Chapter 26 Slaughter and Fleeing
The confrontation between the two sides went on for a long time, with both sides exerting caution. During this long battle, Chang had maintained his best attack position and was highly concentrated, waiting for the moment the stray dog attacked.
He pointed the scalpel’s tip at 75 degrees and was ready to thrust it into his opponent’s chest the moment it jumped on his body.
Chang knew that hunting was definitely not a contest. It would probably take a long time, but what determined life and death was at that critical moment. For both sides, the first attack would determine the winner of the battle, because the second attack would be much harder.
Therefore, as Chang stared at its scarlet eyes, it also did the same. A dog and a human stood still, not moving even the slightest bit.
In the end, Chang’s patience beat the dog’s. When his arm gradually became stiff because of how long he had kept his position, the stray dog leaped at him.
From its sudden leap into the air, the dog easily jumped over 2 meters; saliva was dripping from its teeth and as Chang predicted, it was aiming at his neck. This leap showed off its extraordinary jumping ability and strength.
His scalpel met a thin barrier as it pierced the dog’s chest, then he felt a spring of warm liquid covering his fist. Chang knew that he had successfully pierced the dog.
However, the dog didn’t stop as it struggled and tried to bite Chang’s neck. Hence, he pressed the blade forward with pressure – the warm and sticky feeling on his hand became even more intense.
His attack succeeded.
However, as he was delighted, he felt a surge of pain coming from his chest – although he avoided a fatal bite, it was inevitable that he was also injured by the dog’s attack.
“Woo…”
“Ah…”
His groan and the dog’s whine came together, then they both fell to the ground from the momentum.
As Chang fell, the back of his head hit the ground first. He immediately blacked out for a few seconds.
Although the stray dog was severely injured, he landed in a better position than Chang, so he recovered first. It shrugged off the pain coming from the long cut in its chest because its survival instincts told it to run away as far as it could with a painful whine.
“Sh*t.” In that second or two, the dog almost disappeared in his sight. Chang laid on the ground and witnessed it fleeing into the thick grass. He immediately jumped up and chased after it.
With just a glimpse, he knew how much damage he dealt to the stray dog – that cut was about 15 centimeters from its chest to its stomach. Even though it wasn’t severe enough that its organs would fall out, it was definitely a fatal wound. It shouldn’t be able to run very far.
Chang was about to follow the trail of blood to look for the stray dog.
“Don’t go after it, Chang!” Jing shouted in hurry.
“Why?” Chang didn’t turn around, nor did he stop chasing. He followed the dots of blood, but he soon realized how much he had underestimated the running ability of the dog. Even though it was severely injured, it still wasn’t the kind of animal that a human could catch up to.
But at this time, he wasn’t in a hurry at all. After all, that cut was deep and long enough to cause blood to keep dripping onto the grass. No matter where it went, the trail of blood would sell it out.
Hence, Chang stopped – he was too far from Jing and was worried about her.
Jing showed up and breathed heavily, “Don’t…don’t chase after it.”
“What do you mean by don’t chase after it?” Chang frowned.
“A level 8 animal went to where it disappeared.” Jing pointed at the trail of blood.
“Level 8?” Chang’s brows knotted tightly.
“Yes, and its moved very fast; it must be a large animal.” Jing closed her eyes, imagining what it looked like in her brain.
“How did it come? I thought it was only me and the dog.”
“Um… I guess it stayed outside my perception range and suddenly ran as fast as lighting.” She opened her eyes, “We should go; a level 8 animal is certainly much more powerful than us.”
“No…no! I can’t quit now. If we can’t get food now, we’ll become weaker very soon; I can just imagine us dying from starvation. This is our very first day, and my physical condition is at its peak. If we can’t obtain anything now, we won’t get anything the next few days either, and we’ll get hungrier. To be honest, the worst situation is that we all die; I would rather die under its paws than die from starvation.”
They were so close to getting some meat; nobody would be willing to give up at this point. Therefore, Chang pondered for a few seconds and stomped his feet. “Anyways, I have to see where it went.”
“But…”
“Don’t worry about me. My perception is sensitive enough to allow me to observe from far away; it won’t notice me.” Chang parted the grass as he said so, “Don’t follow me and stay here. I’ll come back for you.”
Chang followed the direction of the blood. But just as the trail of blood grew larger to the size of puddles, he heard a crisp whine; this kind of whine was exclusive to dogs. It was the sound they emitted when they cried in pain.
Because the whine was so short and had ended abruptly, Chang knew – his prey had died.
There was no need to distinguish the blood on the grass. Chang rushed the sound, and finally, he saw that poor stray dog.
It was dead, and a giant white cat held its body with its mouth, with blood staining its white beard messily.
“What a large cat…” Standing seven meters away from the animal, he didn’t know whether he should’ve called it a cat or not.
It was a 4-meter long giant cat and had splendid white fur. With a quick glance, the cat was definitely larger than any tiger Chang had seen in his life. Its tail was long and furry; it was curled onto its on tummy as if it was a delicate white pillar.
“Who? Who was the owner of this cat? They definitely didn’t keep an eye on their cat after the red fog. Damn, today isn’t a lucky day for me.” Chang completely gave up on his prey after he saw this giant creature. Unlike canines, felines were more flexible and better hunters. Their forearms were flexible enough to allow them to capture small animals with ease. The size of this cat and its possible mutations made it so strong that no one would doubt that it could fight against tigers. Clearly, Chang wouldn’t put his life at such a large risk.
Therefore, he helplessly watched as the giant white cat ran off with the dog dangling from the corner of its mouth. It jumped on a townhouse and soon disappeared into the red fog.
The iron law in the nature – the stronger one gets prey; Chang finally tasted the bitterness himself.