Rescue: Taking down the beast

"Brother Isao! Brother Shoma!" the boy called out in happiness as he saw the two teens appear in front of him, "Thank goodness you're-"

But before he could finish speaking, Isao immediately stopped the boy's speech as both he and Shoma turned their gaze toward the tiger.

"He's angry… unusually angry…" Shoma commented as he saw the eyes of the tiger who despite being temporarily thrown off by the emergence of two more enemies, did not back off and instead seemed even more willing to fight as the anger in its eyes seemed to accentuate drastically.

"I think humans are to blame for what happened in the West of the village…" Isao spoke out as he walked over to the hyena. The look in the tiger's eyes seemed to show that it was directing its anger onto them and not the hyena at all now, "All its anger is focused on us."

"We don't have time… I'll handle this, ask Riku and find out what happened," Isao stated, not looking back as he reached towards the back of his waist, pulling out a pair of iron daggers and walking forward towards the tiger, letting out a distinct click from his mouth.

The instant the 'click' rang out, the hyena immediately charged forward, lunging straight for the tiger who also dashed forward as the battle began.

Seeing the hyena get extremely close to it, the tiger dashed forward, swiping its claws toward the animal as it aimed for the hyena's neck. However, much to its surprise, the hyena did not reply in aiming for its neck.

Instead, its head dropped downward, catching the tiger off guard as it bit down hard on the tiger's back limb. Its fangs sank deep into the tiger's leg as it immediately caused an ear-shaking roar of pain.

Immediately the tiger tried to bite the hyena in response to see if it could manage to free its leg. Sensing the impending danger, the hyena instinctively moved its body to be behind the tiger's body all the while still having its mouth remain clamped onto the tiger's leg, further increasing the torment that the tiger was under as a deep laceration became visible with blood pouring out.

Being able to see its wound and blood pouring out, the tiger seemed to realise that it was in a perilous situation and it began to move even more erratically as it jumped into the air, causing the hyena's front body to come off of the ground. The tiger then slashed towards the hyena and without its front legs to move itself to dodge, the hyena was forced to let go of its bite on the tiger's leg to escape from the incoming claw attack.

Click!

A click suddenly rang out from right behind the tiger who was now facing the hyena. Hearing this, the hyena immediately took a few steps back, giving the impression that it was going to retreat.

Hearing that distinct sound come from right behind it, the tiger's attention immediately shifted to the source of the sound, however, before it could move its gaze…

Slash…

The clean sound of a blade striking skin sounded as all the pain that the tiger was feeling in its hind leg suddenly seemed to disappear for a flash of a second before it somehow lost its balance, falling onto one side. Confusion appeared in its eyes as it looked towards its back legs. The wounded leg had been cut off clean, as a gush of blood began to flow out of the leg. The pain instantly hit the tiger as it let out another deafening roar.

"I really didn't want to do this to you…" Isao's voice could be heard from right in front of the tiger, a solemn expression appearing on his face as he dodged an incoming flurry of attacks.

Seeing an incoming paw, Isao did not dodge this time but instead rushed forward as he lunged with his dagger forward, bending his body to just about dodge the huge claw coming his way.

Puchi!

The clean sound of a puncture could be heard as Isao's dagger stabbed right into the animal's throat.

Earning a quick whimper of pain as the tiger's eyes widened, seemingly shocked at the fact that a simple dagger could cause such an injury to the neck that even the swords could not break through.

Click!

Right after stabbing the tiger, Isao made another clicking noise with his mouth almost without pause as he pulled out another dagger and utilising the previously provided momentum, shifted to the other side of the tiger as he stabbed again towards the tiger's neck.

Sensing the impending attack, the tiger immediately moved its body to intercept but just as it moved its body, shifting its neck to leave the stabbed dagger wide open.

The hyena suddenly appeared on the opposite side of the tiger, catching it off guard as it went and bit down directly on the handle of the dagger as its head dropped. This directly caused the dagger to be dragged down the tiger's neck, causing the wound to worsen.

"This is the end…" Isao spoke out as he also stabbed into the neck of the tiger and right after confirming that the blade of the dagger had firmly embedded itself in, opened his mouth as he let out one final click.

The sound of the final click reached the ears of Riku like thunder as his eyes widened in shock at the scene that had unfolded.

With that final click, Isao slid under the tiger and onto its opposite side, dragging the dagger along the tiger's neck as the hyena did the same but jumped over the animal. The actions of the two of them resembled a whirlpool as an enormous amount of blood gushed out from the tiger's wound in a circular direction as the animal completely froze.

'Brother Isao took out the beast of the West in less than two minutes…' was the only thought on Riku, the child's mind as it stared at the decapitated tiger in silence. Being the son of the village hunter, Riku was constantly told by his father about the immense danger of the tiger. It was a being that even all the hunters of the village could not guarantee being able to kill if they were together.

Isao walked over to the hyena, letting out a soft smile as he stroked the animal's fur while retrieving his dagger, "That was extremely well done, Ui. Good job."

He~He~He~

The hyena let out a few calls of happiness as it wagged its tail in joy for a few seconds before staring at the fallen tiger carcass and then staring back at Isao as if it was asking something.

"I don't think we have time to eat yet," Isao immediately replied simply as he then walked over to Riku, the hyena simply nodded to Isao's response and followed him.

Walking over to Riku, Isao looked at the child's body, checking for any injuries, and let out a sigh of relief as he found that it was just some minor scratches.

"Riku, our camp is about three minutes away from here. I'm going to need you to stay there while Shoma and I deal with the problems," said Isao as he pointed in a certain direction. He then looked at the hyena as he continued, "Ui will take you to the camp and you just have to wait there until you see Shoma's raven fly over you. Then Ui will take you back to the village."

Riku gave him a firm nod as a resolute expression appeared in his eyes.

"Good," Isao spoke out as he lifted the child and placed him right on top of the hyena, "Take him to camp and you should also bring the tiger over as well."

He~He~

A burst of acknowledging laughter came out of the hyena as he nodded and ran away in the direction that Isao had previously pointed.

As if on cue, Shoma's figure suddenly appeared again in front of Isao, handing him a belt that was filled with throwing knives as he spoke, "Let's hurry."

"Roger that," Isao replied as he put on the belt and they both began rushing into a full sprint in the opposite direction of the hyena, "What's the situation like?"

"Bandits…" Shoma replied blandly as he brought out his hand into his mouth and blew out a clear and resonating whistle.

"Just as I had thought…" Isao mumbled. His speculation had been correct.

The tiger was a beast that appeared about a year ago on the West side of the forest during a village hunt. When it was discovered, it had an intense fight with the villagers, able to kill a group of ten of the village's finest hunters.

It was during this time that the villagers came to know of Isao and Shoma as the duo came to the village during a time when the tiger attacked the village and they battled the tiger into defeat as they forced the tiger to retreat. Seeing them defeat the tiger, many of the villagers wanted to kill off the tiger to get revenge for their fallen brothers and to make future hunts safer but they were stopped by the two teens.

The village was a small settlement that was bustling in agriculture and thus, it was a popular spot for bandits to raid. The teens proposed the idea of leaving the tiger free in the Western forest. This way, it could act as a natural deterrent to possible bandits who may try to loot the village and they could just shift their hunting area to the Eastern forest. Upon hearing this proposition, the villagers came to agree on such a decision.

And now seeing that the tiger had relocated to the eastern forest, something definitely had happened in the west side. The possibility of a battle of territory between two beasts was initially a feasible conclusion but that was quickly written off by Isao as he saw the tiger's behaviour in that battle. The anger that it showed to Isao made it clear to him that humans had to be the reason for its relocation. Furthermore, knowing that the villagers would not trespass into the Western forest, it was clear that the only feasible possibility was bandits and they seem to be somewhat capable enough to displace a tiger that was called the beast of the West.

Responding to the call of Shoma's whistle, a sudden croak of a bird could be heard as the raven flew down from between the trees and landed on Shoma's shoulder.

"Vom, Bandits in the village, go there and scout them out before we get there," Shoma instructed the raven who simply nodded and flew ahead of the boy, quickly disappearing from their sight.

"Did Riku give any useful information?"

"He had left as soon as the village alarm rang about the bandits attacking, about fifteen minutes ago and sprinted the whole way here. Other than that, he said there were about fifty bandits,"

"Fifteen minutes ago means that the village elder and the hunters will have about five minutes before they are taken out…"

"It better to hurry it up a little then,"

"We'll split it in half,"

"Tch. Decide those once we get there,"

"It'll be the same anyway"