustomed to, such as speed and strength increasing together with his dynamic vision. He only needed to concentrate and everything in front of his eyes would become pretty slow. In fact, he could even see every mosquito flying across him. Moreover, he had a feeling that he just needed to stretch out his arm to pinch that mosquito.
At the end of the first movie of the ‘The Matrix’, after Neo got awakened, he also had the same feeling when Smith attacked him, and he could deliberately receive the opponent’s attack, changing the double-handed attack into a single-handed attack with a confused face. This is when someone feels his own strength had suddenly increased several times compared to normal… and he is not adapted well right at the moment.
The hound didn’t stop attacking; it barked and jumped onto Feng Bujue, forming a curve in mid-air as another wave of its attack came.
BANG ——
The sound of metal had collided and echoed in the jungle. Feng Bujue was tackled down, but he didn’t get bitten. His [Mario’s Pipe Wrench] was like a bone proudly stuck across the dog’s mouth.
This hound’s bite was really strong with its teeth as firm as steel. The dog was still fine as its upper and lower jaws were clamping onto the metal wrench. If it were an ordinary dog, its teeth would soon be a mess.
With this close distance, Feng Bujue could see that this dog’s breed wasn’t pure at all. Although it had the head and fur like Dobermen’s, the hound’s body was like a mastiff’s, and the size of its head was even bigger than that of a lion. This synthetical beast had nauseated him.
Currently, Feng Bujue’s strength was also tremendous. His right hand clutched tightly onto the wrench braced in the dog’s mouth. Now, he and the dog were in a stalemate. He dropped the flashlight in his left hand and took out the dagger that Zaroff had given him, then he stabbed the dog at its soft stomach.
In just a fragment of time, Feng Bujue got dog blood all over his face, but he knew this fight hadn’t ended here just yet. Before the opponent stopped breathing, he couldn’t stop his attacks. He didn’t bother about his bloody face and continued to forcefully strengthen his hand, cutting the dog straight down from the neck to the stomach. Anyway, the monster was only a canine. If its mouth, the most lethal weapon of the monster, was oppressed, struggling recklessly with a flexible human who was equipped with weapons, it couldn’t have a way to escape.
Before the hound died, it had burst out a formidable strength and left a very deep print of its teeth on the wrench. However, it wasn’t strong enough to break this weapon. As its intimidating howl turned into screeching, blood and water from its body poured on Feng Bujue. After that, the dog was declared to be finished as its body collapsed without any bit of force remained.
Feng Bujue quickly pushed the giant body away, letting it fall aside. He had soon run out of his strength, and he was afraid that he couldn’t escape under the dead body of the dog.
Savagely solving the dog was indeed a little bit cruel. Feng Bujue immediately lifted his skill. It wasn’t more than three minutes, however, he had consumed 2 points of his Survival Value at each five seconds, plus his Survival Value wasn’t really full before he had engaged in the fight, so at this moment, his Survival Value was just 32 points. At this point of time, it was three hours to sunrise. Thus, Zaroff didn’t need to come here and attack him; he just needed another dog like that or one or two ‘leeches lessons’ and Feng Bujue would be over.
"Huff, huff, huff." After he had lifted up the skill, Feng Bujue faced the sky and gasped for his breath. The painful, exhausted, and discomfort feelings were washing over him like a tsunami. It seemed that using the [Body-Spirit Congregation Technique] would leave him with side effects. These effects couldn’t be described clearly by the attributes or words in the menu as it was the same with being mentally exhausted after fatigue.
However, Feng Bujue didn’t have time to rest. He had to rush towards the South-East corner as each step he took would bring him further away from the source of danger. Using space to exchange for time, he had to make use of the distance and seize the time.
After he had adjusted his breath, Feng Bujue picked up the flashlight, put the weapons into his bag and continued his journey.
He felt extremely unwell and his whole body was covered with the black dog blood that made his clothes stuck onto his skin. The humid atmosphere and the increasing heat were more than enough for him to suffer immensely.
However, Feng Bujue had a tough competency as he was very patient, which was intimidating to other people. This competency had been expressed in many aspects. Besides maintaining his survival based on the plant noodle broth for quite a long time, they were… For example, he could be on a packed bus, letting an auntie lean against him and bully him for forty minutes without any reaction; he could easily eat the scraps of unpalatable food that his friend had cooked with a pretty calm manners, moreover, after he had finished the dish, he would say it was good though. And, he could endure not taking a bath or changing clothes in one week…
In short, feeling discomfort physically wasn’t a big lethal matter to Feng Bujue. Some stains of dog blood or water weren't enough to challenge his ascetic tolerance.
If a female player encountered this situation, it was very likely that she wouldn’t be able to endure it. If she couldn’t find a source of water or something to wash those disgusting stains away, she could log out right away.
Talking about female players, the situation of One Sword To Conquer The City and Not Afraid over there wasn’t optimistic at all.
They also encountered a hound which was the same type with what Feng Bujue had met. Fortunately, they had two players. Moreover, One Sword To Conquer The City was the sort of player who fought to level up. His capacity in fighting alone was definitely stronger than Feng Bujue when he didn’t activate his Body-Spirit Congregation Technique.
Right at the beginning of the fight, One Sword had stormed forward, using his fast moves to attack the dog with his sword. However, after a while, he gradually fell into a disadvantaged situation. He clearly understood that once the monster jumped onto him, it would tear his throat with just one bite and deliver him a direct death. Thus, he could only attack and run, draining his Physical Value to exchange for shedding some blood of that monster.
After over 10 strikes, Not Afraid could see it from aside that One Sword alone couldn’t do it. If he died, she had to play the game alone, which was the worst situation that she didn’t want to happen. Her title [Peekaboo] had granted a proactive skill called [Count to 10], which performed best when she had teammates surrounded her. Thus, she had to ensure she wasn’t playing alone.
Thus, Not Afraid decided to temporarily give up the image of ‘needed to be protected’, taking out her weapon and silently approaching the dog from behind…
Not far from that, the hound was pressing on One Sword’s operating range. He was gradually backing off to a tree aside, losing his way to escape after each step. He got it clear that his force and the opponent’s force were quite the opposite. When he was using the best of his force to fight against the monster, he could barely be compared to 30% power of the dog and no more than that. Since the gap between their powers was quite enormous, he had no way to confront the monster directly.
It happened like that all the time during their fight. Before the fight and in the middle of the fight, the participants’ mentality would eventually change. ‘Observing’ can give the information far less than the other’s true capacity. In just two strikes, everything would be clear. The hope of getting lucky as ‘how strong the opponent could be’ would be broken soon in the battle.
Physical Value Consumption wouldn’t wait for the situation to change, and the changes wouldn’t be something that One Sword could totally control. Now, he had to make a decision, in which he would sacrifice a large amount of his Survival Value and make some strikes to exchange for a tragic victory, or just keep going this way and consume his energy until he could find the other way around.
While One Sword was still hesitating, a scene that surprised him happened.
Their fight was taking place near a stone cliff where trees scattered around. The starry night above their heads was sparkling with cold beams while the moon was hanging in the sky, shining a tender but blurry light.
Under the moonlight, a petite figure suddenly jumped up, dragging something along with her. She made a beautiful curve in the air, hacking down the dog from behind. Both the monster and One Sword To Conquer The City were dumbfounded at the spot, as the former could smell danger and the latter was stunned in awe.
Not Afraid was holding a long handled sledgehammer, moving like a tiger descending the mountain, smashing down directly on the monster!
(1) The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show is a prestigious all-breed conformation show that has been held in New York City annually since 1877. It is one of a handful of benched shows in the United States. Dogs are required to be on display in an assigned location (bench) during the entirety of the show except when being shown in the ring, groomed for show, or taken outside to eliminate, so that spectators and breeders alike have an opportunity to see all the entered dogs. (In the more common unbenched shows, dogs are required to be present only at assigned ring times.)