Kittens, Clear Skies and more Sadness

It was odd the forest that the eight had cleared in an hour was proving difficult to Azemo. The days and nights blended together as Azemo wandered around. At first he was fine with this, but after he made his goals he needed to escape the trees' clutches.

The silver lining of the situation was that he had his bed in his room bag. Even though he was in the forest whenever he was tired he was able to get great sleep. Or he might have had great sleep if the scenes of destruction didn't play out every time his eyes shut.

Today would be different. Azemo decided to walk in a straight line until he escaped the forest. He vowed not to stop for any reason, no food and no sleep, two of his favorite things. This conviction would finally end the role of the demon forest.

In the distance a tired Azemo could see clear land for the first time in forever, no trees, no shrubbery, just plain grass. Azemo hurried to leave the trees so he could finally eat and sleep and in his rush he nearly stepped somewhere he shouldn't have.

"Watch yourself, young one." Azemo could hear a growling but unmistakably feminine voice.

Azemo surveyed his surroundings and found that he had almost stepped upon a massive, injured, silvery black, tiger monster.

"Oh sorry about that I just need to get some rest." Unknown to Azemo he was not speaking intelligible words and instead was letting out ferocious growls.

"You can understand me?"

"Is that something you should really be worrying about when you look heavily injured? Is there something I can do?" Azemo felt bad about almost stepping on the tiger and he did not want to experience more death anytime soon.

"What a foolish cub, my time has come, but if you understand me you must be powerful. Please save my children. If you save them I will teach you a skill before I leave this body of mine."

"How do I save your children auntie?" Azemo had already grown some sort of weird affection for the monster as she obviously cared for her children.

"My cubs are hiding on the outskirts of the forest. A Beskar did this to me and is currently hunting them."

Azemo quickly hurried off after hearing this, he had no time to waste. Beskars were massive wolf-like monsters. They had a normal wolf's body gigantified, extra long fangs and tiny spiked wings. Most Beskar couldn't fly and used the wings as weapons, but some probably had flight. Normally they were solitary creatures that kept to themselves but this one seemed to have a problem with the tigers. The reason Azemo had learned about monsters was because after his first bout with the Zepsile, Zaebos had made Master teach Azemo about the different monsters.

"What are the chances I will ever meet one of those creatures?" Azemo had often made this complaint to Master but today he was almost happy about knowing some stuff.

'To be able to fatally injure the terrifying tiger mother this Beskar must be particularly powerful.' Even with this thought Azemo did not hesitate to go rescue the cubs, they needed to at least say goodbye to their mother.

As Azemo reached the edge of the forest he heard dreadful howling and saw the Beskar. It was enormous, even bigger than what Master had led him to believe, and it was approaching two tiger monster cubs.

Azemo quickly activated (skill) Hover, before teleporting his knife and a nearby rock at the Beskar. The rock succeeded in distracting the Beskar before the knife sunk into a sensitive spot. Thanks to (technique) Puncture, Azemo had been able to inflict a heavy injury on the monster.

The Beskar immediately ignored the cubs and went after the more dangerous newcomer. It leaped into the air, spread its wings and glided towards Azemo at a frightening speed. Azemo ignited his gauntlets and faced the monster head on, he wasn't in the mood to run around, plus he was kinda tired.

The Beskar extended its claws confident in its strength but before it could touch Azemo it was stopped cold in its tracks.

Azemo had punched the thing in its face stopping it cold. Normally strength was one of Azemo's weakest facets but in this instance he had found a way to make up for his weak body.

First of all the gauntlets seemed to boost his power a little bit, but the reason he was able to stop the Beskar in its tracks was with a combination of (magycka) Shadows Call and (skill) Flames of Death.

With Shadows Call he had teleported a massive rock he was throwing. Instead of aiming for his enemy he had teleported the flying rock behind him, as soon as it was about to leave his fingertips, so that it would crash into him. The extra force of the rock had helped him stop the Beskar but he needed to heal himself instantly so as not to weaken the punch.

Of course he could have probably just teleported the rock at the Beskar but Azemo was not thinking too clearly after his time lost in the forest.

As strong as this punch was, the Beskar was not ready to go down, it slashed towards Azemo with its razor sharp claws. Azemo casually blocked the strike with his left gauntlet before activating and driving the blade of the right gauntlet into the creature's neck.

This tired and hungry version of Azemo was kinda spooky. He didn't think really clearly but he was able to kill the monster so fast. Azemo retrieved his knife before collecting the two kittens.

They were adorable with big eyes and huge paws. One was white with streaks of black in its fur while the other was more like its mother with a black silvery pelt. The two kittens were too exhausted to stop this stranger from picking them up.

Azemo placed them on his shoulders before harvesting the wings of the Beskar. Beskar wings were a valuable resource according to Master.

'Good thing I had Flames of Death or my whole right arm would be out of commission...Holy sh*t I am dumb, I should be able to heal the cubs mother.'

Azemo made sure the cubs were settled in before hurrying back to the injured tiger mom. She was delighted to see her two babies again and quickly began talking to the two of them.

Azemo tried using his skill confident that he could save the tiger but no matter how much mana he poured into it, the skill had little to no effect.

"Thank you for trying to heal me but the reason that Beskar wings are valuable is because they have anti-mana properties. This wound created by a Beskar wing cannot be healed through magical means. It really is my time to go."

Azemo was crushed, he had really hoped that the only one that would die that day was the Beskar.

"Here is the skill I promised you." The tiger put one of her paws on Azemo's tome departing a new skill. It was the pride of the tiger's life, legendary skill Retaliate.

Retaliate, user inflicts bonus damage to anybody that managed to hit the user. Bonus damage scales with damage received.

"One more thing, my cubs seem attached to you please promise to take care of them."

The tiger had felt Azemo's compassion when he tried to heal her and she was also impressed by his willingness to help a monster.

"I promise to take care of your cubs as if they were my own family." Azemo had grown fond of this tiger monster and wanted to help her in any way possible and the kittens were cute.

The mother said goodbye to her children for the final time before her body melted into shadows leaving only a single tooth.

Azemo picked up the two miserable kittens and tucked them into his spare bed in the room bag before reverently collecting the tooth. He then finally exited the forest and climbed into bed himself.

In an instant before he could even think about food the warm embrace of his bed had claimed his consciousness.