159 Tiger Vanguard

Du Ruo's body had recovered. Ever since his vital energy and spirit attribute points broke past 10, various attributes had undergone changes, such as his digestive capacity, recovery ability, and stamina.

Although his limbs and body still ached somewhat, and his muscles would occasionally twitch uncontrollably, Du Ruo's physical strength was beginning to return, so it did not affect his mobility.

"Big kitty cat, you've finally learned to behave, haven't you?"

Du Ruo squatted down beside the tiger, patted its large head, and chuckled.

"Roar!"

The tiger flicked its tail and let out a roar, still unwillingly opening its wide mouth to snap at Du Ruo's arm.

"Slap!"

Du Ruo was in no mood to coddle it. He pulled his hand back just in time to avoid the bite, and then delivered a resounding smack right across its face. Having exchanged a few blows with the tiger earlier, he knew its skin was thick and tough; ordinary punches and kicks simply couldn't hurt it.

After landing the blow, Du Ruo reached out once more and resumed petting the tiger's head.

"Slap!"

The tiger jerked its head aside and lashed out at Du Ruo's arm with its paw.

"Oh? Still acting up, smack!!"

The tiger's paw was soft and limp, lacking any real intimidation. Du Ruo simply shifted his arm slightly to dodge it again, and then delivered another heavy smack to the tiger's head—harder this time.

"Humph!!"

The tiger wasn't entirely convinced. It snorted a puff of hot air from its nose, but instead of launching a counterattack, it turned its head away, refusing to look at Du Ruo.

Seeing the tiger act like this, Du Ruo felt no need to hold back, his hands wandering all over the beast.

To be honest, though, petting a tiger wasn't all that comfortable. Its fur was stiff and prickly, somewhat like touching a steel scouring pad, which felt vastly different from stroking a clouded leopard. If it weren't for the fact that it was a tiger, Du Ruo wouldn't even have bothered to touch it.

Of course, thought was one thing, but Du Ruo's actions were completely uninhibited. He grabbed the tiger's tail and wrapped it around his hand twice, grabbed a leg to examine the massive paw, and even contemplated lifting its hind leg out of curiosity to see what the legendary ingredient used for soaking medicinal wine looked like.

"Roar!!"

The tiger could no longer remain calm. Propping up its upper body with a supreme effort, it opened its jaws and lunged at Du Ruo's shoulder. If it weren't for the fact that it simply couldn't stand up, it probably would have gone straight for Du Ruo's head.

"Bang!!"

Without even lifting his head, Du Ruo raised his elbow and drove it upward into the tiger's chin. Normally, this move was called a hooking punch with a lifted elbow, but since the tiger hadn't extended its claws, Du Ruo skipped the hook and went straight for the elbow strike, snapping the tiger's chin upward and sending it crashing back to the ground.

This time, the tiger stopped struggling and stared up at the sky with an expression of utter despair: "The day started out so well, why did I have to run into such a freak? I can't beat him in a fight, and I can't outrun him either."

"Ahem, never mind, I won't look at that part."

Feeling that he might have gone a bit too far, Du Ruo cleared his throat to mask his awkwardness, then pulled his smartphone out of his backpack. The phone was holding up well; Du Ruo had kept it tucked safely inside the pack, so it survived the rough tumbling unscathed. However, the battery was running low, thanks largely to the fact that when the tiger kicked him away earlier, the backpack hadn't taken the brunt of the impact against a tree.

Du Ruo took out a power bank and, while charging his phone, initiated a video call with Xiang Yuanyuan.

"Du Ruo, are you out of the mountains already? You suddenly messaged me."

Xiang Yuanyuan answered the video call almost instantly, though the connection was slightly laggy. The moment she saw Du Ruo's face, she hurriedly began questioning him.

Two days ago, Du Ruo had told Xiang Yuanyuan that he was heading into the mountains to find tigers and bears over the next couple of days. Normally, to save battery, his phone stayed powered off, and he would only turn it on in the evenings to chat with her for a while.

It was no wonder Xiang Yuanyuan was curious when he suddenly called during daylight hours.

"Hehe, not yet. Here, let me show you a big treasure."

Du Ruo chuckled twice, then panned the camera to the side, revealing the tiger's massive head right in the frame.

"Whoa! Wow, wow, wow! It's a tiger! Did you beat the tiger to death?"

Xiang Yuanyuan's eyes widened as she shrieked in disbelief. Seeing Du Ruo sitting casually next to a tiger and chatting with her was a completely different concept from seeing one in a zoo.

However, Xiang Yuanyuan quickly noticed the tiger's hopeless expression and motionless body, assuming it had been killed by Du Ruo, and asked the question subconsciously.

"Nah, this tiger ran super fast. I chased it for over two hours before wearing it out until it collapsed. Come on, big kitty, say hello!"

Du Ruo offered an explanation, then, seeing the tiger's despairing look, reached out and slapped it on the head again.

"Roar~"

The tiger let out a feeble, weary growl.

"Wow, ahhh, Du Ruo, why didn't you take me with you? I want to pet the big tiger too."

Xiang Yuanyuan was extremely excited, dying to experience the thrill of petting a giant cat.

"It's not nice to pet at all, feels just like sandpaper. When I get back, I'll take you to pet a clouded leopard instead."

As Du Ruo spoke, his hands didn't stop, patting the tiger on its belly and rump.

The two of them chatted as if no one else was around, with Du Ruo describing what it felt like to stroke a tiger's head, its belly, and its tail. Finally, under Xiang Yuanyuan's reluctant gaze, he ended the call and put away his phone.

It wasn't that Du Ruo didn't want to keep video chatting, but the tiger had rested long enough. Even if its stamina wasn't fully recovered, it would at least be able to move again very soon.

Worried that the tiger might bounce back and want another round of fighting, Du Ruo hung up ahead of time to avoid getting his phone ruined.

"Are you recovered yet? If you've recovered, get up. Do you want to go another round?"

Du Ruo squatted down beside the tiger and poked its massive head.

The tiger climbed up from the ground. Perhaps realizing it could neither beat nor outrun this human, it ignored Du Ruo entirely and began vigorously shaking its body, flinging off fallen leaves and blades of grass stuck to its fur. Without even sparing Du Ruo a glance, it started walking away at an unhurried pace.

Du Ruo didn't leave either; he simply followed closely behind the tiger at a leisurely pace. He had pretty much mastered the tiger form already, but he hadn't planned on leaving just yet anyway. Since he had no information on any bears at the moment, he figured he might as well tag along with the tiger.

The tiger walked forward for about a kilometer or two. As it walked, right under Du Ruo's watchful eye, it began to slow its pace. The rumbling, sports-car-like resonance in its chest vanished in an instant, and its footsteps grew light.

The feeling at that moment was like watching a heavily armored tank instantly transform into an agile assassin.

Seeing this transformation, Du Ruo immediately knew something was up. Channeling "qi" into his ears, he stopped in his tracks and began listening intently.

"Hmph hmph~"

A familiar sound drifted into Du Ruo's ears from afar—it was the grunting of wild boars that he had heard before, mixed with faint rustling noises.

Hearing this, Du Ruo immediately understood: there must be a sounder of wild boars foraging ahead.

"Now this is a rare opportunity."

Du Ruo's eyes lit up. This was the prelude to a tiger hunt. Come to think of it, he had expended a massive amount of energy running so far earlier, and the tiger was probably in the same boat, desperately needing food right now.

Intrigued, Du Ruo imitated the tiger, regulating his breathing, concealing his presence, and slowing his pace as he crept forward.

The prowling tiger glanced at Du Ruo, then turned its head away with a haughty expression, ignoring him altogether.

One tiger and one human approached the wild boars from two different directions, moving step by step.

Eighty meters. Fifty meters. Through the gaps between the trees, Du Ruo could faintly see the wild boars. It was a group—four large wild boars accompanied by a bunch of piglets. Obstructed by the trees, the exact number was unclear, but there were probably around four to six of them.

The boars were quite spread out. The adults were rooting around in the soil for roots and tubers, while the piglets, weighing around forty or fifty pounds each, followed behind the adults searching for morsels in the freshly turned dirt, completely unaware that a fierce predator was lurking nearby.

At a distance of just over thirty meters, the tiger began to lower its posture, bending its front legs in a manner resembling a crawl.

Twenty meters. The largest wild boar in the group suddenly sensed danger, stopped in its tracks, and began scanning its surroundings.

Right at that moment, the tiger made its move. Pushing off with its front limbs, it stopped crawling and broke into a full-speed dash, accelerating rapidly.

Simultaneously, the moment the tiger charged, Du Ruo also engaged his pelvic girdle and burst into a sprint. As he ran, a crimson mist rose from his body and condensed around him into the phantom image of a tiger.

Even though both the tiger and Du Ruo had launched a charge, they moved in complete silence and at blinding speed, closing the distance to within ten meters of the boars in the blink of an eye.

"Squeak! Squeak!!"

The largest boar spotted the tiger, let out a piercing squeal, and bolted in a random direction without looking back.

Hearing the alarm, the other boars instantly snapped into action, fleeing in the wake of the lead adult.

However, it was already too late. The moment the big boar let out its shrill cry, the tiger and Du Ruo launched their pounces almost simultaneously.

A distance of nearly ten meters was closed in a single leap. The tiger locked its sights on a piglet; with a ten-meter flying pounce combined with its five-to-six-hundred-pound body weight, it crashed directly onto the piglet and clamped its jaws around its neck.

Before the piglet could even squeak, its neck was sealed firmly in the tiger's jaws.

Meanwhile, Du Ruo launched into action alongside the tiger, though he took one extra step, executing his pounce from about seven or eight meters away, targeting the closest piglet.

Du Ruo lunged forward, forming his palms into tiger claws, grabbing the piglet by the neck with one hand and its hind leg with the other.

The momentum of the pounce was unstoppable. As Du Ruo seized the piglet with both hands and exerted force, the bones in its neck snapped with a crisp "crack."

With this sudden ambush, the human and the tiger had each secured a piglet, while the remaining boars fled helter-skelter behind the adult.

Don't blame the adult boar for not protecting its young—if it encountered other animals, it certainly would have fought to protect them, but this was a tiger, or rather, what felt like "two" tigers. It was a miracle the adults hadn't been scared out of their wits.

"Roar!!!"

Seemingly feeling that it was top dog again, the tiger dropped the dead piglet from its jaws and let out a long roar at Du Ruo, full of warning and menace.

"Roar!!!!!!!"

Du Ruo was not about to indulge it. Ruffling his chest and abdomen, he opened his mouth and projected his voice using "spirit," infused with a massive amount of "qi." A roar far exceeding the tiger's in volume blasted straight toward the beast's face.

The sound wave carried such force that the tiger couldn't help but tilt its head slightly, and even its whipping tail dropped a few inches.

"Roar-roar~~"

When Du Ruo's roar ceased, the tiger let out a low, short grumble, then—conceding defeat—picked up the dead piglet in its mouth and walked off to the side.

"Hmph, that's more like it. You're so big, and calling you 'big kitty cat' all the time isn't quite fitting anymore. From now on, I'll call you Tiger Vanguard. That momentum and hunting posture just now really had a bit of the Vanguard's flair to it."

Dragging the piglet by one leg, Du Ruo walked alongside the tiger. Seeing it behave obediently, he couldn't help patting its head and bestowing upon it an imposing new moniker.

The reason he was dragging the piglet was that he was starving as well. The primary reason both human and tiger had tacitly targeted the piglets was that their energy reserves were heavily depleted after the chase; only the smaller boars offered a surefire chance of success.

*(Tiger vocalizations:
"Awu~" A long howl, used when patrolling territory.
"Roar!!!" A long roar, used as a threat or intimidation.
"Roar-roar~~" A short call, indicating submission and pleading for mercy, similar to a house cat's "meow," just with a rougher timbre.
"Woo-woo~~" A short, snarling call, meaning it is full, cannot eat anymore, and wants you to get lost.
"Ao-oh~", "Ao~" and other random calls usually made by tiger cubs, meaning nothing in particular other than being bored and letting out a couple of barks.)*