37 Magical Beasts (1/2)

Bai Yun looked at the newcomer. She was a young girl who was staring at the beast with a look of wild joy at her face. She seemed to be only about ten and from the looks of her clothes, quite rich.

The shadow panther looked at the newcomer warily. It seemed to be wondering what it was, just like Bai Yun. The girl stared at the beast for a while before extending her hand out and beckoning the leopard towards her. The leopard seemed to stare at her for a while, before slowly walking over to her. The little girl seemed to be delighted upon seeing its actions.

As Bai Yun watched the beast walk over, he was stunned. The girl had not usedany beast taming skills, or any soul attack, and had simply called out for the beast. There was no way a simple call would be enough to work on the shadow leopard. Bai Yun was about to warn the girl, but he stopped himself. Not only was she an enemy, he had a feeling that there was no need to do so as she seemed to have a high a high cultivation base. No matter how powerful the beast was, it was only at the second circle. And in the worst case, she would only be teleported out. This would be a great learning opportunity for her.

As he expected, the leopard slowly walked toward the girl. When it was a few steps from the girl though, a vicious look passed through its eyes, and it suddenly leapt right at her with a roar. The girl seemed to be stunned, before reacting quickly. She didn't seem to have enough time to pull out her whip, so she simply jumped back using her movement technique. As he watched, Bai Yun was quite impressed. The movement technique she used was quite good, even better than the one he got from the clan library. And the little girl seemed to be quite proficient in it too.

”What a bad kitty.” The little girl exclaimed. She pulled out her whip, and swung it straight at the beast.

Bai Yun's eyes narrowed as he watched the swing. His sword swung up in an instant. A second later, the tip of his sword collided with the tip of the whip.

”You blocked my attack?” The little girl seemed to be surprised. She had used a special skill to hide the trajectory of the attack and make it change the direction midway.

Bai Yun simply smiled. All that the little girl used was a simple attack that hid the true target and made the whip turn sharply in the last moment to surprise the opponent. This was only a basic whip skill. It seemed as if the girl had mastered only a single change of direction. This was nothing to Bai Yun. Even though he had focused on the sword, he had tried his hand at multiple weapons in his life. Especially during the great war, he had to use whatever he could get his hands on in the beginning before his true sword was made. Even he could easily reach a few dozen change in directions using the whip. Even if that was not the case, he had faced far too many whip users who could easily reach tens of thousands of change of directions in their attacks. If he could not even see through this, he would have died a long time ago.

Both the little girl adn the shadow leopard seemed to be surprised both at the change of direction as well as the fact that she had targeted Bai Yun first. With a snarl, the beast disappeared. The shadow leopard had not tried using its concealment ability on Bai Yun. It wouldn't have worked due to his soul tendril wrapping around it. The beats had instinctively known that the concealment wouldn't work, even if did not know why.

”Why did you attack me?” he asked the girl

”Because we are enemies. Also you hurt the kitty. ”She replied. ”Huh, where did the kitty go?” She was stunned as she looked around, not knowing what had happened. Bai Yun did not know what to make of this. This was the first time he had met someone who was angry over him harming a random beast that had nothing to do with themselves.

”Whatever. I'll beat you first, and then look for the kitty.” She said turning to Bai Yun. Then her whip made a snap as it attacked him. Bai Yun calmly used his sword to strike at the tip of the whip, neutralizing the attack. Even though the technique that the girl had studied seemed to be good enough, it was obvious that she had not practiced it well. All of the strength of her blow was focused on the tip of her whip, allowing him to easily disperse the attack. If he had tried this method with any of the whip users in his past life, the whip would have slid around his sword, and then gone right through his heart.

Suddenly Bai Yun grinned. He cast wind motion, and dodged the whip instantly. At the same time, he swung his sword behind him, striking the shadow leopard that had appeared behind him to sneak attack him when he was busy fighting the girl. Even though it knew that it would be pointless to attack him, it could not leave him due to the anger it felt as it was wounded by him.

The beast was send flying once again, gaining a small cut in the process. It quickly hid itself to initiate its next attack. The beast then went to attack the little girl next. After what happened with Bai Yun she was prepared for the sudden attack, and quickly protected herself. Bai Yun used the gap in her attacks to approach the leopard, and attacked it along the little girl. Seeing the disadvantageous situation, the leopard ran. Bai Yun then turned his attention back to the little girl, who was quickly struggling to keep him at bay. Thankfully the leopard continued its attacks on Bai Yun, allowing her some chance to pause and get back the initiative.

For a while the three maintained this balance, with all three of them attacking each other. But Bai Yun knew that he could not let the fight continue. Evan though he was using as little qi as he could, he was still running out. A determined look flashed through his eyes. As he waited, the shadow leopard once again pounced at him from behind. ”Go kitty.” The little girl cheered it on.

Bai Yun waited longer that he usually did. The beast had gotten too close. He then suddenly turned, ignoring the whip that was approaching him and fell backwards to the ground. A sharp pain shot through him, as he felt the whip graze his shoulder. He had turned too late, and now there was a long cut on his shoulder. It wasn't a deep cut, and wouldn't hurt his range of motion, but would hurt quite badly nonetheless.