Tiger Stripes(Final)

In the lair of the necromancer, the battle between Tiger and Rowan Raid had begun in earnest. The first collision had caused a boom and the raging winds were now visible to the human eye as their mana coated their weapons and clashed, causing a gale to tear through the room. Tiger's hammer glowed with mana as he smashed it right back towards Rowan after their initial clash. Tiger was able to match Rowan in strength, but as he looked at the menacing mouths that now looked like tiger stripes on his body and thought of the number of souls that probably required, then it made sense.

Rowan used the ax blade and smashed it into the oncoming hammer head with his full force. The strength behind it shocked even Tiger as he slid back by a bit. Rowan pressed the attack again, stabbing forward with the spear's head towards Tiger's throat. He smashed downwards with the hammer, causing the spear point to shoot downward, while Tiger released one hand and a single clawed hand shot towards Rowan's throat.

Rowan leaned his head backwards to avoid the blow as he pulled on weathervane, but at the same time the mouths on Tiger's arm opened and it caused his arm to stretch and shoot back towards Rowan. Rowan opened his mouth and chomped down precisely on his fingernail, stopping him in place with a grin on his face. He swiped up with weathervane and the ax blade shot towards Tiger's midsection, threatening to bisect him. He hurried and tried to pull his hand back while underestimating the strength of Rowan's jaw. His mouth stayed clamped on the nail, causing it to tear from the finger. Rowan spit it out and grinned at Tiger.

Tiger stomped on the ground and sent a shockwave through the floor, causing metal spears to rise from the ground and pierce in a line towards Rowan. He lightly tapped on the ground and danced out of the way before releasing his wings since the first time he was in here, as well as activating storm steps. Rowan chose to charge forward instead of going backwards and light tapped on the spears as he shot towards Tiger and executed thrust.

Amethyst light wrapped around the tip as weapon light as Rowan struck from slightly above Tiger and towards his jugular in a downward motion. Tiger roared and sent a shockwave that displaced the blow, causing it to graze his back which instead of drawing blood like Rowan expected it made the sound of metal striking metal as an ear-piercing screech which stunned Rowan for a second. Tiger didn't miss the opportunity as he swung the hammer upwards.

Rowan flapped his wings and somersaulted over the swing while Tiger grinned and lightly tapped his foot on the ground, causing a sheet of metal to rise in front of him. He swung the hammer forward with all of his might as the tiger head breathed a weird flame onto the metal from the head of the hammer right before the collision. It superheated the metal so that as the hammer collided with the wall of molten metal; it shot towards Rowan like a massive super-heated shotgun blast. It tore through his wings and blasted him backwards. He heaved the hammer onto his shoulder and stalked towards Rowan.

"How do you like that one? It's a spell I call it [grapeshot]." Rowan was about to say something but before he could several walls raised from the ground and the hammer began to breathe out and super-heat the metal once more. Rowan threw a storm point in front of him and summoned the deluge right as the hammer met the metal and shot it at him. Rowan had decided to stop holding back on mana, which is why he had finally released the wings and engaged the storm steps. Rowan knew that Tiger would be an opponent not like the rest of the zodiac and he needed to fight without holding back.

Rowan's wings were finally healed as he flapped and zoomed into the sky while the tips of his wings released storm points that hovered in the air and started emitting a fine mist. Rowan charged back down, leaving a trail of storm points before he slashed down at Tiger. He growled, and a platform made of metal rose from the ground and lifted him to a higher height. Rowan charged back in and Tiger was ready.

Rowan thought he was going to swing at him but instead he smirked and raised the hammer high in the air before slammed it down on the pillar that had been risen from the ground and at the same time ducked Rowan's slice with the ax part of the halberd. The whole room shook and Tiger's body began to glow as a wicked grin lit up his features. The mouths on his body grew to a vibrant orange before marks on the floor revealed themselves. They all began to glow more intensely, and Rowan immediately withdrew his wings into him and used storm steps in the sky.

Rowan heard Tiger's voice right as the spell activated, and Rowan saw him slowly sliding into the pillar that had activated the attack that was brewing.[Dungeon Spell: Molten Maw] The moment that his words fell, he fully sunk into the pillar and it was like a trigger had been pressed as all the tiger scars across the room exploded towards Rowan's position. He knew that Tiger's element was metal and the power of souls had given him this molten ability, but even he was surprised when the entire room exploded with what he assumed was molten metal as the explosion rapidly approached him and devoured the mist. Rowan pumped mana into the weathervane so that it began to glow amethyst along the jagged edge.

He channeled the water of the storm and then executed [Wind storm assault.] The water and wind did not fully combine, but the wind carried the water as blades of razor sharp water met the explosion and steam exploded into being in the room, forcing Rowan to the floor right at the same time while his body got singed. The molten attack had formed tigers that sprung through the steam for him.

He tapped once and shot backward swinging weathervane to dispatch tiger after Tiger, they seemed endless and it made him realize that he had truly not developed enough techniques, his shortcomings were becoming more apparent, he still was not putting his all into this, it was right as he thought this that Tiger shot from the floor wrapped in solidified metal and looking like a huge metallic humanoid tiger. His hammer now doubled in size. He caught Rowan unaware and slammed the hammer down, causing Rowan to raise the pole portion to catch the hammer.

The first slam pounded him into the floor and almost forced him to his knees and in the same instant the hammer slammed down again and when he caught it on the shaft of the weapon, he felt a splitting pain from his soul as the staff cracked. Rowan retaliated in a series of slashes and swipes meant to maim Tiger but he showed immense skill with his hammer parrying the blows while all along Rowan could feel weathervane giving out.

The cracks had now extended even to the blade of the weapon. Rowan had to use something that Tiger had not seen. He had been watching closely and had a plan for all of Rowan's techniques. The storm points had still been releasing mist, so in a moment of clarity, he placed a storm point at the spear tip and summoned a trail of them that led to the sky, with his weapon being the last one. He held the weapon out and the storm points in the sky formed a tornado that acted as a funnel for the mist. It overlapped with the storm point on the tip of the blade as he poured nearly a hundred points of mana into the storm point and vanished before appearing before Tiger's massive chest.

Rowan named this new technique himself and the system acknowledged it before it was even fully out [Powder keg thrust]. The storm points at the back came together and released a lightning bolt that started the explosion before the entire explosion was funneled to the tip of the weathervane as Rowan thrust it forward with all of his might.

The spear tip came so fast that Tiger was never prepared as the weapon collided with his chest and there was a sign like static before the whole force of powder keg exploded after being focused to a single point. There was a flash of light and a deafening crack as Rowan dropped to his knees in excruciating pain. His Astra had exploded from the force of his own attack being beyond the means of his weapon. His Astra was only rank 2 and his stats were way beyond that, and not even his own Astra survived something of this magnitude.

He absorbed the pieces of the weapon into his mana space and looked across the room at the mess of flesh and metal that was not imbed in the wall. Rowan slowly approached him and looked up at him and after a great struggle despite the massive hole in his chest, he looked back at Rowan with a different light in his eyes. His voice was the same but now Rowan could hear the weakness in the form of the blood that was flooding towards his lungs in his final moments.

"I guess your resolve was greater than my own, wasn't it? Your will to save your friend has carried you to this point, and my disregard for life brought me here as well. The different paths we traveled to this point are interesting, but here you are the victor once more. At least I will get to go be with my siblings. I truly don't know if, given another chance, I would have made any decision different. I met someone special, but she has gone too, and so I die alone here. Are we really so different Rowan Raid? What would the current you do for ultimate power? Would you not wish to see your parents before you again and if you could, would you not do anything you could to make them proud?"

Rowan could only shake his head as he got close, so Tiger would not have to strain to hear him. "Your power was never yours to begin with. You are as much of a victim as the souls I've liberated from your family. He never cared about any of you, otherwise why would he let me simply kill you all just to buy him time before my arrival?" I understand wanting to be stronger, but this was never strength, this was the machinations of a man playing with things beyond even him. In your next life, work hard for your strength and live a righteous life. You were nurtured to be evil and never bothered to change your ways, partially because you knew no better. I have no remorse for what I've done here, because that's what this new world means for me. The apocalypse was a releasing of shackles on our race and some of us will soar on wings of light and others on wings of darkness. I'm on this side of light because of my choices now, but we could have truly been in reversed roles because I'm in no means good. I understand that well. My hands, too, are stained with blood."

Rowan could not help but think of Akari as he said this, but he reached out and lightly dragged a hand down Tiger's face, closing his eyelids as he finally passed away. Rowan used the call of the fairy king and gained close to 10000 souls, which in turn caused the pain to fade from his soul being damaged but also boosted his stats double what he had earned so far. Rowan looked down at the cracks that had formed on his skin as he could see rainbow light threatening to spill out.

Steam began to spill from the massive double doors as Rowan made his way towards them; they must only open as a result of Tiger's death. This caused Rowan to pity this member of the zodiac, as even in his death this necromancer had used him as a key to his lab.

He looked back at Tiger's corpse and could feel the sadness that came from the depth of the man's soul as his tiger soul joined the other zodiac souls he had gathered. "In your next life, I hope that you get the chance to experience flying with wings of light instead of such a deep darkness."