Chapter 21 – White Tigress

After the girls left the mine, a few more rocks fall off, but the tremors started to subside.

Anne had already stopped crying, but Mia was desperate. She didn’t want to leave Lucien, but she was too scared about so many enemies, and the roof was falling…

“Why?”

She didn’t know why she was so melancholy for someone that she met so recently. She thought it was because they did those things…

Mia thought that everything was just physically and kind of forced by the situation. But now she felt so bad about leaving him.

“I need to go back!!”

Anne felt it was wrong to abandon a partner, and since Lucien saved them twice, she already considered him part of the group.

But Marie felt responsible for Anne’s safety and was unsure about many things. She looked at Mia strangely.

“You were our enemy just awhile ago… why do you want to save the man so badly that knocked you out and forced you to do those things in the bath?”

Mia knew that their first meeting was pretty bad. She didn’t expect the girls to have good thoughts about her, but the relationship with Lucien was their business, and she didn’t like how Marie spoke.

“He didn’t force me anything! And I… it is none of your business…”

“Are you really going to abandon him just after he faced all those soldiers for us to escape?”

Mia did not wait for the girls to reply and started to remove the rocks that covered the mine entrance.

Anne wanted to go back too, so she looked at Marie with a pleading look. Marie can’t help but nod and go to help Mia remove the rocks. But she still murmured something that made Anne blush a little.

“We will try to help him, but if we get out of this alive, I am sure he will keep the subject about we serve him…”

————————

As the girls tried to open the mine tunnel, Lucien was killing Gerard’s last soldiers.

He moved faster and faster, looking like a shadow among the soldiers. His katana was already full of blood, but he continued to cut off not only heads but other members.

The soldiers are very strong and well-trained. They had already faced several bad situations but never imagined that they would die to a n.a.k.e.d guy.

The last two alive tried a combined attack when Lucien was striking another soldier. One attacked with a long spear while the other made a horizontal strike with a broad ax.

“Haaaa!

The soldier pushed his spear with all his might, but Lucien stepped sideways to avoid the strike, then quickly used the katana to block the ax.

The soldiers lost their balance and concentration when they failed in their attacks, giving Lucien the chance to quickly pull back the katana and cut off the lancer’s head.

Lucien wasted no time launching an attack at the soldier with the ax. His speed was getting better and better, but he started to feel that the rate of this improvement started to decrease.

The soldier with the ax had no time to do anything when he saw Lucien’s quick movements, which looked like a blur.

*Clang*

“Heh?”

Lucien was surprised when Gerard’s spear blocked his katana. Lucien was sure that Gerard was more than ten meters from him, but how could he get here so fast without him noticing?

“You forced me to do it, boy.”

Gerard had higher strength than Lucien, but the difference between their speed was too big for Gerard to be able to do anything.

But the forbidden medicine he eat increased not only his strength but also his speed, and now he could follow Lucien’s movements easily.

Lucien didn’t understand how Gerard got so much faster and stronger out of nowhere. He had done it just ago, but he knew where his strength came from.

But now was not the time for questions, and he used all his strength on the katana to oppose Gerard’s spear.

Lucien couldn’t help but be a little worried as he was slightly pushed by Gerard’s great strength.

He would have to use his speed to win the fight, but he could not pull the katana without receiving the blow from Gerard. He thought of something but needed to consult L.u.s.t. Good that they could speak mentally at the speed of thoughts.

“How much damage can I take without being fatal?”

“Your regenerative powers come both from Sophia’s life attribute and from the powers that Sloth shares with her.”

“So as long as they don’t remove your head, I think you will be fine.”

“But depending on the injuries, it may take longer to recover. You need to spend more time with Sophia to improve this.”

Lucien understood that he could suffer many wounds without worry because it would quickly regenerate. That greatly increased the strategies he could try in combat and would help him deal with Gerard’s spear now.

Gerard felt Lucien pull back his katana, so he pushed further, and his spear pierced Lucien’s belly.

The pain was great, but Lucien concentrated all his strength on the katana and tried to cut Gerard’s chest. But he acted very fast and blocked the blow using the spear handle, which is made of a very resistant metal.

“Damn!”

Lucien was upset that his attack had failed, but he still took advantage of the moment that Gerard blocked to get out of the spear and retreat a few steps.

He had another idea and also needed to consult L.u.s.t.

“How do I make the katana disappear and reappear?”

“It’s made of demonic energy and not mana. You just have to think it’s needed, and it will appear. If you think you don’t need it, it will disappear.”

Lucien understood and prepared for his move. Gerard came running towards him as he backed away.

*Clang*

Once again, the blade of the spear hit the blade of the katana, making the metallic sound echo through the mine, which had already stopped shaking as if it were not going to collapse anymore.

Lucien thought he didn’t want the katana anymore, so his tattoo glowed slightly as the katana turned into purple particles and disappeared into the air as if it had disintegrated.

“What?!”

Gerard was confused when the katana disappeared, and his spear went straight to Lucien’s chest.

After the spear passed a few inches from where it was, he thought of the katana, and it reappeared while his tattoo glowed.

The spear pierced Lucien’s chest, but he thrust the katana, which caught Gerard off guard, piercing his chest as well.

“Aahhhh!”

Gerard groaned loudly in pain, but he was still very resilient and thought it was time to end the fight by pushing the spear deeper into Lucien and ignoring his wound.

Lucien couldn’t be happier that Gerard didn’t try to back off. He was already on the limit of pain but focused on L.u.s.t’s words about his excellent regeneration and continued thrusting the katana.

*Pffh*

Both Lucien and Gerard spit out large amounts of blood while being pierced deeply by the sharp blades.

The blades were doing severe damage inside them quickly, and they wouldn’t last a few more seconds like that.

“Tsk!”

“Hehe…”

Gerard was both frightened and upset when he realized that Lucien was not falling as he thought he would be. He believed that his strength would be sufficient and continued thrusting the spear.

But his vision started to darken as he bled a lot for his chest and mouth. He knew he was passing out and tried one last big thrust with all his remaining strength.

Lucien had many bleeding wounds all over his body, but he held on and used all his remaining strength in one big thrust as Gerard.

*Pffh* *Pffh*

Both Lucien and Gerard continued to thrust their weapons until the blades went through their bodies at the same time.

Lucien’s katana went through Gerard’s chest, causing great damage within him. Gerard collapsed as he released the spear and fell along with the blood that leaked from him.

Gerard’s spear also went through Lucien’s chest, causing him to bleed much more than before. This wound was very severe, and Lucien’s vision began to darken.

But Lucien knew that if he didn’t pass out now, he could take it. Still, he can’t help but kneel with the spear within his body.

“Shit!!”

Lucien had not forgotten about a problem, but he cannot deal with it before because Gerard was a very challenging enemy, which he had to do everything to win.

That problem was the ax soldier, which he was unable to kill when Gerard attacked him.

The soldier had not interfered in the fight because they were fighting too fast, and he was afraid to hit Gerard by a careless blow.

He was also afraid of Lucien, but now he was running towards him with his ax ready.

Not only was Lucien concerned, but so was L.u.s.t. She was seeing the fight by Lucien’s vision and knew he was on the limit. She was still far from being able to materialize herself and fight. Now she could only scream by fear.

“Stand! You might not die!”

Lucien fought the urge to close his eyes and tried to get up, but his wounds, despite being rapidly regenerating, were very severe. He had several parts of his body open and bleeding.

“I need!!!”

Lucien thought of his katana, and it disappeared from Gerard’s body and reappeared in his hand. He raised the katana to block the attack from the soldier, still kneeling.

*Clang*

The blade of the ax was blocked by the blade of the katana. But this time, the soldier could feel that he had the advantage because Lucien was unable to push back.

Lucien was very injured and could only keep the katana in front of him with his last energies. The soldier continued pushing the ax, and Lucien did not know what to do. Then L.u.s.t screamed in his mind.

“Duck now!”

Lucien trusted her a lot and stopped keeping his katana while he ducked.

*Roar*

The soldier smiled when he felt Lucien’s katana recede and thought his ax would cut him. But his smile didn’t last more than a second before a big white tigress jumped on his back and bit his head. The man died immediately.

The white tigress and Its cub were in the mine’s depths when the tremors started to happen. The tigress is smart to know that if the rocks kept falling, they would die.

As the tigress did not see the soldiers, it thought they had retreated in fear of the falling rocks as well. So it went back cautiously just to see the man who had so long chased it fighting a stranger man.

The white tigress hated Gerard and his soldiers. It wanted to run and fight even though it was so hurt, but it didn’t know if the stranger would be its enemy or not. Until now, all humans just wanted to hunt it and its cub, making them fear all humans.

The tigress wanted to escape out of the mine with its cub but saw that the passage was blocked. It started to back away, but then it saw Gerard falling, and it couldn’t help but be happy.

The tigress is really a very intelligent beast as it concluded that it was better to attack the last men while they were off guard. Then it put the cub down and ran towards them. After all, good enemies were dead enemies.

Even though it was very injured, the tigress used its last strength and jumped on the men. It killed one easily, and they fell on top of the other man.

It prepared to bite the man’s head but then saw his big beautiful blue eyes. The tigress had seen many different looks before, but all humans always looked at it with greed or fear in their eyes.

But this man showed no feeling in his eyes. He made no move while it was on top of him.

The tigress was confused for a second, and it was enough for it to start smelling something strange. It had never smelled anything so good in its life and was a little dizzy.

Lucien made no move as he was too injured to continue fighting. He didn’t want to give the big tigress any reason to bite him, so they stared at each other while L.u.s.t couldn’t help laughing.

“It has a good sense of smell and must be female so that it won’t attack anyone with your scent. You smell like passion and can make any female wet.”

Lucien didn’t know if he was happy or sad about it as the tigress was still looking at him strangely.