Special Chapter XI - Undead Demon Tiger (part 2)

Gajah strolled down the forest right outside the beach's location, on the right side of the beach. He is still bare chested, and not even wearing any foot covers. He is not holding a weapon too, so I'm not sure what his intentions are.

"Gajah?"

"Eeepp!!"

He shouted as I somehow scared the life out of him. All I did was say his name, but he screamed like a dragon just appeared in front of him.

"Don't! Ever! Sneak up behind me again!"

"You were the one sneaking out, so I got confused."

Gajah let out a sigh before he started explaining to me about what he had heard.

"Kirene… has found a lead."

"From a bunch of little boys??"

"You'd be surprised how boys can be a very good source of information. After all, boys are very adventurous."

Gajah continued walking forward, and I simply followed behind him.

I remembered when I was a child, I spotted many things in public and hid them for myself. If I told any adult about those things, it would definitely cause an uproar.

I once found a human skeleton right underneath the bridge while I was playing at my friend's house. That time I was still like seven, so I don't understand what that is and what's going on, but it's definitely the skeleton of a person.

So yeah, maybe kids do have a good source of information.

And based on the kids, they saw a giant demon beast around this way of the forest. They said the skin was dark, and it had a scary voice. They ran away as quickly as they could, but they didn't say anything to anyone.

Kirene, who first heard about this, thought that this demon beast could be one of the spies sent by the conjurer, so they had Gajah check it out.

"All right then. Let's check them together."

We both strolled down the forest. I heightened my senses, but I couldn't pick up any signs of beasts.

After a long search, we are starting to get bored just from checking.

"This is taking forever."

"Keep looking. This could be our only lead."

Gajah said to me, and I'm surprised he was able to talk back. He was very eager to find this conjurer, since it was their fault for causing so much trouble to the rebellion group.

His feelings for this conjurer are really hopeless… He really wants them dead.

And after searching for thirty minutes, the two of us got tired. We sat down under the trees, drinking our drinks while taking a rest.

Gajah only brought a small bottle with him, because he didn't have any space ring. It was a little too expensive to begin with. So I gave him a little bit of water from my share. 

I had six bottles of drinking water. Don't mind me.

"Come to think of it, did you notice the smell here?"

Now that he mentioned it, I began smelling it. It was already like this when we got here, and we couldn't realize the smell. It smelled... horrible. Like something died here.

"Yeah. It smelled like something died here."

"Yeah... Something died..."

Gajah pondered over those words, and the gears on my brain also started moving. Then we came up with a conclusion as we stared at each other.

Undead.

But before we could react, a black gum fell from the sky at Gajah's leg. Gajah picked up the slimy substance on his foot and smelled it.

"Undead."

The two of us looked up, and an undead demon tiger was waiting up above the tree. It had its mouth opened, showing the sharp fangs and the black substance-saliva that was dropped to Gajah's foot.

"Move!"

Gajah leaped forward as fast as he could as the tiger jumped down from the tree. Gajah fixed his posture, while I landed slightly behind him.

Now that it's in front of us, we can see it clearly. The tiger is not a normal tiger. The forehead of the tiger was opened, showing the black meat underneath. Not just that, the skin on this tiger is also opened from the large wounds that the tiger received. But that doesn't mean the tiger lost their claws or fangs. The fact that it can still move simply means that this tiger can still kill.

"ROAARR!!"

The tiger roared at us as black and purple smoke slowly flowed out from its wounds and its eyes. It doesn't take me long to realize that this tiger is evolving.

"What is it doing?"

Gajah asked me, and I quickly got prepared.

"It's activating its demon form."

"What!?"

The area turned incredibly unpleasant thanks to the scent of the undead. The tiger started to undergo its transformation.

The claws turned purple from being enchanted with dark magic energy, and its eyes are shining bright purple. The fur on its body is also changing. It adds a little streaks of purple on it now. 

As if not enough, the body is also getting bigger.

And standing right in front of us is a demonized demon tiger, fully enchanted its body with magic energy, and a pressure far deadlier than its previous form. The height of the demon tiger is now as tall as me, and the length is twice the height.

"Those are some... huge paws."

I commented, but Gajah is not feeling like joking today. The tiger suddenly became angered, and began its attack.

"ROAARR!!!"

The tiger roared again and dashed forward. Gajah turned around and ran, but when he turned and found me standing still, he stopped.

"Rile! What are you doing?!"

The sword had just been summoned from my ring into my right hip, and I quickly unsheathed my sword. And with a single slice upwards, the head of the tiger fell to the ground.

Black blood came out from its body and I immediately dodged it as quickly as I could. But unlike regular blood, the stench is a hundred times worse.

I turned around to face Gajah while unsheathing my sword.

"Let's go... I'm about to puke..."

.

Afterwards, Gajah went back to the others alone to report what we found. Everyone went to the secret part of the beach again to talk about what we found.

He explained how he and I met a demonized tiger in the forest he just checked out, and that the tiger was an undead. He also added the fact that the tiger could use demon mode, which is rare for demonized beasts. That just means that it is still possible for demonized beasts to use demon mode when it is already dead.

Meanwhile at the far end of the secret beach, I threw out everything inside my stomach.

That black blood is definitely not something I can ever stand for. I was once sick of anything blood related, especially guts. I got rather used to it after adventuring for a month. But, smelling the scent of corrupted blood like that was ten times worse.

I tried using healing magic on myself to remove the nausea, and surprisingly it works effectively. I no longer felt dizzy, nor did I feel the urge to puke.

Now that we have found a clue, we moved up our schedule. Gajah gathered his friends one by one and called them to our 'base', while the captain also called his underlings.

It was still noon, and everyone had already grouped.

Gajah re-explained to everyone about what we encountered. The fact that the undead demonized beast could use demon mode, made it a hundred times harder for them to defeat.

After all, using demon mode means that raising the beast's danger rank by one. So if that demon tiger was originally a Purple ranked, it just ranked up into a Green ranked.

"In Veldon, a Green ranked is considered a level six."

"Wow. And Rile slayed it on one hit?"

"Yep. I saw it with my own eyes."

Everyone else whistled at me when they heard that. I noticed their gaze turning at me, and simply lifted my shoulder.

Gajah clapped his hand, and suddenly became excited.

"Anyway, now that it's clear where our target is at, I believe it's time to act."

"All right, then. Men, get prepared and dressed up. We are going to kill some immortal beasts!"

""Yes, Captain!!""

The knights all ran towards an open side of the secret beach and started dressing up. They all had magic rings, since all knights were given one. They took out their gears from the ring and began dressing up their armours. The captain also gets changed, as well as taking out his giant blade.

Gajah and his friends are also getting dressed up. The only one who isn't changing is me, who never once took their clothes off.

After changing and dressing up, the group headed towards the staircase that leads to the top of the mountain, the way we came from. And from there, we took a detour avoiding the beach area, because seeing a group of fully armed men in a recreational area usually means something bad. 

So we tried our best not to get seen by people, by going around the beach. But along the way, something rather odd happened.

VWUNNGGGG!!!!!!!

A heavy pressure… a stacked one. 

I don't think I can win against this.