Chapter 153: Attack a Creature a Major Realm and a Half Higher Than Me? Sure.
Yang Ru was a step away from the shadowed alley when he heard the call to stop. Already primed to react to the slightest stimulus, Yang Ru halted. Cupping the shaft of his spear around the pile of spirit coins in his hands, he brought his weapon up into a guard position.
“Why?” he yelled.
“It’s right in front of you,” Zou Tian called.
Good. That was exactly the result Yang Ru wanted. For the badger to attack him and be drawn out into the open.
But the implications of what the younger boy said immediately hit. Zou Tian could sense the beast.
Yang Ru stepped back, keeping his spear at the ready.
The badger snarled. So close. One of the less weak humans had been walking toward the alley, holding a source of consumable qi that, though not nearly as big as the first, might be enough for it to advance.
It was all the beast could do to not rush out into the sun to attack.
But it was injured. One of the sticks the humans used for attacks had impaled it. The wound wasn’t deadly, but it hurt. And it couldn’t work the stick out of itself without making the injury worse.
Though the humans were all much weaker than it, they were not without teeth. The badger had seen them kill two of its fellows. And it was not nearly at full power. If not for the orders it could not disobey, it would have retreated to try for the qi source at night when it could make better use of its stealthiness.
Instead, it had to make the best of a bad situation and find a way to win even with the humans actively on alert. It had to be careful moving, or the stick would move around, jostling its insides and worsening the wound.
None of that would have mattered if it advanced, though. So much power. So close.