Blood Tiger Encounter

After an hour of running away from the scene of the epic battle, the three were sure they weren't being followed by whatever the boss goblin surely sent after them.

"So… that was… something," Lei was breathing heavily, evening her breath before continuing, "What exactly were they fighting for? You said something about the flower having something?"

Xing gave Lei a glance while he too caught his breath, "Umbra said that the pink flower likely had something that the goblin leader wanted."

"I've never even heard of any flowers that were that strong from anyone in the tribe. That goblin too, there has never been such a strong goblin before, especially one that can gather and command such an organized army. Seems we have something to inform your father of when we return. It may be a threat."

Xing signed and shook his head, "I've never heard of anything similar either. There has also been no mention of goblins leaving the forests before, but with what we've just seen, we should throw any knowledge we believe out of our minds. Let's just keep moving, nothing we can do about it now."

Over the next few hours the pair of humans, plus snake, had journeyed farther into the jungles' bowels, during which they acquire a few more monster-cores of both G and F Ranks.

"I think we have gone far enough now, if we go any further we might not be able to trek back to the tribe in time." Xing said.

"Yeah, your right. Let's find a place around here to set up a camp for the night and tomorrow we'll go back the way we came," Lei stopped walking and looked around.

[There was a cave back a few kilometers maste- err… maybe! I said MAYBE!] Umbras' comment and further shouting reverberated around Xings' mind.

Ignoring the snake in denial, Xing turned to where Umbra indicated, "Umbra says that there was a cave a few kilometers back."

Gaining a wary expression he continued, "However, a cave around these parts would probably already have an owner, and since there aren't many around, a powerful owner."

"Oh it'll be fine to at least check it out, but you are right, while we walk back we should keep an eye out for any other good camping locations," Lei's happy-go-lucky attitude revealed itself.

After backtracking a few kilometers the trio came across the cave Umbra talked about. There was nothing inside the cave and since they did not spot any other good campsites, they decided to use the cave- as questionable as that may be.

Xing looked hesitant, "I don't believe this cave does not already have an owner, it being empty just makes it even more dangerous."

"Lighten up, even if an owner shows up we can just kill it."

Xing sighed, "Fine, I hope we won't regret it."

***

They did, however, come to quickly regret their decision of using the cave as a camp, as just before nightfall, the real owner approached.

A feline predator padded silently out of the jungle with glowing red eyes that stared straight into the cave. The large cat had patterned dark vertical stripes on blood-red fur, which went from a darker tone atop, to a lighter underside.

Lei luckily caught sight of the beast as it plodded out of the forest, as the creature was a master at ambushes and it would have been a disaster if it caught them unaware.

"Xing! The owner of the cave is here and you were right! We shouldn't have made camp here!"

Xing came outside the camp and also got a good look at what had riled Lei up, "An E-Rank Blood Tiger." He breathed out the feline's rank and species.

The tiger stared at the two humans for a few seconds before a low growl escaped its jaw, revealing black fangs. Sharpened black, gleaming claws also extended out of the felines padded, furry feet. It did not look one bit happy about the intruders.

Xing gave an exasperated sigh as he readied himself for combat, "Looks like we'll be fighting for our lives. Umbra! Stick to the shadows and wait for my signal to release your shadows!"

The beast didn't give Lei any time to prepare for battle as it leaped at her like lightning. A blood-red glow lit up its claws as they swiped toward her stomach, a blow which would assuredly kill her instantly if it made its mark.

Lei managed to dodge the killing blow, but not without taking a light scrape.

"Ahhh! What's happening, I'm losing strength!?" Lei felt weakened all of a sudden.

"That's a tigers' Blood Claw ability remember! You should know more about this sort of stuff since you had much longer than me to study all the creature of the jungle. I only had 2 weeks!" Xing thrust his spear forward at its side, and downward at its underbelly, while he formed and released a Light Missile toward Lei to heal the cut and restore her lost vitality.

As he had expected, even aiming at its weak underside, the stone spear just bounced off of its hard, bristling fur with no effect.

"Tsk," clicking his tongue, Xing needed to bring its attention toward him, while Lei recovered her vitality. Drawing in mana from the surroundings he went all in and formed a Mana Dagger which immediately started rapidly draining his mana-reserves.

"Hey, you big kitty cat, look at me!" Xing stabbed the conjured dagger straight into the tiger's body, barely sticking in, but it was enough to catch its attention.

The tiger released a loud roar as it turned toward Xing, with its body getting noticeably larger and more muscular.

"Crap! I forgot about how it gets stronger when injured!"

It pounced at Xing at a speed far faster than when it lunged at Lei. He was not as fast as Lei when dodging and that weakness was further exasperated by the tigers' increase in speed. These factors combined earned him a similar wound to Lei's on his chest, but much deeper.

Gritting his teeth with pain and struggling with the sudden invasion of weakness, Xing continued provoking the beast, "Hey! Is that all you've got! I'm still alive Fluffy!"

Seemingly understanding what Xing was speaking, the tiger growled with rage, slowly moving forward while crouching down and storing energy into its back-legs, ready to spring out and attack.

Seeing that the tiger was fully focused on him Xing commanded, "Umbra release your shadows!"

Shadows draped over the surroundings the moment the tiger leaped forward, swiping at Xing with pulsating blood-red claws. Yet it did not connect with its target as Xing descended into the shadows below him. The tiger looked confusedly at the ground before its senses detected its prey once again, this time dozens of meters away.

Xing cast the spell he stored in his 1st Circle: Flash, right in front of the confused tiger's eyes. With the blinding flash of light, the tiger roared in pain as it shook its head side-to-side, and closed its red eyes.

"Now Umbra! Lei aim for its head now!" Xing yelled out as he used all his remaining mana, conjuring a dagger and running toward the tiger's front.

Lei got the idea and she too ran toward the tiger, spear thrusting toward its throat, hoping her super-strength kicked in. She knew that without it, she would not be able to penetrate very deep, even in the tiger's undefended parts.

Umbra flashed out of the shadows and was the first to connect with the tiger, clamping down on its jugular, trying to tear it to shreds.

Even though the tiger could not see, it still felt what was happening. Roaring it tried shaking the little snake off its neck, however, it was to no avail as Umbra hung on tightly.

It was then that both Xing and Lei's strikes hit the tigers head. With Xing's dagger digging into the tiger's cranium, and Lei's spear, empowered with sudden strength, pierced in between the tiger's eyes. Both humans' strikes managed to penetrate and strike the tigers brain.

Moaning out one final growl laced with despair, the tiger collapsed onto the ground dead, breathing its last breath.

Both Xing and Lei released a relieved sigh as they achieved victory before Xing toppled over in pain as his self-healing kicked in, cursing, "Dammit!"

"That was a close one, I can't believe we were able to kill an E-Rank Blood Tiger! I was expecting to just fight it off… I wonder if it dropped a core!" Lei began looking passive but quickly turned it into expectation and excitement.

[Found it Master!] Umbra popped her head out from the corpse covered in gore, in her mouth was a large pulsating monster-core dripping with blood.

"What were you doing inside the beast!? That's disgusting!" Lei looked horrified at how Umbra popped out the corpse, yet upon noticing what she was holding looked stunned, "Wow! What luck do we have! I wasn't expecting a core at all, yet we actually got a super rare E-Rank Monster-Core! There are only 2 of these in the tribe, this is the third!"

"Yeah? Well, I'm not trying that ever again," Xing signed, "We got lucky Lei, the claws of the Blood Tiger could kill us in one hit if we weren't careful, there would be no second chances."

Lei went solemn, "Yeah, you're right I may have gotten carried away we were really lucky to even survive, let alone get loot."

Xing stood up and walked into the cave, "Well I'm going to sleep first to heal my wound faster. You've got the first watch," He stopped and looked over at Umbra, "And you, snake. Wash yourself off before you enter this cave, I don't want tiger splayed all over."