Chapter 19 - How to kill a Tiger

Tian Longmeng poured all his strength into that attack, utilizing the tigers own weaknesses and attacking it before it had the chance to retaliate.

Tian Longmeng stared intently at the crater where the Hou Tiger was slammed into. He wanted to make sure of how to do deal with it since he knew that it would not die so easily even if it is injured.

Sure enough, the Hou Tiger began to twitch and squirm around before dislodging itself from the hillside and dropping to the ground.

Tian Longmeng could easily snatch the medicine at this moment and make a strong break for it. After all, it would be impossible for the Hou Tiger to catch him if he was fleeing at full speed. However, Tian Longmeng was ambitious enough to want both the medicine and the Hou Tiger.

This was because Tian Longmeng knew just how precious the blood of a Hou Tiger is. If Tian Longmeng could get his hands on a Hou Tiger corpse then the effects would be tremendous for his breakthrough.

Tian Longmeng once again brandished the Scarlet Tree Oak branch and initiated the offence once more.

This time the Hou Tiger was much more alert and evaded Tian Longmeng's attack. It became furious and unleashed a wave of essence as it stretched its claws out to rip into Tian Longmeng.

Tian Longmeng prepared himself for a head-on collision and began to analyze the Hou Tiger's movements to see if he could either evade or parry the attack. Trying to outright block an attack from the Hou Tiger would be suicidal.

The Hou Tiger was not about to let Tian Longmeng have his way as it dashed from side to side so fast that Tian Longmeng could barely keep up with its movements between the rushing wind and the sudden afterimages the Hou Tiger produced.

Suddenly, Tian Longmeng felt his skin crawl at his left side and spared no time in leaping to the right while using the Scarlet Oak Tree branch as a shield. Same time, Tian Longmeng felt a taste of instant karma as he was straightway slammed into the hillside, making a fresh crater.

Luckily, the branch took the brunt of the Hou Tiger's claw or else Tian Longmeng would be currently without a hand. That does not mean that Tian Longmeng was perfectly fine either.

Tian Longmeng was coughing up about half a litre of blood and he felt immense pain from his right rib that now was broken. He tried to stand and look at the Hou Tiger but his entire vision was like a smudged canvas with colours blending into each other endlessly.

Tian Longmeng was fully aware that there was a huge disparity between him and the Hou Tiger. However, Tian Longmeng could only smile ruefully at the fact that a single clap could have ended him there.

Tian Longmeng took deep breaths and clapped his face a little in order to quickly adjust his vision. He had to quickly end the Hou Tiger or the Hou Tiger would quickly end him. Moreover, with Tian Longmeng in this condition, he does not have a lot of time before he collapsed and then game over.

Tian Longmeng needed just the thing that can throw the Hou Tiger off guard so that he can finish the fight quickly, and Tian Longmeng knew just the thing.

Tian Longmeng shifted his body and brandished the tree branch once more before positioning in a pouncing position. Seeing this, the Hou Tiger also became aware and assume a position to likely evade or defend Tian Longmeng's upcoming attack.

What the Hou Tiger did not expect was that Tian Longmeng would instead pounce after the medicine plant instead as a last-ditch effort. The tiger, after a brief shock, immediately lost all pretences and jumped after Tian Longmeng in a blind rage.

"Heh, caught you." Tian Longmeng suddenly stopped dead in his tracks and swung the branch at the Hou Tiger at full force yet again. The Hou Tiger was startled that it fell for the human's trap yet again.

Since the tiger was in mid-air, it could not do anything to stop the attack. So all it could do was to brace itself so that it could bounce back at Tian Longmeng.

Everything happened as one would expect. Well, if it was not for the odd chance that the tree branch would break on contact because the Hou Tiger's claw broke a great deal of the branch. Because of this, the Hou Tiger got away with minimal damage.

At this point, Tian Longmeng saw his life reflected in his eyes from the sharp, ivory fangs of the Hou Tiger that was literally less than a meter from his face.

Suddenly, Tian Longmeng did the unthinkable and thrust the broken piece of tree branch that was still in his hand, up the Hou Tiger's jugular, spurting blood and mucus all over Tian Longmeng.

The Hou Tiger just slumped over Tian Longmeng as the blood flowed like a broken dam. It could not believe that in its last moments, he would be ended by a human child. Tian Longmeng remained vigilant until the Hou Tiger's eyes became listless.

"Finally, I'm still alive." Tian Longmeng slumped over on the floor with the Hou Tiger still draped over his body. Tian Longmeng took some time to rehabilitate himself from the earlier scene.