26 Chapter 25: Hellfire Badger (2/2)
On the other hand, the Hellfire Badger was one of the most dangerous magical beasts in the world. Even a Nascent Soul Stage practitioner wouldn't dare tangle with a Hellfire Badger if he could avoid it.
Those things were incredibly tough to kill. Not only were they impervious to all blades, arrows or spears, they fought like a demon, refusing to give up and resisting to the bitter end. Fighting a Hellfire Badger was a surefire way of ensuring nobody wins. Those claws could tear through steel, and those fangs could crush boulders into dust.
Right now, the terrifying Black Spitting Cobra was on the wrong end of those horrifying claws and teeth, its blood splattering across the grass as the Hellfire Badger tore through it. Fiery qi blazed around the Hellfire Badger as it attacked, leaving a scorched trail across the plains. The Black Spitting Cobra tried to bite the Hellfire Badger again, and this time managed to sink its fangs into the burning paw of the latter and pumped venom into its system.
Bad move.
As I said earlier, it didn't work. The Hellfire Badger roasted the Black Spitting Cobra from the inside out, causing the poor serpent to release its grip and topple over, smoke billowing out of its scorched mouth. The Hellfire Badger shook its paw irritably, as if it suffered nothing worse than a small bruise, and then clamored over to bite the Black Spitting Cobra's neck, finishing it off for good. Blood sprayed the grass, and the demonic serpent lay still, unmoving. Unlike the Black Spitting Cobra, the Hellfire Badger was still moving around vigorously without even slowing down. It didn't seem the least affected by the Spiting Cobra's venom.
The duel was over hardly before it even began.
Wow.
Realizing that there was no use sticking around, I quickly backed off before the Hellfire Badger could notice me.
Unfortunately, it was already aware that I was there. Snarling, the Hellfire Badger raised its head to glare at me. Before I could even take a step back, it shot forward like a bloody cannonball, its fur blazing furiously with fiery qi.
”!”
I quickly used Duo to evade, turning around and appearing behind the Hellfire Badger's back. The Hellfire Badger hit the ground where I had been standing on a few seconds ago, and then flipped itself around to face me. It growled and launched forward again, tearing at the air where I was occupying a millisecond ago before I used Tui to jump far back.
”I'm leaving, all right? Geez. You can have your territory to yourself.”
I knew Hellfire Badgers were territorial creatures who didn't hesitate to attack any creature, living or undead, that intruded upon its territory – even if it was several dozen times larger. I wasn't that much bigger than the wolf-sized Hellfire Badger, but I doubted it would have made a difference even if I was as large as a Ghost Bear.
Unfortunately, it appeared that the Hellfire Badger was persistent. It refused to allow me to leave, pouncing on me once more.
”Whoa!”
I tried to dodge it once more using Duo, but the Hellfire Badger suddenly spun around in midair and caught me while I was speeding away.
”Ugh!”
Blood burst out of my arm and I crashed heavily onto the ground, my footwork broken in the midst of me executing it. Rolling across the grassy plain, I came to a stop and glanced at my wound. It appeared that the Hellfire Badger had torn out a huge chunk of flesh, and boy did it hurt.
But not as much as that time I almost died from consuming monster flesh.
After going through that excruciating experience, nothing could faze me any longer. Pushing my glasses up, I ignored the blood dripping from my burning wound and rose to my feet. Not patient enough to wait for me to get ready, the Hellfire Bader was already lunging toward me, the sheer heat of its fiery qi incinerating the grass around it.
”You asked for it…”
All bets were off. I was going to leave without bothering the Hellfire Badger despite encountering it, but if it was hell-bent on mauling me to death, then I would retaliate. Not that I was enthusiastic about fighting it. I was aware that the Hellfire Badger was a tough opponent, and would make things extremely difficult for me.
Twisting around to avoid the Hellfire Badger's claws by a hair's breadth, I whirled my body around to deliver a roundhouse kick to its midriff, knocking it out of the air and into the ground. The Hellfire Badger grunted as it hit the earth, but rolled back to its feet immediately. Hissing fiercely, it then lunged at me once again.
Bending my back, I allowed the Hellfire Badger to sail above me, then straightened and delivered a strong Shadow kick to its hind flank, causing it to spin helplessly. The Hellfire Badger struck the ground, but then rolled back to its feet. This time, it didn't pounce on me – instead, it unleashed a volley of fireballs that incinerated grass and scorched the earth.
”Whoa!”
Using Tui, I retreated to a safe distance, but the Hellfire Badger had already anticipated that. Jumping from point to point, it lashed out with fiery claws that both cut and burned my flesh when I was a millisecond too late in evading. I staggered back, clutching my severe wounds, but retaliated with a knee into its belly, knocking it away from me.
”Kreee!”
Shrieking, the Hellfire Badger flipped itself in midair and landed on all four feet, its armored fur bristling in rage.
”I know you're a Hellfire Badger, but you really have to stop badgering me,” I snapped at the annoying little creature. The Hellfire Badger spat in response, and then lunged at me again. I sidestepped, and then kicked it away.
This is going nowhere.
My attacks clearly weren't doing any damage to the highly resilient magical beast. As the Hellfire Badger launched fireballs at me, I conjured a wall of ice that froze the flames. Stamping my foot on the ground, I turned the plains into a chilling tundra.
”?!”
The Hellfire Badger glanced around at the ice, taken aback by my new move. Snarling, it sprang at me, uncaring of the new phenomenon that had taken its homeland. However, the moment its paw slid against the slippery surface of ice, it skidded across uncontrollably. I took the moment to kick it in its head, snapping its skull back and causing it to spin across my recently sculpted tundra.
”Phew…it actually worked.”
Having read about the Hellfire Badger in the monster encyclopedia, I was aware that it was used to inhabiting a warm, temperate grassland akin to that of Sahara Africa or the great Saharan plains in Africa. If that was the case, it wouldn't be able to adapt to the sudden cold and slippery surface of the ice. I was counting on that to rob the Hellfire Badger of its balance and thus nullify one of its greatest strengths – its mobility.
Unfortunately, the Hellfire Badger was an intelligent creature. Realizing that the terrain was now to its disadvantage, it sought other paths of attacks. Its fiery qi intensified and transformed into a gigantic, blazing inferno that instantly melted and vaporized the ice. In a mere instant, the entire plains turned into a burned out husk as flames raged through it. As much as I tried to extinguish the inferno with cold yin qi and ice, I failed to do so.
In terms of qi, this monster has me beat!
Honestly, I didn't buy into the whole ranks or class or stages thing that most wuxia novels love to espouse. A magical beast was a magical beast. It didn't matter if it was a Class 3 or Class 4 magical beast which corresponded to Qi Fusion Stage or whatever. Magical beasts were still magical beasts, and while they often held the advantage over humans in terms of raw physical strength and speed or amounts of qi, humans have always circumvented those advantages by developing weapons and tools, or strategies and tactics.
Our greatest strength wasn't cultivating enormous amounts of qi to reach divinity or whatever stupid stages that wuxia novels loved to conjure up. It was our intelligence and our great use of tools.
And right now, my greatest tool was knowledge. I had read about Hellfire Badgers. I should know what its weaknesses are.
”Kuh!”
Ducking under another swipe from the Hellfire Badger's deadly claws, I tried to endure the blazing inferno by shrinking my cold qi into a thin layer of azure aura that covered only my entire body. Simultaneously, I kicked the Hellfire Badger again, much in the same way that I saw the Lunar Rabbit did. The Hellfire Badger grunted as the blunt force reverberated throughout its body and it crashed into the ground, only for it to roll up again.
Now!
I froze its limbs with thick ice. The Hellfire Badger wailed and struggled to break free, conjuring its flames to melt the ice. But even if it possessed superior amounts of qi and its fire was more powerful than my ice, it still required some time before it could free itself. Even though it was less than five seconds, those precious few seconds made all the difference.
Jumping high up into the air, I spun my body like a top, and then lashed out, using the tremendous centrifugal force to generate as much power in my kick as possible, and slammed my foot onto the Hellfire Badger's head, obliterating its skull and destroying its brain with that single kick.
”Huff!”
I landed on the ground as the Hellfire Badger fell lifelessly onto the ground, slipping out of the half-melted ice and shuddering in its death throes.
”Phew…that was a difficult battle.”
I winced as I clutched at my injuries, which consisted of both terrible cuts and burns. Turning around, I made sure that the Hellfire Badger was dead. Its skull had been caved in, its head deformed and flattened from my strongest Shadow Kick. Sighing in relief, I thought back to what I had read. In the encyclopedia, the text had warned readers about how difficult it was to kill a Hellfire Badger, with its armored fur rendering it impervious to blade, spear or arrow. There was no cutting through that armored fur. Its neck, which was usually a point of vulnerability for most other demonic creatures, was the most protected space of its body.
Consequently, the most effective way to kill an armored Hellfire Badger was to apply overwhelming blunt force to its head. Instead of using a sword or spear, a blunt weapon such as a club, mace or hammer was more efficient in applying enough trauma to its cerebral cortex in order to kill. It was the same tactic with the Silverback Wolf. If I couldn't penetrate its armored fur with a blade or arrow, then I just had to kick it to death using sheer force.
”Well…at least I'm able to collect two whole meals…”
Picking up the Hellfire Badger's carcass, I proceeded toward the corpse of the Black Spitting Cobra. After going through all that trouble, it would be a waste not to consume them. Not only that, after beating the Hellfire Badger, I got an extra monster for free. What did they say about a cunning hunter again? How we were supposed to wait after two fighting tigers tired each other out before swooping in and claiming both of them in one go?
But man…I really hope I won't run into another Hellfire Badger…
They were so tough to kill that I honestly didn't want to fight a second Hellfire Badger. My wounds still throbbed and even my foot hurt from applying that much blunt force to the Hellfire Badger's tough skull. Limping through the plains, I glanced upward at the gently glowing qi stones embedded in the cavern's ceiling and sighed.
Seemed like this was going to be another challenging area…