Chapter 651 - 4: Reinforcements
As Chen Zhou exerted force with his arms, the suffocating sensation of the male cave hyena intensified gradually.
It struggled, trying to shake off the human on its back to break free, but this human was far heavier than the primitive people it usually encountered—
Chen Zhou’s bone density was nearly three times that of an average human, and his muscle fiber density was just as high.
Based on his physique alone, no one would have guessed he could weigh as much as 175 kg.
The lean-bodied male cave hyena usually relied on its weight to obtain an overwhelming advantage when attacking prehistoric humans.
But in facing Chen Zhou, it displayed the same helplessness as a prey.
The developed neck muscles were no match for his steel-like arms, with its tightly squeezed neck deeply sunken, smoothing the fur on the male cave hyena’s head.
Its ears flattened backward, eyes bulging out as if they were about to pop out from their sockets.
Its short, large mouth gaped wide, gasping for air like a fish dying of thirst.
Yet Chen Zhou’s arms continued to constrict inward.
With one hand, he firmly pressed on the spine of the male cave hyena, preventing it from rising, sticking closely to this warm, bloody beast, offering it a deadly embrace.
The muscle force lasted only an instant, and when the neck muscles were compressed to the limit, the male cave hyena’s cervical vertebrae and throat bore all the pressure.
A dull cracking sound of bones breaking accompanied the sound of the throat rupturing from beneath, as the male cave hyena struggled futilely a few times before its large eyes lost their luster.
At this moment, the female cave hyena finally overturned its suffocating companion underneath it and darted forward.
Chen Zhou had just strangled the male cave hyena and had his back to the female cave hyena, presenting a golden opportunity for the cave hyenas, known for their behavior of attacking from behind.
Even though two of its companions had already lost their lives in this hunt, the female cave hyena had not lost its fighting spirit.
The queen had not yet issued the next command, they still held the upper hand, or at least were not inferior to humans in terms of numbers.
Dust rose again from the short grass as the female cave hyena lunged, but Chen Zhou, with a roll, already shifted position with the male cave hyena’s corpse beneath him.
He lay on his back on the ground, presenting the suffocated male cave hyena’s body to the charging female cave hyena.
This "hyena shield" could not completely cover Chen Zhou’s body, at least his arms, used to control the male cave hyena, remained exposed to the female cave hyena’s attack range.
As long as there was a place to bite, the female cave hyena would not miss it.
It opened its large mouth, extended its neck, and lunged straight for Chen Zhou’s forearm, but just as it was about to sink its teeth in, a massive force suddenly surged from its lower abdomen, and the prey before its eyes blurred as it felt a dizzying sense of vertigo, its whole body flung backward.
After skidding across a patch of wild grass, the feral instinct compelled the female cave hyena to stand up again, but the excruciating pain in its abdomen pinned it firmly to the ground.
Howl~ Howl~
It cried out shrilly, the agony that tormented it robbed it of the arrogance it had shown earlier, and no matter how hard it tried, it could not rise again.
The abdomen of animals, enclosing vital organs, lacks skeletal protection and is the weakest part of the body.
When hunting other beasts, cave hyenas would always adjust their position to avoid exposing vital areas to prey to avoid severe injury.
This time, without enough companions to coordinate, it lost two male cave hyenas in just a few tens of seconds. Seeing a chance, the female cave hyena inevitably acted impulsively, exposing its lower belly to Chen Zhou in its leap, giving him a prime opportunity.
Chen Zhou delivered a mighty and heavy kick to the female cave hyena’s abdomen. The moment before the hyena was flung away, its intestines and stomach were already tangled into a knot, and all the organs within its abdominal cavity were affected.
The bilateral kidneys, spleen, bladder, and urethra all suffered varying degrees of displacement or even rupture due to this kick.
Even though a cave hyena’s pain nerves are considered average among mammals, even a pain-immune pit bull would likely be unable to attack again after sustaining such severe injuries.
...
Confronted with three consecutive cave hyenas, Chen Zhou, using the wooden spear, instantly killed the weakest male cave hyena and then took down the remaining two cave hyenas without injury.
Paul’s situation, on the other hand, was precarious.
Though this giant of a man, standing at 2.25 meters tall, wasn’t exactly clumsy, his body structure made him appear awkwardly slow compared to the four-legged cave hyenas.
With the long spear in his hand, he was already nearing his limit against two cave hyenas.
And now, as many as ten cave hyenas encircled the bonfire, and if not for their animalistic fear of the flames and intimidation by Paul’s loud shouts, they likely would have already pulled him down and devoured him.
But Paul, unlike Chen Zhou, was merely an ordinary human trained militarily, and after the challenge began, he suffered severely from the traversal reaction, vomiting all the food in his stomach and then staying up for most of the night by the bonfire, leaving his stamina and spirit at a low ebb, and the aftereffects of the traversal prevented his strength from returning to its peak.
He swung the wooden stick in his hand, with the weakening firelight affixed to the military saber at its tip always aimed at the cave hyenas.
If not for the continuous adrenaline surge at the life-and-death moment, Paul would have long since been unable to maintain it.
...
Gazing at the red flames, the pack of cave hyenas hesitated and dared not charge forward.
They didn’t dare to attack proactively, and Paul could not mimic Chen Zhou by using the spear to take out one first—
It’s easy for him to stab one of the cave hyenas, but once he attacks, as soon as the spear moves, the other cave hyenas would rush in and bring him down, and by then, the situation would plummet drastically.