I glance towards the sleeping and exhausted body of Morgan, my heart welling up in fear, panic and a deep sense of hatred. I may not have known Morgan for too long, but can I really let him die? He still have his uses and at the same time.....I feel very unwilling to simply let him die. If he dies, I'll probably be killed too.
So, I must fight and win.
I shot a pointed look towards the wraith body of the tiger, who was slowly crawling towards me. I heard it speak, it's voice ghastly and deep.
"Little girl.....abandon that boy and we will spare you."
'We?'
I immediately caught that. So there is more than one of them. The tiger being the offensive, while the other...animal? Human? Being the one that trapped us in the loop. That made sense.
'Hold on! A tiger just spoke to me in perfect English! Isn't that more weird?'
I was amused by the thought, a faint smile forming on my lips. Can my day get anymore fanatical than this? To make things worse, im practically dying from thirst here.
"Nah. I need him."
The tiger didn't seem pleased with my response. It's tone growing more hostile.
"Don't be foolish. We don't want you. We don't need you. That....thing behind you is worth more. Im giving you a chance to abandon him. One last chance before I devour you."
I was honestly a little bit offended. What's so special about Morgan? That idiot barely knows how to do anything! And he's stupid, too! I even once thought he was genuinely retarded. Maybe this weird tiger just has a thing for males. Do they taste better? Hmm, maybe they do....I read about it once, but I don't know. It could have been—
'Ah! Why am I getting distracted?! It's such an annoying habit of mine....'
I scowled, now focused.
"That's not happening. You'll have to get through me first."
The air around us seemed to have grown denser, wrapping around me. This is one of the abilities of my second Blessing ability. I can augment my body with the wind, strengthing my physical attributes my 10 levels, but while at this state, im limited to what I can do with the air around me. That includes not being able to create duplicates, or becoming one with it. Augmenting myself with the wind demands alot of innate spirit.
The spear crafted by Morgan was.....average at best, but thankfully, I can augment it with the air as well, strengthening it's ability to pierce through things without being damaged and making it so deal more damage, as well.
But can I really pierce this tiger? It seems more like a ghost.....is that it's blessing ability?
"Very well."
The tiger suddenly vanished. I couldn't see where it went, my eyes widened. But I immediately started focusing on my air sense, instead of my other senses. The air sense is once again something I can do because of my second blessing ability. I can sense movements in the wind currents. Even a subtle shift in the air can tell me where exactly the tiger was.
But it proved useless.
'Arggh!!'
A powerful kick from behind sent me flying towards a tree, my back hitting it directly, the air knocked out of my lungs. Once I opended my eyes, I saw the tiger. It was towering over the unconscious body of Morgan, practically drooling, ready to devour him.
'I can't let that happen....'
Augmenting the spear with all the wind I could muster, I threw it at absurd speeds towards the tiger. My despicable father trained me in all sorts of combat, after all. My physical attributes are nothing to scoff at.
**Ksshhhhh!**
The spear whistled through the wind. The tiger who had opended it's large mouth to devour Morgan didn't even see it coming. With powerful force, it pierced into the eye of the tiger, making it stumble back and let out a painful, startled groan.
"You....you...."
It stared at me with anger, slowly disappearing once again. I smiled, pleased.
'Good. Good.....resent me more.'
I need to distract it from Morgan. I cant allow Morgan to just stay there unconscious either. Sooner or later, he will bleed to death. I need to stop the bleeding first. Then, I'll have to carry him around, while dealing with this ghost-like tiger....
Come to think of it, the tiger can clearly began intangible for a moment, or permanently. Is that it's blessing? But there is a clear flaw in becoming Intangible. The tiger can't be attacked, but it can't attack either. So, the tiger has to become tangible for it moment if it wishes to attack me, or even gobble up Morgan.
'I see now....'
Now, I just need to exploit this weakness. But how?
Before I could even ponder how to, the tiger appeared beside me, it's claw swinging downwards to behead me in one move. Indeed, it was in it's tangible form. I had anticipated this and was already prepared— Thus, I simply became one with the wind and manifested just a few meters away from the tiger.
"Where's your buddy? He isn't much of a fighter, is he?"
I mocked the tiger, who roared in response and became intangible again. This time, it was visible due to it's glowing eyes.
"What if I find and kill him first? Will you care?"
I wasn't just trying to make conversation, of course. I was slowly moving closer to the unconscious body of Morgan, becoming the wind and manifesting. Repeating it over and over again. The tiger may be able to speak, but clearly, it's intelligence isn't really on par with a human. That's another fatal flaw for the animals. They can mimick humans, but they can't become one.
"Hey, aren't you the tiger that chased me all from the lake?"
I asked, suddenly realizing the similarities.
"Yes....I am."
I raised an eyebrow, curious.
"Then, why didn't you follow me to Morgan's camp?"
The tiger suddenly halted, it's face turning grim. Well, atleast I thought it did. It opended it's maw to answer, but instead only a hateful roar escaped. Looks like I won't be learning the answer anytime soon. One of it's eyes was Severely damaged by my attack from earlier, the pain must be doing something to it's brain. Which was good.
"Well....looks like I'll have to go all out."
Having said that, I rushed forward, with the spear in hand, ready to attack the tiger. Who, in turn, turned into it's tangible form and rushed forward as well, seemingly wanting to tear my body to spreads using it's claws.
Well, that's good. It's just a duplicate, after all. My real body was dragging Morgan's body behind one of the tall trees of the lush jungle. Then, manipulating the air to turn sharp like a blade, I cut a piece of my tunic and used the clothing to wrap around the bleeding stump of an arm Morgan had. Carefully applying pressure to stop the bleeding, using the piece of cloth as a bandage.
It wasn't as effective as a real one, but it worked. That's good. I sighed in relief.
"You better wake up soon...."
I was tempted to just force him awake, but for some reason, I didn't. Maybe I pitied this naive weakling, or maybe I'm really starting to treat him as a friend. But it didn't matter. Because in the end, I will kill him. I will kill everyone in The Mulligan and emerge victorious. Once I do....I'll kill my father.
With that thought, I sat down beside the unconscious body of Morgan and silently listened to the sounds of fighting happening on the other side.
________________________________________
On the other side....
The tiger was vicious, devious and deady. It didn't have the lethal skill that I did, but it made up for it with it's much bigger body and stronger physicality. I was on the losing side. Everytime I would turn the wind currents into sharp blades, the tiger would just turn intangible. Everytime I would imagine the spear piercing through it's flesh, the tiger would just turn intangible. It seemed instantaneous and endless. How am i supposed to win against something like this?
After exchanging several blows, we finally made distance, circling around each other, reevaluating eachother.
"You are tough one, girl. But it doesn't matter. I will make sure to tear that body to spreads."
The tiger roared, it's tone dripping with barely concealed anger and hatred.
"Let's see if you can."
I smirked and twirled the spear, before casually dropping it to the ground. Im gonna do something I haven't tried in a long, long while. But it might just work right now. The tiger already knows that I have a strong affinity to air and wind, anyway. So....
The tiger stared at me curiously.
"What are you doing?"
I shrugged.
"Giving up, of course. You can go and eat Morgan. Can I leave?"
The tiger had an incredulous expression on its face.
"No, you can't! Not after what you did to my eye, you bitch!"
'Oh, so it knows how to curse too, huh?'
It looks like the tiger is too far gone to care about Morgan now. I was just testing it. There was no hesitation. The tiger really wants to kill me and then eat Morgan later. Which is exactly what I wanted. Having all the attention focused on me....meant that I won't have to hold back anymore.
"You really know how to hold a grudge, huh? Come at me, then!"
Just as I said that, the tiger rushed forward, in it's tangible form. It's speed was great and any other Unboud Human would have never been able to dodge, even me. But....I wasn't gonna dodge. I had something else planned.
Cupping both my hands together, I concentrated intently, i can feel it. The air around me swirling, turning and moving towards me, as if listening to their Queen. I concentrated on this sensation, imagining them twisting into a dense sphere. It was difficult and very taxing on my innate spirit, but I pulled through.
A dense sphere of air hovered above my cupped hands, as if it would explode at any moment. I could barely contain it. I wasn't at the level where I could manipulate this at will....
"Here's a gift for you!"
I tossed it towards the recklessly rushing tiger and dashed the opposite direction, covering my ears. The sphere expanded, before....
**Bang!**
A violent explosion caused the ground to shake and birds to flee into the air in fear. I jumped and hid inside a bush, anticipating the sound of the voice whispering into my ear, announcing the kill.
But it was silent.
'N–no way....there is no way it could have survived! Did it turn intangible at the perfect time? That's simply not possible! It's not instant, im sure of it. There is atleast a few second delay. I kept that in mind when releasing the sphere towards the rushing tiger....'
'Did it tank the explosion?'
With fear gripping my heart, I poked my head from behind the bush and saw a terrifying the sight. The mangled body of the tiger was still standing, bleeding profusely and disgusting wounds all over it— but it was alive.
"....Neat trick."
It's voice was calmer than before. Then, it turned intangible again, vanishing without a trace.
I allowed the duplicate to dissolve into the air. Right now, I was sitting next to the unconscious body of Morgan, my body shivering. There isn't a single Creature that should of been able able survive that explosion, but it did. So....
"No, no. It's a good thing. It was injured. Mortally injured. Unless that tiger has a healer ally, it would be impossible to recover from those wounds...."
I nodded. As that thought surfaced, my worries were alleviated. There is still a chance. Now all I need to do is find the tiger and kill it. However, just at that moment....
"....What are you talking about?"
I looked down in surprise. Morgan has awoken. He still looked dazed, but a deep sense of relief washed over me, a my lips curling up into a wide grin before I even realized it.
"You're awake."
At the same time, a Red Parrot flew by.