Sami had finally confirmed that he could only see a player’s card after they played it.
When Mia used her powers earlier, her card was displayed for the Joker, but rather than a 6 of Diamonds, he saw a 7.
She was holding the last card of the Wizard, but for some reason, she lied about it, probably for the sake of the saying, "keep your cards close to your chest."
Either way, whatever her reason, he didn’t care that she lied. All he cared about was completing this Side Quest and heading back home with some food.
He was already beginning to feel embarrassed by the noise his stomach was making.
The good thing was that he had successfully led to the main threat in the group being nullified. With only three of them left in the party, no one among them could act as the beast to kill the others.
’Now all that’s left is to hunt the White Tigers,’ he thought as he walked away from the corpse. ’It’s a shame I can’t loot the bodies of players. That dagger Kevin came with would have been dope in my hands.’
Apparently, after Kevin died, the dagger had disappeared along with the rest of his gear.
Sami sighed.
Up ahead, he could see that Michael had also come to confirm that Akari was dead. When the three got together, Mia spoke.
"I don’t think that there’s anything in this town. My guess is that the White Tigers are in the forest outside."
Michael did not say anything, and had a grumpy expression on his face, likely still shaken from the death of his friend.
After staring at him for three seconds, Mia sighed and turned to Sami, who just shrugged and said, "Well, there’s only one way to find out."
The corner of Mia’s lips curled up slightly and she nodded slowly in agreement.
She then turned and began heading towards the direction leading out of the town. A beat later, Sami joined up, following by her side, while Michael tentatively followed behind them, dragging his feet.
It took the trio about twenty minutes to get out of the town and a bit of walking to get to the forest. Upon stepping into it, everyone got themselves ready for the danger ahead. Out of caution, Mia had willed that book of hers to appear once more, while Sami kept his Hunter’s Perception active the entire time.
It was unnervingly quiet here, and the only sounds that could be heard were the footsteps of the trio as they ventured deeper into the woods.
After some time, the pungent smell of dead corpses filled the damp air, and the sound of flies buzzing grew louder with every step.
"God, it reeks." Mia scrunched her face and took out the cigarette from her mouth, before covering her nose with her arm. Sami, too, scrunched his nose while waving to chase away the flies that had begun to swarm around them.
A few steps behind them, Michael, who seemed to have recovered a bit from the shock, had his eyes darting around like a cornered animal, with his greatsword hilt held tightly in both hands.
Just then, Sami’s ears perked and he halted in his tracks. He could hear the sound of breathing slowly getting closer and heavier.
He turned his head to the right, and at that moment, he heard something suddenly charge towards them with unnatural speed.
Whatever was coming closed the distance so fast that Sami had no choice but to yell. "Something’s approaching from three o’clock!"
Hearing that, Michael panicked, his eyes widening in confusion. "Three o’clock? Where the fuck is three o’clock?!"
Well, Sami really couldn’t blame him. Not everyone knew tactical clock directions off the top of their head. Even Sami only knew it because he spent half his life watching action movies and military shooters. Honestly, in that moment, he just thought it sounded badass to yell three o’clock!
However, he did not have the time to answer Michael and was already busy aiming his crossbow in that direction.
At this point, everyone could hear heavy paws tearing through the underbrush, and barely five seconds later, a terrifying creature burst into view from behind the tree line.
Sami’s eyes widened in horror.
’What the fuck is that?!’
When he saw the words White Tiger, he had thought he was hunting a tiger.
This, however, looked more like an amalgamation from a fever dream than a fucking tiger!
Without letting his mind process the abomination, he pulled the trigger. The bolt fired and flew true, striking it in the head, yet the creature did not stop and closed the distance.
’Crap!’
While Mia rolled forward, Michael rolled to the side to avoid the creature. At the same time, Sami, who was in direct danger, quickly activated Dash. By the time the creature reached him and swiped its claws, Sami had already dashed several meters back in a blur, and it only ended up shredding an afterimage left behind by the dash.
As the creature landed on its four large limbs, it let out a guttural, bone-chilling roar, and it was only now that Sami could really get a full look at the beast.
The two meter tall creature looked like a shaggy hyena that was covered in thick, pale gray fur. It had four eyes, though one was on its right, while the other three were on its left. And its open mouth revealed strangely humanoid teeth that dripped viscous, yellow saliva.
It snapped its head to Mia, who was closest to it after the roar. Then, it lunged at her with wide-open jaws. However, the young Wizard had already torn two pages out of her book the moment she came up from her roll, then threw them in front of her.
Just as the creature was about to reach her, a barrier suddenly materialized between it and Mia, and it slammed into the barrier with enough force to send cracks running through it.
Now, while that might have stunned the creature, it didn’t take more than a second for it to recover. It shook its head once with a growl, then lunged again, shattering the barrier completely.
Mia had begun to scramble away, but the creature seemed hell-bent on finishing her off. However, just as it moved in for the kill, a bolt shot through the air from the side straight into its eye, causing it to screech in pain and stumble sideways.
At the same time, Michael, who stood not too far away with his sword in both hands roared and his body began to emit a red aura. His eyes changed to red as he lunged at the creature, before leaping into the air. Then, he descended on top of it, driving his greatsword deep into its spine, and causing it to drop heavily to the forest floor with an agonizing growl.
Seeing that it was not dead and was still thrashing in attempt to break free, Michael pulled out his blade, let out a furious battle cry, and brought it down hard on the creature’s head.
The forest immediately fell silent, with the only remaining sounds being the heavy breathing of the trio.
At that moment, Michael straightened his stance and, through ragged breaths, asked, "This is a White Tiger?"
Mia stepped closer and opened her mouth to speak, but just then, Sami yelled in urgency, "Don’t relax yet! There are two more coming!"
Michael and Mia shot their eyes toward the treeline in shock, but Sami, who had a tight expression on his face as he stared around, quickly corrected himself. "No, three! Sorry, four!"