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39 – Terran Tiger

Somewhere near Molten Peak

Mistery Man’s POV

A barefoot man, 180cm tall, was standing almost a kilometer away from the place where everything was happening. He was wearing torn black cotton pants. His upper body was covered with a short-sleeve red cotton shirt which seemed to be bought centuries ago.

Visible parts of his body were covered in dirt which indicated that he hadn’t cleant himself for a long time. Overall he had short hair but there were two long braids that were falling down to his shoulders from behind each of his ears.

His right hand was grabbing hard a long handstick that was as wide as a thumb. However it felt as if he didn’t depend on handstick to help him to stand still.

Hot breeze was pushing cotton clothes upon his body making it evident for an observer to see his fit but not over-muscular frame. His chin was wide. Mouth and nose were perfect for wide faced man such as him.

Nevertheless it was impossible to tell whether he was an ugly or good looking man. As his eyes were covered with a black scrap of cotton cloth which seemed to be torn from bottom right part of his pants.

It was tied into a knot at the back of his head. Left overs of the cloth were moving because of the hot breeze, flying up and down.

Moreover there was a small cat with dark vertical straps over white fur which was pushing its head onto man’s right leg. Man was not distracted by the cat. Even though his eyes were covered, his body was facing the direction where everything was happening.

‘At last’, he uttered.

...

...

‘Interesting approach’, he said out loud.

...

...

Man’s face turned towards his left shoulder where cat was sitting for the last few minutes. It was licking its right paw.

‘Let’s go Fael’, man whispered and both of them left in the blink of an eye disappearing from sight leaving no trace of their previous existence.

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Molten Peak

Kain’s POV

“You must be Cyrus Lyth!”, the third man talked.

My eyes were focused on his face though I didn’t want to reply to him yet. Lots of things were going on in my mind about the situation that was happening.

First and foremost reason why these pricks were not dead yet were the students that were held as hostages. Most probably solely because of these student hostages, teachers haven’t made a move yet.

“How come they are being held hostages?” , passed my mind but I care less. The most important question was “Who ratted out our location?”.

“Circumstances”, I said out loud and sighed. The third man was puzzled by my answer and he said out loud “What?”

It was time to check out my newly improved powers and apply theory into practice. My first move was to close the distance between the person who was holding the knife onto Cyrus’s throat.

In a matter of a second I had closed the distance and I was by their right side. I assume everyone was in shock and nobody was able to detect my speed and movement.

Without losing another second, I grabbed at man’s arm and pulled him towards myself. As a result of my action the knife that was in his hand sliced a bit of skin from Cyrus’s throat. Not even a drop of blood came out.

As I didn’t know the limits of my newly improved body the man was thrown onto ground very hard though I was grabbing his arm not to lose my grasp. Next moment, I relieved my finger a bit for my hand to slide up his arm and caught his hand.

I broke his arm into two with a very hard kick. Fractured pieces of arm bones were visible after the splash of hot blood.

Everyone was shocked to the core because of my cruelty. Teachers and students weren’t used to gore that had happened. Attackers were not expecting anything like this.

Not interested in losing the psychological advantage I grabbed from the neck of my victim with my left hand and forcefully pulled him towards myself. He was screaming in agony sitting on his knees.

Both me and my victim were facing our attackers. They were still in shock. I pushed my right hand forward and grabbed my victim’s chin. “Chrchh”, a voice echoed around. I had flipped his head 180 degrees and broke his neck.

Silence... Total silence was governing the surroundings. Nobody made a move. Nobody spoke up. The only sound that emulated belong to hot breeze.

I had the advantage.

“Do you want to live? Do you want riches?”, I asked out loud.

“I will break his neck”, the big muscular guy shouted out as if woken up from coma.

“That is not the answer to my question”, I said out loud looking at the other guy. He was shivering.

“I want to live”, he yelled.

“Why shouldn’t I kill him?”, the big muscular guy asked.

“You will beg me to kill you the same way as him...”, I said out loud pointing towards the guy that I killed minutes ago.

“I don’t have a guarantee that you won’t attack us”, he spoke up again.

“In honour of House of Cohen I give you out my word that I won’t kill you!”, I said and looked at Cyrus.

“As Cyrus Lyth I guarantee that nobody will touch you”, Cyrus said while his right hand was touching his throat.

“Bullshit!”, the muscular guy shouted.

I snapped.

“Do you like gambling?”, I said out loud and continued without listening to his answer “Now you have two options. Option 1, you leave alone my schoolmate and Cyrus Lyth will bestow gold coins for you and you guys can leave. Option 2, my schoolmate dies so you too. Now, you may think that I’m lying about option number one. But I’m not, and neither Cyrus Lyth. Nevertheless its a gamble from your point of view. It’s up to you to choose.”

I stopped a bit for them to grasp the meaning of my words.

“Make it quick! Your decision”, I said after a minute.

Muscular guy released the Raphael. I got small bag of gold coins from Cyrus and gave it to our attacker. They were worried so they run away.

Teachers wanted to follow after them but I talked them out of it. At the end of the day we all were alright.

All of the students were in shock except Cyrus. The girls were even crying. Teachers were doing their best to calm them down.

Maera was the first one to come to me to talk. “Good job”, was all what she said to me although I could feel the sincere eyes of hers that were gratefully watching me.

“As the most beloved student of Maera Vossen that is the least I can do”, I replied and smiled. Maera giggled like a teenager girl but stopped as she saw Elena and Malor’s eyes on her.

By the night, all of us were sitting around a small fire in one of the caves. Malor was presiding over the talks while Elena and Maera were sitting on his right and left respectively.

There were few students who came up with right concerns regarding their life but all of them were dismissed by Malor after his through explanation.

“We didn’t come here for flower picking! Of course none of expected to be attacked by three small time bandits but initially all of you were told that we will be hunting for beasts in the mountains after the meditation time. Injuries and death could be expected while the hunt.”, he said out loud in a tyrannical manner.

Elena was the one who calmed concerned students with her speech.

“It does not mean that there will be death! We have prepared thoroughly for the hunt. This matter which occurred today was unexpected. Although we have been through it without any casualties and I think it is an eye opening life experience to all of you. I would like to thank Kain for his quick thinking and decision making BUT I still want to mention that his actions would put Raphael’s life into great danger if bandits didn’t follow the logic but went with emotions!”, Elena spoke in a calm manner.

I raised my hand to get permission to speak out my thoughts.

“I know senior’s life was under critical danger because of the action taken by me. Nevertheless I would like to point out that if I didn’t do what I did him sitting here with us around the fire safe and sound as he is now would be less probable. I would like to add that this issue with the bandits was one of a kind in sense all of us were separated from each other but in the future as much as I understood from teachers talks we will be hanging out together. So best option is to put all the worries in the past and plan for the future”, I said and watched around.

Everyone nodded in agreement and after Maera made few lame jokes we all went to sleep.

In the morning of the next day we woke up earlier than usual to have breakfast.

We walked back to the hillside of the Molten Peak to reach the desert. After an hour of detailed explanation by Malor and Elena we began to hunt for Horned Rexen Draco.

Initially I thought this beast is some kind of a dragon as its name had resemblance to it. However we ended up capturing a massive lizard. To my surprise we were going to use it to pass the desert in the least possible amount of time. It was the best beast to travel over the desert in terms of speed and safety.

The only natural enemy of the humans that traveled through the desert were Flying Desert Serpents. Flying Desert Serpents had subspecies and mutated differently according to their categories. But overall they were all snake like creatures of the desert. The only predator that they feared were Horned Rexen Draco’s.

We mounted it and after two days of travel we reach the unnamed mountains in-between border of House of Byron and The Molten Peak. Speed-wise there was no other native beast to the desert which could be as fast as Horned Rexen Draco.

As soon as we reached the border of the great desert and mountains, we released the Horned Rexen Draco and it left to the desert. Surprisingly Horned Rexen Draco’s would die anywhere else but the desert area where they were born.

It was afternoon when we reached the other side of the desert. Elena made a cube like strucked which resembled a house and we stayed inside to rest and eat. After sometime we decided to move to mountains to hunt for beasts the next morning.

Until nighttime some rested by lying down, while others chatted. I preferred to sit on lotus position and meditate. After the dinner Cyrus politely asked me for private conversation. We chatted for a while but I still think he didn’t ask the questions that were on his mind.

The next morning we departed to the mountains. We were all sticking close to each other while we were grouped back to original three teams.

The mountain groups that were in front of us were totally different from anything else that I had seen in my life. Most of the were covered by thick forestry. The other that were higher than the rest of the mountains were covered in snow after some altitude.

The main rule was that in case we faced something extraordinary and one or more members got lost the only way out was to go to east and get out of the mountain range. That way the original group could detect our presence.

After two days of search we couldn’t find proper magical beast. We faced a pack of wolves consisting of 8 members but they avoided us.

Afternoon of the third day we saw a white tiger which dark stripes. It was majestically sitting over a rock and according to the teachers was not aware of our existence. There were all kinds of big and small trees which was a natural cover for us to conceal our presence.

All of us were sitting in a position according to Malor’s plan and chanting the spells to attack the tiger on the right time. Accepting Elena’s initial assessment the tiger that we were planning to kill was a 2nd rank Terran Tiger. It was assumed to an excellent catch if successfully killed.

In an instant all kinds of spells began to activate and attack Terran Tiger. One moment the tiger was licking its paw and the next one it disappeared and re-appeared few meters away from its first location.

Now it was not a good sign. In sense most of the students were magicians and were not warriors(normal ones or martial artists) which was a disadvantage to us. Terran Tiger could still be ambushed but every and any attack by teachers and students was successfully and masterfully over-passed by the tiger.

I was not worried about myself. But in a setting such as this one somebody was going to get hurt if not dead. The other first year student Zepho Kid who I nickname The Mute was close to me when Terran Tiger changed its direction towards us. In matter of seconds it jumped to kill Zepho and by slip of hair I jumped over and saved Zepho’s life.

I think Zepho’s head hit a rock or stone as he lost consciousness. Zepho’s robe that was covering body and head was lifted when for the first time I saw HER face. She was a girl. I turned to face Terran Tiger which was standing still. Curiosity overcame and I turned to watch her beautiful face again. Her head face swaying towards her left shoulder so I couldn’t see the left side of her face but damn she was beautiful.

I turned back towards the tiger. As if knowing that I was a sure prey it began to slowly walk towards me. Unfortunately all of the teachers were on the other side of the initial circle that we planned and surrounded the tiger. “That’s the most natural place where it will run”, they had told.

“Fuck”, was the only thing which came to my mind. I stood up but bent a bit and unsheathed my sword. I began to walk to my right and tiger changed its course too. “Thanks to god”, I whispered as I thought I could evade it to attack unconscious Zepho.

The only way to outsmart the tiger was to make it follow me and lose it using godly speed of mine. At least that was what I had thought.

I turned and made a run. Terran Tiger was following me swiftly. It was hard to run as trees and shrubs were acting as natural barrier to a person who is used to city roads. Nevertheless I didn’t stop but peeked back once in a while to check the tiger.

Almost half an hour of hard catch and run, I was in front of a cave. Fortunately front part of the cave was lacking trees and greenery so it was possible for me to use my limited sword skills. Both tiger and me were at standstill.

The first time I saw the entrance to the cave I couldn’t detect anything extraordinary as the entrance was pitch black. Remembering the Lichen, I thought I could outmaneuver the tiger in the cave or maybe even kill it. I was facing the tiger while my back was directed towards the entrance of the cave.

Nevertheless the Terran Tiger seemed not to be afraid of me at all. It eyes were facing mine and I could sense no fear in it. “You want human meat for lunch? Ha Kitty?”, I shouted. After 10 minutes of standstill it began to walk towards me in slow steps.

One step, two steps, three steps. I was count and moving backwards likewise. Out of nowhere a fire ball was shot at tiger but it evaded as if it was a war veteran. “Kain we will save you”, I heard the shouts of the students.

Tiger roared and desperate voices of the students disappeared with it. It made a small jump and run towards me. For a moment I lost myself (even though I think I could run away and evade its attack). In that moment, tiger’s head hit me hard and I was thrown into the cave followed by the tiger itself (maybe I didn’t evade because I couldn’t sense killing intent? Argh... I can’t remember why I didn’t).

Instead of hitting the ground, both of us began to fall. It was not an ordinary cave but a deep pit. “ARGHH!!!”, I screamed out.

P.S: Your thoughts and suggestions are welcome!