Reborn One Week Before the Apocalypse

Chapter 111: Chapter 103: Challenging Oneself

Tang Mo had two plans in mind. The first was to pull out her pistol.

The bear’s movements were slightly slower than other Intermediate Beasts, and Tang Mo was confident her aim was good enough to hit its eyes.

This was the safer option.

But Tang Mo decided against it. She preferred to rely on her own true strength and give it a shot without any external aids.

It wasn’t every day you came across a beast this big.

Just as Tang Mo got to her feet, Lin Wan and the others had already rushed past her to engage the bear.

The people from Yunshui Town were genuinely poor. None of them were holding proper weapons; instead, they wielded construction scraps like steel rebar and iron rods they’d scrounged from who-knows-where.

By any measure, they stood no chance of harming the bear in the slightest.

However, they did buy Tang Mo a bit of time. Just as they were sent flying by a swipe from the bear, Tang Mo charged forward again with Wind Breaker.

She had realized that in a head-on attack, her Strength wasn’t enough to drive her blade into the bear’s chest.

Her only option was to leap onto the bear’s back and, from the closest possible range, plunge her blade into its most vulnerable spot: the eyes.

Shaking out her aching arms and legs, Tang Mo pushed off her toes and vaulted onto the bear’s back.

The three-meter-tall bear was nearly the height of two people stacked together. Tang Mo knelt on its shoulders, her legs gripping it tightly. She grabbed a fistful of fur on its neck with one hand while her right hand thrust Wind Breaker toward its eye with lightning speed.

She didn’t dare wrap her legs around the bear’s neck; its paws could have easily shredded them.

Her current position was more difficult, but it was safer. ’Safety is what matters most.’

Stabbing at its eye from its shoulders wasn’t an ideal angle, and she couldn’t put her full force behind the blow.

Besides, Intermediate Beasts these days were frighteningly intelligent. They knew their own weaknesses and were especially careful to protect them.

Tang Mo made an attempt, realized it was futile, and quickly changed her strategy.

She decided to aim for its ear instead of its eye.

The ear, after all, was right beside her.

Raising Wind Breaker, Tang Mo channeled all her spiritual power into her right arm in that single instant and plunged the blade into the bear’s ear canal.

For any creature of flesh and blood, the inner ear is an extremely vulnerable spot.

While her blade couldn’t penetrate the bear’s skull to kill it instantly, it did pierce straight through its eardrum, and blood immediately gushed out.

The pain was excruciating. A split second before the bear went berserk, Tang Mo leaped from its shoulders, rolled, and put a safe distance between herself and the beast.

Those who lack Strength can’t afford to fight head-on. This was a lesson Tang Mo had learned long ago.

Through countless real battles, she had long since discovered the fighting style that suited her best.

The pain drove the bear into an even greater frenzy. It began madly tearing at any tree within reach with its massive paws.

Uncle He, quick to react, had immediately led everyone to retreat another great distance the moment Tang Mo’s blade struck home.

But Wang Er, who was poisoned and unable to stand, wasn’t so lucky. His underlings had already vanished without a trace, completely forgetting he even existed.

The unfortunate Wang Er became the bear’s first target. The raging beast strode over to where he lay on the ground, raised a paw, and slammed it down heavily onto his stomach.

Everyone turned their heads away, and someone covered the two children’s eyes.

Perhaps because the pain in its ear was too intense, the blow did nothing to quell the bear’s rage. It stomped on him several more times, until Wang Er was nothing but a pile of gore. Only then did it lumber unsteadily toward Uncle He and the others.

”Mommy, I want Mommy...”

The scene was like something out of a horror film. Even the adults could barely stomach it, let alone a small child who had never witnessed anything like it.

When he saw the behemoth lumbering toward them like a small, teetering mountain, blood streaming from its head and its body splattered with Wang Er’s gore, Mao Tou, who had been holding back his tears, could no longer contain himself.

”SOB... Mommy, I want my mommy... Mommy, I’m scared...”

The child’s cries were like a knife to the heart.

His mother, Lin Wan, had taken a heavy blow from the bear and was completely unable to get back to her feet.

She couldn’t even get to her son’s side; all she could do was watch helplessly as the bear approached him.

”Mao Tou, don’t be afraid! Mommy’s right here,” Lin Wan called out, her voice choked with sobs. She was frantic and bitter, and tears streamed down her face.

Zhou Jian stepped forward to shield Uncle He and the others, taking the place of the downed superpower users, but everyone knew it was a futile gesture, like a praying mantis trying to stop a chariot.

But just as the bear closed to within fifty meters of the group, it suddenly faltered.

Then, everyone saw a long blade buried deep in the bear’s eye socket.

As it turned out, Tang Mo had taken advantage of the bear’s distraction, leaping back onto it from the side of its injured ear.

Capitalizing on its deafness on that side and its dulled senses from the pain, she had launched a surprise attack on its eye.

Wrenching her blade free, Tang Mo moved behind the bear’s neck, plunged the sword back in, and then, gripping the hilt, threw her body weight downwards.

The blade sliced all the way from its neck down to its tailbone.

With its back split open, the mountain-like bear finally lost its ability to fight. It stood there, stunned and motionless.

Everyone was stunned by the sudden turn of events, completely unsure of what to do.

Tang Mo’s actions were too fast, her moves too unpredictable for anyone to even guess what she would do next.

’Kick ’em while they’re down.’ Tang Mo had channeled her spiritual power into her arms for that last move, and it had exhausted nearly all her energy.

But this was no time to relax. The only three superpower users in the group were already down. Judging by Zhou Jian’s terrified expression, he couldn’t be counted on. The finishing blow would still have to be delivered by Tang Mo herself.

She leaped onto the bear’s back one more time. The beast was now virtually powerless to resist.

Tang Mo expended the last of her spiritual power, driving Wind Breaker up through the bear’s jaw and into its throat.

THUD

The behemoth finally collapsed. The tremendous crash startled flocks of resting birds, sending them scattering into the sky.

Tang Mo planted Wind Breaker in the ground, leaning on it as she panted, trying to catch her breath.

She looked a bit of a mess, but she was still quite satisfied with herself.

After all, it was a huge improvement over collapsing to the ground, unable to move.

’One shouldn’t be greedy. A little progress is good enough.’

Tang Mo could clearly feel that during this battle, the energy she had absorbed from the Crystal Cores had finally, through repeated combat, fully integrated with her body.

Her control over her own body felt much more natural and intuitive.

Moreover, the combat experience she was accumulating allowed her to face unexpected situations with greater composure.

Tang Mo wasn’t used to having teammates, so she had always focused on cultivating her ability to handle any sudden crisis on her own.