Chapter 875: The Dragon and The Tiger
Chapter 875: The Dragon and The Tiger
“What?” she gasped, “What’s your problem?” The beast girl took a step back.
“Matilda refused to participate in such stupid hunts?” He took a step toward her, and she backed away even more.
“She would be hiding in the bushes and waiting to attack, large beasts need to be taken down in teams. Sneak attacks are almost useless, you can’t deal enough damage.” She was almost about to cry, no matter how powerful she was, Arad still towered over her, and he was still carrying Lyla and Roberta.
“I heard she was too loud for an ambush hunter.” Arad stopped walking and stared at the beast girls, the ground around him started shaking, but it was only her knees losing power.
“We ambush smaller prey that could be taken with a single attack, like deer and elks.” She mumbled, “Matilda always charged forward against those. She charges against the weak, and hides from the strong.”
Arad nodded, “I see, so she wasn’t a failure, but the only one here with a brain over her head.” He glared at the feathered Death Jaw corpse, “One hit will kill any of you here. This isn’t a monster any of you should be fighting, let alone kids.”
Arad turned, “Let’s get back. I’ll test something.” Arad walked with them to the village as Gorarin and the rest dragged the corpse of the feathered death jaw. Zara was waiting at the gate, “Gorarin, I’ve heard you’ve gone to hunt a Death Jaw…” He looked behind them to see the feathered Death Jaw, “What a massive catch, to think you caught it in just a few hours.”
Gorarin shook his head, pointing back, it was only then that Zara noticed the two women being strangely taller than everyone, and soon he saw Arad carrying them. “Wait…you hunted it!” He cried.
“I came across them about to get wiped out by its feathers so I killed it.” Arad replied.
“He didn’t hunt or kill it, he kicked it to death, while carrying those two women no less. You didn’t tell me was that absurdly strong.” Gorarin cried.
Arad puts Roberta and Lyla down as they are within the safety of the village. “Welcome to the village of the tigers, it’s called Iron Snake Lake.” Arad pointed toward Zara’s house, “Everyone else should be there.”
“Father, Aron, what’s going on?” Matilda approached them, “Wait…that’s a massive feathered Death Jaw!” She looked at them, “How did…” She saw Arad, “Yeah…he did it.”
She approached him, “Wait… who are those two?” She looked at Lyla and Roberta.
“This is Mira’s mother, and this is a friend of ours,” He smiled, “Zara, please guide them to your house with the rest. I’ve got something to do here.” He looked back at the beast girl from earlier, “Come here…”
She slowly approached, “What do you want? I’m not apologizing.”
“Of course not, your words are yours say whatever you want.” Arad called Matilda to get closer, “You two fight. Let’s see how you stack up.”
“Is that what you wanted?” She smiled, “Of course, let…” CRACK! Matilda’s fist landed on her face, sending her rolling on the ground.
She stood up, bleeding from her nose, “You! What hell…” But at that moment, Matilda’s claws were already around her neck.
“Enough, Matilda wins.” Arad sighed, “You really can’t fight.”
“Wait, she attacked me out of nowhere… that doesn’t count.” The beast girl cried.
“Monster won’t care about your rules. The moment you accepted the fight, it had already started.” Arad smiled, “Matilda took advantage of your meaningless speech and attacked.” At that moment, he suddenly swung a fist at Matilda, smacking her in the face. But at the same time, she attacked back with a claw to the face and then jumped away several meters, keeping her tearful eyes at him.
“Sorry, just a test. No need to be scared.” Arad waved his hand, “And I’m fine…” He pointed at his eyes.
Matilda sighed, “Bastard… what was that for?” She rubbed her face, “And that was my claw to your eyes, how are you not blinded?!”
“Even though I punched her in the face, she managed to attack back. And that wasn’t just an attack, she was aiming to blind me so she could run away. That’s why she kept looking at me, to make sure it’s safe to turn her back to me and flee.” Arad smiled, “She already knows she can’t win against me, so her best bet is running away.”
Arad could remember how Matilda picked a fight with him on their first day at school, she wouldn’t have done that if she was a coward. That was her way of figuring out if she could win against Arad or not, seeing him being far larger than her probably is what triggered it.
“No, she attacked before the fight started.” The beast girl cried again.
“No, the fight had always started. She isn’t a coward but fights with both her brain and body. She smarter than anyone here,” He approached Matilda and gave her a healing potion, “You said she ran after rabbits and deer, to you that’s a stupid way to hunt, but I’d say it’s genius.” “There is no risk of danger when hunting them, so running down a deer to build stamina, or wresting a wild elk aren’t so bad. You might get hurt, but never killed.” Arad looked at the beast girl, “You failed to train against the opponents you can, and risked your lives against those who could kill you.”
Arad tapped Matilda’s shoulders, “You once told me you were failed as a hunter.” He smiled, “No, you didn’t fail. You succeeded, none of them here could win against you.” He patted her head and turned toward the rest.
“So now…” He cracked his knuckles, “You wanted to face a powerful prey and get stronger.” He looked at them, “I’m here, you won’t die. But I’ll break your bones, and you’ll spend the night crying yourself to sleep. Come…”
Unlike facing a Death Jaw, Arad was a vastly more dangerous opponent. Everyone there knew it, he was the man who kicked the Death Jaw to death, and they all knew they couldn’t win. But something was different, with him, there was no risk of death, only pain.
“For you tiger kids, strength is everything.” He smiled, “You hunt monsters for food and money, it’s your livelihood, everything that you need and care about. So come here, test your claws to see how far you’ll go.” He jumped forward, and grabbed the beast girl from earlier by the face, “Starting with you.” With a single swing, he threw at the rest, smacking two people down.
Everyone charged at him, and he started beating them to a pulp. Grabbed one by the arm and kicked him in the face, and caught the next girl by the leg and smacked her on the ground. When a guy tried gabbing by the neck, Arad bit his arm and started swinging him around like a doll in a dog’s jaw.
“Brother! He’s a fucking animal!” One of the girls screamed at her brother who kicked by Arad in the face. It wasn’t long before she got punched in the guts and sent to the ground crying. “Fuck it!” One of the guys cried, looking around, “Matilda already ran away, let’s get out of this mess.” He turned to run but quickly stopped as the ground shook. Arad had stood on all fours, his fists on the ground. With a deep growl, he lunged forward at a blinding speed and rammed the guy, almost breaking his back.
“Forget it, he isn’t an animal, he’s a wild beast, kill him.” Everyone started scrambling to form an attack while Arad wiped the ground with their heads. All of them thought that Matilda had run away, but only Arad knew the truth. Behind the fences and the dust kicked by everyone, she’s keeping close to the ground, crawling on all fours with her eyes fixed on him.
A prowling tiger is using the chaos to her advantage, looking for the best moment to lung at
the dragon’s neck.
^With how strong I am, those kids probably won’t make her a large enough opening to attack.^ Arad thought, ^Let’s drag someone stronger into this fight.^ He lunged at Gorarin
with a clenched fist.
“Wait?!” Gorarin lifted his arms and blocked Arad’s attack, but the impact sent him flying back, “Don’t get me mixed in your game!”
“Come on,” Arad looked at the adults, “Don’t you care to show the young ones how to hunt a wild monster? Or are you only good for endangering them?”
“What did you say?!” One of the tigers growled.
Arad appeared right before his face, “I said, you can’t hunt shit without risking the kid’s life and using them as bait.” He smacked him in the face so hard that he made him spin twice in the air. Tigers were surprisingly durable so that won’t be so bad, healing potions exist.
It only took a few minutes for the brawl to escalate further, half the village was now trying to kill Arad, everyone ganging on him as if he’s a monster that wandered into the village, and they were getting humiliated.
Soon enough, Arad started giving them advice and weapons, stopping at once, “You can do well at range, here, use this.” He gave him a steel spear.
“Mana twist strangely around you, go learn magic.” He lifted a girl up and smacked her on the
ground.
To Arad, this felt similar to how he handled the fighters’ class, just beat them until they learned how to fight and get real experience.
Between all of the chaos, and from the rising dust and cries of the beast people, Matilda
lunged out from the shadows with a bite at Arad’s neck, she managed to get in. Even she didn’t realize, she had used all of her strength, that bite was intended to kill, all of her put
into a single attack.
Arad stood in place and started laughing with her hanging onto his neck with her mouth. “Out of the entire tigers’ village, both adults and the young, the only one to reach me with an attack is the girl they ostracized.”
It was that Matilda let go of his neck due to sharp pain in her teeth, she had cracked a fang on
his hard neck. He caught her in his arms, “Good Job. If this was a real hunt. You’ll be the one coming with the kill. But sadly, I’m not a deer.”