NOVEL NEXT Chapter 522: The Great Chief 40
Although Yun is a witch, her physical condition is not great, which results in her witch power being relatively weak, and consequently, her perception of the outside world is not as strong as Zhi and her daughter Yu.
Therefore, at this moment, Yun, who is fully focused on healing others, completely fails to notice that she's being attacked, and thus exposes her unguarded back to the claws and fangs of the young hyena!
Seeing this scene, Shuangshuang gasped in shock, and in her moment of urgency, she directly threw the Scale Armor Knife she was holding in her left hand at the young hyena!
The young hyena's movements were extremely nimble, and upon seeing Shuangshuang's attack, it twisted mid-air to narrowly brush past the blade of the Scale Armor Knife, deftly evading her attack before landing lightly on the ground.
After landing, the young hyena lowered its body and fiercely bared its teeth at Shuangshuang, then suddenly leaped forward with incredible speed toward Shuangshuang's face, extending its sharp, albeit small, front paws to viciously claw at her.
As expected of a Fierce Beast, even a small cub like this is harder to deal with than an adult hyena. Though it's small, its speed is incredibly fast. When it attacked, Shuangshuang only managed to lift the Scale Armor Knife as a defense before its attack was upon her.
Scritch! Its claws scratched the Scale Armor Knife, emitting a sharp sound that sent chills down the spine, as Shuangshuang stepped back to steady herself. This little creature was fast, and surprisingly strong; the impact left Shuangshuang's arm tingling with numbness from the shock.
Shuangshuang watched warily as the young hyena, unfazed by its failed attack, prowled the ground eyeing her, waiting for another opportunity to strike. Her expression was serious; the combat power of the Fierce Beasts was truly formidable, as even such a small creature posed such a challenge.
Suppressing the soreness in her muscles, Shuangshuang swung her Scale Armor Knife forward to attack. The Earth King Beast's Scale Armor Knife was extremely sharp; despite being used for chopping firewood, hunting, and cutting vegetables for such a long time, it remained as sharp as ever.
Thus, Shuangshuang was quite confident. As long as she could seize the opportunity to slash the young hyena even once, even though it was a Fierce Beast, it would suffer greatly, if not mortally wounded.
Seeing Shuangshuang attack proactively, the young hyena neither dodged nor evaded but instead leaped from side to side to confuse Shuangshuang's line of sight before suddenly bounding straight for her face once more.
Having experienced the young hyena's strength in the previous exchange, Shuangshuang certainly daren't let it close in again.
The young hyena was agile, but Shuangshuang was not lacking; she slightly twisted her body, flipped the knife in her hand, transforming her slash into an upward thrust targeting the young hyena. If this strike landed, it would eviscerate the young hyena.
Noticing the unfavorable situation, the young hyena spun mid-air to dissipate its momentum before landing on the ground, then without missing a beat, it lunged up with lightning speed aiming for Shuangshuang's neck.
Instead of turning to attack, Shuangshuang sprinted forward a few steps. The young hyena pounced but missed and immediately pursued her as soon as it hit the ground. After running a few steps, Shuangshuang suddenly turned and swung her Scale Armor Knife at the relentlessly pursuing young hyena.
Constantly on guard against Shuangshuang's sudden attacks, the young hyena seemed unsurprised by Shuangshuang's turnaround strike during her run and directly dodged her attack by sidestepping.
Simultaneously as it dodged Shuangshuang's attack, the young hyena leapt again, this time attacking from the side toward Shuangshuang's neck. Failing her strike, Shuangshuang didn't retreat but instead directly hurled the Scale Armor Knife at the young hyena.
Once again deploying its previous move, the young hyena twisted mid-air to dodge Shuangshuang's Scale Armor Knife, and as it landed, it prepared to leap up for another attack on Shuangshuang. Unexpectedly, just as it was about to spring, another Scale Armor Knife descended from the sky with a whistling sound, striking directly on its small neck.
After killing the young Fierce Beast, Yan Shuangshuang—having held her breath all this time—finally relaxed.
During the fight, Shuangshuang had noticed that though the young hyena was indeed a Fierce Beast, because of its small size, each of its attacks required it to leap.
While its body was agile and capable of dodging attacks mid-air, it couldn't evade consecutively. After each dodge, it would invariably land, and due to its mid-air maneuvers, there would be a slight pause upon landing.
This pause was brief; if not for Shuangshuang's keen observation, one wouldn't detect this momentary pause, but she did, so she decided to exploit that.
When Shuangshuang was attacked earlier, she ran those few steps not to escape but to reach near the Scale Armor Knife she had thrown before, attacking the young hyena mid-air with one Scale Armor Knife, and grabbing the other upon its landing to quickly attack the paused young hyena.
This tactic was child's play against an adult Fierce Beast hyena, but it sufficed to handle the young Fierce Beast hyena.
From the moment Shuangshuang spotted the young hyena to killing it, the process was swift, completed within the span of two breaths.
By the time the young hyena lay decapitated on the ground, the ones responsible for protecting the Witch from before regained their composure, each soaked with cold sweat. If not for Shuangshuang's quick reactions, given the intense attack power of that young Fierce Beast, even if Yun didn't die, she'd have suffered severe injuries, highlighting their dereliction.
However, as it was a crucial moment of battle, despite their shock and fear, they had no time to converse with Shuangshuang. Seeing the young hyena killed, they turned and rejoined the fray.
Though Shuangshuang had slain a young Fierce Beast, the hyena pack was numerous; currently besieging everyone and the Witch with relentless assaults, the battle was intense for everyone.
Shuangshuang was already extremely fatigued, although she had no lack of combat experience, she was ultimately still a child, lacking the stamina of an adult.
The intense and instantaneous battle Shuangshuang had with the young Fierce Beast hyena had greatly drained her, leaving her entire body aching from the burst of intense combat at that moment.
Shuangshuang rested momentarily where she stood, but didn't dare linger long or sit down. Instead, she adjusted her breathing until she felt no longer breathless, then with the Scale Armor Knife in hand, rejoined the battle.
While hyenas are also one of the top predators, similar to humans, hyenas achieve their status through group cooperation and seamless teamwork. When it comes to singular combat capability, they're truly no match for humans.
At this moment, two apex predators reliant on group tactics clashed; aside from the hyena that was already a Fierce Beast, the ordinary hyenas were naturally at a disadvantage to humans.