23 Lightning Tiger

The morning on the mountain was quite hot but during the night the cold can freeze. We always held our Flame Orbs on our bodies during whenever afternoon comes as it turns cool, and turn into a chill at night. The place had little humidity in it that made the temperature drop lower.

We took four days before finally stopping for a while as we finally entered a plateau on top of this certain mountain. I can see a few white plants over the distance, the area over there must be covered by snow.

"Kaff, Big sis, do you sense it?"

"It's slowly coming towards us."

"I'm not sure what you're talking about, but just what do you two feel?"

"Shhh..... It started to run over here. Erect a barrier!"

I erected a barrier, and before I could see what neared us, there was a white flash that just breezed past us, only to slam itself on my barrier from behind. If my barrier was any weaker, then we might have been turned into snack.

A white tiger with purple stripes currently planted its fangs on my barrier as it tried to break through. I can see its fur let out a few sparks which looked like electricity, and its eyes were quickly moving around, looking at each of us.

After about five breaths, it put its paws and removed itself from the barrier, dashing away in a flash only to ram again towards the barrier. This time it really shook us but I successfully built up a more stable one inside, which firmly stabilized our position. The moment the first barrier broke it once again gained distance as if to create more momentum on its next attack.

"I thought there were only weaker beasts near the foot, why is there a Lightning Tiger at this level?"

"I'm not sure. I know they're-----oh the war must've pushed it over here. Just kill it."

"Easy to say, but it's too fast... I'll try to make a new skill then."

"Just focus on the barrier instead, your aunt and I will just damage and let it bleed to make it slow. After that just use pummel it down with full force and keep it in place, then we'll finish it."

We all agreed on the idea and started the counterattack. The tiger kept on flashing in a zigzag as it neared the barrier, and after it crashed and tried to break with its jaws, Aunt and Kirllia jointly kicked the ground to a dash and pierced its sides in unison. Doesn't look like they're at each other's throats just a few days ago huh.

The tiger shook its whole body, making its fur stand. The two women took a few steps back with their own movement skills. I saw the tiger rushing over Aunt Arc so I threw an orb that extended to a wall once it expanded and bumped into it, slowing its forward speed. The tiger seemed to glance over me but it still proceeded to chase Aunt in a second.

It looked like this would take quite a time.

Seeing Aunt being chased, Kirllia didn't hesitate to move towards the tiger and stabbed from behind and quickly sped away in a red line.

The tiger roared to the damage made to him and then chased over at Kirllia's direction.

This time, Aunt dashed with a movement technique and hung on the tiger's back with her left hand, then thrust with her right hand thrice in succession before she was flailed away by the tiger after it shook its fur once again.

It stood for a moment in place before its fur once more stood like needles, then I could see purple sparks forming crackles in the air, and its eyes also glowed purple. With another howl, it disappeared in a purple blur, leaving white mist behind.

The blur appeared near Kirllia and I could only see both of them blur and only pause on impact with a flash of red and purple light; wherein her needle-like dagger and the tiger's claws met.

Seeing as the battle became more fierce, I couldn't really help once more because of this weakness and I instead focused on creating a hammer of Origin.

I glanced at the tiger and our eyes met. As if sensing the charging Origin above me, Aunt cut in between me and the tiger in a white blur, and then another high speed battle ensued.

Aunt was keeping really well with tiger. Her every movement let out white wisps of light, and she doesn't even seem to kick the snow from its place. Her short sword had this sheen of blue light which I could only see whenever she clashed with the tiger, and I could see that it was doing a bit of damage based from the minute cracks made on its claws. Its fangs also tried to

After a while more Kirllia joined in the fight, and I couldn't see them anymore.

Dude, what use is my power if I can't even go at that speed? They're the real monsters, not me.

The hammer over my body was about to be finished, and I also noticed that the purple sparks the tiger emitted started to lessen over time, along with its body riddled with stab wounds of dots and small straight lines. It looks like this would end soon.

But before the tiger could be fully slowed down, another similar howl came out from the distance, and I could see the two's faces in alarm. With that I called to them and pumped more Origin into my barrier and extended it for about two meters.

They both went in at the same time, both of their faces with a few drops of sweat.

"This is bad. There's two more of them. Since when did Lightning Tigers gather in numbers?"

"Do you think its nest is near here?"

"Nevermind those things, we should escape instead!"

With Aunt's proposal, we decided to make a run for it. Luckily the tiger we almost killed didn't chase, and we got to run for a long while before the others could be seen nearing the weakened one at the distance.

"Phew! That was a close call."

"Don't stop moving, they might track our scent!"

"Don't worry, I left some black bug dung as we sprinted."

Aunt and I finally let out sighs of relief before sitting on the ground.

Before I realized it, there's already snow everywhere, and the plateau was almost at its end.

"If it was only you here, how would you kill that Lightning Tiger?" Aunt suddenly asked, her hand on chin.

Hmm... that's also a question I've been asking myself earlier. Kirllia also looked at my direction, waiting for my next words.

"I know I wouldn't be able to sense it, and it's a lot faster than me, to boot. Only thing I can probably do is this---"

Within my hands, I formed a string of Origin... One by one, slowly, I made a crisscross pattern using a lot more strands and formed a net, then expanded it. The hole were small enough for that specific Lightning Tiger's fingers' paws.

This particular net emitted only a few pulses of light, and can probably be used while on stealth. If that tiger could detect this before I could use it, then I'll just run away.

"That's...quite the idea. But how would you stop it with that?"

"If baiting my barrier just to let it come forward to be caught by this net won't work, then I'll just plant it hidden on the ground, and try to time its attacks at exactly the same time the net would catch it. Of course one won't work and a surprise attacks won't work twice, so I'll just shoot a few Marble Spheres and try to control where it would land, then..."

I laid the net made in Origin, and showed them how I'd try to sprout the net to instantly catch the Lightning Tiger. First launch the sides, then the sides reaching the top. If it tries to dig down, I told them that there's still a net below all of that. It would try to struggle and these strings might be fragile, but I let Kirllia check out that each strand was formed as a braid and it would be quite difficult for it to break.

Of course there are still flaws in that idea; If it doesn't cage it inside in that brief moment of time, or if the tiger's claws and fangs are much sharper than expected. Another is that it would take me a bit of time to make the net because of the braided internal structure of the net, but it was only an impromptu encounter after all.

I didn't said anything else after that, Aunt nodded in approval yet Kirllia was still pondering about it, staring at blank space. Was it that bad?

"There's one thing I'd be honest though. I'd rather keep the tiger as a pet, instead of killing it."

After I said that, both of their eyes widened and their hands went to their bellies with their echoing laughter.

"Why...why Kaff... You say the most strangest things sometimes...!" Aunt Arc already arched downwards from her nonstop giggling.

"Why kill them? It's a waste to see a tiger die. They're like cats right?"

"CATS!? Right, cats.....pff..." Kirllia tried to hold her laughter but with a twitch of her mouth, she started laughing again.

What's so funny about keeping a pet that large?

Kirllia finally stopped and then started, "Imagine, Kaff. When it grows stronger, it will transform into a human form. Keeping a humanoid beast as a pet....."

Now I can see why they're like that. I bet they're feeling pity for the beast instead, as it's going to be somewhat of a slave. Speaking of slaves, good thing that that concept doesn't exist here. If not then it was possible to have lived like that by chance.

Then she continued, with a bit of a gloomy tone. "But there's one thing about Lightning Tigers. They're really prideful beasts, and no one has made them submit yet. They'll mostly try to kill or be killed when in battle, because of their ferocious nature. These large cats are also an exception within the beasts."

Kirllia explained that there are four kinds of beasts that don't become humanoid after reaching the mage-level power. These are the tigers, the falcons, the one-eyed snakes, and the legendary whales. A long time ago, these mutated animals that became beasts quickly rose in power, and fell just as fast because of the fear of humans that they would take over the world, so they almost went extinct until the Beast God let them live beyond the country.

The whales however, were hunted for their bodies as they were akin to a natural resource. They got extinct in this country after the strongest whale was killed in a battle that lasted not less than two weeks. As it was locked in a lake near Holm and Factia, it wasn't able to escape and died from exhaustion and grave wounds.

These were all told to her by her master during one of her visits.

Of course as Kirllia was telling the story we were already climbing down the first plateau, and reached a snowy valley.

In the valley there were a lot of white monkeys and a few big ones that looked like gorillas. It felt like we were having a school field trip. There were even a few white birds that I didn't know of. Unknown fishes swam the river that divided the valley on the center. There were also big rocks where a few shaded mushrooms grew. All sorts of wild animals filled the valley below that I hesitated a bit on killing them for food as they looked rare.

Kirllia told us that we're near the bridge that's frozen at night, so we sped up our pace and didn't stop to camp on the evening, and continued to walk instead. Torches were easily blown by the wind and the gas was just frozen whenever it was brought out, so I used Origin as a makeshift beacon during our travel through the night.

We waited for a bit before the bridge was fully frozen; About an hour after the two suns set, before we crossed.

The bridge spanned about three meters wide, and it was about a hundred meters long. It didn't took long before we were able to cross. Why it was safer during the night was because there were less animals during the night compared to the day, and those rare nocturnal wild animals didn't really bother with the bridge as they would only meet the different beasts that lived on the other side of the valley.

We set up our usual camping routine before resting.

***

I wasn't sure about how wide and long the valley was, but it took us two days before we reached another point of interest before we started to climb again.

This place sure is huge.

After we reached another plateau, the surroundings changed again, and there were less of the green things we usually saw. The white valley at least had a bit of moss, but on this plateau, only a few thin trees stood, along with bushes that were covered in snow. The grass on the ground became lesser and thinner, which only made the place desolate while frozen.

"We're near almost aligned to the gap that bridges the two forts." Kirllia held her necklace and she was shrouded by a thin and almost transparent barrier, then continued, "You might even meet the person you're looking for here, as the fort is the only way to get to the other side of the large crevice that separates us from the Trinity Mountain Range, but there are times people get lost here and luckily find themselves on the other side already."

"Seeing your barrier means that it's only going to be much colder as we go north, right?" Aunt asked, and she held her Flame Orb, then kept it in her body.