chapter 6

Wilson, of course, didn't waste any time capitalizing on the openings that I made for him. He first let go of the dead tiger that was held in his lower arms and used the now free appendages to reach out and hold the heads of the tigers that are trying to pin him down by biting his legs and smashing them savagely into the ground repeatedly until they were nothing but red paste. He then spread his upper arms apart in a titanic show force, causing the tiger held by said arms to roar miserably as it was torn in half, once more re-enacting the scene that happened when I first met him.

Looking at the mighty act of savagery, I smirk as I kill the momentum of my charge, forcing myself to come to a halt. Noticing that Wilson was safe from any immediate danger, for the moment and that the two tigers lunging at me were almost at a striking distance, I started retreating backward to buy myself some time as I tilted Archangel upwards and flicked quickly it to the side to empty its cylinder from the bullet shells, I then promptly reach to my bullet pouch to take out six more bullets which I then load into the now empty cylinder just as quickly as I emptied it.

Despite the speed of my actions, however, I was barely done in time as I had to take a big step to the side to avoid having my head being bitten off by one of the tigers which I had noticed lunging at me from the corner of my eyes while reloading the last bullet.

Unfortunately, I didn't have the time to counter-attack after dodging, as I had to once again dodge once by ducking as the other tiger flew right above my head, having lunged at me with a little too much strength.

Deciding that now was the best time for me to counter-attack, I swung my sword at the tiger's unprotected abdomen that was right above me, and surprisingly managing to cut deep enough to make it leave a red trail of its insides as it smashed headfirst into the dirt ground while sliding good meter or two in the direction of its lunge.

'even though their backs and skulls seem to be just a little less tougher than Wilson's own, their abdomen seems to be their week point.' I think to myself as I charge towards the first tiger that I dodged.

After I dodged a swipe of its claws, it then tried to attack me with its teeth, forcing me to evade again without stopping my momentum by bending myself backward and lowering myself my knees, causing me to slide right under its abdomen. I then shoot upwards In a mighty leap aiming to bury my sword's entire length in its stomach, which I do, and then slash to the sides, turning the tiger's insides to outsides, causing me to be drenched in both blood and gore as descend into the ground.

I then throw myself to the side to avoid getting buried under the tigers towering body as its legs can no longer muster enough strength to keep it standing.

Looking over to check on Wilson, I notice he managed to kill another tiger by crushing after engulfing it in one of his specialty gorilla hugs, leaving us with only six tigers surrounded by both Wilson and myself.

The tigers then seemed to hesitate while looking between me, Wilson, and the tiger corpses littering the ground. And after sharing several glances among each other, they then roared at us, and as I tensed myself, preparing myself to continue fighting, they turned tail and started to flee in all directions.

I took a step forward with the intent to chase after them and then stopped after glancing at the bloody figure of Wilson. After a second of hesitation, I sighed and put away my weapons while heading toward my friend. The previously mentioned baby silver gorillas were now surrounded as they looked at him with stars in their eyes.

Once I reached Wilson, I stopped right in front of him and extended my empty hand as a way of asking permission to check his injuries. He looked at my hand bewilderedly for a second but then seemed to finally understand as he grunted in approval and rested his massive figure down on the ground in a casual setting posture.

"what the hell was all that about?." I questioned, not expecting an answer, as I started to wash his wounds with the water-filled bottle gourds that I took out of my backpack.

Wilson, however, surprised me and answered by grunting and gesturing towards one of the dead. It then grunted again and gestured in the direction of one of the dead silver gorillas with one hand while gesturing towards the baby silver gorillas with another. It probably means that the tigers attacked the gorillas while adults were taking out the babies somewhere and that he rushed in to help them defend the little ones.

'I really need to stop underestimating this guy's intelligence.' I thought to myself while raising an eyebrow at his carefree attitude.

"you sure are carefree, for a guy who was about to be bitten to death, before I arrived that is," I remarked snarkily in irritation, only for him to snort dismissively in my direction as I started to apply some medical plants that I gathered earlier this week to his wounds. Luckily most of his injuries weren't deep enough to threaten his life except for the ones at his limps which were quite deep.

That, however, didn't prove to be a problem as I quickly sealed the wounds and stopped the bleeding. Once I was finished, I just sat down in front of him, reached inside my bag, and took a couple of fruits to replenish my energy while offering some of them to Wilson, which he accepted and devoured all too quickly.

One of the braver baby gorillas started to approach me cautiously as it gazed at fruit in my hand with drool coming out of the side of its mouth. I merely smiled in its direction before reaching inside my backpack and throwing fruit in its direction.

The other baby gorillas, of course, noticed this and didn't want to miss out on the literal free lunch, causing me to smile again and offer them some fruits as well.

"well, I guess we won't be able to have our regular sparring session today, or any time soon I guess, considering the state that your limps are in," I shouted as I got up—causing Wilson to turn his gaze from the baby gorillas playing carefreely by his side to me instead.

"But I'll visit regularly to check on your wounds for any sign of infections, and maybe we can get wasted together or something," I said again as I turned around and started jogging in the direction of the stream of water, so I could wash away the dirt and blood from my clothes and body before heading back to camp.