Scarlet Winged Tiger

After walking for a relatively long time, being that they had walked until it was dark in the forest.

Occasionally, they heard strange sounds from the forests which seemed to scare Alder. Zemfry and Tiana meanwhile were calm and composed. 

They walked for a little while longer and found a clearing a small distance away.

"Do you think we could camp here?" Alder asked. He was tired of walking. After all, they had basically been walking the entire day.

Tiana scoffed when she heard Alder's statement. "Nice choice, and then we'll serve ourselves on a golden platter to magical beasts. Won't it be nice to have four humans on a golden tray?"

Alder was a bit confused when he heard Tiana's words so he turned to Zemfry for classification.

Zemfry was already looking at him, with the kind of gaze that was specially reserved for idiots.

'What kind of a lackey did I pick up' Zemfry thought to himself while heaving a sigh.

It was common knowledge that when sleeping in a forest, it would be wise to stay in a place that was densely populated by trees so as to hide themselves from magical beasts.

Furthermore, the sounds that the trees and other leaves that serve as an obstruction to the magical beasts makes would make it very easy for one to know if they were being approached by one.

If they decided to camp at the clearing, then magical beasts would be able to sneak up on them and eat them in their sleep.

"Let's just go away from here" Zemfry said.

When they walked two steps forward, Tiana suddenly turned around. Coming into her line of vision was a tiger.

"That's why we don't sleep here" Tiana said suddenly, capturing Zemfry and Alder's attention. The pair turned around and saw the tiger.

"When did he get here?" Alder asked. His heart was pounding crazily. If Tiana hadn't sensed the tiger then it could've attacked them easily.

If it was just an ordinary tiger, then none of them would have been worried at all, but the tiger in front of them was about six feet tall while crouching, instead of the traditional orange fur with black stripes, it had red fur with white stripes. Its eyes were currently glowing white making it look like two orbs of light in the darkness of the night.

Even with all those 'peculiarities', they wouldn't have been scared, what really worried them was the scarlet colored wings that protruded from the back of the tiger.

The wingspan was also about three feet long. The wing looked very much like that of a bird's as it was covered with feathers instead of fur. All in all, it was a large wing attached to a large tiger.

"I-Is that a Scarlet Winged Tiger?" Alder stuttered.

If it were any other type of magical beast that Alder recognized then Zemfry would've been surprised, but it was a Scarlet Winged Tiger, one of the most common magical beasts.

Generally it could be considered very weak, but the three mages that were facing it were weak in the grand scheme of things.

Zemfry was a Second Level Awakening Necromancer, Alder was a Fifth Level Apprentice Mage and Tiana was a Ninth Level Apprentice Mage. When compared with other people of their age group, they could be considered to be of decent strength, especially Tiana but the magical beast in front of them had the strength of a peak Class 1 beast.

(To simplify it, the class of a beast corresponds to the level of strength of a Mage or a Knight. For example, using the level of strength of a mage, Class 1 beast = Apprentice Mage, Class 2 beast = Acolyte Mage. I'm just keeping this here for those of you that skipped the auxiliary chapter.)

"What do we do?" Tiana asked.

"Alder can stall it while the both of us run away" Zemfry suggested quickly. As soon as he finished talking, Alder glared at him. "What?" He asked with a smile.

Zemfry wasn't going to pretend as if he actually cared for Alder's life. As far as he was concerned, Alder was just a tool that he wanted to use and hitch a free ride. There was no harm in losing a lackey so long as he didn't die. He couldn't die, not yet. And as for having a lackey, he could find plenty of them. All he had to do was tell them that he was going to the Capital… everyone wanted to go to the capital.

He looked at Tiana for some backup, but to his surprise, Tiana was glaring at him. "We are not going to sacrifice the innocent boy" Alder began to smile. That was until he heard the second half of her sentence. "Until he's fulfilled his purpose, he can't die. Where do you expect to find another brainless oaf inside the forest?"

After hearing her words, Zemfry pondered for a while and realized she was right. If they wanted to find a lackey they would have to work a bit harder.

Alder's eyes twitched when he heard the conversation going on between the two of them. They were deciding his fate like he wasn't even close to them. His heart stung when he heard what they were saying. If it wasn't for the fact that they needed him to hitch a free ride, then they would've abandoned him without thinking.

And there he was thinking that he had found a boss!

"We could fight it" Alder suggested. "Or just run away"

Once again, Zemfry stared at him with a gaze reserved for idiots. "You're talking as if you don't see the wings on his back"

"What do we do then?" Tiana asked.

A red colored mist appeared on Zemfry's back. He clenched his fists while glaring intensely at the tiger. The red colored mist swiftly shaped to form four tentacles with pointed tips. On his hand, a pure red sword appeared. 

"We fight it" Zemfry said.