Bargaining

The sudden betrayal of his two underlings caught him completely off guard.

He snarled, trying to shake the two crazed subordinates out of their stupor.

"What's going on? What's wrong with you two? Did I not give you enough last time? I'll give each of you a whole arm this time, that should be plenty."

The Paoxiao leader dodged his underlings' attacks in a fluster, bargaining as he went.

If Tu Ran didn't have the [Language Talent] ability, watching this scene would have looked like three mad dogs fighting.

The kind that bite and yelp at the same time.

But since she could understand the alien language, she could clearly make out their conversation.

"Hey, do you two still treat me as your leader?!"

In response, one of his underlings bit him right on the rump.

"Ouch!" he yelped.

He leaped two meters into the air in pain.

"Are you two done?! Can't you see that human is laughing at us?!" he roared furiously.

"Let's join forces and kill this human, and I'll give each of you a leg, that should be enough!"

The two underlings ignored him, doing their best to pounce on him.

They were completely under Tu Ran's control. In their minds, there were only three words: kill him!

After repeated attempts at persuasion failed, the Paoxiao leader stopped indulging his two underlings and went on the offensive himself.

He was extremely aggressive. Earlier, it was only because he had held back out of consideration for his comrades that the two underlings had managed to get the jump on him and land several bites.

Now in full eruption, the two underlings couldn't even get close to him.

Instead, they were forced back by his bites.

The Paoxiao leader gradually realized something was off about his two underlings.

They seemed to have lost their wits, as if controlled by something.

As an alien with abilities who had seen the world, he quickly caught on and turned his gaze to Tu Ran.

The hallucination mushroom on her shoulder, its colors constantly shifting, instantly clarified everything.

It was this cunning human who was behind it all!

She was using the hallucination mushroom to control his two underlings.

He kicked off his hind legs and lunged at Tu Ran.

He was going to tear this crafty human limb from limb.

Mid-air, just three to five meters from her, his two underlings leaped up before he could reach her. All three Paoxiao crashed heavily to the ground, tumbling together in a tangle.

Tu Ran watched the battle from the sidelines. At her estimate, these two underlings alone were no match for the Paoxiao leader.

She couldn't just sit idle.

The hallucination mushroom wouldn't keep these two Paoxiao under control for much longer.

She drew the long blade from her waist and charged forward.

It had been three Paoxiao against one human.

Now it was her and two Paoxiao against the leader.

The two Paoxiao kept the leader occupied, giving him no time to focus, while Tu Ran leaped into the air and mounted his back.

She brought her blade down toward his head.

The moment the blade collided with his neck, it felt like hitting a wall of bronze and iron, jarring her hand so hard it went numb.

She refused to give up. Gripping the blade with both hands, she hacked down with all her might.

Still, not a scratch.

The Paoxiao beneath her dodged his underlings' attacks while furiously shaking his body, trying to throw off the annoying human on his back.

Tu Ran grabbed a fistful of hair at the back of his head, struggling to hold on, while her other hand gripped the knife and kept stabbing at his head.

Stabbing wherever she could.

One thrust landed in the false eye he used to confuse enemies.

That was one of his weaker spots, and the blade sank in.

Tu Ran didn't pull it out right away. Instead, she twisted it around a couple of times.

Finding an opening wasn't easy.

Blood gushed out.

Although the Paoxiao leader had the [Adamantine Body] ability, granting him fast regeneration and strong defense, he still had the pain receptors to prove it.

He roared in agony, cursing at the sky.

"Despicable human! Evil human! Get off me! Aaahhh!!!"

He bit down on the neck of one underling, whipping its body around, venting his rage on it.

His sharp fangs tore through the underling's flesh, and his powerful bite force snapped its head clean off.

Blood sprayed everywhere, and the underling's body went limp.

He spat out a head, his dull green, bloodthirsty eyes locking onto the next underling.

That underling was startled by the scene before it, and it seemed to momentarily shake off the hallucination mushroom's control. It lowered its body and backed away, no longer attacking.

The Paoxiao leader then focused all his attention on Tu Ran on his back.

He charged at a tree trunk, slamming into it again and again. If once didn't work, twice, three times.

The thick tree shook, sending leaves showering down.

Up in the tree, poor Fatty hugged the trunk even tighter.

Tu Ran couldn't hold on any longer. In the instant she was flung off, she shoved an armor-piercing round into his eye socket.

With the explosion of the armor-piercing round, the Paoxiao was blasted ten meters away, crashing into a tree trunk before hitting the ground.

The round did a number on him.

He staggered to his feet, shaking his head a few times to clear it.

How could Tu Ran let this moment of weakness pass? She bit her finger again, smearing blood on the slightly dimmed hallucination mushroom. The mushroom immediately regained its brilliance.

Tu Ran intensified her control over the surviving Paoxiao.

'Go!' she commanded in her mind.

The Paoxiao immediately lost its self-awareness and charged at the leader.

Tu Ran also activated Blink, appearing beside the Paoxiao leader in the blink of an eye. She crouched low and fired a series of shots at the eye under his armpit.

One eye burst open on the spot, its contents splattering everywhere.

The Paoxiao roared in pain.

It hadn't expected the foolish human to dare attack at such close range. It swung its claw furiously, swiping at Tu Ran's head.

A tiger's paw the size of her head—one swipe like that would at least leave her brains splattered.

But after the bomb blast and the loss of one eye, its reaction speed had slowed considerably.

Tu Ran activated Blink the moment its claw came near, flashing to its other side.

The Paoxiao hadn't even reacted.

Its other eye was already hit by a bullet—*bang*—and burst.

Both eyes blind, it flew into a complete rage.

It attacked every source of sound madly.

Biting, crashing, slashing—like a rabid dog, it destroyed everything around it.

Tu Ran stood at a distance, leaving the rest of the fight to the two Paoxiao.

When two fighters clash, one must die.

Whichever survived, that was the one she'd deal with next.

As it turned out, the leader was the leader for a reason.

Even blind in both eyes and hit square in the face by a bomb, it could still dominate its underling.

Its massive paw came down out of the air with the force of thunder, snapping the underling's spine in two.

The Paoxiao underling let out a whimper, struggling to get up, but with a broken back, it couldn't stand no matter how hard it tried.

TL Note:

Paoxiao (狍鸮) is a mythical beast in Chinese legend.