Chapter 147 147 The Blast



The rhino's foot pressed down on her from above and pushed her feet into the ground due to the immense difference in strength of the two parties.

Thankfully, Zach came to his senses before Clara turned into meat paste. He witnessed how her body was slowly being pushed into the ground like a nail being hammered in and knew that she wouldn't be able to hold her own for much longer. At the same time, he couldn't help but admire the tremendous strength hiding inside her tiny body that looked akin to a porcelain doll that would shatter at the tiniest application of strength.

Therefore, without wasting any more time, Zach grabbed hold of the golden opportunity provided to him by Clara at the risk of her own life and ran towards the other side of the rhino's body with all his strength concentrated in his legs.

As he ran, the hilt of the lightsaber in his hands began to glow as the three meter long plasma blade regained its lustrous glory after a small period of darkness.

Zach looked like a true Jedi from olden times as he ran with the glowing blade pointing towards his back as he held the hilt of the blade with both his hands. He built up momentum from this speed and with one swift and powerful swing of the lightsaber; he cut off the foot of the rhino that was still stuck in the ground.

The rhino shrieked in a voice that was loud enough to shatter the eardrums of all those in the vicinity who were able to hear it.

Clara seemed to be unaffected by the scream as she felt the pressure pressing down of her lessen after Zach's attack was successful.

Clara looked up only to find that the rhino was wobbling as if it had lost its balance and the cause of that imbalance of its body seemed to be the missing foot that had been cut off by Zach a moment ago.

Taking this opportunity, Clara escaped the effective radius of the rhino's attack and watched the scene as the beast fell to the ground with a loud thud.

After being so used to the four legs, the rhino was incapable of even picking itself up after Zach cut its limb off. It lay there like a fish on the chopping block waiting for its demise at the hands of the butcher. 

The soldiers gathered all around the beast as they cheered for Zach enthusiastically after he single handedly pulled up the odds of the win against the gigantic beast. They raised their fists and screamed at the top of their lungs as they raised each other's morale through the battle roar.

As soon as the beast fell on the ground, Diana found her chance that she had been tirelessly waiting for. She didn't wait for Zach's orders at all as she lunged towards the mouth of the beast along with some of her soldiers in tow.

Clara didn't wait around either as she knew what she had to do to make full use of this opportunity that had fallen unto her straight from the heavens. She pulled her fist so far back that it seemed as if she was trying to dislocate her own shoulder. But when she punched with that fist, it had the momentum of her whole body behind it. The punch was strong and fast enough to cross the sonic barrier as it struck the wailing rhino right on its throat.

The strength behind the punch wasn't something that even a rhino could handle without suffering a loss. It pushed back the rhino despite all its weight and the increased friction from the ground considering that its whole body lay flat on the ground which made it increasingly difficult to give its body a shove capable of moving it.

The rhino screamed and wailed in pain as it thrashed its remaining limbs around in an attempt to forget about the pain burning its throat. Even though the rhino was roaring at the top of its capacity, the sound that escaped its throat was like a hoarse whisper. Its throat had been crushed completely and had been rendered incapable of producing a sound within its normal pitch range.

Of course, in order to scream loudly, the rhino had to open its mouth that was the size of a giant hippopotamus.

Diana used this opportunity to throw a grenade precisely into the mouth of the rhino that couldn't understand the true implications of such an action. Therefore, she took it upon herself to teach it a lesson.

Diana retreated far away as she counted the time until the explosion inside her head.

After she was quite far away from ground zero, an explosion took place inside the rhino's mouth. The thunderous and explosive noise shook the surroundings as the birds perched on the trees nearby all flew in the air as if preparing for a massive exodus. Thankfully, the shaking and the echoes following the explosion didn't last very long and things returned to normal. 

However, there was one thing that had been blown out of proportions. And that was the head of the rhino that now lay in a massively disfigured state. Half of the head had been blown clean off with some skull bones jutting out of the remainder of the head. The other half though intact had some lacerations from the shrapnel and couldn't exactly be considered whole.

The rhino had long since stopped breathing and its corpse was completely still marking its early death at the hands of humans.

Grace panicked at the sight of the huge explosion that shook everything around it because Clara was quite close to the center of the explosion. The reason for the anger oozing out of Grace was that Diana hadn't even bothered to warn Clara before using such a dangerous tactic in such close proximity to Clara.

Grace ran towards the Clara's last known position amidst the smoke and sand that obscured the vision. Grace only calmed down once it was confirmed that Clara had suffered no injury as a result of Diana's careless tactics.

Grace wanted to complain about such an underhanded means to achieve victory but had to hold in the dissatisfaction due to Clara. Clara ordered Grace not to take it out on Diana who was able to make the best out of the opportunity Clara had earned with so much difficulty.

Unlike Grace, Clara clearly knew how difficult the hunt might have become once the rhino got used to the pain or turned vengeful after suffering so much at the hands of humans. They might not have come across such an opportunity in the future even if they fought with their lives on the line.

Therefore, instead of being dissatisfied with Diana, Clara was grateful to her for ending the rhino's life with the opportunity she had created.

Diana turned around after the sound of the explosion and rushed back towards the center because she knew that both Clara and Zach had been quite close to the rhino as well when she threw the grenade into its abyss like maw. She was worried that her excessive offense might have splashed on to the both of them.