Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Edited by Aelryinth
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[Long-Mouthed Jackal]
Level: Three Star (Level 27)
Quality: Bronze
Characteristics: Gathers in Groups, Excels at Surrounding its Prey
Weakness: Small-Size, Lacking in Defense
Potential: D Rank
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Zhang Che immediately lost all interest after he swept his gaze across the exotic beasts ahead and saw their attributes.
After the mystical events at Bei Mei region, what powerful beasts hadn’t he seen before?… Uhm, well, he probably hadn’t seen a divine-quality beast before, but these low-level, low-quality exotic beasts really weren’t worth his time, even if they were right before him.
However, the situation was a little different.
The ones hunting these Long-Mouthed Jackals weren’t subdued beasts, but the beastmasters themselves.
The few Long-Mouthed Jackals noticed Zhang Che’s group walking towards them. They didn’t even hesitate and charged at the four of them. From their perspective, why reject free food that came knocking at their door?
Liu Gang didn’t show any signs of fear facing the oncoming Long-Mouthed Jackals. A silvery streak of light shot out from between his brows and turned into a thick ,single-edged blade in his hand as he charged towards the Long-Mouthed Jackals.
Zhang Che hurriedly cleared his mind of useless thoughts and observed carefully from behind.
Liu Gang was cool and calm, wielding the blade with both hands, his waist and back bent slightly forward, running with short, crisp steps. Every step he took was about the same length.
Very quickly, the four Long-Mouthed Jackals clashed with Liu Gang head-on.
As exotic beasts that excelled in surrounding their prey, the Long-Mouthed Jackals would naturally not rush in from a single direction stupidly. Instead, they were spread out in an arc, trying to catch Liu Gang in their trap.
Zhang Che looked ahead without blinking, thinking to himself, -If I found myself in such a situation, I would probably rely on brute strength to crush these weak, ordinary beasts…-
-Then, what if I encountered the kind where I can only handle one at a time?
-Technique!-
Without a doubt, he needed superb techniques in such situations!
At this moment, a silvery blade light flashed ahead, followed by a short, sorrowful cry.
Zhang Che clearly saw that under the four Long-Mouthed Jackals’ attacks, Liu Gang only took a few casual steps and avoided three of their attacks while simultaneously slashing at the last beast’s throat.
When he made his move, both the timing and the angle of his slash were extremely precise. There was no chance for that Long-Mouthed Jackal to dodge at all, and the others were unable to support it in time, either.
“Amazing! He’s an expert indeed!” Zhang Che was no longer a greenhorn. At the very least, he had practiced the sword style Miss Tienan had secretly imparted to him for close to two months now, and he could be considered to have minor attainments in it.
Now that he saw Liu Gang’s swift flowing movements, he immediately discerned what was so amazing about it. He understood that it was impossible for him to reach such a level if he didn’t work hard on practicing it in actual combat.
“Watch closely now, Zhang-shao!” Liu Gang suddenly shouted. Under the combined assault of the remaining three Long-Mouthed Jackals, his body spun around twice like a fried dough twist, the blade swinging thrice quickly in an extremely technical manner, almost leaving three afterimages behind.
Three streaks of blood spattered at the same time. Not a drop was caught on Liu Gang, who now had his blade stowed away, standing up straight as he looked on coldly.
Four masses of light lit up one after another almost at the same time. Three of them turned into streaks of lights and dissipated, while the last one turned into a bronze beast card and fell on the ground.
Liu Gang flicked his wrist, picking up the beast card from the ground with his blade and caught it with his other hand. Afterwards, he turned to look at Zhang Che, asking, “Zhang-shao, do you understand what you just saw?”
Zhang Che narrowed his eyes slightly. After a short silence, he answered, “I understood a little. The timing. No matter if it’s the timing you dodged the incoming attacks or the timing you chose to strike, they must be one of the many things you wanted to tell me.”
Liu Gang nodded in satisfaction. “That’s right! Zhang-shao is talented indeed! It’s enough that you are able to understand this important point. The rest can be improved on through consistent training. The choice of timing, however, if you didn’t have a certain level of talent, you wouldn’t get any results no matter how much time you spent training.”
Zhang Che smiled. Naturally he wouldn’t treat his praises as the truth. As someone watching from the sidelines, of course he could see through that point. But what if he swapped places with Liu Gang, becoming the one doing the fighting?
Zhang Che didn’t think it would be as simple as he said.
Right at that moment, a concentrated wave of cries suddenly rang out from within the valley. A crowd of Long-Mouthed Jackals suddenly gathered into a huge wave, sweeping towards them.
“Oh shit, these dogs can really reproduce!”
Zhang Che’s scalp turned numb at the sight. At a rough glance, he estimated there were about a hundred of them!
Although the Long-Mouthed Jackals were only three-star bronze-quality exotic beasts, once their numbers reached a certain level, it was definitely not something Zhang Che and the others could take on by themselves.
Zhang Che subconsciously wanted to have the Darkfiend Abyssal Dragon come down from the sky to help him out. However, Liu Gang said to him, “Zhang-shao, the training starts now. Try your best not to use your subdued beasts. Don’t worry; we’ll do our best to look out for you.”
Well, this guy seemed to be really treating these hundred three-star bronze-quality beasts as dirt. He didn’t even have his pet black tiger come give them a hand.
-Are you sure you’re not joking around?-
However, when he saw the serious looks on their faces, he had no choice but to trust them. If danger really arose, he could immediately summon his other subdued beasts and pets to salvage the situation.
Even if the four of them got hurt by accident, there was no need to be afraid. Didn’t he have the super nanny, his Unicorn?
Thinking of that, Zhang Che suddenly came to a realization. His babies really covered all his needs. Meat shields, close-quarter fights, long-distance attacks, healing; he had everything!
The Long-Mouthed Jackals were fast. Less than half a minute later, they were already upon them. Liu Gang and the others had a tacit understanding with each other and formed a triangular formation once more, each of them wielding a beast card weapon in their hand, guarding Zhang Che within.
-Hmm? You’re protecting me so well; how am I supposed to train like that?- Just as the thought popped into his head, Zhang Che realized how naive he was.
As the group of Long-Mouthed Jackals charged at them, the defensive formation actually opened up a tiny gap, allowing two jackals to slip in and pounce at Zhang Che in the middle.
-Oh shit, you guys are ruthless!- Zhang Che cried inwardly. He maintained a cool expression, however, sliding a few steps to the side and stabbing the Mutated Puffersword at the throat of one of the Long-Mouthed Jackals.
However, this strike, which Zhang Che thought was pretty much guaranteed to hit, was easily avoided by the Long-Mouthed Jackal. Afterwards, the beast crouched down and pounced at him, biting at his calf.
Zhang Che moved reflexively and raised his knee, kicking at the beast.
Bam! A loud, dull noise rang out. The Long-Mouthed Jackal howled painfully as its small figure flew back, crashing to the ground and rolling over twice, traces of blood at the corners of its mouth.
While defending against the attacks of the surrounding Long-Mouthed Jackals, Liu Gang and the others were paying attention to Zhang Che’s situation, throwing glances at him from time to time. When they saw what happened, their eyelids twitched madly. -What the heck, is he even human!?-
Although the Long-Mouthed Jackals weren’t big, they still weighed close to two hundred kilograms. Even if their defenses were weak, they were still three-star bronze-quality exotic beasts! One kick from him and the beast was wounded severely; how strong was he?!