Way of the Knights

Chapter 118 - FaceOff

---The team's blood froze as they heard the ruffling of the bush, following that the Fire-Spitting Lion's body flashed and went straight towards the resting tiger.

Hearing the noise, the Blood Burst Tiger woke up and immediately searched for any potential dangers, to which it saw the lion ferociously sprinting towards its location. A deep snarl came out of the tiger's throat as it hurriedly went on fours but the lion was too fast and if the tiger didn't do anything, it may never stand up again.

It seems that the lion knows this as well so with a mighty leap, it pounced on to the tiger to not give it any chance to retaliate. However at the last moment before the lion made contact with the tiger's body, the tiger spun and slapped the lion using it's tail mid-air.

This caused the lion to miss bearing it's fangs on the tiger's body, which also allowed it to stand up and face the lion properly.

The two beasts stared at each other, sizing their foes with rapt attention. The tiger realized that it was outclassed and wanted to escape but the lion was watching it closely, and will react to anything the tiger plans to do be it escaping or facing it straight on.

The stare down lasted for a while, they snarled at each other multiple times, several threatening growls and feinting advances later, the lion seemed to lost its patience and decided to take initiative.It pounced once more, and during it's sprint it's body lit up with flames and it's eyes glowed with fierce red light. The image it left on the team was truly menacing, somehow its red mane seemed to pulse with fire, those flaming paws which left a burnt mark wherever it passes, that flashing red eyes which belonged to hunter and that ferociousness is truly fit for the King of the Jungle.

Realizing it's dangerous position, the Blood Burst Tiger lowered it's posture. A deep guttural roar emerged from it's mouth and suddenly the red stripes on it's body seemed to have come to life.

Its fur stood up, an aura tinged with black hue covered its body. The tiger's eyes also turned a deep shade of red, its fangs seemed to be longer as well as its claws. All of the fear that it has was gone and the only thing that it has, is a deep bloodlust. It wants to shred this lion into pieces, chew on its flesh, gnaw on its bones, sever its head and place it around its territory to serve as a warning to others.'

It entered berserk mode.' Raven thought while watching.He glanced shortly at the people beside him. Jackson was watching the battle with rapt attention, Jordan was sweating but is also staring, George was fascinated but nervous, and Alina had her eyes closed in a prayer, asking the gods above to save her from danger.

Raven shook his head as he saw this. This woman is no adventurer, no one could tell him otherwise. He turned back his attention to the battle and prepared for any emergency situations, just in case.

The tiger managed to dodge the pounce of the lion, it also delivered a counter attack by scratching its face. The lion was hit by not too serious as it also sensed the attack before it connected. Nevertheless, it was first blood for the tiger and this did not sit well to the lion.

The tiger was also hurt from that exchange, the fire around the lion's body roasted it's left paw but because of the berserk state its in, it didn't notice that.

With a deep and ferocious howl, the lion pounced once more, the tiger dodged but as soon as it did, a fireball came out of the lion's mouth and hit the tiger square on the face.The tiger emitted a pain howl, the lion landed and pounced once more. A fireball in the face is a pain that not even the berserk state could ignore, nevertheless the pain was still minimized and the tiger was able to dodge during the last second before lion did a real damage to it's body.

While it dodged, the tiger's tail slithered like a steel whip and poked the eye of the lion. It was now the lion's turn to emit a painful howl. The tiger used this chance to deliver a serious attack. The tiger pounced and took a bite out of the lion's neck. The lion felt the long and sharp fangs of the tiger sank on the flesh of its neck, it growled with unprecedented ferocity and tried to shake off the tiger but it won't let go. Needless to say, the tiger was also taking damages, it's mouth is being seared due to the flames around the lion's body, but that wasn't enough to stop it.

With its rich battle experiences, the lion had an idea. It stopped shaking off the tiger and instead focused its mind on strengthening the flames that covered its body. The flames surrounding the lion burned with resplendence, the tiger didn't want to let go but it has to.

When it backed off, it's mouth was smoking and the smell of burning flesh was present. The team could see that it's tongue was completely seared along with some parts of its nose and the fur covering those areas are burnt as well.Free from the tiger's clutches, the lion once again spat a fireball towards the tiger. It missed because the tiger evaded but clash didn't stop. Every once and a while the lion will spit fireballs and the tiger will always evade it, then they would proceed to bite or scratch each other. As time goes on, both of them were severely injured. The lion has multiple scratches on its body but its most serious injury was the deep wound from its neck, it came from the bite of the tiger earlier. It is still bleeding but not noticeable since the flames burned it off before it stained its fur. The other serious injury was on the eye, which came from the tiger poking its tail on it. The tiger could only somewhat see on the injured eye which causes it to miss the tiger multiple times.

As for the tiger, its also badly injured. Its mouth is totally seared from flames on the body of the lion. It's tail is now missing since the lion caught it and bit it off. There's also several wounds on the sides of it's body, some of it were deep ones which stained its fur red from blood.

Both of the beast had a short stare down, the lion then tried to spit a fireball, the tiger familiar with the attack evaded but it turned out that it didn't have to since nothing came out from the lion's mouth. The flames on its body was close to being snuffed out as well.

The pulsing red eyes of the tiger flashed and its predatory instincts screamed 'Kill!' But before it could do so, the tiger regained its deep maple colored eyes, the black aura covering its body disappeared and the red stripes on its body became less pronounced. It became a little bit confused and also winced because it felt the sting of the wounds from its body.

Ten minutes has passed and it berserk mode ended. Because of the berserk state, the pain receptors of the tiger was somewhat numbed which allowed it to ignore the some minor pain, like stings of the wound, earlier. But now that the berserk mode ended, the pain caught up and reminded the tiger of it's insanity earlier.

Both beast, severely weakened due to multiple clashes, stare at each other down. The lion took initiative once more and once again the tiger dodged. What's different is that the lion's attack still connected because the agility of the tiger was lessened due to berserk state ending as well.

Now the realization dawned up on the tiger, it was severely outclassed from the very beginning and should've fleed right from the start.And because of this realization, it did what other beast of its position would do as well. That is..to escape.

It turned tail and hurriedly ran. Its direction? The bush where Raven and his team where hiding. Seeing the beast running towards their location made their faces ugly. Well, all except for one.

Raven already had an idea of this scenario happening, so he placed on hand on Jackson's shoulder. Jackson looked at him and saw Raven nodded towards him. A gleam appeared on his eyes as he realized what Raven wanted to do. He nodded as well and began giving instructions to Hopper, who stealthily moved between bushes. Jackson took out his weapon, a spear, and prepared for the right timing.As the tiger arrived closer and closer to the bush with lion hot on it's tracks, Raven watched closely and waited for the perfect timing to release the signal.Inches away from where they were hiding, the tiger jumped. But that jumped was a big mistake and it realized that when it heard as sound.

"Now!"