Book 1 Chapter 18: CombatGuidance!
"Can he handle that?"
"Mutant beasts are far stronger than thosezombies…."
The two youths who were with Yue Heng eyed YeChen suspiciously as he approached the mutant rat. With doubts hanging overtheir heads, they muttered their concerns towards Bai Long while occasionallystealing a few glances at Ye Zhu. As young men, they naturally had an interestin beautiful women.
Bai Long replied with a knowing smile. He hadalready seen the lion-sized corpse of the mutant dog slain by Ye Chen. What arethe odds of him being bested by this pig-sized rat?
Ye Chen left the cover of the wall and walkedover.
Mutant rats were beasts that possessed thestrength of eight men. A few feet around the mutant rat laid corpses of fivezombies with their heads equally smashed in. With their black blood spilledeverywhere, the air reeked a rotten stench. The blood on their mangled bodiesand limbs had long since dried, yet they festered with squirming maggots.
It took only a few steps before the mutant rat detectedYe Chen"s approach through its sense of smell. Turning its head around, themutant rat bared its fangs at what it perceives to be its next meal beforelunging forth.
With a chilling glare, Ye Chen kept his axeaside before planting a straight kick into the charging beast"s snout. Heimmediately followed up by whipping his hand out and clobbering the mutantrat"s forehead with his fist.
*Crack!
With a bang, Ye Chen fractured the beast"sskull, causing blood to ooze out from its head. Under the immense force of theblow, the bloodied rat was sent tumbling away. With its face soiled in blood,the mutant rat now looked even more savage.
With Ye Chen"s current strength, a single punchof his was nothing to be scoffed at. If it weren"t for him holding back fortypercent of his strength, his punch would have undoubtedly caved in the mutantrat"s skull.
"Bai Long!" Ye Chen suddenly shouted.
Hiding behind the wall, Bai Long who wasprepared to witness an exciting show was jolted at the sudden call of his name.With a hint of confusion, he got up and walked over asking: "What"s up?"
Ye Chen who completely disregarded the injuredmutant rat at the corner, turned around and said: "It"s all yours."
Bai Long was horrified. Before he could sayanything in protest, the mutant rat had already struggled into a standingposition and was already bolting towards him in a frenzied charge. With eyessoaked red with blood and grizzly teeth wildly thrashing, the rampaging beastwas quite an alarming sight.
"s.h.i.t, s.h.i.t!" Bai Long scrambled to readyhimself. He hadn"t the leisure to bicker with Ye Chen. As he lifted his ownfireman"s axe, he prepared to engage the mutant rat.
Ye Chen backed off towards the wall and watchedin silence.
"Brother, this kind of training, isn"t it toodangerous?" Ye Zhu asked her brother with worry, a single glance was all ittook for her to grasp his intent.
Ye Chen shook his head, saying: "Relax, I"vealready injured its head, wreaking havoc upon its senses. It should only beable to attack blindly from now on. Bai Long already has the strength of fivemen; he should be able to kill it just fine if he"s careful."
Ye Zhu replied with an understanding "Oh.", andsaid no more. She believed her brother to a reasonable person.
At the moment, Bai Long and the mutant rat werelocked in combat. It looks as though Bai Long"s strategy primarily consisted ofevasive maneuvers, incorporating dodge rolls, wall jumping and a few other pitifultactics that prioritized his safety. Occasionally, he would retaliate with acounterattack, but the results were insignificant.
It didn"t take long for Bai Long to exhaustmost of his strength, causing his movements to dull. In the instant he wassupposed to turn, he was a beat too slow. This delay gave chance for the mutantrat to land a swipe with its claws, splitting his flesh and causing blood togush out profusely.
"Dammit!" Bai Long"s eyes were clouded with ahint of rage, causing him to violently lash out with his axe. His reckless actof retaliation landed his axe deep into the mutant rat"s back.
The mutant rat squealed in agony, the surge ofpain cause its mad ferocity to intensify. It brandished its claw into a furiousslap, aimed towards Bai Long"s head. This slap was certain to rip off half hishead!
*Shrrrk!
A haze of blood showered upon Bai Long"s face, coatinghis face with viscous warmth.
The incoming claw that was reflected in BaiLong"s pupils was unexpectedly sent flying, sundered by the sudden descent ofan axe. By his ear, he heard a voice lecturing: "Have you realized the mistakesyou"ve made? First of all, you wasted all your energy doing those ridiculousdodges. Second, your strikes were indecisive, greatly reducing the impact ofeach hit. Lastly, you didn"t aim for its vulnerabilities!"
Bai Long was flabbergasted, it was a situationwhere he didn"t know whether to laugh or cry. Although he had already deducedthat Ye Chen set him up to fight the mutant rat in order to train him, hedidn"t expect this cold-blooded deviant to stand there and point out hismistakes without even finishing off the mutant rat….
"Watch!" Ye Chen suddenly urged.
Without a moment to respond, Bai Long divertedhis gaze upon Ye Chen"s axe. Immediately, it was sent into motion and wascleaving towards the mutant rat.
The mutant rat let out a piercing shriek beforeswiping its claw towards the cleaving axe. As things were, the claw wouldundoubtedly slash upon Ye Chen"s arm before the axe could reach its mark.
Bai Long endured his instinct to scream.
In that instant, he witnessed something hewould never forget as long as he lived. With a subtle flick of the axe, theclaw was deflected outwards and immediately after, the weapon was plunged deadcenter into the mutant rat"s cranium!
*Ker-splat!
The head exploded into a shower or blood.
Bai Long gawked at the scene in a befuddleddaze. It took a few moments before he managed to utter: "How is that possible?"
Ye Chen withdrew his axe before calmlyreplying: "There"s nothing here that"s impossible. I merely used a portion of mystrength that was roughly equal to yours. There are at least dozens oftechniques which you could use to handle the situation just now. You don"tnecessarily have to imitate what I did, a swift kick would also enable you tocounter that claw swipe. You could try techniques like catching your weaponwith your other arm……and so on."
Bai Long was dumbfounded; these techniques weresimplistic in theory. However, when a person is cast into a dire situation, howcould he be bothered to think about such things?
It was similar to how a person would reacts tothe sudden a.s.sault of a knife wielding a.s.sailant; he would probably shut hiseyes and hold out both hands to protect his head. It was either that or justoutright fleeing from such an a.s.sailant. Would anyone think of interrupting theattacker with a swift kick in the gut followed by a sweeping kick to take himoff his feet?
Surely, this called for an incomparably focusedand calm mind in order to make such split second decisions in a life or deathsituation.
"Alright, we"re leaving as soon as we"re donewith the corpses. This place reeks too heavily of blood, it"ll attract a hordeof zombies over before long." Ye Chen calmly announced before turning to leave.
Bai Long stared vacantly at the corpse by hisfeet, offering a bitter laugh.
Ye Chen retreated to a corner and placed hisear on the ground. Immediately, he was made aware of numerous footsteps closingin on their location. This was something he did quite often. Through numerousinstances, he trained himself to comprehend his surroundings by listening tothe volume and pace of each footstep he heard. It afforded him the insight ofwhether the ent.i.ties closing in were mutant beasts, zombies or human.
In the apocalyptic world, the sounds of ahuman"s footsteps were cautious, light and full of hesitation.
The footsteps of mutant beasts were generallynimble and agile, other times ponderously heavy.
Zombies on the other hand, moved at a steadypace, almost like a machine. Whether they were shuffling about or sprinting,they constantly maintained a pace that was neither hurried nor languid.
After monitoring the vibrations, Ye Chenfurrowed his brows. The thick stench of blood had clearly attracted more than ahundred zombies nearby, and more were still approaching from further away.
"Pack up, quickly!" Ye Chen commanded.
Bai Long instantly doubled his efforts. The twoyouths hurriedly came forth to help the others. Yue Heng stared wordlessly atthe mutant rat lying there in a pool of its own blood before shifting his gazecarefully upon Ye Chen"s coldly frowning face. Finally, he cautiouslyapproached beside Ye Zhu and asked her in a meek tone, saying: "Are you guysREALLY human?"
Ye Zhu scrutinized the young man"s expression.His face seemed to brim with an expression which conveyed: "It"s alright totell me, my lips are sealed."
"What does your heart tell you?" Ye Zhu wasconsiderably troubled on what to say.
"You"re not!" Yue Heng shook his head with aprofound confidence.
Ye Zhu smiled in reply. She did not offer toexplain further, their strength had indeed surpa.s.sed the realm of what"sconsidered human. It could be said that they were already embarking towards thenext evolution of mankind….