No matter how dense the storm, the ominous pair of lights approached ever so closer. The form of a beast slowly encompassed the blue eyes as a white tiger was eventually made out.
“Siberian tiger!” Veera shivered in fear.
I immediately readied my daggers for an attack. It’s said Siberian tigers don’t have magic since the people that escaped an encounter mentioned it only killed with speed alone. There was a floating rumor they contained a hidden power not categorized as magic. Maybe they had no need to use magic. This thought didn’t bode well with me.
The beast was large enough to eat one of us whole. It was always one of my favorites for how peerless it was among other magical beasts, just I never imagined having a fight with one to the death. In a flicker of movement, the hair on my skin flared up barely realizing the tiger had already passed me, targeting the others. It aimed at Eris as if it knew she was the biggest threat to eliminate first.
The tiger’s claws tore through her mana barrier destroying about eighty percent of it. The barrier repaired and before the tiger could get another strike in my blade met the next oncoming blow. One dagger steadily blocking and the other soaring down to pierce its skull. The tiger instantly dodged backward. My strike connected, but all I saw was a cut not large enough to leave a scar.
“Close your eyes!” Alexa illuminated a bright light to blind the tiger.
Even with my eyes shut it still hurt, but it gave me the opportunity to attack. I stabbed along the side of its belly, only to graze across its body with its fur protecting it completely. The fur acted as a strong form of body armor, enough that the tiger didn’t seem frightened from losing one of its senses.
I continued my barrage of attacks aiming to stab only to miss a few more times. Eris lent a hand by creating a barrier to block the tiger’s path of retreat. The tiger crashed into the barrier like a mime would in an act and halted to a stop. The moment my stabbed connected to its back thigh, the tiger roared attempting to bite off the upper half of my torso.
Just as I dodged and thought I was in the clear it followed up with an even faster slash. A claw nicked the backside of my forearm tearing deep into flesh. Blood poured out from the inch-deep gash down to my elbow. I unconsciously yelled out but only felt a burning sting. Why wasn’t I wailing on the floor from the pain?
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Eris separated us even further with multiple layered barriers. The tiger stared forward at the barriers at a standstill, acting as if it would now take us on seriously. Its claws pulsed black to blue with the surrounding snowstorm funneling around its paws, creating better visibility.
An immense boom shifted our attention to the mountainside further up as several large explosions followed up. It was too far to tell what was going on with ridges blocking the view from below. Luckily enough the tiger ceased its transformation and settled down before vanishing toward the explosions with the snowstorm picking up in intensity again.
After it left I went back to the others as Eris rushed over to heal the gash. Just like new as I caressed my regenerated forearm. Everyone gathered onto the cart again with the intention to withdraw. This time pulling the cart back down the mountain as the snowstorm became less violent until it subsided entirely. Whether it was because we were moving too fast or because of the explosion earlier, we ended up not running into any more monsters.
I kept thinking about the fight with the tiger and how I felt very little pain. My only deduction, being another benefit from the ape core I absorbed. It felt great to find out but also disheartening at the same time since the tiger wasn’t even fighting us at full power from the very beginning. My sincere condolences were given to whoever caused those explosions earlier.
I came to a stop once we left the snow biome and settled at our previous hunting grounds. Everything was back to normal as our stockpile of monster parts filled up one cart. A group of hunters appeared just as we finished harvesting a kill. I had a bad feeling about the way most of them were armed ready for a fight.
“This is our hunting grounds. Hand over the materials and leave now.” Some burly guy said as he pointed at our filled cart.
“Nonsense. This area doesn’t belong to anyone.” I felt bad acting out since I’ve been making everyone worry about not causing any trouble. I knew they stayed quiet in consideration for me, but might have also been the thirty-some armed people with various elemental magic surrounding us.
They felt like bandits instead of hunters and I figured this was a normal situation for them.
“Don’t be stupid, kid. No one wants trouble here.” His words contradicted the group’s encirclement, preventing us from leaving.
“It’s you! You saved our group from the flame trike.” Someone pointed from the side. I didn’t recognize her but she seemed to remember me.
Chattering went about as others from that incident stepped forward and it seemed my goodwill wasn’t completely wasted on them. Just as I was thinking we were in the clear one of them spoke aloud. “He stole our monster kill and demanded to take half of the materials after we lost so many to the beast!” The guy who instigated this obviously had issues, by playing it like our side was in the wrong.