The Great Merchant in the Cataclysm

Chapter 77: Tough Fight With The Brown-Tailed Tiger

The surrounding tigers charged towards him as the Bloodvine Lotus killed the last of the mutated tigers. Zhang Mu didn’t bother with looting the corpses. There was no time. He ordered the Bloodvine Lotus to unravel its cage and split into more than ten vines to fight against the mutated tigers which were attacking him from all directions. Two vines were barely enough to stop one mutated tiger. Since this wasn’t a sneak attack, he didn’t have an edge over his opponents. However, with some effort, the Bloodvine Lotus could be on par with the mutated tigers.

Zhang Mu lifted his Obsidian Beetle claw. His eyes lit up with competitiveness as he personally went to attack the brown-tailed tiger.

The brown-tailed tiger was halfway through his pounce. In mid-air, the energy it used to leap was diminishing, and having just reached the peak of its curve, its momentum was at its lowest. Taking advantage of this situation, Zhang Mu shifted sideways, adjusted his center of gravity and slashed towards the right front paw of the brown-tailed tiger.

He had never thought of fighting the brown-tailed tiger head to head. Even if he had twice the power of an adult, it may not even be on par with a tiger that didn’t go through evolution. This depicted how huge the difference in power was. He was no match against the tiger.

But, as long as he broke its balance and took the initiative, things would become much simpler.

Just as Zhang Mu was going to carry out his plan, He suddenly heard a loud roar coming from his side. Zhang Mu squinted his eyes. One of the mutated tigers had broken free!

Of the nine tigers, there was one that possessed greater power. The Bloodvine Lotus had no choice but to use three vines to stop its attacks. This meant one of the normal mutated tigers was being hindered by a single vine, allowing it to break free of the vine’s attack.

Zhang Mu held the weapon in his right hand, closing in on the brown-tailed tiger. However, to his left, the freed mutated tiger had crouched and was ready to pounce on him.

A minute ago, Zhang Mu was taking advantage of the tiger’s trajectory to attack the brown-tailed tiger. Now, he got his retribution.

Just as Zhang Mu was getting sandwiched in between the two tigers, he hurriedly sped up the movement of the Obsidian Beetle claw and kept it close to the tiger’s paws. Then, he pushed hard and made used of the rebound to maneuver his body out of the path of attack.

However, the rise in difficulty of facing two mutated tigers as compared to one doesn’t just lie in the number. What should he do now? He even chose the most difficult tiger, the brown-tailed tiger, to fight.

He never imagined that this decision would cause him a huge problem. He didn’t know how powerful the brown-tailed tiger was and how finely it could control its earth-type and fire-type powers.

Just as Zhang Mu had a headache about whether he should continue fighting or retreat, he heard a bark that caused him to become excited.

“Woof!”

It’s the mutated wolfdog, how can he forgot about it.

The mutated wolfdog didn’t manage to arrive on time to resolve Zhang Mu’s crisis because the speed of the mutated tigers was too fast. However, its arrival now was at an opportune moment. It activated its earth-type energy on its head. Then, it rammed into the normal mutated tiger which was getting ready to launch a second attack on Zhang Mu. As wolfdogs were shorter than tigers, it made some adjustments and directly hit the soft part of the tiger’s stomach.

The mutated tiger got caught off guard and was knocked over by the mutated wolfdog. However, the mutated tiger was not one to be messed around with. It shook its head and immediately pounced onto the wolfdog and started biting it. Blood and dust splattered and flew everywhere. No one knows which side would win.

Zhang Mu was unable to focus on the wolfdog’s battle. The brown-tailed tiger in front of him had lowered its body, one of its paws embedded deep into the ground as it prepared to attack. Its purpose of coming here was to kill Zhang Mu. The fact that it needed a teammate’s help to kill a mere human caused it to boil with anger. This was the reason why it didn’t combine forces with the other mutated tiger to attack Zhang Mu. The wolfdog appeared at just the right moment. Even if it didn’t appear, it was prepared to chase the other mutated tiger away.

Because the dignity and pride of the tiger species cannot be slandered.

Actually, Zhang Mu was really against using his own body to fight the battle. The main body of the Bloodvine Lotus was on his left arm. He needed to multitask. On one hand, he had to be careful of the movement of the brown-tailed tiger. On the other, he needed to control the vines that were fighting with those more powerful mutated tigers. As for the normal tigers, he had already left it to the Bloodvine Lotus’s own instinct.

Another reason was his left arm which was connected to the vines. If the brown-tailed tiger was smart enough, it would use this as a loophole to spoil his entire plan.

However, he was not sure what it was thinking currently. Did the thought never cross its mind, or did it feel that this was not worth doing? The brown-tailed tiger’s gaze never once rested on the Bloodvine Lotus on his arm, not even for a second.

But Zhang Mu liked this kind of upright opponent. If the brown-tailed tiger purposely targeted his left arm, he would be in a huge mess.

This time, Zhang Mu struck first. He couldn’t wait for the brown-tailed tiger to launch its attack. He needed to be the one in control, the best case scenario was that he would kill the brown-tailed tiger before it took action.

However, it was obvious that Zhang Mu was too hopeful. The moment he charged forward, a pillar of fire large enough to engulf Zhang Mu burst towards him, showing no mercy.

He couldn’t believe that this fire pillar was twice as big in diameter as the ones he saw before. He miscalculated the space he had for dodging. He could never evade the fire pillar with his own strength.

He promptly controlled the main body of the Bloodvine Lotus and hit the ground forcibly before rebounding off. Even like this, he only just managed to dodge the fire pillar.

However, what Zhang Mu didn’t predict was that the fire pillar actually split apart by itself. At first, he thought that a flame of this magnitude could only sustain itself for a short while.

However, Zhang Mu couldn’t smile anymore because the fire pillar didn’t fade away naturally but was cleaved apart by the brown-tailed tiger. A sharp metallic glint appeared in front of Zhang Mu’s eyes like a ghost, causing him to feel a sense of crisis.

The claw arrived before he saw the tiger.

This brown-tailed tiger actually managed to direct its metal-type energy into its claws. Yet, it still hid it so well. Zhang Mu felt helpless. The Bloodvine Lotus was unable to help him. Zhang Mu knew that it had reached its limit after forcibly using some its strength just now and realising that it almost couldn’t lock down some of the normal mutated tigers.

He could only rely on himself. He took the initiative and charged forward with the Obsidian Beetle claw. As the two objects collided, the Obsidian Beetle claw immediately let out a grinding sound, as though it was overwhelmed by the force it met with.