When Mike heard those simple words, he got goosebumps. After all, the two of them now had to kill a shadow tiger, each of them armed with nothing but a metal bar.
"Go."
Mike put his hands on the metal and slowly began to bend it. Then suddenly everything went way too fast. He bent it so far that it changed direction, and with a powerful snap it broke off.
The tiger turned around, but Mike kicked the bar at him. A loud crash rang out and dust shot up. On the other side he also heard a crash. As the dust cloud settled, they could see clearly now: the shadow tiger was overwhelmed and decided to charge straight at Mike.
Because of its long horns it took a moment, and in that moment, just as the tiger almost caught Mike with its claws, Ryolos struck. He slammed his bar into the tiger's side. Blood sprayed and the shadowy tiger screamed. Now it turned its gaze away from Mike and wanted to kill the warrior instead.
Furious, it charged. Suddenly it no longer cared that its horns were scraping along the ceiling with an unpleasant scratching sound.
Now Mike could land a hit on it, right on the back. A big gash opened and blood splattered against the broken bars and onto the floor. The tiger screamed again. Its eyes were no longer just black but black with a reddish tinge, probably from its rage.
Then the tiger backed away and moved toward the exit, blocking it. It seemed to calm itself.
"The tiger really wants to win," Ryolos muttered.
Mike just nodded and grinned.
"He will not."
Ryolos grinned back, then spoke in a more serious tone.
"Good, let us finish this quickly. I want to get back to Trix, and you to Ice, right?"
"Yeah."
So the two of them decided to rush the tiger. With a final slash to its face from both sides, they ended the fight, and the tiger crashed to the ground.
Ryolos looked into the poor creature's eyes. It was still alive, but so badly injured that it could not move. It could not even relax; its horns were too long, forcing its head into an awkward position. Ryolos turned his gaze away.
After a few seconds, Ryolos whispered something to Mike.
"Mike, end it."
Mike drew in a breath. He did not want to do it, but he squeezed his eyes shut for a moment and then nodded.
Mike now stood over the tiger. With one quick slash across the throat, the tiger screamed one last time, then lay still on the floor, truly dead this time. For the first time its head relaxed and its horns simply scraped against the wall.
With two quick cuts, Mike had the horns in his inventory.
"Ryolos, we need our weapons."
"Agreed," Ryolos said with a nod.
They headed up the stairs, but there was no sunlight to be seen. They came out into a long corridor with about ten more cells, one on each side. Some were empty, but in others strange creatures sat. They did not speak, did not even look up. It was as if they were empty shells.
Ryolos and Mike hurried down the corridor, both of them feeling watched. After a while they reached a large wooden door. The good thing was that through the gap under the door they could see sunlight shining through.
"Should we open it?" Mike asked.
But Ryolos already had his hands on the door and pushed it open.
Now the two of them finally saw where they were.
They were in a throne room. In front of the throne stood two black shadow tigers, and on the throne itself sat a white shadow tiger. It had slightly shorter horns and white fur, and a scar ran over its right eye.
Mike and Ryolos froze in shock as the thing began to speak.
"You."
"You."
Mike and Ryolos looked at each other. The tiger was having trouble speaking.
"You killed my tigers."
The two guardians came closer, but sat down in front of them. Then one of the two humans began to speak, and it was Mike.
"Well, yeah, but they attacked us first."
Suddenly the tiger grinned.
"I would hope so, you pathetic humans."
The two guardians looked as if they were pleased. They glanced at their king and nodded. The king nodded back and suddenly they stood up and tore their jaws open, lunging forward. Mike and Ryolos dodged at the very last moment.
"Ryolos, focus, we can do this."
Now each of them was facing one guardian, but Mike did not concentrate on watching Ryolos. He had his own hands full.
"Sit," Mike said sarcastically.
Those words made the guardian extremely angry. It lunged at Mike. Mike dodged to the right and slashed along the guardian's side, but that did not stop it from attacking.
An attack came unexpectedly, a claw swipe. The claw hit Mike's stomach and flung him into the air. He slammed into the wall. It did shake him up a bit, but his HP bar still showed nothing.
"Why is there nothing there?"
Mike got up, but the tiger was already on him. He had to try it. Mike stood still and waited for the attack. The guardian tore its jaws open and bit down right on Mike's head. Mike's whole head was inside its mouth, but no matter how hard the guardian shook and bit, nothing happened. Mike was only dragged along.
Now Mike moved and slashed straight into the tiger's legs. It collapsed and let Mike slip free of its attack.
"Hm, it is uncomfortable, though," Mike said.
Then he ended the guardian's suffering and delivered a final blow. After he had cut off its horns and collected them, he immediately turned to Ryolos.
That fight was not going so well for him. He was bleeding from his stomach, his nose, and his lip. One thing was certain: Ryolos would not last much longer.