Lightning Is the Only Way

The twins charged at the approaching tiger and split up. One went to its left, while the other ran to its right. Their attacks were incredibly synchronized. It looked like they were two arms of the same being. At the same time, they both lifted their swords and slashed at the tiger's neck.

BANG!

The tiger swiped, and the twin on the side with the uninjured tiger eye got swatted away like an annoying insect. The poor man smashed through two trees until his body finally stopped. He had tempered skin, but it didn't help him at all. All the bones in his bodies were broken, and multiple organs were turned to mush.

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While the tiger killed the man, the other twin had slashed the tiger's neck but bounced off harmlessly. The twin didn't even notice that his brother was already dead. Instead, he felt shocked that he bounced off the tiger like it was a metal wall. There was only a single reason the guy could think of, why this tiger was so hard.

'That's not a ferocious beast. That's a demonic beast!' he screamed in his mind. Just when he realized the danger he was in, a gigantic paw pressed him to the ground. The tiger quickly bit his head off, swallowed, and continued running. It had to get away from that one scary human.

Some seconds later, Gravis arrived at the place and saw the corpses. Gravis sneered. "Wanting to steal my prey, but not having the strength. Idiots!" Yet, Gravis went through their bodies to collect their weapons and money. The weapons were okay, nothing special. The two men also had about 70 silver together. All in all, it was alright. Together with the weapons, the two men's worth was around the same as a fully intact ferocious beast corpse with a mission.

"This can't even be called luck. It's just some change," Gravis complained and continued following the tiger's trail.

After around ten minutes, Gravis saw the tiger in front of him. It obviously had slowed down due to its injuries. Gravis had long retracted his Will-Aura. He slowly closed in on the tiger, but the tiger didn't notice. When Gravis was close enough, he stabbed his saber into the tiger's behind.

The tiger let out a high yell and tried to dislodge the saber. Gravis had already jumped on the tiger's back and was furiously moving it around. The more blood it lost, the faster it would die.

Right now, it was bleeding from all its orifices. It was bleeding from its mouth, its nose, its ear, its eye, its genitals, and from its behind. Gravis had no other choice. Breaking the tiger's hide was incredibly difficult. There was a reason why only people with tempered muscles could do anything against low- rank demonic beasts. What else could he attack?

The tiger was heavily breathing right now, and its concentration seemed to have weakened too, judging by its constantly defocusing eyes. Gravis didn't get careless and continued stalking the tiger. If it suddenly attacked out of desperation, he could still die. Like this, more minutes passed.

Gravis always kept close to the tiger so it couldn't relax. When its eyelids slowly fluttered, Gravis did a sudden jump forward and stabbed his saber in its remaining eye. The tiger only managed a weak roar of rage and barely lifted its paws. Gravis had long retreated. He watched the tiger and felt some pity for it.

Yet, he shook his head. The tiger had terrorized a village and nearly plundered it of all its animals. If the animals ran out, it would probably attack the villagers. It had to die. Gravis gripped his saber and slashed the side of its body. The tiger couldn't even lift its paws anymore, and Gravis quickly ended its life with another deep stab into one of its eye sockets. The tiger was finally dead.

Gravis sat down and relaxed for some minutes. The fight might have seemed easy, but that was only because Gravis didn't make a wrong prediction. If the tiger hit him even once, he would be the dead one. Without perfect execution, he would have no chance. Yet, this life and death tempering was what he needed. The more trials he passed, the stronger he would get. Also, while the corpse was not as complete as his other kills, it would still be worth a lot.

Gravis stood up and carried the tiger above his head while running back to the Hunting Guild.

The hunters were drinking merrily when they heard a commotion from the wall. They heard the hunters in the bounty hall being excited. "Hey, do you hear that? Those guys only get that excited when they get a demonic beast. Think Wilfred's team is back from their hunt?" one of the Hunters asked another one.

The other hunter rubbed his chin in thought. "I don't know. They usually take longer to finish their hunts. This seems a little early. Do you think-"

The man couldn't finish his sentence as a blood-drenched Gravis walked through the Hunting Guild's door. The hall went completely silent, and everyone looked at him in shock. He actually came back, and by the looks of it, he didn't even seem injured. As experienced hunters, they could all see that the blood on Gravis was not his own. There were no cuts on his clothing, and he didn't move in an awkward fashion.

A lot of them gulped and realized why the guys over in the bounty hall sounded so excited. He had finished the mission!

Gravis had already received his bounty reward. It was a little less than eight gold. Now, he just had to receive his mission reward. He knew that he couldn't get the reward until someone from the bounty hall gave the lady behind the counter their report. So, he waited.

After a while, someone from the bounty hall sent the report, and Gravis walked to the lady. She seemed shocked that Gravis had returned, but didn't dare to comment about it. She took out the contract fee as well as the reward. In total, Gravis now barely had enough for three Skin-Pills.

Finally, he came closer to tempering his skin!