"Huh? Did I hear you wrong?" I stared at the Tiger King before me, his face betraying no emotions as he looked over at a group of tigers lazing around on rocks, "I want to rid my clan of those who would seek to further themselves beyond their position."
Blatantly referring to a group of tigers which were staring back at us, daggers in their eyes as sparks of hatred could be seen in the depths of them. In recent days I had become much more adept at reading the emotions of a person's eyes rather than their face, it was a welcome talent with the hidden dangers I had faced so far; knowing my enemies intentions before they could act would give me a benefit in combat at least.
"Why don't you do it yourself? You're strong enough to destroy them all with a claw." I replied, it was true though; despite the Tigers possessing realms from Mortal Leaving Intermediate to Pinnacle even as a group they couldn't threaten the Tiger King in his peak state, I had seen him destroy a Leopard which had tried to prey on me during our training; its strength being just slightly below James's from what I could gauge.
"The rules of the clan cannot be disobeyed, not even by me as the current leader. The other tigers don't possess the ability to speak the human tongue like me or possess the same amount of memories that I do to do with our past but they do possess them to a certain extent, specifically the rules of the clan are ingrained in our mind from young; the rules of the strong only apply to challenge the leader of the clan and despite that I'm powerless against those who would scheme against me in the dark." He sighed reluctantly, it seems I had severely underestimated how strict these so-called clan rules were, I'd been informed of them on my first day living here and yet I'd never taken them seriously as the rules were made by the strong in the jungle, or so I had thought.
"So will you do it?" He asked me, I gazed back at him resolutely, to me those Tigers may be strong but they were also walking XP points; if I could come out of this unscathed I would most likely be able to level-up again bringing me to the Intermediate stage, the thought of that happening excited me too much that I forgot to answer; only the vigorous nodding of my head was any indication of my acceptance.
"Good. I'll give you an hour to prepare, go to my cave and find a pair of daggers which suit you, there were many of those so-called assassins that have tried to infiltrate and kill my clansman in recent years." Impatiently I immediately ran off, 'Meld' I said in my mind, instantly I disappeared from the realm into the shadows, the place where we were observing the tigers from was a high point on the mountain overlooking the clan; the Tiger Kings cave was at the bottom of this mountain, I'd asked him why once before since the final boss would usually be at the end of the road from the games I'd played I thought the same logic had applied but he just looked at me and laughed, "The King's job is to protect his people, what better way than be the one to confront the enemy first?"
The logic had surprised me but it gave me a newfound respect for this beast, he'd been brought into this realm as a cub and had managed to survive the survival of the fittest and defeat the previous Tiger King and rise to the position.
Looking at the bottom I gulped before leaping off the edge, this was something I'd managed to discover in my practice with the ability - since my physical body blends into the shadows as long as I remain in the shadows as I fall to impact I should be fine right?
I'd proposed the idea to the Tiger King the first time I had thought of it, before I knew it he had pushed me off the side of the mountain screaming; as if by instinct I blended into the Shadow Realm as if I knew by instinct it would work yet that didn't stop the shrill cries from my throat as I readied myself for an impact that never came. In fact, I didn't feel a thing from landing it was if I had never been falling in the first place.
The Tiger King had simply stared down at me a smiled a toothy grin, he later revealed to me that he had no idea it would work but the fact that I had thought of it in the first place was most likely to do with my ability being a part of me; so he took a leap of faith, figuratively of course, and pushed me off the edge.
Smiling bitterly to myself I stopped falling and came out of the Shadow Realm naturally, the few tigers around that were resting were startled to see me appear out of nowhere, looking at me with shock I just ignored them and walked towards the largest cave, it was personally carved by the last Tiger King that had resided here, long before the current king had been brought into this realm.
"Grrrr" A growl came from the side as I approached, bitterly I shook my head because I knew who it was - I'd prayed to the heavens that she wasn't here yet it seems I was abandoned.
Trying to ignore her I kept walking, my head bowed in shame. To the side was a tiger larger than the others, about half the size of the Tiger King; she was the same tiger I had been confronted with after I had killed the Tiger Kings child, his Wife.
I was glad she couldn't use telepathy to talk to me in a human tongue or doubtlessly she would've had a string of curses for me to hear, yet despite growling at me that was the only thing she did. She didn't dare to defy the orders of her husband regardless of how much she complained to him she knew that if she passed his bottom line even she wouldn't be spared as his wife so she could only growl at me pitifully.
...
The vast expanse of the cave never failed to astonish me, rather than a tigers cave it looked like a dragons; there were piles of equipment, some with blood still fresh and others with dried blood from the countless people who had wandered too deep into the forest that they had been killed by the tigers who brought the corpses back as tribute.
Countless weapons lay strewn across the ground too, in a separate pile to the armor so it was easy to identify between the two groups without meaningless digging. I searched around for a while before finding a pile of daggers in the far corner, they were all grouped together in a pile; many chipped or damaged.
I spent around twenty minutes going through the pile carefully laying out the daggers in pairs if I could; sadly many came without a twin dagger I instantly threw those to the side, wielding two daggers would be the most effective way for me to display my full power.
...
Ughhh why is this so hard! I had managed to bring myself down to three pairs of daggers, one pair had dark red hilts and were curved; their effectiveness couldn't be doubted as they were scratchless, I had tried slicing a few stones in the surroundings with this pair and they had easily cut through like a hot knife and butter would be the best analogy.
The second pair was a little special. they were bladeless, or to be exact they were retractable blades, they had a button on their hilts which when pressed would instantly propel the blade out; although slightly more bulky their effectiveness didn't lose out to the red pair in the least, in fact, they may be the most suitable for surprise attacks as the enemy would underestimate the reach of my weapon.
The final pair had wooden hilts, but what was unusual was that the hilts weren't made of anything special, the wood easily broke off by applying a bit of pressure, but the blades were pitch black like a soul-less abyss. I felt drawn to them but they weren't practical in my current situation, I needed a pair of daggers that wouldn't break if I used my full strength and this wooden hilt would be too easily crushed.
...
I walked out of the cave confidently, I couldn't help but feel a slight regret in my heart at the loss of the black bladed daggers; it was inexplicable but I felt like I was connected to them. I tried to shake off the feeling but I couldn't, I decided to just ignore it as best I could as I carried the dark green hilts of the retractable blades one in each hand. I didn't have much time before the fight so I decided to start training with the knives to become accustomed to them as best as I could.
Walking back to the small cave I had been prepared, I had managed to install something akin to a door but it was more of a wall than a door which I moved to the side to enter then moved back when inside.
"Ding, ding, ding"
The light sounds of metal hitting the hard mountain wall could be heard from my room; I practiced relentlessly trying to become as accustomed to the blades as if they were an extension of my own body, I had to rely on them to fight for my life after all so by that logic I felt I should treat them like my life.
...
A short thirty minutes later I was feeling slightly worn out but still as energetic as ever. It wasn't long now because I would have to fight, and I was right; just a short minute after the Tiger Kings voice was heard in my head. "Come to the stream."
I knew this would be a hard fight to come. I steeled my resolve I walked out of my cave and into the sun; a look of confidence and resolution on my face as I walked to the place of battle.
This would be a fight to the death...