From behind another wall, the green lightning appeared. This was the beast’s tactic. It forced its victim to rise into the air, where it would be left defenseless in front of its rapid strikes.
Hadjar managed to dodge again, but he hadn’t been fast enough. Now his left shoulder was covered in blood. The pain was so intense it felt as if his body had been submerged in boiling water.
“Do you want to play?” Hadjar growled.
When the spikes shot up from the ground again, he rose into the air and waited for the green lightning. And it appeared. The beast had created a ‘wall’ in front of it, and then jumped out from behind of it.
It was ferocious and grinning. Fast and strong. It wasn’t used to feeling like a victim in this forest, where the Alpha beasts were the Lords of everything and everyone. No one could challenge their power here.
This two-legged bug shouldn’t have even thought about hunting it!
This time, Hadjar didn’t dodge the strike. He had been waiting for it. He met it fearlessly, but his efforts looked almost laughably pointless. It was like a small fishing boat had been thrown into the thick of a storm at sea.
When the beast was close enough to him, Hadjar swung his blade. His sword turned into three, and three ghostly slashes struck out from each of these blades as well. They intertwined into a fishing net.
The beast, due to leaping forward, was in the air as well. It turned out its attack was a double-edged sword, with which the one who had used it could cut themselves.
The wolf got entangled in the net and fell to the ground. But the strikes hadn’t left even a cut on its skin. All of them had been powerless against its emerald fur. It only rang out like a spring stream and... That was it.
The wounded, bloody Hadjar descended a few meters away, in front of the grinning snout of the unharmed beast.
This battle had already been lost...
The beast jumped forward, full of rage and excitement.
“Now!” Hadjar shouted, preparing to strike.
... By the Emerald Wolf.
Nero, who had been hiding somewhere all this time, cut down the branches with just a few movements. The branches came down with a loud crash and a lot of noise, letting the rays of the midday, summer sunshine on the clearing.
The wolf howled and groaned when its fur flared up with green fire. It collapsed on the ground, never reaching its victim.
For the first time, Hadjar took the handle of his sword in both hands. Using his full strength, he slashed downward. The roar of a dragon sounded out. It was barely audible, almost indistinguishable through the whistling of steel and the noise of the foliage, but it was there.
A dragon would take the beast’s life.
Not a bad death...
It closed its eyes, awaiting its final moment.
For a second, the sun burned the wolf’s fur and Hadjar’s sword, shrouded in ghostly blue light, pierced the Alpha’s heart.
It died instantly. Twitched a couple of times in the aftermath and then froze.
Hadjar collapsed next to it. Breathing heavily, he sat on the cold ground. The battle had taken only a few minutes, but they had been the longest and most terrible minutes of his life.
But—he had defeated an Alpha!
“It’s a pity that the skin has been damaged,” Nero muttered, coming down from the tree. “We could’ve gotten a lot of money for it. And now we only have the claws.”
He handed some medicine-soaked bandages to Hadjar. While he was treating his wounds, Nero managed to cut out the core, and also get the claws and the fangs.
The core looked like a large agate, but the claws and fangs... Well, emeralds the size of a person’s palm could never look bad or unappealing. Nero had to focus in order to wrap them in fabric and leather and not cut off his fingers in the process.
“Take the claws and fangs,” Hadjar said, rising to his feet.
His body ached, but the blood had coagulated quickly, and the medicine would gradually lessen the pain.
“I won’t say no to that. You look horrible, Hadj. Let’s get out of here.”
“No, I need ten more points. Without them, Colin won’t just ‘beat me down’, but outright kill me. I’ll have time to recover a little during the night.”
“Then let’s lower the difficulty—we can just get five more beasts at the ‘Awakening of Power’ stage.”
Hadjar agreed and was surprised at how easy it sounded. Six months ago, the creatures at this stage had inspired awe in him, but now, they were like rabbits that he was going to catch and have for dinner.
It was easy because of the fact that the forest around Spring Town was wild. People never went too deep into the forest—there weren’t many cultivators around that were strong enough to survive or hunt there.
As for the army, there were few soldiers willing to risk their lives for the sake of such small gains. So, this hunt was more like a walk through the zoo than the dangerous adventure the one back in the Valley of Streams had been.
Two hours later, after they’d gotten two more cores, Nero showed his talent. He hadn’t noticed a slope hidden behind the bushes and ended up tumbling down. Hadjar followed him. When they’d come to their senses, they found themselves in a spacious ravine, hidden by the foliage. And the creature in this ravine could’ve normally killed them with barely more than a thought. But, right now, it wasn’t even able to move.
In the foliage, bleeding profusely, lay an old tiger.
A horned tiger that was as big as a house.
A beast whose aura exceeded that of the Alpha stage several times over.
[Analyzing... The analysis is not possible. Level of danger to the host (according to existing data): extreme. The probability of the host’s death: 99,9999%]
“An ancient beast,” Nero whispered. “Damn it. We are dead. We’re dead, Hadj. This tiger is at the Ancient stage!”
Hadjar, even if he’d known what the ‘Ancient stage’ was, couldn’t have responded to Nero.
He could only stare intently into the tiger’s bottomless eyes. He heard a wheezing, feminine voice in his head.
“Greetings, Lord of the Heavens in a two-legged body.”
“Fuuuuuuuuck! I haven’t even slept with those twins,” the pale Nero lamented. “I’ll die without fulfilling my dream…”
Chapter 47
“Greetings, Honorable Tiger,” Hadjar didn’t even know what this creature was. But the fact it was able to speak already said a lot.
This 30 feet long, dying tiger was clearly much more powerful than a Heaven Soldier. It could probably slap a Spirit Knight around like a simple bug.
What was such a beast doing in this backwater? And why was it hurt?
“Apparently, Fate itself has brought us together, Lord of the Heavens,” the voice in his head sounded again.
And yet, the tiger was much weaker than the dead Traves had been since he’d still been capable of speaking out loud. Wait, did it just (the voice sounded feminine) call him the Lord of the Heavens? Only dragons would have such a title. Actually, this is one of the old names for their race.
Damn, how old it is...
Its mighty chest heaved and the ground trembled slightly from each breath, while the leaves flew away. The wound on the tiger’s body, left by some powerful claws, looked neither fresh nor old. The beast had most likely been wounded no more than a month ago.
He wondered who was capable of fighting such a creature.
Damn, this world was truly huge and Hadjar was small and inconsequential. And he was supposedly going to overcome this difference in strength one day? It wasn’t surprising that Nero considered him a psycho!
But being aware of this fact didn’t stop Hadjar. The iron will that shone in his clear, blue eyes could still bend the sky itself to his desires.
“You have a good look about you, two-legged with the heart of the Lord of the Heavens.”
The tiger roared slightly and made the blood freeze in their veins.
“
Please, forgive me for the deception, Honorable Tiger,” Hadjar apologized immediately.
He had no doubts that even in this state it could flatten them faster than they could even think about unsheathing their blades.
“Don’t apologize, two-legged. I deceived myself. I’m getting weak. My sight is getting blurry. My power is leaving me.” The tiger, or rather, the tigress, sighed again, causing its blood to pump out more quickly. “The wound, inflicted by the serpent, is poisoned and I have almost no time left.”
“I’ll immediately go get you some medicine, Honorable Tiger,” Hadjar bowed as low as he could, considering that he was still lying there.
The main thing was to get away from the ravine. Later, after the war, he and Nero would be able to return here and take the tigress’ body. But for now, the crucial thing was to find any excuse to escape.
“You are cunning, two-legged. Not like the Lords of the Heavens. They are... simple, like a young tree.”
Damn it! It had seen through him easily!
The tigress kept breathing, but with difficulty. Every movement caused its unbearable pain. And yet, it continued to cling to life.
“Fate...” It whispered mentally. “It’s cruel and fierce, like the best of tigers. I was born a simple kitten, and after millennia, became a tiger.”
Is a simple kitten able to become a tiger in this world? Hadjar hadn’t expected that.
“But my dream was to become a human.”
A scene appeared in Hadjar’s thoughts —a small, richly dressed girl was caressing a kitten. Holding the animal in her arms, she danced among the painted walls and hundreds of different nobles on the amber floor.
Hadjar didn’t recognize their clothes or the architecture of the hall. It wasn’t the Kingdom of Lidus or the Empire of Darnassus. For the first time, Hadjar was seeing a new, distant country.
The kitten was happy. Its emotions overwhelmed Hadjar. But suddenly, the scene changed.
The girl hid her beloved friend in a deep vase. The kitten didn’t see anything, but it smelled blood and heard screams. It got out after a long time had passed, but instead of the beautiful floor, it saw only rivers of blood, and instead of the people— only dismembered bodies.
And its mistress...
Hadjar had seen many terrible things in this life, but they didn’t disturb his dreams. However, he had no doubt that the sight of what had happened to the kitten’s mistress... Damn, it would surely haunt him for several years, in the most terrible of nightmares.
The tigress sighed. The horns growing from its shoulders and decorated with blue threads, cracked. The blue patterns on its golden fur faded. It wasn’t red with black stripes. No, it was golden with wide, luminous blue stripes.
Hadjar was sucked into the whirlpool of its memories again.
The kitten was on the streets. Completely alone. It didn’t know anything. It couldn’t do anything. It was starving and freezing, but soon, the scene changed.
The now adult cat was hunting mice and even rats. It fought for food with dogs and other cats. Sometimes, it made its way into the Scholar’s shop, where it managed to gnaw a hole in a small chest, tearing the skin on its muzzle and breaking its fangs.
From there, it took some bitter grass. It didn’t know why. It just felt that it would become stronger. And it did.
The ordinary cat became a big cat. It no longer hunted rats. Deer were its prey. Then it began to fight other beasts. For food, territory, water, and power. Many centuries passed.
The cat became a tiger. A fierce, formidable, lonely predator. It lived in its cave by the stream and didn’t want to see anyone. At night, it would think back on the times when the little girl had carried it in her arms. It had had a funny name—’Princess’. That was what the other two-legged creature had called her.
It lived without a purpose, just delaying the moment when it would be old and its attacks would no longer be dangerous or cause fear. The moment when, in a fight with another, younger and more ferocious beast, it would lose its life.
But then some humans came to its stream. At first, it had wanted to drive them away. Its sensitive ears were disturbed by the swimmers’ laughter and splashing around.
But then it sniffed. It recognized the smell.
It tracked them.
They lived in a large stone cave. It had already seen such things on the ‘pictures’, as the little girl had called them. She had said they were ‘castles.’
Now it had a goal. A purpose.
It kept getting more powerful. Decade after decade, century after century, until, at last, it razed this cave to the ground. For many long nights, it enjoyed the cries of the humans who had taken Princess away from it.
But then…
“I feel the same thirst in you, a man with the heart of the Lord of the Heavens,” the voice in his head proclaimed, and Hadjar felt emptiness.
A pervasive, terrible emptiness. It sucked him out of the tigress’ memories. He, like it, had once wanted to howl and beat his head against the walls of his cave. Because of that same empty feeling. Because he’d lost his purpose in life.
It had killed by avenging its beloved little girl and killing those two-legged. What did it have to live for, now? What would stave off the emptiness?
It stayed empty, until one spring, it felt a new life flare up inside its body. It cared for this life and the emptiness disappeared. A new goal had replaced it.
It didn’t want this life to spend its years just like it had—in an eternal struggle to survive. It wanted this life to live calmly and quietly.
That’s why the tigress hadn’t allowed this life to come into the world. It hadn’t wanted to give birth to a tiger. It had wanted to give life to a human. And to do that, the tigress had to become a human itself.
“I didn’t manage it, two-legged. The Serpent was stronger than me. ”
The tigress raised its paw. Beneath it, curled up, a little white kitten slept. Compared to its mother, the kitten looked like a defenseless, miniature pearl. It could’ve fit on Hadjar’s palm easily.
“Gods curse me,” Nero breathed. “Is that a cub?”
“Swear to me, two-legged, that you’ll make my daughter a human. Swear it, or I'll kill you on the spot and satisfy my thirst with your blood before I die.”
The tigress snarled and thousands of birds soared into the sky, while the mountains began to tremble somewhere in the distance. Or so it seemed to Hadjar. However, there was no fear in his eyes. Just sheer willpower and determination.
“Sorry, Honorable Tiger, but you’ll have to kill me. If I take your daughter with me, then thousands of fights and a road full of hardships will await her.”
The beast fell silent. Suddenly, it got up, shaking. It was majestic and proud. The size of a two-story house. Its fangs were like swords, and its claws were like spears.
“You are as sly as a two-legged. You are as honest as a Lord of the Heavens. You are as weak as a newborn kitten. But…” Two sky blue eyes looked into eyes that were almost the same color. The only difference between them was in the shape of the pupils. “... Your will is strong and boundless, like the black sky that appears at night.”
It gently pushed the kitten toward Hadjar.
“If you had made such an oath, I would’ve killed you on the spot. However, you aren’t like the other two-legged. You are like my cub. Like my Princess.”
Again, Hadjar saw the face of the little girl, dancing with the kitten in her arms.
“I'm leaving, a human who isn’t a human. Take care of my daughter. Be with my daughter. I ask only this of you. Will you be with her?”
Ignoring Nero’s attempts to lower him back to the ground, Hadjar rose. Compared to the tigress, he looked like a bug.
But the beast thought that he was a fierce and fearless bug, like the best of tigers...
“For as long as my heart beats within my chest!” Hadjar saluted the dying beast with the same respect he would’ve given a general standing in front of him.
“Then I'm leaving, human. Take the heart of my power—it’ll help you to become stronger. Take my claws and fangs—you’ll make a new, better stinger out of them. Take my skin—it’s stronger than the iron that you’re wearing. But please, leave your flame with me. I’ve shown you what it did to me. How it nearly took my soul.”
Instead of answering, determination shone even more fiercely in Hadjar’s eyes.
“I see that you can’t part with it... May Heaven help those against whom you wield it. And may it save you when you are consumed by it. I'm leaving.”
The beast looked at the sleeping cub for the last time and took its final breath. In this breath, Hadjar heard: “Her name is Azrea.”
Hadjar knelt and pressed his head to the ground. Nero did the same.
Together, they honored the kitten who’d become a tiger.
It towered over them like a mountain. It was as proud and noble as ever. It met its death the same way it had lived its life.
“Well, you may be a psycho, but, damn, you’re a very lucky one,” Nero laughed hysterically.
However, like Hadjar, he wiped away a tear that was running down his cheek. Nero had also seen the scenes from the tigress’ life.
Blinking away the uninvited tears, Hadjar picked up the white kitten. She was no bigger than his palm. Small, fluffy and warm.
“Azrea,” the Prince said, and the kitten meowed, then yawned.
Chapter 48
“Can you at least wait for me to take her cub away?” Hadjar asked, outraged when Nero began climbing the tigress, armed with a sword.
“But it asked you to take…” Nero looked around the gigantic carcass. “Its skin, core, and the other stuff.”
“But not in front of Azrea!”
“You’re behaving like a young mother!” Nero huffed while doing very dirty work. “Listen, she’s sleeping. Put her away in your clothes and help me. Without your ghostly strikes, I won’t be finished with this for at least for a month!”
“Look, we can’t even scratch its skin.”
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