Chapter 24
––24 Fierce Fight––
Su Hao pushed off with his foot and swiftly moved to the side, but the snow leopard reacted instantly, changed direction, and continued to pounce towards him. The snow leopard’s cold and indifferent pupils were right in front of him, and Su Hao’s legs burst with blood, dodging once again.
At this time, the snow leopard didn’t have time to change direction again, but it extended a front paw and swept towards him. Its five sharp claws were already open, gleaming with a chilling cold light.
Su Hao quickly extended his short knife in front of him and used his other hand to grab the back of the knife for support.
However, he didn’t have time to step firmly on the ground and stabilize his balance.
“Crack!”
The leopard’s paw slapped onto the knife, and a strong force sent Su Hao flying far away.
In terms of strength, Su Hao was completely defeated. With a weight of around 20 kilograms, he was like a toy in front of the snow leopard weighing over 200 kilograms. If he didn’t have a short knife in his hand, Su Hao wouldn’t even have the qualification to stand in front of the snow leopard.
Su Hao rolled on the ground for a few rounds, flipped over and stood up. Just as he stabilized himself, the snow leopard’s attack was already close.
“Horizontal slash!”
Su Hao adjusted his balance, gripped the knife with both hands, calculated the speed, and aimed at the snow leopard’s neck for a horizontal sweep.
This combat technique was taught to him by Wu Yuntian three days ago and was said to be Wu Yuntian’s specialty.
His blood and qi exploded successively, starting from under his feet, then his thighs and waist, driving his arms. The power of successive blood and qi explosions permeated his whole body, converging in the knife in his hand, cutting through everything that dared to stand in front of the blade.
Su Hao had practiced this move for a long time before he finally grasped it.
“Swoosh!”
A cold light swept by, and only a few strands of white hair floated in the air.
At the crucial moment, the snow leopard, who sensed the danger, actually avoided it.
In other words, Su Hao’s fatal attack failed.
A brief emptiness followed after using the combat technique, and at this moment, he found it difficult to burst his blood and qi again.
Su Hao’s eyes followed the mark left by Pinball Space, firmly locking onto the snow leopard’s figure.
He saw that after evading Su Hao’s attack, the snow leopard planted all four paws on the snow, curled up, and in an instant leaped towards Su Hao.
This time, it was the snow leopard’s true attack. It opened its mouth for the first time, revealing its sharp teeth.
“No way to dodge!” Su Hao realized that he couldn’t dodge the snow leopard’s attack in time.
He turned his blade towards the snow leopard’s wide-open mouth and decided to take the risk of thrusting the blade into the snow leopard’s mouth, piercing its upper jaw all the way to its brain, and delivering a fatal blow.
Just at this critical moment, Su Hao’s collar was suddenly grabbed by a big hand, pulled to the side. When he reacted, he found himself in an empty space beside him, and the snow leopard was ten meters away.
“Let’s end it here today, we’ll continue tomorrow. Let’s go!” Wu Yuntian’s voice came, and only then did Su Hao react and dazedly said, “Alright, father.”
Looking at the snow leopard, which was still alertly watching Wu Yuntian who suddenly appeared, crouching down and ready to attack, Su Hao could see the snow leopard’s retreat.
It was only now that Su Hao began to breathe in fresh air in gulps. The feeling of his chest about to explode came, his heart almost jumping out of his chest, and his hands and feet began to numb.
Too exciting!
Just like that, Su Hao followed behind Wu Yuntian for a long time before slowly coming back to his senses.
….
“What?”
“Are you coming tomorrow?”
The next day, Su Hao followed Wu Yuntian and arrived at the territory of the snow leopard once again.
After finding the snow leopard with Pinball Space, they stood in front of it once again.
Through repeatedly replaying the battle process with the snow leopard, Su Hao realized his own flaw.
That is, he only used speed and strength in combat. But when facing opponents with higher speed and strength, he had no advantage.
So he understood Wu Yuntian’s intention, which was to sharpen his close combat skills through fighting with the snow leopard, so as to fully utilize the power and speed of his body and improve his overall strength.
This made Su Hao sigh, the teaching methods in this different world are so simple and straightforward.
Learning from his previous experience, Su Hao was prepared this time. He believed he could hold on for a longer time and had a certain chance to kill the opponent.
Without waiting for the snow leopard to launch the first attack, Su Hao charged towards it.
This time, Su Hao didn’t use all his strength in the charge, but instead reserved enough strength to adapt to the situation.
His idea was very simple. Since he was inferior in both speed and strength compared to the opponent, engaging in direct combat would surely result in defeat.
So he evaded its sharpness and didn’t confront it head-on. Instead, he moved and blocked up close, catching it off guard, so he could almost win.
The snow leopard suddenly lowered its body. In the instant when Su Hao was about three meters away, it leaped out, unleashing an attack with all its might, intending to bite this not-so-muscular small figure to death.
This absolute confidence was formed over many years of the snow leopard’s hunting experience. There was no prey that could escape its close-range pounce.
Su Hao had been waiting for this moment and didn’t jump to the left or right like he did yesterday. Because he knew that even if he jumped away, the snow leopard would quickly turn and swipe at him with a paw, putting him at a disadvantage.
In the moment when the snow leopard pounced, Su Hao stopped his forward momentum, exerted force with both feet, and quickly jumped back, just barely avoiding the snow leopard’s bite.
At this moment, the snow leopard bit into thin air. While its front paws were still in the air, Su Hao seized the opportunity and dashed forward, lifting his foot and kicking heavily on the snow leopard’s chin.
“Boom!” A muffled sound. The snow leopard’s entire head shook, as if it had been struck by a hammer from below, and its upper and lower jaws collided with a crisp sound. This kick avenged Su Hao for being slapped away yesterday.
However, the difference in size between Su Hao and the snow leopard was too great. Instead of making the snow leopard’s head rise, it shook his own foot painfully.
The snow leopard was kicked in the chin by Su Hao, shocked and startled. It jumped high on its own, retreating four or five steps before stopping, its eyes watchful as it stared at Su Hao.
“Roar~”
A low roar came from its throat. Su Hao’s kick didn’t cause much damage to it but had a strong sense of insult.
Su Hao had no intention of letting it go and charged at it again.
He showed the sharp short knife, once again dodging the snow leopard’s attacks within a small range. Whenever the snow leopard’s attack missed and it still had no power left, he would stab it randomly and then run away, regardless of the outcome.
At no time did he use all his strength, ensuring that he had enough power to dodge any imminent attack.
The snow leopard had a huge body, obtaining great strength and extremely fast sprint speed. At the same time, its advantage in small-range movement was greatly reduced. After each attack, it needed a brief moment to gather power before launching the next attack.
So the snow leopard always aimed for a fatal blow when hunting, because as long as it missed, the hunting would end in failure.
Su Hao seized these fleeting opportunities and kept adding new wounds to the snow leopard.
Soon, the snow leopard’s body was stained with bright red, which was particularly conspicuous on its snow-white fur. In a moment, it was frozen into ice crystals by the wind and snow, shimmering under the sunlight with a unique luster.
Following this back and forth, Su Hao’s grasp of the rhythm of the battle became stronger and stronger, while the chances of the snow leopard’s claws touching Su Hao became increasingly slim.
No matter how the snow leopard roared, it couldn’t do anything to Su Hao. It only let more and more blood flow, and its body started to weaken.
Su Hao could tell that the snow leopard was already showing signs of fear and retreat. Once the snow leopard started to run, he didn’t have the confidence to catch up with it.
“So, this time, it will be settled in one blow.”