20 The Two Tigers

In the thick forest two shadows flew past the large trees, stepping on the grass with hard and firm steps, causing their bodies to shoot forwards with great momentum. The grass and flowers beneath their steps bended close to snapping in half and remained imprinted into the ground. That fact could tell how powerful their steps were.

The petite form carried by the wind shifted among the trees, skillfully avoiding the obstacles as if swimming through the air. The other shadow rushed straight through the branches and vines, not caring for the scratches they inflicted. If one observed with attention, they would see that with every fresh scratch, the form's steps became even more aggressive, as if provoked by the pain.

The two ran for a while and came to a stop, hiding in the thick bushes and watching the creature a little ahead of them - it was a deer with sparkling horns. Its fur glittered with silvery light as its tail flung to the side occasionally.

The two glanced at each other, exchanged a few hand signals and sprinted to the opposite sides in order to flank the deer. The female summoned her spear and engaged, rushing towards it with inhumane speed for her age. The deer naturally reacted and ran off in the opposite direction. Just as it progressed for dozen meters, the scary aura of destruction met its path of advance, blocking it completely and inching closer to its body with even faster speed than its own. The deer reflexively turned its head to see what's in front and saw a glittering black conical object rushing towards its head.

Until it realized that death was imminent, the conical object enlarged in its eyes and became clear and distinct - it was the black spear. It was at that moment the deer knew; it fucked up.

*swish!*

*thud*

The spear's advance was unstoppable and even as the deer jerked in its last moments, the spear remained impaled in its flesh. It was unknown how deep the spear went in, but it was enough to take its life away in less than a minute. Finally, the last struggles of the deer stopped and it collapsed to the ground, after which the black shadow came out of the darkness.

Asura Ryuu pulled at the spear, taking it out of the deer followed by bright red blood with silvery glitter. He put the spear and cupped his hands at the deer, the same as with the wolf, and came to Asura Tenka.

Asura Tenka: "How is it?"

Asura Ryuu extended his hand, holding the spear with intention to give the spear to her. However, the spear didn't want to budge from his hand, as if glued to it. He started pulling at the spear, but the harder he pulled at it, the stronger the aura surged out from the spear. His eyes reflected surprise under the starlight.

Asura Ryuu: "It won't even budge..."

Asura Tenka teased: "It seems as if it likes you very much, heh?"

It must be said, the spear wasn't under its full capacity - it only possessed the remnant aura from the chain, but the chain was in Asura Ryuu's Spirit World. He still didn't have the gall to release the spear outside with that chain fused because the aura was way too strong - it may even disturb the old man or, much worse, some fierce beast in the depths of the forest.

The spear's aura was already strong enough when released, so much that it impaired his stealth. That's why he kept it inside his Spirit World all the time and only released it when attacking. And all that was under the condition of the dragon-shaped chain being absent from it. Asura Ryuu stared at the spear with complicated emotions, with happiness being the dominant one.

Asura Tenka: "Shall we proceed further in?"

Asura Ryuu: "Wouldn't it be a waste if we didn't?"

Asura Tenka blinked and her mouth morphed into an evil smile: "You got a point!"

That being said, the two disembodied the deer taking what's of use, buried its remains and shot off deeper into the forest under the night's veil. Asura Ryuu's steps were filled with power and vitality, while Asura Tenka naturally flew through the trees, just as before. Neither held their spears in their hands because they had an advantage that other residents of this world didn't - the Spirit World.

The Spirit World is the upgraded version of the Spirit Sea turned into a solid separate space itself. The stronger one's Spirit Power was, the bigger and more magnificent the Spirit World became. It had many benefits over the normal Spirit Sea, one of them being the thicker Spirit Power that condensed into a solid state. The other was the ability to store items and, depending on the properties of the Spirit World, even the living beings could be stored for a while.

However, the living beings inside must be able to absorb the Spirit Energy born from Spirit Power and should be the same or similar attribute, otherwise they won't be able to survive inside the Spirit World. This is the reason why they could pick up a lot of things and put them in their Spirit World, having no need for Spatial Rings.

-----

*Sha*

Asura Ryuu: "What is that?"

Asura Tenka: "It looks like a... tiger?"

Asura Ryuu: "Yes, but why is its aura so weak? Shouldn't tigers here, like, be super strong or something?"

Asura Tenka glanced at his eyes and shook her head. Obviously, she didn't know either!

The two sneaked up on it and observed it from a closer distance. The tiger had white fur with red stripes, obviously different from the usual tigers. Its fur had a silvery-red splendor, which was an effect caused by Spirit Energy. Regardless of how many times Asura Ryuu saw the radiance caused by the absorbed Spirit Energy, he couldn't help but be amazed.

The tiger's nose twitched a few times and turned around in their direction. Its head lowered and its teeth showed. Asura Ryuu and Asura Tenka felt a chill up their spine.

Asura Ryuu's Divine Sense transmitted the message to Asura Tenka: "Did it find us? Such a strong sense of smell!"

Asura Tenka remained silent but suddenly felt a chill up her spine once again, from the aura coming from behind them. Just a second after her, Asura Ryuu felt the same. It turned out that tiger didn't find them, but the beast lurking behind them!

Both of them thought: "There was a beast following us all this time!?"

The beast in question turned out to be a tiger as well, but its stripes weren't red but blue! It rushed past the bush in which Asura Ryuu and Asura Tenka hid and attacked the red tiger. The blue and red tigers repelled each other, but there was a slight difference in their traits. The blue tiger had greater speed while the red tiger had more vicious attacks, as if led by its bloodthirsty instincts.

What surprised the two in the bush was that both of them had weak auras, yet they were the strongest animals they've ever encountered. The tigers were almost twice as big as them!

The blue tiger rushed head-on against the red one, colliding and then jumping away from each other. With each collision, they would come out with at least one more wound.

Asura Ryuu: "Are they fighting to the death?"

Asura Tenka: "Seems like it. What should we do?"

Asura Ryuu grinned and sent her a meaningful look, causing her mouth to form a similar grin as well. Both of them said at the same time: "We wait."