175: Chapter 175 What are we waiting for if we don't run?

It was only because Hu Gualing was thick-skinned that he could endure the pain and discomfort in his fists and arms to focus on the battle.

However, in addition to attacking, Hu Gualing's dodging of the Mutated White Wild Boar's attacks also placed a significant burden on his arms.

His Lazy Donkey Roll skill required the muscles of his entire body to exert force in coordination. Admittedly, in previous executions, the greatest burden fell on his leg muscles. This was because the moments he needed to use this skill were often critical junctures where his body didn't have time to make more adjustments, making the exertion posture very awkward and even close to defying Newtonian physics. Although this didn't affect the evasion effect of the Lazy Donkey Roll, performing such an awkward movement placed a massive burden on his muscles. After using it several times in succession, Hu Gualing would feel muscle soreness and weakness throughout his entire body. Especially the leg muscles, which were the first to exert force and did so in the most awkward way, bore the heaviest burden. After two or three consecutive exertions, he would feel as if his legs had been twisted into dough sticks.

Therefore, in past battles, once the Lazy Donkey Roll skill was used, the leg muscles were the most affected. After multiple consecutive uses, Hu Gualing would experience trembling legs and an inability to stand steadily.

However, this battle with the Mutated White Wild Boar was different.

The enemy Hu Gualing faced this time, the Mutated White Wild Boar, was not only not particularly fast but also very rigid in its actions. It simply swung its pig hands—which were as large as the mouth of a sauce jar—down from a height toward the player's crown. The only variation was alternating between the left and right hands, which didn't put too much pressure on Hu Gualing. Thus, once Hu Gualing became familiar with the combat rhythm, he felt no panic at all when using the Lazy Donkey Roll to dodge the Mutated White Wild Boar's attacks. Instead, he prepared his strength and movements in advance, rolling with considerable composure. Naturally, there was no situation where forcibly using the skill led to an increased physical burden. This was why Hu Gualing had fought for so long and used the Lazy Donkey Roll so many times without the previous symptoms of full-body muscle soreness and being unable to stand steadily.

However, as a result, while using the Lazy Donkey Roll with the correct exertion method indeed reduced the burden on his leg muscles, his two arms bore greater pressure. This was because when leaning forward and curling into a ball to roll during the Lazy Donkey Roll, he relied on his two arms to push off the ground, supporting his entire body weight and allowing him to roll forward quickly.

Additionally, Hu Gualing had never stopped his attacks on the Mutated White Wild Boar, and the counter-shock force from his fists hitting the Mutated White Wild Boar was also a significant burden on his arms.

With the two combined, Hu Gualing's arm muscles were already overused. Now, as the Mutated White Wild Boar suddenly aimed a sweeping kick at his lower plate, Hu Gualing hurriedly used the Lazy Donkey Roll again to dodge. He kicked off hard, letting his body fall forward, and extended both hands with bent arms to prop himself against the ground to support the roll. Suddenly, a sense of weakness washed over his arms, and his curled-up body, losing its support, collapsed downward in a crooked heap...

-4.

Seeing that Hu Gualing's tried-and-true Lazy Donkey Roll had actually failed, and seeing the Mutated White Wild Boar's large pig foot about to sweep into Hu Gualing, Xiao Niao, in his shock and anxiety, had to pick up his bow and arrow to take a snapshot at the boar's foot.

Fortunately, although Xiao Niao had been observing the BOSS's weaknesses from behind while occasionally cheering for his two teammates, he had kept his bow in hand the entire time. This was to prevent any accidents should Gualing or Tang Yao make a mistake, allowing him to step in and turn the tide.

As the saying goes, opportunity always favors the prepared. Xiao Niao made a stylish snapshot and hit the Mutated White Wild Boar's large pig foot.

But the bad news was that this arrow only dealt 4 points of damage. The movement of the Mutated White Wild Boar's foot wasn't hindered in the slightest. Its sweeping kick struck the upturned buttocks of Hu Gualing, who was kneeling on the ground in a strange posture after his failed roll.

Thwack!

The Mutated White Wild Boar's sweeping kick ruthlessly struck Hu Gualing's buttocks, sending him rolling until he crashed into the "Throne" behind the Mutated White Wild Boar, which was emitting a faint black light.

-30!

A damage number popped up, and Hu Gualing's health bar instantly dropped by more than a fifth.

Without Hu Gualing's harassment, the Mutated White Wild Boar turned its attack target toward Tang Yao.

The Mutated White Wild Boar raised its pig hand high and slapped it down toward the head of Tang Yao, who was only as tall as its belly.

"Dodge, quick!" Hu Gualing, who had been kicked away and fallen to the ground, shouted anxiously while leaning against the dark Boar Throne. Xiao Niao also shouted while rapidly nocking an arrow and shooting. Although the damage he could deal to the Mutated White Wild Boar was truly limited, at this critical moment, he could only do his best through this method.

Due to the urgency, Xiao Niao didn't aim much. Anyway, it was unlikely he would miss such a large target as the Mutated White Wild Boar. After leaving the bowstring, the arrow quickly struck a greenish part of the Mutated White Wild Boar's body.

-10.

A damage number twice as high as before popped up above the Mutated White Wild Boar's head. It was probably a critical hit due to good luck. Xiao Niao didn't have time to think much and watched Tang Yao under the Mutated White Wild Boar's hand with tension.

Alerted by the simultaneous shouts from Hu Gualing and Xiao Niao, Tang Yao also broke out of her previous state of focus. Looking up to see a massive pig hand slapping down, she felt a wave of revulsion. However, perhaps because she hadn't completely detached from her previous state, she still felt a sense of dissociation and wasn't very panicked. She raised her sword, flicking her wrist to point the tip of her Sharpness longsword at the pig hand slapping down from above.

Seeing Tang Yao's composed response, both Hu Gualing and Xiao Niao's eyes lit up. They thought that as long as this Mutated White Wild Boar had even a shred of sanity, it wouldn't be so foolish as to actually slap its hand down.

"It seems her combat experience has grown a lot; she didn't panic in this situation and neutralized the BOSS's attack so easily," Hu Gualing thought to himself. Yet, the Mutated White Wild Boar acted as if it were blind, seemingly not seeing the Sharpness longsword Tang Yao had raised. Its pig hand continued to slap down toward the top of Tang Yao's head without slowing.

Puchi!

The Mutated White Wild Boar's hand slapped hard onto the sword tip. The Sharpness sword tip instantly pierced its pig skin and sank into the hand. A damage of -20 popped up above its head.

Watching this from afar, both Hu Gualing and Xiao Niao felt a phantom pain in their own hands. As for Tang Yao, who had personally held the longsword as it pierced the Mutated White Wild Boar's hand, she showed a look of reluctance.

On the contrary, the Mutated White Wild Boar was as calm as could be. Not only did it not let out a cry of pain, but no expression of agony appeared on its pig face. Instead, its pig hand used the momentum of the downward swing to continue slapping down.

Tang Yao felt that this pig hand was even larger than her face. Even if she wanted to dodge, she couldn't. Even though she was already gripping the sword hilt tightly with both hands, she couldn't withstand it at all. Seeing the sword blade being pressed into a curved arc by the slapping pig hand, Tang Yao felt reluctant, fearing her quite good-looking longsword would be snapped by the Mutated White Wild Boar. She gripped the hilt tightly with both hands and stepped back two paces, finally pulling the longsword out of the pig hand.

But without the longsword propping it up, the pig hand slapped down with the sound of wind, unobstructed. Although Tang Yao's two steps back allowed her head to avoid the pig hand's attack range, it was difficult to completely dodge such a large hand. She didn't have a Qinggong technique like Hu Gualing, so she was still struck on the shoulder by the Mutated White Wild Boar's hand.

-31!

Tang Yao instantly lost a quarter of her health. Her left shoulder, struck by the Mutated White Wild Boar, immediately slumped, making it feel very difficult to even lift. Looking at the status bar, she indeed found that she had been afflicted with a [Minor Fracture] abnormal status.

Having landed a hit, the Mutated White Wild Boar switched hands and slapped down heavily again from Tang Yao's upper right with the sound of wind.

Tang Yao knew she couldn't face this Mutated White Wild Boar head-on. She immediately put the longsword into her backpack, clutched her injured left shoulder, and took off running.

She had realized that this Mutated White Wild Boar was simply a monster. The wild boars they had encountered outside the cave, even that Fearless Black Wild Boar—even if it could disregard pain because of its Fearless prefix—would still bleed when injured, and its combat state would be affected. But just now, the tip of her Sharpness longsword had been completely inserted into this Mutated White Wild Boar's hand, yet not a drop of blood was seen, nor was its movement affected. What were they waiting for if not to run?