Grade 5 Tiger?!

The next day was the big day, most mercenaries couldn't sleep and kept throwing themselves around in their tents. They all knew it, most of them wouldn't go back, a grade 4 magical beast was way to strong for most rank B and less mercenaries. Even for Roland and his wife who were both rank B mercenaries this mission would be life risking, if everybody didn't hesitate and went it was for the promised reward, a small mana stone could be sold for 200 gold, just imagine collecting a full bag of stones !

Most of them would die but that meant that there were chances of survival, they all were expecting to survive the hunt and head back home with thousands of gold coins, with that money they could leave the countryside and live inside the capital, that was the dream of most of the mercenaries here, having a house inside the capital's walls was an honor they would be doing to their ancestors !

"Everybody wake up, it's time !"

Roland's voice sounded and everybody lost no time to pack up the camp, in less than a minute everybody was standing in front of him and there was no camp anymore, the only thing left were the fires that had already became black.

"Today is the big day, we got to take down the Waterwalking tiger to get to the Amanda stone's cave ! Is everybody ready ?!"

"Yeaaaaaaaah!!!"

Everybody looked full of energy but you could see dark circles under most eyes, he knew very well that all of them couldn't sleep well and would have only 70% of their usual capabilities during the fight but that was enough as they wanted to kill that thing using their numbers.

"Let's go, that beast won't be attracted by a drug. We have to fight it inside it's lair!"

Slowly the group of mercenaries walked inside the cave while doing no sound, you would expect a group of around two hundreds people to make a ruckus but these guys were too well trained and didn't make any sound. They walked slowly inside a dark cave while being careful to everything around them, Roland was leading the way with the mercenaries in the front and the magicians and archers in the back.

"Hey kid, did you get your second ring yesterday ?"

Frank asked with a smile, he couldn't talk loudly as he didn't want to make noise and he didn't want to reveal Thomas's secret.

Thomas realized that Frank had felt the fluctuations in mana so even if he lied now he wouldn't believe him, it was better to tell the "truth" now as it would make Frank believe him more. Actually it wasn't the truth but what Frank believed to be the truth as what Thomas had awakened yesterday wasn't his second but third ring.

"Hmm, keep it a secret for now."

Thomas didn't monde showing off a it with 2 rings on his back and stuff but his rings were of different elements ! From what Tom had said this phenomenon was a rarity among rarities so he wasn't sure what would be the consequences if people knew. In this small town he didn't risk much as the strongest was the two ringed magician he was speaking with, the risk was if someone stronger saw him and started having weird ideas.

"Why would you want to Lee's that secret ? If people from the capital knew that such a young two ringed magician had appeared you would be poached by every magical academy with the best conditions. You might even be paid more than most teachers !"

"I have my reasons, I'm not going to hide it for a long time anyway. I just need time."

Answered Thomas, Frank looked and sounded like a nice guy but he still had to be careful of he didn't know him well enough, when he was around 15 years old on earth he started reading Chinese novels and in those betrayal was the norm and that made him more careful, not that he believed that everybody was bad but he preferred being on his guard.

"Ok."

Frank nodded and looked curiously at Thomas.

'Is he the kid of some kind of rich family that was sent here for training ? That's the most probable theory... then he don't need my advices, a family strong enough to have such a talented kid and send him to train outside like any normal magician must be a powerhouse, maybe he's even from the royal family ? I got to warn Roland to be respectful to him !'

Thinking that he went very fast to the front of the line, whispered at Roland and his wife's ears and went back with the magicians.

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Finally after a minute of very slow and silent walking at the end of the cave could be seen a open area shining brightly with a blue hue.

"That light... we must be near the mana stones!"

It was a mercenary that said that, Thomas looked at him curiously and whispered

"How can he see mana ? Isn't it only reserved to magicians ? This guy doesn't have any mana around him and he's an archer right ?"

"Mana is so condensed there that normal eyes can see it."

Roland heard him and replied, he felt like Thomas was still inexperienced

'Is it his first time out of his home ? No wonder he's clueless about most of things...'

Finally they made it to the open area, everything looked blue and shiny as if they were in clear water and sun passed through to illuminate them, the first thing they all focused on was a blue tiger lying down in the middle of the room. It was blue all over and had paws of a deeper shade of blue, almost black, it's eyes that were already focused on the group were also blue, a chilling shade of blue.

"We have been seen ! Everybody take your positions !"

Roland yelled and every mercenary went to his post, the tanks on the front lane were the ones exposed to the most danger.

Behind them but not too far were the fighters holding either longswords or spears.

Further behind were the archers and the magicians together, Thomas was also amongst the magicians and was looking at the tiger.

"This thing have at least 10 times the mana of the rat outside, is this the difference between one grade?"

Frank not too far away realized something and also looked at the beast using his third eye.

"It's too late to run away but this thing isn't a grade 4 beast ! It's a freaking grade 5 beast !"

Everybody heard him, they needed a second to process the information and it became the chaos in a second with everybody trying to run away first, they had all their chances at beating a grade 4 beast even though half of them would die but they had 0 percent chances winning against a grade 5 beast.

"Frank do you have a solution ? What will we do ?"

Roland and his wife backed away from the second line and came near Frank, the formation was already broken, them moving back a bit didn't change anything in the end.

"We can only die here..."

He said sadly, the beast had already rampaging through their ranks and at least half of the weakest mercenaries were dead, running away wasn't an option anymore as this beast had the intelligence to wait in front of the only entrance and kill whoever came near it.

"Frank you have to think of a solution ! Remember ? We promised we'll survive and go back to the capital when we are strong enough !"

"Roland I've tried every scenario in my head but none is enough to get us out of here, our only solution would be to have a rank A mercenary with an enhanced armor and weapon or a four ringed magician and even then it wouldn't be without sacrifices."

"Mister Frank, think of a solution using our actual forces ! What can we do with a three ringed magician and the rest of you all ?"