White Tigress

After the girls left the mine, a few more rocks fell, but the tremors started to subside.

Anne had already stopped crying, but Mia was desperate. She didn't want to leave Lucien, but she was too scared about facing that many enemies and the roof was collapsing...

"Why?"

She didn't know why she was so melancholic for someone that she met so recently. She thought it was because they did those things...

Mia thought that everything was just physically and kind of forced by the situation. But now she felt so bad about leaving him.

"I need to go back!!"

Anne felt it was wrong to abandon a partner, and since Lucien saved them twice, she already considered him part of the group.

But Marie felt responsible for Anne's safety and was unsure about many things. She looked at Mia strangely.

"You were our enemy just a while ago... why do you want so badly to save the man that knocked you out and forced you to do those things in the bath?"

Mia knew that their first meeting was pretty bad. She didn't expect the girls to have good thoughts about her, but the relationship with Lucien was none of their business, and she didn't like how Marie spoke.

"He didn't force me anything! And I... it is none of your business..."

"Are you really going to abandon him just after he faced all those soldiers for you to escape?"

Mia did not wait for the girls to reply and started to remove the rocks that covered the entrance to the mine.

Anne wanted to go back too, so she looked at Marie with a pleading look. Marie couldn't stand a chance against those cute teary eyes and just nodded and went to help Mia remove the rocks. She still murmured something that made Anne blush a little.

"We will try to help him, but if we get out of this alive, I am sure he will press on the subject about us serving him..."

------------------------

As the girls tried to open up the mine, Lucien was killing Gerard's last soldiers.

He moved faster by the second. Like a shadow, he sewed his path through the soldiers. His katana was already dripping blood, but he continued to slash off not only heads, but other limbs.

The soldiers were quite strong and well-trained. They had already faced several rough situations, and as such had never imagined that they'd die to a naked guy.

The last two alive tried a combined attack when Lucien had just struck another soldier. One attacked with a long spear while the other made a horizontal strike with a broad-axe.

"Haaaa!

The soldier pushed his spear with all his might, but Lucien stepped sideways just enough to avoid the strike, then quickly used the katana to block the axe.

The soldiers, losing their balance and concentration after failing their attacks, gave Lucien the chance to quickly pull back the katana and cut off the lancer's head.

Lucien wasted no time launching a single attack at the last remaining soldier. His speed was still increasing, but he started to notice that the rate of this improvement had started to decrease.

The soldier with the axe still had time to do nothing when he saw Lucien's movements, seeing just a blur.

*Clang*

"Heh?"

Lucien was surprised when Gerard's spear blocked his katana. Lucien was sure that Gerard was more than ten meters away from him. How could he get here this fast without him noticing?

"You forced me to do it, boy."

Gerard had higher strength than Lucien, but the difference between their speed had been far too big for Gerard to be able to do anything.

However, the forbidden medicine he ate increased not only his strength, but also his speed, and now he could easily follow Lucien's movements.

Lucien didn't understand how Gerard got that much stronger and faster out of nowhere. He had done the same just before, but he knew where his strength had come from.

But now was not the time for questions, he put all his strength onto the katana to oppose Gerard's spear.

Lucien got a little worried, he was slightly pushed by Gerard's increased strength.

He would have to use his speed to win the fight, but he could not pull the katana back without receiving Gerard's blow. He thought of something but needed to consult Lust. Good that they could speak mentally, at the speed of thoughts.

"How much damage can I take without being fatal?"

"Your regenerative powers come both from Sophia's life attribute and Sloth's the powers that got shared with her."

"So as long as they don't cut off your head, I think you'll be fine."

"But depending on the injuries, it may take longer to recover. You need to spend more time with Sophia to improve this."

Lucien now understood he could suffer many deep wounds without worrying, because they'd quickly regenerate. That greatly increased the strategies he could try in combat and that would help him deal with Gerard's spear now.

Gerard felt Lucien pull back his katana, so he pushed further, and his spear pierced Lucien's belly.

The pain was great, but Lucien concentrated and channeled all his strength on the katana, trying to cut Gerard's chest. Gerard reacted very fast and parried the blow using the spear handle, which is made of a hard metal.

"Damn!"

Lucien was upset that his attack had failed, but he still took advantage of the moment that Gerard avoided his attack to get out of the spear's reach and retreat a few steps.

He had another idea and also needed to consult Lust.

"How do I make the katana disappear and reappear?"

"It's made of demonic energy and not mana. You just have to think it's needed, and it will appear. If you think you don't need it, it will disappear."

Lucien understood and prepared for his move. Gerard came running towards him as he backed away.

*Clang*

Once again, the spear blade hit the edge of the katana, making the metallic clashing sound echo through the mine, which had already stopped shaking, making one think it was no longer going to collapse.

Lucien thought he didn't want the katana anymore, and with so, his tattoo glowed slightly as the katana turned into purple particles and disappeared into the air as if it had disintegrated.

"What?!"

Gerard was confused when the katana disappeared, and his spear pierced straight through Lucien's chest.

After the spear pierced a few inches, he thought of the katana, and it reappeared, as his tattoo glowed.

The spear had pierced Lucien's chest, but he thrust the katana, which caught Gerard off guard, piercing his chest as well.

"Aahhhh!"

Gerard groaned loudly in pain, but he was still very resilient and thought it was time to end the fight by pushing the spear deeper into Lucien and ignoring his wound.

Lucien couldn't be happier that Gerard didn't try to back off. He was already on the limit of pain but focused on Lust's words about his excellent regeneration and continued thrusting the katana deeper.

*Pffh*

Both Lucien and Gerard spat out large amounts of blood while being deeply pierced by the sharp blades.

The blades inside them were causing severe damage, and they wouldn't last any longer than a few more seconds.

"Tsk!"

"Hehe..."

Gerard was both frightened and upset when he realized that Lucien was not falling as he thought he would be. He believed that his strength would be sufficient and continued thrusting the spear.

But his vision started to darken as he spurred a lot of blood from both his chest and mouth. He knew he was passing out and tried one last thrust with all his remaining strength.

Lucien had many bleeding wounds all over his body, but he held on and used all his remaining strength in one last move as did Gerard.

*Pffh* *Pffh*

Both Lucien and Gerard continued to thrust their weapons until the blades went through their bodies at the same time.

Lucien's katana went through Gerard's chest, causing great damage within him. Gerard collapsed as he released the spear and fell along with the blood that leaked from him.

Gerard's spear also went through Lucien's chest, causing him to bleed much more than before. This wound was very severe, and Lucien's vision began to darken.

But Lucien knew that if he didn't pass out now, he could take it. Still, he couldn't help but kneel with the spear within his body.

"Shit!!"

Lucien had not forgotten about a problem, but he could not deal with it before since Gerard was an incredibly challenging enemy, which he had to use everything in order to win.

That problem was the axe soldier, which he was unable to kill when Gerard attacked him.

The soldier had not interfered in the fight because they were fighting too fast, and he was afraid to hit Gerard with a careless blow.

He was also afraid of Lucien, but now he was running towards him with his axe ready.

Not only Lucien was concerned, but so was Lust. She was seeing the fight through Lucien's eyes and knew he was on the very limit. She was still far from being able to materialize herself and fight. Now she could only scream in fear.

"Stand! You might not die!"

Lucien fought the urge to close his eyes and tried to get up, but his wounds, despite being rapidly regenerating, were very severe. He had several parts of his body slashed open and bleeding profusely.

"I need to!!!"

Lucien thought of his katana, and it disappeared from Gerard's body and reappeared in his hand. He raised the katana to block the attack from the soldier, still kneeling.

*Clang*

The blade of the axe was blocked by the blade of the katana. But this time, the soldier could feel that he had the advantage because Lucien was unable to push back.

Lucien was very injured and could only keep the katana in front of him with his last energies. The soldier continued pushing the axe, and Lucien did not know what to do. Then Lust screamed in his mind.

"Duck now!"

Lucien trusted her a lot and stopped holding his katana while he ducked.

*Roar*

The soldier smiled when he felt Lucien's katana recede and thought his axe would cut him. But his smile didn't last more than a second before a big white tigress jumped on his back and bit his head. The man died immediately.

The white tigress and Its cub were in the mine's depths when the tremors started to happen. The tigress was smart to know that if the rocks kept falling, they would die.

As the tigress did not see the soldiers, it thought they had retreated in fear of the falling rocks as well. So, it went back cautiously just to see the man who had so long chased it fighting a stranger man.

The white tigress hated Gerard and his soldiers. It wanted to run and fight even though it was so hurt, but it didn't know if the stranger would be its enemy or not. Until now, all humans just wanted to hunt it and its cub, making them fear all humans.

The tigress wanted to escape out of the mine with its cub but saw that the passage was blocked. It started had to back away, but then it saw Gerard falling, it couldn't help but feel happy.

The tigress is really a highly intelligent beast as it concluded that it was better to attack the last men while they were off guard. It then put the cub down and ran towards them. After all, good enemies were dead ones.

Even though it was very injured, the tigress used its last strength and jumped on the men. It killed one easily, and they fell on top of the other man.

It prepared to bite the man's head but then saw his big beautiful blue eyes. The tigress had seen many different looks before, but all humans always looked at it with greed or fear in their eyes.

But this man showed no feeling in his eyes. He made no move while it was on top of him.

The tigress was confused for a second, and it was enough for it to start smelling something strange. It had never smelled anything so good in its life and was a little dizzy.

Lucien made no move as he was too injured to continue fighting. He didn't want to give the big tigress any reason to bite him, so they stared at each other while Lust couldn't help laughing.

"It has a good sense of smell and must be female so that it won't attack anyone with your scent. You smell like passion and can make any female wet."

Lucien didn't know if he was happy or sad about it as the tigress was still looking at him strangely.