"I think we are already far enough and have left the Wolf-Teeth Rabbits behind. After all, I can't see them anymore," Cho Byeol said after looking behind her. Her expression relaxed a little. They could finally relax a little. That's because they had been running for many hours and had constantly been chased by the beasts.
Their speed slowed, and it seemed like they were about to stop to get some rest.
Yang Zhai also looked behind and saw that they had already left the rabbits behind.
The three of them finally stopped and were standing now. Cho Byeol was at the front, whereas Yang Zhai and Bae Ah were behind her, only by three feet. They all turned their bodies slightly to the side to look behind them.
Yang Zhai again heaved a sigh. Although he had been laughing all this time and all; he also wanted to avoid the beasts. He turned to look at Cho Byeol and Bae Ah, but when he did, his eyes widened.
He saw that Cho Byeol was looking at him and Bae Ah. So, she couldn't see anything behind herself.
"Lookout,…"
Cho Byeol saw Yang Zhai jump toward her, after shouting out loud, pushing her and himself away with her. But he was hit and was sent flying by something. He only stopped after crashing through three to five trees, traveling a distance of at least fifty meters. While Cho Byeol fell heavily to the ground on her back. Her back hurt a little after falling to the ground since she was pushed by Yang Zhai so intensely. But she was fine, she hurriedly stood up and looked to confirm what had happened just now. It was not that she was weak or something, but because she was pushed without any warning and so intensely at that.
Yang Zhai pushed Cho Byeol so intensely because he intended to push her as far as possible, without hurting her. So, this couldn't be helped.
What Cho Byeol saw was that Yang Zhai was spurting blood. And the one responsible for this situation was a boar that was looking at Yang Zhai.
It was obvious what the boar wanted, it was, no doubt, the Essence Honey. It seemed that they truly had encountered their bad luck this time.
"Miss, are you alright?!" Bae Ah hurriedly ran to Cho Byeol's side and asked worriedly.
Bae Ah then looked at the boar—that was starting at Yang Zhai—and was shocked to see it. How was it that they couldn't sense the boar approaching them? Not just that, it looked like an ordinary boar at that. But she knew that that was impossible. Because it was able to send Yang Zhai away, who was a Rank 4 mid-stage cultivator. If she didn't see it with her own eyes, she wouldn't be able to tell if the boar was even standing there or not.
"Why couldn't we sense it?" Bae Ah muttered to herself.
"Forget about that. We need to heal Yang Zhai. He is heavily injured. Even a Rank 5 would be injured by a sneak attack, let alone Yang Zhai, who is a Rank 4 Mid-Stage. We need to do something." Cho Byeol pulled Bae Ah out of her thoughts and said, worried about Yang Zhai.
Bae Ah was jolted awake by Cho Byeol's voice from her thoughts. She finally realized that the one who was injured was Yang Zhai.
Just when they were about to go to Yang Zhai, they heard him say,
"Stop right there. Don't come here."
"What are you saying?! You're injured and you want us to stay where we are." Cho Byeol said with worries.
"Just listen to me and stay where you are."
"Are you crazy?" Bae Ah said, perplexed.
While they were talking, the boar's toes started to move, and it expelled the air from its snout. It was ready to attack once again. It was one meter in height and was black with brown lines on its back. It was of strong build and two feet fat. Its irises and pupils were red, and its sclera was black. Its eyes were quite terrifying to look at.
"You can see the way it attacked me, right? We couldn't even detect its presence, let alone defend against its attack."Yang Zhai said whilst he stood up and readied himself for the upcoming attack, despite the fact that he was heavily injured.
The boar started to move and ran towards Yang Zhai with all its might. Its speed was not slow, as a matter of fact, it was quite fast. But not to the point of being imperceptible to Yang Zhai. And there was also a distance of fifty meters, even though Yang Zhai was heavily injured, he could still dodge it easily.
"Yang Zhai, let us help you. You are heavily injured and won't be able to hold on for long." Bae Ah urged.
"Yeah, let us help you," Cho Byeol followed after Bae Ah and urged as well.
"When did I say that I don't need your help? In fact, that is exactly why I am asking you guys to stay at the back because I need your help"
The boar kept on attacking him whilst he kept on dodging. But it was getting difficult to dodge.
After dodging, Yang Zhai continued to talk" according to what I think, it is a Rank 4 beast at Early-Stage. And I'm at mid-stage, but I am already gravely injured because of the sneak attack. So, I could win against it, that is if I was not seriously injured"
Yang Zhai was unable to dodge this time because of the distraction and was hit by the boar on his left arm. His arm started bleeding and the white sleeve of his robe was dyed with blood.
"Yang Zhai,…" When Cho Byeol saw this, she bawled loudly.
"Don't worry, I'm fine. Now, what I was saying is that I can't beat, not in the condition I'm in. But, if you were to come here, it might attack you as well. And with your cultivation, you will be heavily injured as well, which would be truly disadvantageous to us. So, what we need to do is: I will distract it, whereas one of you has to wait for a chance to attack it from behind, and the other one needs to hide." Yang Zhai began to evade again and continued to unveil his plan.
"When your sneak attack succeeds, it will be anxious and will try to get rid of the one that attacked it. When it does that, the other one of you will take the chance to land a critical blow. But if it does manage to avoid the first attack, then the second person needs to look for a chance to strike, I don't think it can avoid both the sneak attacks. It will put us in an upper hand situation. We need to be all over the place and confuse it." Yang Zhai smiled a little, two lines of blood were coming out of the corners of his mouth. He was completely optimistic about his plan. He knew that it had an 80 percent chance of succeeding.
"Are you sure about this? You're losing too much of your blood. We need to end this quickly, or it will be serious" Cho Byeol reminded anxiously.
"It's exactly because he is losing too much blood that we have to act according to his plan. It's the only way now" Bae Ah spoke thoughtfully with a serious expression.
The boar was starting to get enraged by Yang Zhai's dodging, and it started to attack even more fiercely. Yang Zhai was injured all over his body. His body was accumulating even more injuries. Yang Zhai hadn't told them the whole plan he had in his mind.
He already understood the way this boar acted. It seemed that the more red color it had in its eyes, the angrier it was. And if kept on dodging, it might get even angrier.
"You two should split up and wait for my call, after that, you can attack if you see any chance. But before that, don't attack it."
Yang Zhai told them to wait. He was waiting for the boar to have all of its focus on him. When it does that, it would be a perfect opportunity.
The Black-boar's eyes started to become more and more redder. So did its attack's power and speed. Yang Zhai also began to use his trump cards to dodge.
When Yang Zhai saw that the boar's sclera had also become red, he knew that all of the boar's focus was now on him. He realized that the best opportunity had arrived, so he shouted.
"Now, attack it"
Right when he shouted, Bae Ah shot toward the boar from a distance, but Yang Zhai saw that the boar had also noticed it. This is bad. I didn't know it had such a keen sense: Yang Zhai thought to himself: There's no other choice, I guess. I truly underestimated it.
Yang Zhai gave a helpless smile before he jumped forward without any hesitation, and because the dash¹ of the boar had too much momentum behind it as well, it could not stop itself, thus, they collided with one another. Dust flew everywhere because of the collision whilst Bae Ah didn't stop her attack because of the sudden change.
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1: Dash: strike or fling (something) somewhere with great force, crash or come into forceful contact with something.