Fierce Battle

Su Hao kicked off the ground and darted to the side, but the Snow Flower Leopard reacted instantly, changing direction and continuing to pounce at him.

The Snow Flower Leopard's cold, indifferent pupils filled his vision. Blood Qi erupted from Su Hao's legs, and he dodged again.

The Snow Flower Leopard had no time to change direction once more, but it stretched out a forepaw and swept it at him. Its five sharp claws had already spread open, gleaming with a chilling light.

In his haste, Su Hao raised his Short Blade before him and grabbed the back of the blade with his other hand for support.

Yet his feet had not managed to plant themselves firmly on the ground and stabilize his center of gravity.

"Smack!"

The leopard's paw slammed into the blade, and a tremendous force sent Su Hao flying far away.

In a contest of weight, Su Hao was utterly defeated. At around twenty kilograms, he was practically a toy before the Snow Flower Leopard, which weighed over two hundred kilograms. Without the Short Blade in hand, Su Hao would not even have been qualified to stand before it.

Su Hao rolled across the ground several times, then flipped to his feet. He had only just steadied himself when the Snow Flower Leopard's attack was already right before him.

"Horizontal Slash!"

Su Hao adjusted his balance, gripped the blade with both hands, calculated the timing, and advanced rather than retreated. A slash swept horizontally toward the Snow Flower Leopard's neck.

Wu Yuntian had taught him this combat skill three days ago. It was said to be Wu Yuntian's signature technique.

Blood Qi erupted beneath his feet, then through his thighs and waist, driving both arms. The force of those successive bursts of Blood Qi coursed through his entire body and gathered in the blade in his hands, severing everything that dared stand before its edge.

Su Hao had practiced this move for a long time before finally grasping its fundamentals.

"Whoosh!"

A cold gleam swept past, leaving only a few strands of white fur drifting through the air.

At the critical moment, the Snow Flower Leopard had sensed the danger and dodged.

In other words, Su Hao's killing blow had missed.

The brief emptiness that followed the use of a combat skill washed over him. At this moment, it was difficult for him to erupt with Blood Qi again.

Su Hao's eyes followed Little Light's marker, locking firmly onto the Snow Flower Leopard's figure.

After evading Su Hao's attack, the Snow Flower Leopard planted all four paws in the snow, curled its body into a ball, then sprang up in an instant and pounced toward Su Hao.

This was the Snow Flower Leopard's true attack. For the first time, it opened its mouth and bared its sharp teeth.

"I can't dodge it!" Su Hao realized that he no longer had time to evade this attack from the Snow Flower Leopard.

He turned the blade point toward the Snow Flower Leopard's open maw. He would risk sending the blade into its mouth, piercing through its upper jaw and into its Brain for a one-hit kill.

At that very moment, a large hand suddenly grabbed the back of Su Hao's collar and yanked him aside. By the time he came to his senses, he had already arrived at an open patch nearby, while the Snow Flower Leopard stood a full ten meters away.

"That's enough for today. We'll come back tomorrow. Let's go!"

Wu Yuntian's voice reached him. Only then did Su Hao react, his Brain still muddled as he said, "Okay, Father."

Looking at the Snow Flower Leopard again, Su Hao saw it warily watching Wu Yuntian, who had appeared out of nowhere. It crouched low, looking ready to attack at any moment. Yet Su Fu could see the Snow Flower Leopard's desire to retreat.

Only now did Su Hao begin gulping down fresh air. His chest felt as though it were about to burst, his heart nearly leaping from his ribcage, while his hands and feet began to go Numbness.

That had been too thrilling! He followed behind Wu Yuntian in a daze for a long while before slowly coming back to himself.

"What? We're coming again tomorrow?"

The next day, Su Hao followed Wu Yuntian back into the Snow Flower Leopard's territory.

After finding the Snow Flower Leopard through Little Light, he once again stood before it.

By repeatedly replaying the battle with the Snow Flower Leopard in his mind, Su Hao recognized his own shortcomings.

He had fought using only speed and strength. But when he encountered an opponent whose speed and strength both surpassed his own, he no longer held any advantage.

Thus, he understood Wu Yuntian's intentions. Through fighting the Snow Flower Leopard, Wu Yuntian wanted to temper Su Hao's close-combat skills, allowing him to fully bring out his body's strength and speed and improve his overall power.

It made Su Hao sigh. The teaching methods of the Otherworld were truly this simple and brutal.

Having learned from last time, Su Hao was mentally prepared this time. He was certain he could hold out longer and even had a chance of killing his opponent.

Without waiting for the Snow Flower Leopard to attack first, Su Hao charged toward it.

This time, Su Hao did not use his full strength in the charge. Instead, he retained enough strength to adapt to whatever came.

His thinking was simple. Since he was inferior in both speed and strength, a straightforward battle would inevitably end in defeat.

Then he would avoid its sharp edge, refuse to confront it head-on, and instead weave, dodge, and block at close range, striking when it least expected it. Only then would he have a chance to win.

The Snow Flower Leopard suddenly lowered its body. The instant Su Hao came within three meters, it shot forward, pouring everything into a single strike, determined to bite this small, meager scrap of meat to death.

This was the absolute confidence the Snow Flower Leopard had forged through years of hunting. No prey had ever escaped such a close-range pounce and bite.

Su Hao had been waiting for this move. Unlike yesterday, he did not immediately leap left or right, because he knew that even if he jumped away from his original spot, the Snow Flower Leopard would swiftly turn and swat at him with a paw. At that point, he would be forced into passivity.

The instant the Snow Flower Leopard pounced, he halted his forward momentum, kicked off hard with both feet, and rapidly leaped backward, narrowly avoiding its pounce and bite.

As the Snow Flower Leopard bit at empty air and its forepaws had yet to touch the ground, Su Hao seized the chance to rush one step forward and viciously kicked it beneath the jaw.

"Bang!" With a muffled thud, the Snow Flower Leopard's entire head jolted as though a sledgehammer had struck it upward from below. Its upper and lower teeth collided with a crisp crack. This kick counted as Su Hao repaying yesterday's grudge of being slapped flying.

However, the difference in mass between Su Hao and the Snow Flower Leopard was simply too great. He had failed to make the Snow Flower Leopard's head tilt up, and instead the shock made his own foot ache fiercely.

After being kicked in the chin by Su Hao, the Snow Flower Leopard was so startled that it sprang high into the air on its own. It did not stop until it had retreated four or five steps, its eyes fixed warily on Su Hao.

"Rrroar..."

A low growl rumbled from its throat. Su Hao's kick had done little damage, but it had been enormously insulting.

Su Hao had no intention of letting it go and charged forward again.

He revealed his Sharp Short Blade, once more weaving through a small area to evade the Snow Flower Leopard's attack. In the gap after its attack missed and before new force could arise, he lunged in and casually stabbed it somewhere, then ran the instant he landed the strike, caring nothing for the result.

At no point did he use all his strength. He always ensured that enough power remained to evade any attack that might come at any time.

The Snow Flower Leopard's enormous body gave it immense strength and astonishing sprinting speed, but greatly reduced its advantage in small-range maneuvering. After each attack, it needed a brief moment to gather strength before launching the next.

That was why the Snow Flower Leopard always sought to kill with a single strike when hunting. Once one strike failed, that hunt would end in failure.

Su Hao seized those fleeting opportunities and continuously added new wounds to the Snow Flower Leopard's body.

Before long, the Snow Flower Leopard's body was stained scarlet. Against its snow-white fur, the color stood out especially vividly. Soon, the blood froze into ice crystals beneath the wind and snow, glittering with a different kind of luster under the sunlight.

With each exchange, Su Hao's grasp of the rhythm of battle grew stronger, while the chances of the Snow Flower Leopard's claws touching him became ever more remote.

No matter how the Snow Flower Leopard roared, it could do nothing to Su Hao. It only allowed more and more blood to flow away as its body gradually weakened.

Su Hao could tell that the Snow Flower Leopard had already shown fear and was shrinking back. Once it started running, he had no confidence that he could catch it.

"Then this time, I'll finish it with one slash."