Chapter 136: Injury
The light ahead was like a candle in the dark, and it gave Zhang Xiao Qiang some hope. He managed to muster some stamina and began to crawl towards it with all his might. All of a sudden, the tunnel behind him began to collapse, burying his legs. The loud roar behind him caused his eardrums to go numb, the D2 had already reached behind him. He began to struggle and kick out with his legs, extracting them. At that moment, the earth was already dug out, the D2’s claw was within a few centimeters from him.
He mustered all his strength and pulled himself forwards. There was no more need to use his head to feel the path. Even though the D2 was behind him, his speed could maintain an equilibrium with the D2’s digging. Finally, Zhang Xiao Qiang reached the hole, while the D2 was obstructed by the cement wall of the granary.
He climbed out the ditch, panting, he was now like a dusty monkey, his entire body covered with dirt and mud. Other than his eyes, he was perpetually black everywhere.
“Peng…” The wall started to splinter like a spider web. Following another loud sound, the cracks begin to deepen and become clearer. Some dust and debris were shaken loose. Zhang Xiao Qiang stared at the wall in shock. This was a wall that was constructed during an era where quality was emphasized! It was not a wall where quality was compromised from saving on material cost!
Once more, another blow caused the wall to crack open, as a small hole revealed the D2’s legs on the other side. Zhang Xiao Qiang did not dare to stay any longer as he bolted.
Previously, the tunnel had been dug by those survivors, and the cement wall had already lost its support. Being pierced by an S2 wouldn’t even be a surprise anymore. The D2 would obviously not wait for Zhang Xiao Qiang to catch his breath, nor would Zhang Xiao Qiang hope for the D2’s sense of smell to fail.
His current stamina was not enough for him to go for a Round 3. He could only run, and there was no more intention to die together with the D2.
He had no more means and was out of ideas. He was just like a thirsty man who had come to the edge of the sea, his only motive now was to breathe as much as he could, and to savor his heartbeat for as long as he could. It was all just to prolong his life for a little while longer.
His brain was blank, the previous few exchanges that had left him almost on the brink of death had wiped him of all energy. Yang Ke’er was safe, his goal had been met, now everything else was additional time earned. It was his last struggle before his death.
“Hua la…” the entire wall in the granary was punched through in a cloud of dust, as the towering frame of the D2 stepped through, and he kicked away the remnants of the debris. The scattered concrete was sent flying in all directions, and Zhang Xiao Qiang was hit in the leg by one piece that he couldn’t evade. The resulting fracture sent sharp pain racking through his body, but he gritted his teeth through it and climbed up a pile of rice. When he reached about 5m from the ground, the D2 had reached him.
The distance of 5m wasn’t exactly high, as a normal person could climb up in about 2 or 3 pulls. But to the D2 that liked to use its force instead of climbing, the 2m distance was like the step between heaven and hell. It pummeled the piles of bags of rice in front of it, but no matter how much it punched, the rice was able to scatter the force. If Zhang Xiao Qiang had been standing on a cement wall, he would have died umpteen times over. However, he now had the chance to catch his breath and rest, while watching the D2 venting on the bags of rice, while he slowly recovered.
After punching the bags to no avail, the D2 stopped. It realized its efforts were futile. It stopped hitting the bags, instead, it started to grab the bags and its claws pierced into the bags, scattering rice all over the ground. The rice grains spread all over the ground like precious pearls, and when Zhang Xiao Qiang saw the outermost bags starting to sink, he quickly climbed back, evading the grabs of the D2.
It started with dozens of bags being grabbed before hundreds of them were torn, then thousands and the grain was starting to pile up around the D2. It realized that it could not move, and it bellowed out in rage, waving its claws trying to bash its way out of the rice. However, with each slap, it would just send the pearl-white grains of rice flying everywhere, some even hitting Zhang Xiao Qiang’s face and body, sliding into his shirt.
The grains flowed like water, and no matter how much the D2 grabbed or slapped in its weird dance, the rice grains surrounding it did not seem to lessen, instead, because of the spilling from the countless bags, the grain was rising, and covering more of its legs.
As time passed, Zhang Xiao Qiang felt his stamina recover by a great margin. Watching the D2 struggle within the mountain of grain, he knew his chance was here. He could not kill it, but he had to grab the chance to escape.
“Hoo…Ha…” He lifted a sack of rice and threw it at the D2. His strength could not compare to Yang Ke’er, and the sack of rice soared slightly before landing at the outer pile, sliding down towards the D2. He did not expect much anyway, nor would the sack be able to instant kill the D2. He just wanted to use more sacks to bury it. That way, when he ran, there would no way for the D2 to chase him. Although it was temporarily trapped in the rice, as long as it stepped back a few steps, it could extract itself from the grain. Zhang Xiao Qiang could not let it have such a chance.
Bags were flung by Zhang Xiao Qiang at the D2. Sometimes, the D2 would grab the nearby bags and throw it back at him. However, it had lost part of its vision and had poor aim. As long as Zhang Xiao Qiang watched carefully, he could dodge the incoming bags. He grabbed the water canteen from his side and gulped down a mouthful of water, and the fiery feeling in his throat subsided slightly. By now, the D2 had been submerged in the grains of rice till they reached its chest. It tried to grab more bags to fling them elsewhere, but it caused even more grains to spill from the punctured bags.
Knowing that the time was ripe, Zhang Xiao Qiang did not dally any longer. He followed the flow of the bags and slide down, stepping carefully in the pile of rice grains and made his way out. The rice was everywhere, and if he was not careful he could fall down. Hence, he had to be careful. The opportunity was difficult to come by, he could not slip up just because of a moment of folly. The D2 knew that Zhang Xiao Qiang was on the ground, and it tried to adjust and chase after. It began to get anxious. This little rat had caused it to suffer greatly throughout the day. If it didn’t gobble him up and crunch his bones thoroughly, the rage in its heart would not subside. It began to struggle madly, grabbing more sacks of rice and throwing them towards Zhang Xiao Qiang.
He dodged the incoming sacks while walking on the slippery ground. He was also anxious in his heart, having managed to escape with such difficulty. However, the slippery ground would not allow him to pick up his pace. He could only pray to the heavens to help him get past this ordeal.
One particular sack came soaring towards him, and he hurried to get down on the ground, allowing the sack to fly over him. But before he could stand up, another sack came flying over. He continued to lay on the ground, but the sack hit a pile of rice bags above his head, and some of them were dislodged from their positions and came crashing down. At the last moment, he could not evade all of them, and one heavy sack smashed into his chest.
“Pu…” Just like Yang Ke’er earlier, Zhang Xiao Qiang spat out a mouthful of fresh blood.