Chapter 17: Returning the Cat
The mutant goat boss grazed on the northern slopes every afternoon.
Zhang Zhiyin had long checked out the area and was lying in ambush. The kitten nested in his T-shirt and was rubbing around, but it was very obedient and did not make any sound.
Zhang Zhiyin touched the soft hairs on its back neck to soothe it.
The goat boss appeared as usual. It ate very carefully but it was also very alert. There seemed to be a layer of blue frost on its two tall erected horns—that was the manifestation of its ability.
Taking advantage when it was off guard, Zhang Zhiyin secretly gathered up his power. His eyes narrowed and a half-meter-long icicle shot out of his hand and went straight to the goat"s abdomen.
The goat boss was alert to danger, and a cold gust poured out of his nose, naturally giving birth to a layer of ice shield in his abdomen. The shield and the icicle collided and both of them broke apart at the same time, but in the next second, the crushed ice suddenly re-condensed, forming a smaller but harder icicle that went straight into the goat"s unprotected soft abdomen.
This was Zhang Zhiyin"s latest awakened skills—ice control, he could manipulate ice.
When the goat boss was injured, he immediately became manic. He gave a long angry cry. The temperature around him suddenly dropped, and there seemed to be a layer of white frost on the dark green gra.s.s. Zhang Zhiyin also felt his movements getting slower and the speed of his ice ball coagulation had slowed down.
He frowned and took out a medicine that could eliminate negative effects and drank it. A burst of warmth covered him before he felt much better.
This little movement alarmed the goat boss.
Its ears moved, and those flashing eyes, shining with a magical blue light instantly looked at Zhang Zhiyin.
Suddenly, its two cold iron hooves were high above Zhang Zhiyin"s head. He was about to be stepped by it in a blink of an eye.
Zhang Zhiyin rushed to send out an ice ball in time to win himself a moment of time to escape.
But that was not enough. He underestimated the speed of the goat boss.
Both of them were ice elementals and they were also long-range attackers. The goat boss speed was much faster than Zhang Zhiyin. As a boss, Zhang Zhiyin"s attack damage was not comparable to it. The most frightening thing was that he was now in reality, the fight against the boss was not in the viewpoint of an omnipotent perspective where he was able to oversee the overall situation and manipulate the character, but a face to face fight with his life and death on the table. And all these monsters were not data composition but they were all real, with unpredictable intuition and reaction that Zhang Zhiyin could not match.
Zhang Zhiyin was only able to circ.u.mnavigate the goat boss because he had been taking the medicine that could heal his HP. His strength had fallen so fast that he didn"t want to kill the goat boss anymore. He hoped he could run back to the safety zone smoothly.
He turned around to shoot three icicles. One hit and two missed. But at this moment, the speed of the goat boss doubled and it sprinted. Two sharp horns flashing blue, and a cold light went straight to Zhang Zhiyin"s chest!
Zhang Zhiyin put his hands on his chest and a thin transparent ice barrier appeared in an instant – that was the gloves that had its own set of skill, the Ice Wall.
But it was only for a second.
On the Ice Wall, spider-like cracks appeared before they shattered. Then the strong and sharp goat horns coated with a cold glare went straight into Zhang Zhiyin"s left shoulder.
Blood splashed out, and then the wound was quickly covered with ice. The skin was blue and purple like frostbite—the goat boss caused double damage.
Zhang Zhiyin also fell and sat on the ground.
There was an irrepressible tinge of pain in his eyes.
A breathtaking sense of oppression suddenly filled the whole s.p.a.ce.
The dizzy Zhang Zhiyin turned his head doubtfully and looked around, but found nothing unusual. The goat boss in front of him also felt something. It quietly retreated and uneasily shuffled its hooves, forming a thick armor around it.
The kitten that had been nestling in the T-shirt seemed to be unable to bear any more and suddenly leaped out. The ice-blue eyes were full of devouring coldness. With its bright red mouth opened, it spat out a small ice ball, which expanded rapidly and soon became the size of an ordinary football. It struck the goat boss with the momentum of a thunderstorm.
The goat boss had no time to hide and was. .h.i.t head-on by the ice ball.
The ice ball had disappeared, but the damage did not stop there.
From where it was attacked, its whole body quickly began to freeze. Within 30 seconds, there appeared a goat-shaped ice sculpture in front of Zhang Zhiyin. Then, from the inside, the ice sculpture broke into pieces of ice and fell to the ground one after another. It gradually melted.
A dark blue transparent stone rolled down to Zhang Zhiyin"s feet. It"s the nucleus of the goat boss.
Zhang Zhiyin bent over and picked up the crystal nucleus in one hand and the kitten with the other hand. He lifted the little fellow in front of his eyes and looked at it in the eye.
The kitten stared at him with a seemingly discontented look.
Zhang Zhiyin put him back in his T-shirt, and the kitten took the initiative to put itself on the collar. It continued to rub his neck with his small head as if the person who made great contributions was not itself.
Back in the cave, it was dark. The fierce battle consumed too much of Zhang Zhiyin"s energy. After eating a simple meal, he saw the cat staring at the cod soup and milk in front of him without any initiative of eating it.
Don"t want to eat? Lose one"s appet.i.te? Being picky?
Zhang Zhiyin"s eyebrows rose and he went over, squat down and said, “You need to eat. Only this way can you grow up faster.”
The kitten looked at him, and it still did not move at all.
Zhang Zhiyin had no other choice. He poured some milk from the milk bowl into his hand and offered it in a seductive way. “Have some? En?”
The kitten looked up at his face and then looked askew at the milk in his hand. It seemed to be thinking about something. After a moment, it no longer resisted and walked to Zhang Zhiyin"s hand with four short legs. With graceful steps, it then stretched out its tongue and licked.
In the evening, Zhang Zhiyin lay lazily on the ground counting his supplies. The kitten rolled up and down on him, desperately trying to grab his attention and attacked his face from time to time. Following along the movement of time, more and more attachment foolishly began to coil around.
Zhang Zhiyin had no time to deal with it and he occasionally stroked its fur.
The kitten looked at him with a grieving sob and rubbed its neck against his chin.
“All right.” Zhang Zhiyin took the little animal and it caressed on its back. “You are the best. I like you the most. Don"t make any fuss anymore.”
The kitten laid down obediently.
Looking at the item store, Zhang Zhiyin found that his balance was only over 300 yuan. He was spending money like running water; he wasn"t getting anything in and was spending too fast. He could not go on like this in the long term. He had to find ways to make use of the existing conditions to open sources.
But getting the sources still needed to be planned.
Thinking about it, Zhang Zhiyin, who was unable to form any ideas, gradually fell into a slumber.
The kitten also calmed down. It gently jumped off him and walked next to his face and laid on his stomach. Two cat eyes were staring at the man with great concentration.
It was getting dark.
A gust of wind blew, and suddenly a man appeared in the cave, holding a sleeping white kitten in his hand.
He was stunned when he saw the cat next to Zhang Zhiyin"s face was exactly the same as the one he was holding.
The cat had just licked Zhang Zhiyin"s lips contentedly, and there was a trace of satisfaction in its ice-blue eyes. When it felt the invasion of another breath, it quickly became alert and looked at the visitor with a pair of hostile cat"s eyes. However, it relaxed when it saw the sudden appearance of a man and reverted back to its usual lazy and arrogant appearance.
Lei Dun, who was stared at by the cat, turned around and whispered, “I didn"t see anything.”
The cat ignored him and jumped smartly from Zhang Zhiyin. It stepped and left the cave like a king. Under the vast moonlight and endless night, his body gradually changed. It elongated, and finally, returned to the handsome and untouchable man. The white, dusty corner of his clothes fluttered along with the night breeze, and his face was calm without any ripples as if it was not him who had become a pet cat.
Cold-hearted and calm.
He looked back at the young man who was still sleeping. He raised his hand slightly, regardless of his subordinates, and then disappeared from this s.p.a.ce, without any trace, as if he had never appeared.
After he left, Lei Dun resumed his movements and gently placed the real kitten snoring in his hand on Zhang Zhiyin"s neck.
The next day, the sky was bright.
Zhang Zhiyin put Yin Xiaoxiang in his T-shirt like yesterday. As a result, Yin Xiaoxiang was very uncooperative. It struggled with its four legs and threw itself to the ground. It struggled to get up again and climbed back to Zhang Zhiyin"s trousers pocket.
Zhang Zhiyin helplessly touched its silly face: “Every day there are new patterns.”
Yin Xiaoxiang, “Auwo?”