Black Jade Tiger

The surroundings became livelier as they continued to face off.

Birds flew off into the sky while all other creatures fled for the life of their sorry, little hides!

I jumped backward while the man launched forward at full speed, unsheathing his sword in one swift motion and slashing it toward Dove. Katsy having made the fast decision of jumping back, the man only caught theirs after images.

My eyes never left him. I could feel intense savagery brewing within me, wishing to break loose and destroy this annoying thing that kept provoking me and annoying me to no end.

Sadly, this cunning man had placed what seemed to be a sound barrier before we had even begun fighting so the small "army" wasn't alerted. On one hand, it was good, but on the other, it was equally bad; it could serve to produce as a "truce" since neither of us could afford to be seen by them.

Even though Dove struggled to hold on as best she could, being a fragile little girl, she ended up getting knocked off my back.

My heart froze and skipped a few beats as I felt her small weight lift off and fall down, fainting from exhaustion. It served as a catalyst for a whole new level of my inner fury.

Her fall was comparable to that of someone falling off a horse dashing at full speed!

I was afraid her bones would be broken with none left intact!

Something broke inside me when I saw my little Dove sprawled on the forest ground, breathing heavily, sweat clinging to her haggard and unconscious form. I cursed between my teeth.

I returned my gaze to the man that was eyeing Dove in a sinister way.

He seemed to be thinking that since the girl was now KO, I wouldn't move to prevent him from killing her. After all, spirit beasts without their masters didn't move or defend them, as three-quarters of spirit beasts didn't have enough intelligence to tell or just don't care.

"Little girl, you should have just surrendered. You would have lived. Now, to get the beast, I will kill you." With a sneer, he lifted his sword and slashed it down toward her, the sword vibrant with intense magic and inner energy.

ROAR!!!

Dashing forward in the blink of an eye, I took the full brunt of his attack, the powerful aura of magic unleashing and colliding once more.

The landscape scattered to nothingness.

He looked quite satisfied with himself, thinking the little scourge was definitely dead.

She no longer had the protection of this mighty, powerful spirit beast! Getting that exquisite beast was only a step away.

Since it was known that the beast wasn't contracted to the landowner, it would mean that the prince didn't have it in his eyes, so no complication should arise, right?

Further, this brat was in this place illegally, so it wouldn't matter, no one would find faults with him.

He was only rendering a great service to the crown. Never would he consider that maybe the tiger was being raised by the eldest prince for a purpose and that the brat would be a beast caretaker and the way the prince was binding the feral tiger down...

After all, she was so young and small, what could she do to restrain this powerful creature that all cultivators would fight bitterly tooth and nails for?

Feeling all self-gratifying, he smirked to himself as the dust started to fall and settle, revealing the scene before his eyes: A deep crack and a crater deep enough that one would think it was a comet that had landed rather than a sword slash!

His eyes looked further to a tall pillar lifted among the centre, creating a small island about fifty meters from him.

Eyes widening, he was astonished to see that the darn thing was not only alive and still unscathed, but the tiger also stood there! It had blocked the blow for Dove. Jeral could not wrap his head around the tiger's actions.

The tiger had clearly been more than a hundred meters away when the girl had previously fallen off its back halfway into the tiger's jump. What was it doing there?

Why was it protecting the brat?

Also, why did the tiger's glare look so much more domineering, filled with hatred and rage?

Why did he feel like he poked the tiger's whisker once that damnable brat fell off into unconsciousness?

Kat's furry was so bone-deep, this blow was quite vicious.

Had she been a millisecond late, her precious little Dove would have been disintegrated to ashes!

She couldn't reconcile with such heavy hand from a grown man.

He fought a little child that was not even able to stand or fight.

It dawned her just how selfish humans were.

For greed, this man was willing to kill a little girl barely out of her diapers.

He deserved to die by a thousand cuts with no intact corpse or a burial ground!

Only then would her hatred possibly grow weaker and would settle somewhat.

She launched her attack, jumping over the fifty meters wide gap, disappearing from his sight instantly and barely giving him time to block the tiger's blow.

Without the girl hindering her movements, she became a lot more vicious and much agiler, using her full potential.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Neither side relented as they began exchanging stronger and more complicated blows.

There were earth-shattering roars that blew into powerful wind attacks, countered with vertical sword slashes of thunder.

The sound barrier, however sturdy it was, shattered into thousands of little pieces. The nearby army heard the intense fighting that was going on deeper into the forest. Trees began falling and the landscape redesigning beyond recognition. The soldiers' mouths were wide open.

Who?! What?! What was going on??

The aura was thick and suffocating, pressing them down into fear.

They were true men of iron, forged to have intense fights, but this was way beyond them!

It was the realm of deep martial experts!

In this kind of fight, only their lieutenant captain along with the general might stand a chance!

They all looked toward the said general, who spoke coldly.

"You, you, and you go, scout, the area and report on the situation."

He pointed to three slimmer men while he spoke in a solemn tone more fit for the role of a thief and his band of underlings than the tone of knights and cavalrymen.

"Yes, sir!"

Although the three responded in unison with a motivated intonation, their hearts had grown colder with dread, sweat profusely gathering at their lower back from the pressure of those titans that where unleashing devastating auras and deadly magic force.

They dashed toward the deeper forest, using elaborated footwork techniques, leaping great distances quickly.