Chapter 100
Before Desmond had time to suddenly formulate a plan B, he watched in dismay as the creeper saws on the tiger’s back glowed an intense green glow before it shot a blast of wooden dowels at high speed in his direction.
As fast as he could, Desmond took cover using the tree trunk as cover until he felt the multiple intense impacts shake the tree he was in, when he wanted to briefly review the situation he found the tiger running at full speed in the direction of the tree in lunge posture; Seeing the massive wingspan of the beast and the structure of its skull designed to perform such thrusts, Desmond did not think for more than a second before leaping in another direction and landing some distance from where he had been relying on the branches of a tree. adjacent.
A huge collision sound forced him to turn around only to find that the tree from which he had fired his shot had been demolished by the powerful onslaught of the creeper tiger.
Taking advantage of the window of opportunity given by the slight daze that his prey seemed to suffer due to the onslaught that he made, Desmond took out a second special arrow and repeating the previous method of him fired a second shot at maximum power against the beast.
Leaving behind a trail of chaotic wind, the arrow aimed at the Creeper Tiger’s exposed neck was blocked by the latter by adjusting his posture and using the enormous muscle density of his shoulder as a shield.
This time the arrow went even deeper into the beast and left a huge bloody wound on it, but in addition to an almost imperceptible limp, the beast didn’t seem to feel the damage much and this attack seemed to further fuel its anger rather than weaken it. the creature.
Using all his anger and all the strength the huge beast could muster, he launched a second lunge that was aimed at Desmond rather than at a solid and sturdy target like a tree.
Being very clear about the power of this beast’s onslaught Desmond wasted no time in even considering defending himself against it and decided that the best course of action was to evade the attack rather than try to take it head-on like a suicidal idiot.
.....
Running towards the nearest tree, Desmond was barely reaching the base of it when the beast was practically nipping at his heels, so Desmond used a burst of mana to leap towards the tree and his feet barely touched the ground. the surface of the tree ten feet up Desmond had the opportunity to see the beast approach him dangerously.
Due to the colossal size of the beast, even with a burst propelled by mana burst, Desmond was unable to reach a height where he was safe from it, in a split second Desmond executed without hesitation a second burst of mana while harnessing the force of momentum he had from his previous jump to stand horizontally on the tree and use it as a base for a second jump.
Now crossing the air at a height of almost five meters, Desmond could watch the beast below him stop short before crashing into the tree as Desmond expected, and using one of his powerful front claws as a foothold he performed a 180 turn. degrees; now with its gaze fixed on Desmond who was still in the air, the tiger again executed its ranged spike attack trying to impale Desmond in the air.
Desmond’s only saving grace was that the beast was probably used to fighting bigger targets, adding to that the haste with which he executed his attack without aiming and the unbalanced posture he had now due to the sudden turn he had just executed; almost all spike attacks missed his target by a significant distance.
The only shot that came close to wounding Desmond was dodged by the latter in a hurry as he mustered as much torsional force as possible to twist his torso just enough for the shot to pass just inches from his right shoulder.
With no time to adjust his posture Desmond was forced to take a couple of knocks from the fall before regaining his posture and using a burst of mana to perform a side jump before ending up impaled by a huge spear-shaped spike that the tiger Creeper fired at him with a speed and power that far surpassed that seen before for his ranged attacks where he prioritized a flurry of small thorns to overwhelm his opponent than a full-power attack like that.
Desmond’s breathing at this point had become quite chaotic, the beast was too strong, resistant, and fast for Desmond to truly keep up with it; the reality was that right now Desmond was doing his best just to earn a few more seconds to live.
So clear was this, that the bow had already been placed on his shoulder; thus renouncing all consideration of mounting an offensive. Desmond knew that trying to defend himself or counterattack at this point after having missed his initial shots was only to seek his own death, after all both shots had been fired taking advantage of windows of opportunity that gave him the advantage of being able to take them at full power.
It was clear that the beast would never give him that opportunity again and that anything less powerful than those shots would be of no help at this time.
And yet Desmond did not show signs of having completely surrendered, no, that was not the kind of man that Desmond was, Desmond despite his many defects had virtues that although they did not make him a “good man” in the sense of traditional; they still made him an extraordinary man.
A burning flame full of imperishable will filled the pupils of Desmond’s blue eyes, the more dangerous the situation the more Desmond refused to surrender and the deeper his serenity became; But as conflicted as Desmond’s personality used to be at times, the serenity in his eyes and face were strangely adorned by a vicious smile full of inordinate aggressiveness.
′′ I will not be your prey, when this is over it will be your corpse that ends up on the ground and I can proudly tell Claire how to tame a beast like you. ′′
A slight hint of warmth passed through Desmond’s eyes as he mentioned Claire when talking to himself but this warmth was soon buried in the ice blue of Desmond’s eyes as he stared at the dark-edged creeper tiger as if there was not a single doubt in his mind. mind about who would come out alive between the two.