C24 Heartless Cat Hunter(1)

Anyone who's ever owned a cat knows they have one peculiar fear: cucumbers.

It's quite odd, isn't it? The fearless feline overlord, who seems ready to take on anything, is actually terrified of cucumbers?

This fear can be partly explained by the cat's vision. While cats have strong night vision, they are naturally color-blind, seeing colors with far less saturation and vibrancy than humans do. Among the hues of gray, blue, and green, blue and green are particularly eye-catching to cats.

Thus, the sudden appearance of something green, like a cucumber, is like a splash of color in their monochromatic world. Combine that with the cucumber's shape, which resembles the snake – a cat's instinctual nemesis – and you've got a recipe for panic. If you were to toss a cucumber in front of a cat while it's eating, you're almost guaranteed a dramatic 360-degree backflip.

Shen Xiang had previously played this trick on Ruila. He knew it wasn't kind to the cat, but he couldn't help but find it hilarious.

Holding a neon-green painted baseball bat, he gave it a swing, drawing the attention of the massive creature. Ironically, the beast, still reeling from the earlier scare, seemed to have its wounds reopen.

[I've inflicted a DEBUFF. I should be able to handle this, right?]

"Rui, are you okay?" he called out to her.

"Why are you here?! How did you get here?!" Rui, whose eyes were structurally similar to a human's and even more powerful, had a deep-seated fear of green, stick-like objects. She looked pale as she spoke to Shen Xiang, "Didn't I ask you to wait at home? Get out of here, I'll deal with this thing! Wait, your face..."

"Ah, it's nothing. Just a scratch from Ann," Shen Xiang replied, touching his face where the playful mark was left.

He brandished the baseball bat, feigning a throw, and the creature stumbled back in fear. "I was concerned, so I decided to check on you. Finding you is way easier than finding a cat, especially since you have my phone. I can just use the 'Find My Phone' feature to pinpoint your location."

Tsk, you're my pet, after all. How could I stand by and watch you face danger?

Before you swat a cat, you'd better check with its owner, right?

"Idiot, who told you to come here?" Rui gauged the distance between herself and Shen Xiang, as well as the proximity of the monster to Shen Xiang. Clearly, this was no ordinary foe that could be handled with just a baseball bat.

"Who's the idiot? You're the one jammed in a shutter door, and you're calling me out?" Shen Xiang retorted, his patience wearing thin. Truth be told, he had envisioned many scenarios before his arrival, but facing off against a behemoth like this hadn't crossed his mind. He had expected, at most, something on par with a tiger.

But now that he was here, walking away didn't seem very manly. Moreover, he had come fully prepared. Despite the creature's size, comparable to a small car, it was still a cat at heart—with all the predictable behaviors and thought patterns of one, including a fear of green.

"Listen, Rui... Rui," Shen Xiang said, his hands clenching the stick. Cats love a standoff, especially with the unfamiliar. They'll watch and wait before pouncing. "I'll distract it for you. Find a way to get some distance. Once you're clear, I'll have room to maneuver."

"You..."

"What 'you'? Cut it out."

Shen Xiang clicked his tongue in annoyance. Having a pet constantly nagging was grating. If it weren't for the tiny shred of guilt pricking his conscience, he would have snapped back already.

Shen Xiang, after all, was the sort to set up auto-reply feuds online, a fearless keyboard warrior who never bothered reading responses, just dishing out retorts.

"Relax," he said, gripping the stick like a seasoned baseball player ready to swing. "When it comes to making an escape, I'm your guy."

System.

Shen Xiang closed his eyes. Despite his mental prep, the creature before him was more daunting than he'd imagined. He couldn't let his innate fear throw him off.

"Automatic agent... Cat Hunter Mode activated!"

Target Lockon

Upon reopening his eyes, any trace of emotion had vanished from "Shen Xiang's" gaze. His vision was solely fixed on the colossal beast before him.

Mission start!

The moment the mission kicked off, Shen Xiang felt as though time and space around him had solidified. A kaleidoscope of elements—scent, temperature, humidity, sound—were suddenly imbued with color and materialized before his eyes.

In an instant, these elements swirled into Shen Xiang's mind, as if sucked into a vortex.

His soul shifted to a third-person view, as if embracing his own body from above, looking down upon the world with a commanding gaze.

Shen Xiang didn't wait for the large cat to make its move. With a proactive strike, he hoisted the green baseball bat and brought it crashing down toward its head!

But the cat's reflexes were lightning-fast, not so easily bested. Despite its wounds and hampered agility, it arched its body backward, narrowly evading the blow, leaving Shen Xiang's bat to thud into the earth. The cat countered with its signature move—a swift and deadly claw strike.

Unlike canines, which rely on their prominent snouts and formidable bite force, felines don't have mouths well-suited for tearing. In combat, they favor the lethal precision of their razor-sharp claws.

Cat fights can sometimes look comical, with the combatants standing on hind legs, trading blows like practitioners of Foshan's Shadowless Hand—seemingly harmless until the bloodstains reveal the truth. The same goes for larger felines like tigers and lions; they use their claws primarily, with their fangs serving to deliver a killing blow or to clamp down on their prey.

Shen Xiang, as if anticipating this very moment, used the momentum from his downward swing to shift his center of gravity lower. But he didn't underestimate his opponent's speed; the gust from its swipe left a searing sensation across his back.

Yet, this did not impede Shen Xiang's maneuver. Harnessing the rebound from the ground, he pivoted with what he called his 'bulldog waist,' transforming the downward smash into an upward flick. His bat traced a glowing green arc through the air, reminiscent of a golfer's swing.

"Bang!"