Chapter 13: Cat or Leopard?
Cat or Leopard?
In that moment he really didn’t know if it was a fat leopard that looked like a cat or a fat cat that looked like leopard. It suddenly rushed towards Zhang Xiao Qiang. He tightened his finger, pulled the trigger and an arrow fired out. In the blink of an eye a great force knocked him sideways. He rolled a couple times on the ground to disperse the momentum and got up.
The leopard was 7-8m away, prowling around Zhang Xiao Qiang. It had a steel bolt stuck in its shoulder. Zhang Xiao Qiang threw aside the sniper crossbow and picked up his spear and went back and forth with it. His right shoulder felt a numbing pain. Using his peripheral vision to see, the clothing on his right shoulder was torn to bits. There were 3 deep bleeding wounds that were 5-6 cm long.
Zhang Xiao Qiang didn’t bother with the wound and fixed his eyes on the leopard. If he didn’t hit it with his crossbow, forcing it back, it would be at his throat right now.
The leopard lowered its head. It walked around him lightly and with agility. It made a “purring” noise with its throat. It was intently looking for Zhang Xiao Qiang’s weaknesses, ready to deal the fatal blow. Zhang Xiao Qiang kept facing it. He was following its movements. Gripped by the tenseness, he loss track of time, and he couldn’t feel any pain from his wound.
At last, it couldn’t take it anymore and rushed towards him. The countless thrust exercises have finally come into play. The head of the spear thrusted towards its head at lightning speed. At the same time, its head tilted down. The spearhead moved past its ears and stabbed its back, drawing blood from its beautiful fur. Zhang Xiao Qiang was also knocked to the ground by its great strength.
Zhang Xiao Qiang rolled face up, but before he could get up, the leopard was already rushing towards him. He gripped the spear with both hands. He pointed the spear at the leopard in the air, waiting for it to stab itself. The leopard already had rushed before him, it could see that it was going to be stabbed by the spear. So unbeknownst to Zhang Xiao Qiang, it moved its lightweight body in the air and flew over Zhang Xiao Qiang’s head, with the spearhead lightly grazing its hind legs.
Zhang Xiao Qiang immediately stood up and faced the leopard. The leopard, taking advantage of him not fully standing rushed towards him. However, this time the leopard didn’t jump into the air to attack but lowered its body, rushing for his thigh. All that can be said is that the leopard’s battle instincts are too sharp. It has evaded the few times he’d done his spear thrusts and every time it would take advantage of his weakness to attack him.
In the blink of an eye, the leopard rushed in front of Zhang Xiao Qiang.
“Kill!!!” This cry did not come out of his voice. It came from his banging heart in his chest. With his whole body revitalized, he thrusted the spear in his hands towards the leopard’s head.
Like the previous attempt, just before the spear connected, the leopard lowered its head and once again it moved across its back, removing some fur. Zhang Xiao Qiang was pulled to the ground by the leopard’s tail. His shins were aching, but he didn’t have time to check if the bone was broken. Once again, he raised the spear, pointing it at the leopard and sure enough, the leopard rushed towards him while he was down, with its eyes fixed on his throat!
Zhang Xiao Qiang held his spear like before, pointing it at the leopard’s head. The leopard was just a moment before colliding with it when it jumped aside, not wanting to suffer any more loss.
Zhang Xiao Qiang got up. Just like the beginning, he faced the leopard once again. His shoulder was hot with pain. His shins had fractured bones which kept tormenting his pain receptors. A cold sweat continually flowed along his cheeks. He ignored everything else, the only thing in his eyes was this catlike leopard like monster. Even if it was a tiger it wouldn’t be this strong!!
The bolt lodged in its shoulder blades seem to be causing it pain. The leopard was getting increasingly agitated. Its scarlet eyes were flashing red with hatred for Zhang Xiao Qiang. Hate? It surprised Zhang Xiao Qiang with its human-like emotions!
He continued to press on. It was like a dog attacking a hedgehog. Any given opening can be used to deal a bit more damage. Zhang Xiao Qiang was like using a feather blanket to hit a rabbit: it was unlikely to hit. Now this kind of gave Zhang Xiao Qiang a headache as he cant beat it, cant run away, not even free to move as he was afraid of revealing a weakness. He used his peripheral vision to find the crossbow.
“Can’t…” Zhang Xiao Qiang and the leopard had been fighting for a few rounds. The battle was getting further and further away from his backpack. Using the sniper crossbow to scare it away is a hopeless plan as well! Now he could only hope that it will go away on its own.
The leopard had been circling Zhang Xiao Qiang for an unknown amount of times. Zhang Xiao Qiang had also been facing the leopard for an unknown amount of time. Now, his whole body was aching. Only his heart was unyieldingly beating.
The leopard’s eye looked more and more dangerous. It also grew impatient. Zhang Xiao Qiang also felt the strain and knew he couldn’t keep going much longer.
“You TMD [TLN: Not sure what it stands for] want to fight? Come fight quickly. Want to run then run now. Dawdling around here is really annoying!”
Zhang Xiao Qiang scolded it in his mind. At this point the leopard’s patience ran out. He still had no plan after watching Zhang Xiao Qiang for so long. It was angry!
“Ahwooo….” The leopard made a low growl. As Zhang Xiao Qiang heard it, it sounded like the fat cat from next door. But why do these circumstances feel so familiar?
“FUCKFUCKFUCK…” Zhang Xiao Qiang yelled under his breath. The spear that he was holding with a death grip was knocked away. Now both his hands were holding his head like a “lazy donkey rolling back”, not thinking about anything. He couldn’t think about anything! He was only desperately rolling away!
A burning flame from behind him sprayed over and in a short time, he had reached the edge of the fire. Other than burning some hair, there were only a few burns on his face. After a few more rolls the flame on his clothes were extinguished. After the spray of flames, it became dull. When it saw that Zhang Xiao Qiang had no spear in his hands, it rushed towards him.
[TLN: I have no idea where the flame comes from, it just suddenly explodes.]
Seeing the leopard rushing towards him, Zhang Xiao Qiang drew his tiger toothed knife and tried to estimate the distance between them.
Closer.
Closer.
When it was 5m apart, the leopard slammed its hind feet into the ground and lunged towards him. In the moment before it bit Zhang Xiao Qiang, following the posture of his daily lunge training, he lowered his body and gripped the knife in his right hand. The cutting edge was moving forwards with the knife tip facing up. His left hand was supporting the back of the knife, with the blade tilted forwards. The pressure went from the blade tip to the cutting edge then to the wrist. Then, the resistance completely disappeared.
The leopard lightly fell onto the ground behind him. He turned to look at it. Then in the next moment,all kinds of organs fell out of its body “flopping” onto the ground. The leopard took 3-4 steps towards Zhang Xiao Qiang before falling to the ground, twitching.
“sigh….”
Zhang Xiao Qiang let out a deep breath.
He walked to the leopard’s body and looked at it. No matter how he looked at it, it still looked like the fat cat that Zhang Xiao Qiang released from the kitchen two months ago. Zhang Xiao Qiang still remembered seeing it when it was running away.
“Could it be that the cat had mutated to become this size?” Thinking of this, Zhang Xiao Qiang then kicked it really hard with one foot; “Ungrateful fool, had I knew this would happen, I would have just left you in the kitchen to starve”
The knife had cut from its throat all the way to its asshole. The ground was getting bloody.
“Serves it right”
Zhang Xiao Qiang wanted to recover his spear as his life today depended on it.
“FUCKFUCKFUCK” Zhang Xiao Qiang yelled at the dead cat as he looked at the spear. The three pointed file had been burnt into charcoal and the galvanized pipes were burning red and a little deformed. After all the sweat and blood, seeing it turned into this, how could he not be angry?
Zhang Xiao Qiang pulled out the knife, wanting to cut up the cat into 8 pieces. One slice, two slice and still, he continued to stab the corpse. Suddenly he stabbed something hard that shook his arm numb, “Was it bone?” He cut it out.
An irregular triangular object was exposed. It was the size of a fist. Picking it up, it was covered in blood, but it felt really hard.
“Cats also had cartilage??? ”
Zhang Xiao Qiang picked up the hot spear. After putting on his backpack and retrieving the MP9 he went home, carrying the cat cartilage. After closing the iron gates, his heart was relaxed. He could feel the strength in his body disappearing. He felt weak and dizzy. He used the last of his strength to climb into bed, then he didn’t know what else to do.