LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 102
102 Chapter 102 A Painful Victory
(Desmond POV)
That day five years ago, the day our fathers died, I realized that there were two kinds of people in this world, there were those who succumbed to despair, being carried away by madness and depravity, becoming something less than human; and there were those who found light in the darkness, those who in their most desperate moment refused to surrender and snatched the victory from fate’s hands, those who remained true to themselves.
I always hated those who succumbed and I always fought fervently to be the second kind of person, at this time when the pain in my left ribs and right thigh added to the tremendous amount of damage my legs had taken; in this moment of great pain, I refused to give up.
I promised my father that I would protect Claire, I promised Claire that she would come home and we would have a great life together; I even promised that clueless alchemist that I would not leave her alone.
′′ We Astryds are men of our word and a filthy beast won’t change that. ′′
A hoarse voice came out of my throat due to the enormous cry of pain that I had given a few moments ago, but more important than my words would be the actions that I would take next, I observed with enormous attention that damn tiger while I was thinking of a way to kill him; when my attention was strangely focused on his horns that he used as a siege weapon.
Remembering the beast’s tendency to lunges, then I begin to formulate a plan crazy enough that even I was hesitant to implement it myself, but given the current circumstances, it’s not like I had much of a choice.
Without much time to consider and give the initiative to the creeping tiger, I began to run as fast as I could in the direction of the tiger ignoring the pain in my legs, true to its nature the latter seemed to put aside his other methods of attack and decided to kill me with a brutal onslaught; just as he had anticipated.
Praying that my plan worked, I kept thinking about some details of it while the distance between the two of us was gradually reduced, when I was finally close enough, I used one more mana burst to perform a leap in the air while spinning rapidly. cartwheeling in this one.
.....
Due to the damage to my legs, the jump only managed to lift me a little more than two meters from the ground, but given the low posture that the dark-edged creeper tiger adopted this could well be enough.
When the flat part that joins its horns was about to hit me at an upward angle, I covered my hands with the Steel Claw skill and a compact version of my water barrier to greatly increase my defensive capacity so on the impact I deflected the vast majority of the force of impact turning it into a centrifugal force that made me spin many times faster than I was doing it moments ago.
The rest of the impact force served as momentum that shot me upward to a height that I was unable to determine given my current spinning situation, but as my turns stopped so did my ascent into the air.
When I finally stopped circling and could see down, I could see the creeping tiger quite confused as it looked around for me, soon I began to fall and my attention was strongly focused on my goal; the arrow he had fired at the beginning stuck into the defensive plate of the tiger’s spine.
′′ I hope this works. ′′
Bearing as best I could the enormous numbness in both of my arms, I gathered a ring of wind on my right wrist at the same time that I covered it with the steel claw skill once more; not wanting to leave anything to chance especially knowing that this was definitely my last chance, I used overload again this time focusing on the two abilities used in my right hand.
When I had fallen close enough to the creeper tiger, the latter seemed to notice me in the same way that he had noticed my full-power shot earlier, so I quickly shifted my stance hoping to get rid of my last attack.
I can only say that I was being naive, I had considered this scenario a long time ago when the distance between me and the tiger became dangerously close, I used the last skill in my arsenal, I used fiery blast to generate a small explosion of fire directed in a way. in which I change my trajectory and in a fraction of a second I was back aiming at my objective.
Only this time the tiger didn’t have the time or agility to dodge me again, poor beast, you can dodge me once, but wanting to surprise me with the same trick twice isn’t going to work that easily.
′′ Hey idiot tiger, are you hungry? Why don’t you eat a steel storm palm bitch? ′′
A huge pop took place as my palm struck the exposed tail of the arrow, with the tremendous force of impact originating from my palm strike the arrow struck completely into the creeper tiger’s back to the point where before the force of my blow it was consumed even in a fifty percent; my palm hit the bark plate on the tiger’s back, shattering it completely and causing a large number of bloody wood fragments to fly everywhere.
GAAAAAAARRRRRRRGHHH *
A roar of pain and agony was emitted from the dark-edged creeper tiger as it fell pathetically to the ground, its head moving with relative normality, but it was visibly unable to move any part of its body below the neck; his limbs were only shaking strangely probably due to the chaos of nervous commands caused by my arrow going straight through the spine.
Unfortunately, I was not in a position to show off my good health either, with visible thigh and rib injuries, severely damaged leg muscles, micro-fractures in my left arm due to impact against the tiger’s onslaught, and my right arm seriously damaged in multiple levels; the reality was that this could hardly be considered a Pyrrhic victory.
′′ God knows I’m going to get every last penny I can out of your fucking corpse bastard ′′