Chapter 713 - 30: The Furious Mammoth (Part 2)
Though the grassland at night couldn’t be said to be bright as day, the visibility within two to three hundred meters was practically unaffected, which seemed to offer some convenience for all challengers traveling through the night.
Paul had been on the road all day; his height of two meters three, rather than being an advantage at such a time, was instead a burden.
The impact on the joints was immense for someone heavy and tall on a journey, and the uneven terrain all the way added pressure to the ankles.
When resting, Paul showed obvious signs of fatigue.
When he took off his shoes and poured out the sweat from inside his boots, Chen Zhou noticed that Paul’s socks had worn holes in them, with some redness on the soles of his feet, seeming to indicate that they were rubbed to the point of bleeding.
Even so, Paul uttered not a word of complaint, instead actively asking Chen Zhou whether they could continue their journey by night after a short rest.
Without mounts, they were at a clear disadvantage in long-distance travel compared to another group of challengers. To be the first to reach the airdrop location, they had to exert more effort.
...
Looking at the chaos on the grassland, despite being tempted by the suggestion of traveling through the night, Chen Zhou ultimately rejected Paul’s proposal.
This wasn’t a short sprint but a long, drawn-out cross-country race; gaining a slight lead by exhausting their bodies early on was futile. They had to maintain their condition to approach the airdrop at a steady pace.
The saying goes, haste makes waste; Paul’s feet were injured now, and if he continued to push forward, the injuries would only worsen. Prolonged travel could not only affect speed but also risk infection, endangering life, so resting appropriately was a wise choice.
Moreover, the situation on the grassland was unstable at night, especially tonight, with beasts being extraordinarily active. Chen Zhou could vaguely sense a storm brewing.
...
The pot contained the remains of the morning’s antelope leg stew. Thanks to the cool autumn climate on the grassland, despite traveling for a day, the meat hadn’t spoiled, though it did carry a slightly rancid odor.
However, for the two hungry men whose eyes glowed green from hunger, such a slight odor meant nothing.
As for the three young Saw-toothed Tigers, their food source was yet uncertain; they’d have to see if any unwary beasts wandered near the mound at night for Chen Zhou to catch.
After eating the stew, Chen Zhou reminded Paul to disinfect his wounds with alcohol to prevent infection.
Not wanting to hear this, Paul smiled sheepishly.
He slowly took out an alcohol bottle from his chest, raised it slightly to show Chen Zhou the remaining alcohol inside—only a thin layer was left, indicating that over the past two days, he’d succumbed to his drinking addiction, secretly drinking.
Chen Zhou shook his head helplessly, unsure of how to admonish his partner.
Alcohol was a lifesaving substance, yet he treated it as a drink, guzzling it down to satiate his craving.
The crux of the matter was that the bottle of alcohol was a survival tool issued to Paul by the Space-Time Administration Bureau; he wasn’t in a position to dictate how others use their belongings.
Now considering this, issuing a small bottle of potent "spirits" to a Slavic drunkard might have just been part of the Space-Time Administration Bureau’s twisted sense of humor.
Whether on a deserted island or in this brutal survival war, this peculiar sense of humor is pervasive; sometimes it’s a test of humanity, other times it’s just for laughs.
Even as Chen Zhou considered himself quite knowledgeable about the Space-Time Administration Bureau, he couldn’t fathom why they did this.
"Could it be that the pleasures of higher-dimensional beings are so crude?"
...
A feeling that something unexpected might occur tonight led Chen Zhou to have Paul sleep first while he took night watch.
Having been up and moving since getting up in the morning, Paul had trodden hard all day. After dinner, his upper eyelids were hitting his lower lids in drowsiness; upon learning about not proceeding with the journey tonight, he laid back on the deer hide blanket and fell into deep sleep within ten seconds.
The three young Saw-toothed Tigers were still hungry; earlier during the antelope leg stew, Chen Zhou had removed its leg bone, snapped it into two pieces, and exposed the marrow for the little ones to taste.
Unfortunately, each snapped leg bone amounted to only two pieces. The biggest one, Tiger First, enjoyed his piece in solitude, while Tiger Second and Tiger Third fought tooth and claw over the remaining piece, Tiger Third even clawing Tiger Second’s fur off.
Seeing his "third brother" showing no mercy, Tiger Second grabbed no softness either, biting Tiger Third’s paw and not letting go, causing Tiger Third to cry out in pain, which alarmed Chen Zhou enough to separate the two little ones.
Just then, having licked clean its piece of the bone marrow, Tiger First approached the leftover half of the leg bone.
Tiger Second and Tiger Third, as usual, didn’t compete for the big brother’s food and had to content themselves licking his saliva, savoring the last bit of the marrow’s aroma; their pitiful looks as sorry as can be.
Tiger First was far more comfortable than his two brothers; the cooked marrow from the leg bone was rich in fatty oils.
Having consumed an entire leg bone marrow, its hunger was somewhat alleviated. After sniffing the pot and discovering no food inside, the creature unceremoniously settled beside Paul, unperturbed by the sound of snoring, and closed its eyes, starting to nap.
"Young yet full of cunning."
Seeing Tiger First so content, Chen Zhou grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and lifted him.
Facing Chen Zhou, Tiger First behaved meekly, understanding that resistance was useless; he didn’t even open his gently closed eyes, ready for any rubbings it might receive.
Having just brought this cheeky little thing into his arms, with the intention to give it a proper belly rub, Chen Zhou suddenly heard a long trumpet from a mammoth.
The sound was particularly loud, emanating from beyond visible sight while resonating across much of the grassland.
After the first elephant call, high-pitched cries of the elephant herd followed in succession, accompanied by two familiar figures illuminated on the grassland by the beacon’s cold light—
It was that group of suspected ancient Rangers as challengers!
Differently from their initial encounter, this time their buck beneath appeared markedly alarmed, even to the point where the two had trouble controlling them.
With the appearance of the duo came three angry mammoths under the night sky’s veil, two female and one male, following closely behind.
Together, these colossal beasts amounted to tens of tonnes; trampling the grass, the earth tremor could be distinctly felt by Chen Zhou from nearly two kilometers away.
"Damn it, crazy to provoke mammoths?"
Feeling moved by the audacity of this ancient group, Chen Zhou suddenly realized they seemed to be advancing towards him.
He couldn’t help but turn to glance at the adjacent campfire, inwardly cursing these two people have dirty hearts—
Firelight and the beacon’s cold light weren’t the same color tone; in the grassland under the night sky, the bright yellow glow of a campfire was visible from afar.
The challenger duo headed straight for the mound, evidently aiming to divert danger towards him.
He and Paul had no mounts and couldn’t rush like them riding deer. If surrounded by three mammoths, no matter his skills, he’d surely be crushed into minced meat by the enraged colossal beasts.
The problem lay in even if he and Paul started evading immediately, avoiding this team of challengers seemed unlikely.
If he alone would easily outpace these two, but Paul’s lack of speed and endurance, coupled with his injured feet, made even escaping a difficult feat.
...
After much contemplation, he released Tiger First, with eyes growing sharper.
"Since you’re ruthless, don’t blame me for being unjust.
He turned and grabbed a long spear, then took out a Hand Axe, Military Saber, and another shuriken to hang them on his belt.
No escape? Then he’d take the initiative to attack.
Chen Zhou intended to leverage his speed advantage to charge the two challengers, then throw the spear and use the shuriken and Military Saber all as throwing weapons to kill their mounts.
Once the Great Horned Deer died, if the two didn’t possess his kind of skills, they’d surely fall prey to the mammoths.
When the battle commenced away from the mound on the grassland, he would fight two alone, benefitting from his enhanced combat capabilities without Paul.
Besides, there were mammoths siding him "for support"; these giant beings are not dull, knowing the humans that infuriated them. During the skirmish, they’d surely target the other two for attack.
In terms of the effect during combat, mammoths were far stronger than Paul; not to mention their sturdy tusks, even a slight brush from the four-to-five-ton massive body spelled grave harm.
...
In no time was there a foolproof plan to be found, wary of these two directing the mammoths too close to the campfire, Chen Zhou immediately moved, advancing rather than retreating, heading towards the two Great Horned Deer.