The huge white tiger's snowy fur had an extraordinary texture, reflecting a vitreous luster under the sunlight.
After completely breaking free from the magic array, the giant tiger turned its head to look around. Upon seeing the human squad, it opened its mouth and let out a roar towards them.
"Roar!!"
The stench-filled saliva was blown towards everyone by the shockwave.
The Blazing Rose squad quickly formed a battle formation, with Ronald hiding behind a pillar like Agatha.
The BOSS on the first layer of the labyrinth was random - sometimes it would be a giant python, sometimes a giant wolf. The squad's luck wasn't great this time, as they encountered one of the three bosses - the Golden Flame White Tiger.
The giant tiger paced around the Blazing Rose squad slowly, eyeing the humans greedily, but it was very cautious in its actions and did not immediately launch an attack.
After circling around the formation a few times, the white tiger made a tentative pounce.
Archer Belinda's professional skills were quite good, but she lacked experience. She failed to see through the giant tiger's feint and directly released the squad's only explosive arrow.
The giant tiger was unexpectedly agile despite its huge size. It leapt up and easily dodged Belinda's strongest shot.
The rocket trailing orange flames hit the stone wall and exploded, blowing stone fragments everywhere.
The giant tiger turned its gaze back from the stone wall. The look in its eyes towards the humans revealed a hint of cunning.
Hidden in the shadow of the pillar, Ronald's eyes twitched as he silently sighed - this would be a tough fight.
The biggest difference between humans and magical beasts was wisdom.
Humans could hunt magical beasts much stronger than themselves because beasts only had instincts, not wisdom. Humans, on the other hand, would cleverly utilize various traps and tools to weaken the beasts before killing them.
This giant tiger before them obviously had considerable intelligence. The squad would probably not succeed in using the same tactics they used against wild beasts on it.
Sure enough, after losing the squad's most threatening attack, the tiger began to steadily constrict their space.
The giant tiger probed around the defensive formation, waiting for a slight mistake or delay in their rearrangement. It seized an opportunity - the tiger leapt onto a pillar and used it to jump right at the squad's frontline dwarf shield warrior, Hammerfist.
The dwarf shield warrior let out a roar, his body lighting up with orange-red fighting spirit as he rushed up with his shield.
Dwarf Hammerfist activated his shield slam skill. At max level, this skill could knock out a dragon with one hit. Of course, Hammerfist was still far from that level. He was only just over 50 years old, barely an adult. His best record was knocking out a young adult earth bear.
The dwarf Hammerfist rushed towards the oncoming tiger. When they were only a few steps apart, the armored warrior raised his dwarf tower shield and aimed a powerful upwards slam at the tiger's jaw.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
A second later, the familiar recoil did not come. Instead, there was only the dull jolt of a miss.
Before the dwarf warrior could recover from stumbling, a long dark shadow enveloped in a shrieking sound brutally swept across the lower half of the dwarf's body.
In an instant, the dwarf warrior was sent flying like a kicked ball, spinning and arcing until he crashed heavily into a pillar at the edge. He couldn't get up for a long time after falling to the ground.
One hit KO!
The Blazing Rose squad members were shocked stiff.
As eyewitnesses, they felt fear towards the tiger's intelligence.
There was nothing wrong with the dwarf shield warrior's attack.
His swing was swift and powerful, his posture steady as a pine. Even the harshest instructor could not pick out any flaws, because the dwarf's blow was already as perfect as a shield warrior textbook.
However, his opponent was a master of playing with the human heart.
At the final moment before impact, the tiger abruptly twisted around to dodge the shield slam. Then, using its momentum, it lashed out with its tail. The long, whip-like tail struck the dwarf directly, knocking him out.
Anderson, in the middle of the squad, had already started silently retreating.
The tiger's strength far exceeded the intelligence report.
"How...how can we possibly beat this..." The heavy-armored Mia said in horror.
"Whether we can beat it or not, we still have to try! Everyone, use me as the focal point and form a triangle formation. This monster is very smart, don't make any mistakes..." Lagren yelled. As the team captain, she had to step up at this moment to steady the situation. Otherwise, once their formation fell into disarray, what followed would be a one-sided massacre.
Ronald had no intention of facing such an intelligent creature alone, so he decided to make a move.
His weak elemental fluctuations and frail body gave Ronald good cover. While the giant tiger was focused on the elf Hathaway, a wisp of dim light silently slid across the ground towards it.
"Roar!!"
A miserable roar rang out in the hall, the intense sound waves shaking loose countless dust granules. The enormous white tiger seemed to recoil in fright, fur bristling as it leapt up.
Ronald manipulated the mithril stiletto to stab into the end of the giant tiger's large intestine, wantonly wreaking havoc within its body.
Although the giant tiger's fur felt as hard as metal, its internal organs were clearly still at the level of mortal flesh. After Ronald controlled his flying sword to shred them for a few seconds, spurts of blood started gushing from the tiger's skin.
By now, the giant tiger had no more attention to spare for the humans. Writhing in pain, it hopped around wildly, sometimes even twisting its head in futile attempts to bite its own back.
Chance!
Although Lagren didn't know why the tiger lost control, she understood this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the squad.
"Anderson, quick, use your strongest spell!"
"Belinda, shoot its eyes with poison arrows!"
"Agatha and Ronald, look for chances to hamstring it..."
After quickly laying out the battle plan, Lagren charged forward with the swordsman Tommy.
The heavy-armored Mia did not move, staying in front of Anderson to guard him. She should have gone forward as well, being in the frontline position.
But in such dire circumstances, no one nitpicked.
Lagren activated the swordsman's Charging skill, her whole body becoming a blur that shot towards the tiger. Getting close, she directly stabbed into the tiger's ribs with her sword.
Lagren's knight longsword was probably a magic weapon, possibly engraved with Sharpness and Armor Piercing runes. Her sword sank completely into the tiger's body, leaving only the hilt outside.
The Golden Flame White Tiger let out a miserable roar, then whipped its head around to bite Lagren.
Lagren was a seasoned veteran excelling in quick strikes. After landing a hit, she withdrew from the battle circle just as swiftly.
The tiger snapped at empty air. At the same time, while it was distracted, the swordsman Tommy left a wound on its left hind leg.
Tommy's fighting style mirrored his impatient personality. After landing one hit, he tried to follow up with another, nearly getting slapped into meat paste by the tiger. At the critical moment, Ronald pulled him to safety with a mage hand.
At the back, Anderson finally finished chanting his spell.
"Great spirits of fire, heed my summons. Bring your might down through my hands, let the trees burn, the rocks ignite, and all be shrouded in flames - Apprentice Advanced Spell Chaos Firestorm."
After the lengthy incantation, fire rain wrapped in negative energy poured down from the sky, engulfing the unsteady giant tiger.
Crazed roars mingled with the smell of burning fur emanated from the black smoke.
The Chaos Firestorm persisted for over ten seconds before ending. The tiger failed to escape the spell's area of effect, due to the magic sword stuck in its lower back waist.
Lagren's sword strike was critical, inflicting unimaginable damage on the tiger. It even had difficulty walking now.