Chapter 717 - 32: Bi Kai (2)
But the "rustic villager" was fast indeed, and the darts in his hands were just as quick and accurate. Though he was tall and didn’t seem to have any martial training, he carried an imposing aura that made the two men dare not underestimate him.
Bi Kai was from a prestigious family, and although his family had fallen on hard times, he had been educated in poetry and etiquette from a young age. Even when his mount was shot, he remained respectful.
His companion, Gao Yao, hailed from the north and was said to have noble Yuan dynasty blood. He was not well-educated and was quite defiant, showing little respect for Chen Zhou, whom he thought did not know martial arts.
...
Three people from different worlds met suddenly, with no time to talk or even exchange names before they were thrown into battle with the giant beasts chasing them.
The pressure the mammoth brought upon Bi Kai was immense. He was solely focused on dodging the beast’s attacks, leaving him no room to worry about Chen Zhou’s situation—
Even just to survive required all his strength.
Now pushed to the brink, he considered himself dead, never daring to hope for survival.
After all, until now, Chen Zhou had shown only remarkable speed and strength. To a swordsman like him, who valued skill and technique as fundamentals, Chen Zhou’s simple fighting style seemed somewhat foolish.
Chen Zhou had helped them, so naturally, Bi Kai held a great respect for this strong man.
But respect didn’t mean Bi Kai thought highly of Chen Zhou. In his estimation, Chen Zhou might at best manage to fend off the giant beast, which was already commendable. Killing the beast was a mere fantasy.
He could never have imagined that Chen Zhou’s every move, while devoid of advanced techniques, was more than made up for by his absolute physical prowess.
When Bi Kai closed his eyes waiting to die, Chen Zhou was already wielding a spear with vigor. Not only had he crippled the male mammoth’s leg, but he also had time to care about Bi Kai’s predicament. Seeing that Bi Kai had lost his weapon, ran out of energy, and was about to be trampled by the mammoth, Chen Zhou rushed over in a few leaps to assist him.
...
Cursing inwardly that these two "wandering children" were useless, Chen Zhou still had to try to save the man in white against his will.
It wasn’t because he was naturally kind-hearted or couldn’t bear to see people die.
Rather, it was because he feared that only the man in white could tame beasts, and if he died, Chen Zhou wouldn’t know where to claim his reward.
Given that these two looked like they dressed in ancient styles and likely carried no modern survival tools, even if he wanted to finish them off when they were down, he figured he probably wouldn’t gain any real benefit.
In his attempt, the greatest advantage he foresaw was acquiring two well-trained mounts or pack animals. Other items weren’t of much use to him, nor did he desire them.
...
As Chen Zhou wielded his spear, he was aware that he didn’t know spear techniques. He only knew how to thrust and sweep, but his strength was great, and his speed was fast. Even with a mere branch in hand, he could wield it with impressive energy and power.
Lacking technique, when Chen Zhou rushed to the rescue, he was still in a state where man and spear seemed to move as one.
Thanks to his earlier notice of the man in white being in jeopardy, his intervention was timely enough to swing the white-clad man’s clothes up with his spear tip before the female mammoth could stomp on him, flinging him to safety with just one movement.
Bi Kai felt his body become light, and when he opened his eyes again, the world was spinning around him. Before he could react, he hit the ground clumsily.
"Cough!"
Spitting out another mouthful of blood, Bi Kai struggled to get up and could only see the silhouette of Chen Zhou holding a spear.
At this side, he was marveling at the strength of this nameless master, who indeed had the demeanor of a high-level fighter, unaware that Chen Zhou was secretly cursing—
The shuriken affixed to the spear shaft weren’t secured tightly. With several thrusts into the thick hide of the male mammoth, the spearhead had already loosened, but it could still hold up for a short while longer.
Unexpectedly, when he used the spear to lift this useless man’s clothes, the tied fur unraveled significantly, leaving the shuriken-made spearhead barely holding on and unlikely to last the fight.
Once the spearhead fell off, the lethality of his spear would be reduced by more than half. Though he could kill beavers with a blunt spear and even pierce cave hyenas with a spear without a tip, those were different scenarios.
When hunting beavers, he targeted their soft, vulnerable underbelly.
Cave hyenas weren’t known for defense, unable to withstand a full-force throw aided by his running start.
But mammoths were different from cave hyenas. Their body hair and dense fur absorbed a lot of force, and the thick skin and fat beneath created additional resistance.
Without a spearhead, it would be as hard as climbing the sky to break through defenses and inflict deep wounds on these giant beasts as easily as before.
...
"What a useless fellow!"
Chen Zhou pressed forward with his spear, and as he expected, the spearhead soon fell to the ground and was quickly stomped into the soil by the female mammoth.
Holding the "modified" long staff, he tried a few thrusts and found the lethality had indeed plummeted.
While he could previously penetrate mammoth hide several centimeters, now, piercing even the surface required all his strength. Unless he risked everything by jumping up and stabbing the "staff" into the mammoth’s eyes or ears, striking its brain, he couldn’t hope to kill it.
Otherwise, wielding a spear with no head was like having a toothless hunting dog; even the fiercest could do limited damage.
"Maybe I should use the hand axe?"
Thinking of the axe hanging from his waist, Chen Zhou pondered while dodging the mammoth’s attacks.
The hand axe had a short attack range and far less penetration than the spear. Against a mammoth, it could only slice bit by bit—
A mammoth’s legs are much thicker than ordinary large trees, so it’s unrealistic to chop through the hide and flesh with a hand axe, though slicing could work, creating large wounds to increase blood loss.
...
Discarding his spear and gripping his hand axe, Chen Zhou was about to move into action when his gaze shifted, noticing the brown-armored man being chased desperately by the mammoth.
Although that man had a longbow and arrows, he had no time to notch them. Apart from the few arrows he initially shot, at least eighteen or nineteen long arrows were still in the quiver.
A deft sidestep to dodge the mammoth’s trunk, Chen Zhou not only noted that the brown-armored man’s running speed was slowing down and that he was tiring, but also that the mammoth’s attacks were becoming slower—
The prolonged pursuit was testing for such massive creatures; the sharply rising body temperature and heart rate made these giant beasts extremely uncomfortable.
Normally, before expending their stamina, mammoths could defeat just about any animal daring enough to engage them in close combat, even uprooting trees.
However, humans naturally excel in endurance, and he was an "abnormality" among humans, with a terrifying surplus of stamina.
Despite the prolonged battle, he hadn’t used up even a fifth of his stamina, while the mammoths were showing signs of exhaustion.
In reality, when facing a single mammoth, the pressure on Chen Zhou was much less than when fighting a giant bear.
A giant bear is relatively agile, with sharp claws and teeth, capable of using its weight to press and has various attack techniques.
While mammoth attacks are limited and slower compared to a giant bear, if he had to face three mammoths simultaneously, he wouldn’t have room for reckless attacks and could only flee.
But battling just one mammoth, with his overwhelming speed advantage, he had plenty of room to maneuver.
Now, with his enemy weakening and himself gaining momentum, except for a lack of a suitable weapon, the situation was very favorable.
And finding a suitable weapon wasn’t difficult either—
His gaze locked onto the brown-armored man’s bow and arrow, and he thought it was right there for the taking.
Keeping the strong bow and crossbow in the hands of that man was wasteful. In Chen Zhou’s hands, they would be ten or even twelve times more effective.
...
With this decision made, Chen Zhou made no attempt to attack with the hand axe, instead quietly tucking it back at his waist and leading the female mammoth toward the brown-armored man—
His aim was certainly not as simple as "borrowing a bow to shoot the beast."
In close combat, his physical capabilities were almost flawless. Against other challengers, even a random stone could be a deadly weapon. Only his long-range attack was lacking.
If he could acquire the brown-armored man’s longbow and arrows, adding his act of saving them today as a favor, he had a valid reason not to return them. Then, armed with a hand axe for close quarters, a spear for mid-range, and a bow and arrow for long distances, he’d have no weaknesses.
With a nimble mind and steady situation, Chen Zhou easily adjusted his pace, especially as there were no other mammoths or enemies to intervene—
As for the largest male mammoth, its rear leg had been pierced into a bloody mess, and now just standing steadily on the ground required all its effort. Even if it was anxious, it could only stay put obediently.