Gentle Beast 40

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The Camuda Valley was inhabited by many carnivorous species and sounds were frequent. At the start, Suzanna did not care. At least until the sound came closer and closer, almost as if they were coming directly from the leopard tribe. There were many of them and the whole valley trembled with the sound.

Suzanna ears prickled and she listened closely. Her face quickly paled white and said to Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu behind her, “Come with me back to the race. The saber-toothed tigers are coming!”

The carnivorous species were familiar with the sounds of every beast. It was probably innate instinct.

Although Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu didn’t understand Suzanna’s words, she could hear the roar of beasts in the distance and her body stiffened but she immediately followed Suzanna’s footsteps.

“What the hell are these guys doing here?” Suzanna could not help cursing as she walked back.

The tigers lived in the Ramos Valley which was ten miles away. There was almost no interaction between the two races.

There was going to be nothing good in them coming in groves.

It proved the saber-toothed tigers were really looking for trouble.

Last time, Ryan led the tribe to Ramos Valley and, not only robbed them of their prey, they also rescued most of the females from their tribe. This made the leader of the tigers, Sarant, extremely angry.

After regaining his strength, Sarant assembled the warriors of the neighboring white tiger clan and came to Camuda Valley to wash away the disgrace Ryan had handed to them the last time. And to seize all the females from the leopard race.

Suzanna walked quickly, her legs gracefully dancing through the trees.

When she turned and saw the female was far behind her, she hesitated and prepared to go back to Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu. But, before could turn back, a face of yellow fur and long eyeteeth burst out of the woods in front of her. A saber-toothed tiger.

The tiger opened his mouth and uttered a fierce roar in Suzanna’s face, the snow on the trees falling all around.

Suzanna was surprised and backed away several steps, immediately raising her guard.

“This is leopard territory, how did you get in here?”

She glanced behind the tiger and saw there was no others behind it. She gasped.

The tigers had come to explore the leopard terrain. When most of the leopards were at the entrance to the Camuda Valley, the tigers had slipped in the back.

The saber-toothed tiger stared at Suzanna then looked at Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu in the back.

Two females, and the one in the back was herbivorous, harmless.

“On the entire Bornia continent, where is there a place the tigers can’t go?” the beast clawed against the ground, poised to charge forward.

Suzanna knew that she was no opponent for this male tiger and clenched her teeth, shifting into her beast form to flee.

The other side was one step faster than her and his hind legs pushed forward, shoving into her shoulders and throwing her into the ground.

Suzanna failed to escape and made every effort to fight the tiger off, but she was repeatedly beaten into the ground.

By the end, the tiger was worried she would attract the attention of the other leopards so he opened his mouth and bit at her neck.

The long, sharp teeth pierced into her skin and red splashed immediately.

Suzanna continued to struggle but did not break free. Instead, his fangs pierced deeper and deeper. She gasped, unwillingly, “When Ryan is in. . . you are not stepping into our race.”

The tiger gave her a scornful look of disdain.

Ryan was being attacked by their leader and it was now difficult for them to protect themselves, where was his skill to protect them now?

. . .

. . .

Before her, Suzanna was being bitten on the neck by a saber-toothed tiger, and Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu was frightened into stillness in the distance.

Suzanna’s blood flowed into the ground and dyed the snow crimson.

If the tiger so much as used a little force, her neck would be snapped in an instant.

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu stood, foot welded into place, unable to take a step.

Finally, she moved her toes and wanted to run backwards.

Suzanna’s feeble gasps were magnified, filling her ears. . . In fact, Suzanna had never been bad to her. She taught her the leopard language and took her out for walks in the mountains. Whenever they met danger, she was always the first to remind her.

Even though Suzanna didn’t like her very much.

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu looked back and saw that Suzanna had gradually stopped struggling, her tail stretching lifelessly behind her.

The tiger took hold of her neck and dragged her body backwards, leaving a long trail of blood on the ground.

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu squeezed her fist and made a snap decision.

Even if she ran away now, she would be overtaken by the tigers and she did not think they would leave her alone.

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu took out her climbing rope from her space and quickly climbed the tree closest to her.

She found a small area in her space, seeking out something useful.

The tasers were dead, and the Swiss army knife was only handy in close quarters. The blade was much too small to cause much damage to the tigers anyway. . .

What else did she have?

Under the tree, the tiger let Suzanna off his teeth and looked up at Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu, stepping closer and closer.

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu desperately discovered that apart from the two things she had just mentioned, she had almost no self-defense weapons in her space.

The saber-toothed tiger stretched his body up and readied his claws to climb the trunk——

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu clearly remembered that tigers didn’t climb trees, but the ones here were obviously different from the ones she knew.

The claws were getting closer to her, and in the next step would touch her toes.

When Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu was anxious and hopeless, suddenly her fingertips touched a string of cylindrical objects.

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu fixed her eyes on them and discovered they were a bunch of firecrackers.

Why was there something like this in her space??

She clearly remembered that time she had inventoried her space, and she had not seen anything like firecrackers in there.

It was too late to think much about it, since the tiger was almost to the top of the tree, and Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu quickly pulled out a lighter and lit the end. As the sizzle of burning began, she aimed it down towards the tiger’s face——

The firecracker exploded in a deafening bang.

Sparks leaped into the saber-toothed tiger’s eyes and a piece of the bamboo exploded in his face. He whined painfully and loosened his claws in the trunk, falling straight down to the ground.

. . .

The sound of the cracker attracted the attention of the beastmen and soon afterwords, several male leopards came this way.

When they saw the dying Suzanna under the tree and the bloody saber-toothed tiger beside her, their eyes were dim and they quickly guessed what was going on.

It must have been a group of tigers attempted to attack the leopard tribe and came across Suzanna.

One of them examined Suzanna’s body and found that her pulse was still beating slightly. He picked her up quickly and brought her back to the race.

They also took the saber-toothed tiger with them.

No one looked into the tree.

After they left, Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu took the rope and slowly climbed down the tree. When her feet touched the ground, her legs went soft and she almost fell into the snow.

*

Back at Ryan’s house, Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu stayed for a little while.

After a while, she suddenly remembered something and ransacked her space.

Sure enough, in the corner of the space, where she had never noticed before, there were several boxes of firecrackers neatly piled up.

On the outside, they were packed in colorful, festive paper, with fireworks and small firecrackers.

It looked. . . like the equipment for the Chinese New Year.

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu thought back hard. When she arrived, it was October 1st and early autumn. There were still several months before the Chinese New Year.

And the forest strictly prohibited firecrackers, so no one would have brought these.

Then, where did these firecrackers come from?

Even if her space had upgraded, creating things “out of nothing” simply would not make peace with science?

Not only that, but how could it be explained?

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu stood at the door thinking for a long time, and she still had no idea.

In the distance, beasts’ roars were long and loud, interrupting Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu’s thoughts with their ferocious voices. It rang in her ears and Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu’s body shook with fright, so she turned away.

. . . Had the saber-toothed tigers not left yet?

Did Ryan go out this morning because of them?

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu originally wanted to go out and see about Suzanna’s situation, but she walked out to the door of the courtyard and remembered she had no idea where she lived.

Moreover, to go out this time, she didn’t know if she would meet beasts again. . . so she gave up on it.

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu peacefully stayed in the house and wanted to tell Ryan after he came back about how badly Suzanna was hurt.

However, even when Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu’s wristwatch turned an entire circle, from nine in the morning to six at night, when night fell on the courtyard, and the entire Camuda Valley fell into silence, Ryan still did not return.