GREED: ALL FOR WHAT?

The experience of others is something fourth is not lacking in. He may be young and hasn't seen much of the world, but he has a lot of experience gained from his predecessors. So he wasn't caught off guard when the three-tailed tunda pounced at him during his hunt.

A translucent blur shot out from a shrub close to him and swiped a claw at him. His body leaned back at the last moment to dodge the attack. A paw with four white claws ripped the air in front of his face and passed by. His coiled muscles sprung into action after that.

His muscles were already coiled before the assault. Leaning back had compressed them further. So he simply let go of the contraction. They relaxed, and in so doing, they catapulted him forward. His neck and the head attached to it sprung forward like a spring, and his opened mouth latched onto the neck of the tunda.

He bit down with so much force that his teeth managed to cut through flesh and reach the spine in the neck. The tunda yelped in pain. It tried to swipe him away with its other forelimb, but he moved backward and dragged the tunda with him.

The tunda is bigger than him. It is also heavier than him. But that didn't stop it from being pulled forward. This caused it to be destabilized. Its attacking forelimb lost its momentum and only managed to swipe ineffectively on his blue scales.

Fourth wanted to drag the Tunda to its death. By dragging it like this, he is further worsening the injury to its neck. The tunda tried to stop itself from going forward by digging its hindlimbs into the ground, but that only made the situation worse. The rows of teeth lodged in its neck were forced to rip out a large chuck of its neck.

They separated after that bloody tug of war. Both of them won. The fourth gained a large chuck of flesh, while the tunda gained its freedom. But that obviously is not good enough for the tunda.

One shouldn't lose a part of their neck where major arteries and veins reside. One might just bleed out and die. This is a lesson that even an ignorant beast that thinks it is a smart idea to attack a dragonling knows.

Fourth knew that lesson, so he was smug as he thought to himself, "It must know now that I am not the easy prey it thought I was."

He also chuckled. It was a grating sound, similar to the calls of some birds. It definitely set the tunda on edge. It became even more agitated.

The Tunda is far from dying yet because what Fourth took out of his neck is just a small portion of the neck. It is an important section, but unfortunately, it won't lead to death immediately because his mouth is small compared to the size of the tunda. So Fourth decided to stand back and defend.

The tunda, on the other hand, wanted to drag him down with it. It pursued him, and they clashed again. The Fourth turned around to run. This emboldened the tunda. It pounced on his back to pin him down. But it received a lashing from the spiked tail that Fourth smashed against it.

The tunda was smashed out of the air. The force of the tail struck it against a tree. The fall didn't injure it as much as the damage to its torso from where the spikes on the tail struck it.

Much worse is the exacerbation of the injury to its neck caused by slamming into the tree. It tried to rise, but it failed to do so. It is a mana beast, so it doesn't possess weak points like lesser beasts, but losing too much blood means weakening.

Mana is contained in the blood. To lose blood is to lose mana. But that doesn't mean that the injury is debilitating. A mana entity is not dead yet until their head is crushed. The fourth knew that too. So he was cautious when he approached the tunda. He wasn't deceived by its attempt to look weak. Fourth approached in the same hunched posture, ready to pounce or retreat if need be.

The tunda continued to pretend. It struggled to stand, and it mewed weakly. And when it did stand, it was with a weak posture. It looked all but ready to drop at the slightest touch. The large amount of blood coming out of its neck is testament to that. If one didn't know that it could stop its bleeding, one might be fooled.

Fourth struck. He raised his clawed paw slowly and brought it down on the tunda. The tunda snapped at his hand. It missed because the attack was a feint. But it didn't give up. It sprung into action, using its bigger body to smash into him.

If the attack were to connect, Fourth would be floored. His small body wouldn't be able to withstand the collision. Then the tundra would gain the upper hand, and most importantly, the tundra would be on top of him.

But fourth was prepared for this kind of desperate action. He dodged slightly to the left. He used the spike on his wing to rip the side of the tunda as it barreled past him. He also made sure to use his tail to smash the tunda's head.

His last attack failed. The tunda wasn't caught off guard by the tail again. It bit it and held on to it. But that's just stupid. By doing so, it exposed its back to Fourth. He pounced on one of its hindlimbs and snapped it. That sealed the fate of the stupid tunda that sought to kill a dragonling.

The tunda lost its speed. This is something it can't pretend to do. Fourth capitalized on this weakness to deal more injuries to it. He harassed it far beyond the threshold of pretending to bleed. The tunda finally lost its life after a few minutes of violent ripping from an eager dragonling.