Chapter 79: High-level Exotic Beast, 15 Consecutive Bursts
Chapter 79: Chapter 79: High-level Exotic Beast, 15 Consecutive Bursts
"Another Exotic Beast?!" Captain Liu spun around, his voice filled with horror.
Losing focus in the middle of a fight was a cardinal sin.
The Stone-toothed Wild Boar swung its head, and a single thrust of its snout was all it would take to finish him.
At the critical moment, Zhou Bing kicked him out of the way and swept her spear across the Stone-toothed Wild Boar’s black nose.
"ROOOOAR!"
The Stone-toothed Wild Boar roared, lashing its whip-like iron tail as it chased after Zhou Bing, snapping at her heels.
She seized the opportunity to lead it away from the encampment.
Inside the encampment, the Guards scattered and fled on Tang Wen’s command.
A stone house collapsed, dust billowing into the air.
A seven or eight-meter-long figure appeared in the rubble.
Even though Tang Wen had been prepared for the worst, he couldn’t help but be shocked at the sight of this huge beast clad in Steel Armor.
At dinner, he had looked through an atlas of Exotic Beasts. He recognized the creature before him—which resembled an oversized pangolin—as an Earth Beast.
As the Guards fled, they looked back over their shoulders. Someone who also recognized the creature screamed frantically, "An Earth Beast! It’s an Earth Beast! A High-level Exotic Beast!"
"What? An Earth Beast?" Captain Liu’s face was a mask of despair as he struggled to his feet. "Dammit! We won’t be able to save the Sand Wolves or the camp."
The Earth Beast was, without a doubt, a High-level Exotic Beast.
It was slow, but as its name suggested, it was an expert digger.
Digging was its primary means of survival.
But the hardest part to deal with was its thick, gray-white Bone Armor, which was as tough as rock.
Its Defense Power was immense.
It was said that two Martial Artists had once attacked it for ten straight minutes. In the end, the beast simply tucked in its head, emerging completely unscathed. After slowly devouring a human corpse, it had calmly burrowed into the ground and departed.
Martial Artists had no effective way of dealing with it.
Only an Observation Method Power Burst could even begin to crack its Bone Armor, and it would take several consecutive bursts to cause even a sliver of damage.
But even for a First-class Martial Artist, how many of those bursts could they execute in a row?
With enough Martial Artists, they might be able to flip the Earth Beast onto its back.
They could restrain it with steel cables and slowly wear it down!
Unfortunately, there were only two of them.
And Zhou Bing was tied up with the Stone-toothed Wild Boar, a beast that was nearly a High-level Exotic Beast itself.
"If you can’t handle it, fall back immediately! We’ll kill this boar together!"
She dodged the boar’s sharp tusks and shouted toward Tang Wen.
"Understood! Don’t worry about me! Focus on killing the boar!"
Before the words were even out of his mouth, Tang Wen had already thrown a Flying Locust Stone.
BANG!
The stone struck the Earth Beast’s head, which was the size of a water vat.
A strike that could have shattered a water buffalo’s skull merely caused the beast’s head to sway.
The creature even glanced at Tang Wen in confusion before turning its massive body.
It used its huge frame to block Tang Wen’s line of sight to its head.
The Flying Locust Stone had done some damage, but not much.
A complex emotion flickered in Tang Wen’s eyes. ’My usual burst attacks can’t even get past its defense?’
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
More Flying Locust Stones hammered against the Bone Armor, sending sparks flying with the sound of clashing metal.
Tang Wen was using his full strength, but judging by the sound, he might as well have been attacking a half-meter-thick Steel Shield.
RUMBLE!
The Earth Beast smashed through another stone house.
The beast seemed to have no intention of attacking Tang Wen; it was single-mindedly focused on getting to the Sand Wolf meat.
’This thing is basically a giant turtle!’
The only good news was its slow speed.
It was so slow that even Tang Wen, who always preferred a cautious approach, was tempted to test the waters.
He drew his Tiger Head Steel Blade, leaped down from the wall, and in a few quick bounds, landed beside the Earth Beast.
Visualization, then the strike.
SWOOSH!
Just as his blade descended, Tang Wen’s heart suddenly hammered in his chest.
’Something’s wrong!’
The next second, its vat-sized head swiveled at an impossible angle, a maw filled with dense, steel-like teeth snapping viciously toward him!
’So fast!’
Horrified, Tang Wen barely managed to angle his blade to strike at its head.
The Earth Beast jerked its head aside, dodging the blade.
But with his slash hitting nothing but air, Tang Wen’s center of gravity was thrown off.
’This is bad!’
Alarm bells screamed in his mind!
The Earth Beast’s head snapped back like it was mounted on a powerful spring, only to shoot out again in a flash.
A foul stench washed over him!
Two rows of dagger-sharp teeth made one thing clear: if he were caught, he wouldn’t survive, not even with two layers of Scale Armor.
In that split second, Tang Wen’s mind went completely clear. He instantly completed a Visualization and instinctively leaped backward.
The ground where he’d stood caved in. Tang Wen had dodged the attack by a hair’s breadth, launching himself high into the air.
The night wind howled around him, whipping sand and dust into his face.
Every breath was thick with the grit of the desert.
Only then did Tang Wen realize his back was drenched in a cold sweat.
’That was too close.’
THUD.
He landed on the roof of a stone house, which trembled slightly under the impact.
Captain Liu, still tangling with the Stone-toothed Wild Boar outside the walls, saw this. Thinking Tang Wen had been thrown back, he yelled, "Commander Tang Wen, help us kill this boar! Ignore the Earth Beast! It’ll leave after it eats the Sand Wolf meat. It’s slow and poses no threat!"
The Stone-toothed Wild Boar was nearly a High-level Exotic Beast itself. As long as they could kill it, the loss of three decoys and the Sand Wolf meat would be an acceptable price to pay.
But if Tang Wen got bogged down fighting the Earth Beast...
...it would just lead to more collapsed houses and destroyed walls inside the encampment, resulting in even greater losses.
As for whether Tang Wen could actually defeat the creature, no one, Captain Liu included, thought it was possible.
The Earth Beast didn’t give chase. It picked up speed, charging toward the storehouse holding the Sand Wolf meat.
Tang Wen breathed a sigh of relief. Ignoring Captain Liu’s shouts, he leaped from the roof.
He didn’t try to stop the Earth Beast. Instead, he performed another Visualization, pouring Explosive Force into his right leg.
WHOOSH!
An immense burst of power launched Tang Wen forward like a cannonball, covering a hundred meters in an instant. He Visualized again, stomped his left foot, and his speed erupted once more.
WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!
He spared no stamina or spirit, practicing his speed burst again and again.
After more than a dozen repetitions, a message appeared on his Experience Panel:
[Martial Arts Realm: Third-class Martial Artist → Second-class Martial Artist]
The hallmark of a Second-class Martial Artist was the speed burst.
Tang Wen had broken through.
’A blessing in disguise!’
Tang Wen glanced toward the Earth Beast. With a single step, he crossed several dozen meters in an instant, reappearing at the creature’s side.
He Visualized again. His long blade sliced through the air, leaving a blur of afterimages.
CLANG!
The long blade sank more than three inches into the Bone Armor.
HISS!
The Earth Beast whipped its steel-like tail around, cracking it through the air like a whip.
Tang Wen spun and countered with an upward slash, his blade erupting with light.
The two forces collided with a deafening crash.
A gash deep enough to reveal bone was torn open in the creature’s thick tail.
Blood sprayed from the wound.
Outside the walls, Captain Liu heard the noise, slapped his thigh, and speculated wildly, "Commander Tang must have gotten himself into deep trouble."
Zhou Bing, her lovely face frosty, shot him a glare. "Less talk. Raise your shield and keep the boar busy."
She was the most worried about Tang Wen, but she also knew him best. Tang Wen would never act unless he was confident of success.
The Earth Beast let out an enraged shriek. It spun around, its head striking out repeatedly like a coiled spring, snapping at Tang Wen.
Tang Wen dropped into a stance, sinking his shoulders and elbows as he channeled Observation Method Power into his long blade.
Two Consecutive Explosions!
Three Consecutive Explosions!
Four Consecutive Explosions!
His long blade chopped, smashed, split, and parried, meeting every single strike.
The Earth Beast’s enormous head was soon drenched in blood, its eyes turning wild with fury.
Its head struck out with even greater frequency!
A savage roar echoed through the night sky.
"Bring it on!"
Tang Wen’s physique was incredible. Even after four consecutive explosions, he felt no fatigue. In fact, the longer he fought, the more ferocious he became!
His bursts grew more practiced, his blade a blur of lightning-fast afterimages.
Five Consecutive Explosions, Six Consecutive Explosions... Ten Consecutive Explosions!
CLANG.
The steel blade sank into its hard skull.
Intense pain drove the madness from the Earth Beast’s eyes, replaced by an almost human look of hesitation and fear.
As a High-level Exotic Beast, it was quite intelligent.
It wasn’t as if it had never encountered human Martial Artists before.
But in its experience, when facing a human whose aura was on par with its own, it only needed to endure three to five of their burst attacks. After that, they would be exhausted and forced to flee.
’How... how can this human strike me ten times in a row?’
SCRAPE! SCRAPE!
It was afraid. Its front claws began to dig frantically, trying to burrow into the ground.
’Trying to run?’
Tang Wen sneered.
He pressed his attack!
Eleven Consecutive Explosions! Twelve Consecutive Explosions! Thirteen Consecutive Explosions!
Three more strikes landed on the exact same spot.
The Earth Beast’s legs gave out as if it had suffered a devastating blow. It lowered its head and let out a piteous whine.
Fourteen Consecutive Explosions!
Fifteen Consecutive Explosions!
CRACK!
The Hundred-refinements Tiger Head Steel Blade snapped.
Tang Wen was in a battle frenzy. He gripped the broken blade and attacked again, heedless of everything else.
The broken blade slid in effortlessly, as if meeting no resistance.
When he pulled it out, a white fluid splattered.
Only then did he realize he had scrambled the Earth Beast’s brains.