Just thinking about the snake that was spying on their fight made a chill crawl down Mark's spine.
From the start to end, he had no idea what was worse, that somehow tiger knew there was another predator hiding and watching their fights, or that in between their fight, it hunted down the quiet hunter, who was waiting for them to finish their fight, maybe get injured and then hunt the winner, later enjoying the loser too.
But what Mark found interesting was how the tiger was huffing as if it was close to breathless.
Even while eating the snake, the tiger looked exhausted as if it had spent a lot of its energy, but still, he did not get carried away and waited in his spot.
Ignoring the pain, ignoring the blood that was slowly slipping out of his chest, he simply waited.
Leaving this area in front of the tiger was impossible; what he needed to do now was to somehow kill it and then get out of this part of the forest, which now felt ominous to him.
So, taking enough breaths, he looked at the tiger, which was staring at him as if he was its next prey, making Mark smirk and spit at the ground, looking at it.
Furiously, the tiger growled as its wrathful eyes stared at him. Next, it spat the eating snake and jumped down from the trees, making Mark shoot another bullet, yet before the bullet could reach it, it disappeared back into the shadow once again.
But this time, Mark was ready. Holding the gun in his right hand, he waited for the beast to appear.
Yet for seconds, besides the silence and endless waiting, there was nothing, but Mark did not care, as he just kept his full patience on the shadows, on his surroundings, letting his instinct take over him.
Feeling everything that could be felt, when suddenly his shadow moved.
No, every shadow in his vicinity moved. Front, back, sides, beneath, top, due to the trees and their exhaustless shadows, and they all moved.
It was such a chilling scene that it made Mark's heart palpitate like crazy, as next all the shadows turned into the black tiger.
There were close to ten black tiger and roaring, they all attacked together.
Jumping with all his power, Mark ignored all the other black tigers as he slowly tilted his body in the air, gathering his legs towards his chest, making his body come face to face towards the ground, from where one of the tigers was coming from his shadow, and fired eight shots altogether.
Yet, like last time, the bullets disappeared into the shadows, but not caring about all this, Mark kicked both of his legs backward.
THWACK!
As finally, Mark hit something. No, it was better to say that something hit him.
The black tiger, which was behind him, suddenly turned into its true self and attacked with its claw ruthlessly, but before its claw could hit the boy in front, suddenly the boy's legs kicked backward towards it, making it change its target from his butt to his kicking soles.
BLOOD SPLATTER!
As its claws dug into the boy's right sole, yet taking the momentum of its hit, the boy flew furiously towards another shadow tiger of its, and penetrated it, just like the bullets, and fell to the ground, where there was no shadow except the boy's.
While Mark felt the pain of his life as his entire right leg's sole was torn open by the tiger's claw, and the moment he fell to the ground, he slapped his hand just like always to make his body fly and fired five more shots.
But like a shadow the tiger appeared, ignoring all the shots it jumped upward, and only until it had crossed Mark's entire jumping limit, did it stopped, as its tail suddenly coiled around Mark's neck, and rolling in the air, it slammed the boy onto the stone where it was previously standing, where there was the biggest shadow in its vicinity.
Like a broken kite, Mark flew, as he hit the giant stone with his face towards the stone, and with a loud crunch, the sound of his bones cracking was heard.
For a second, Mark felt dazed from all the pain and blood that came out of his orifices, as his vision turned red from colorful.
Taking the momentum of the fall, again he tried to push himself towards the air so that he could backflip, when suddenly, in front of his face started to appear the face of the great black tiger.
It all happened in slow motion in Mark's eyes as he saw the face of the black tiger appearing.
Slowly from the shadow, the face appeared, as its black, abyss-like eyes stared at his eyes.
Face to face they were again, but this time, Mark's face was upside down, as slowly he saw the tiger opening its mouth and like an abyss devours everything, he saw the tiger's mouth coming to devour him.
As slowly he felt the fangs of the tiger sink into his skin. The mouth of the tiger was opened so much that the entirety of Mark's face was literally inside its mouth.
But instead of getting happy, there was fear in the great tiger's face this time.
BANG!!!
A shot was fired.
When Mark's right hand rose, when it came close to the tiger's face, the tiger did not realize till the last moment, and then it all happened suddenly.
No, not suddenly, it happened the moment its fangs started to puncture the boy's face skin, as if the boy was waiting for this moment.
The bullet tore through the great black tiger's skull, piercing its brain, making it deader than dead in the snap of a moment.
But the momentum through which the tiger had come out of the shadow still not decreased.
As like a doll, Mark's entire body flew with the tiger still attached to his body, and they both fell in the middle of the ground, where there was no other shadow besides their two.
[Killer gift activated, permanently stealing 0.1 Agility stat.]