Smoke!
So much smoke!
So much so that it felt as if someone had burned the forest, as Mark's entire body started to burn, charred from the inside out, as pain drilled him from everywhere, making him scream with all his might, yet no scream got out of his throat, as even his larynx got burned to a crisp.
There, Mark remained in open ground, flailing everywhere in pain, as slowly his red skin turned black, as black as the darkness itself, when suddenly the sound of cracking began.
CRACK! CRACK!! CRACK!!! CRACK!!!! CRACK!!!!!
CRACK! CRACK!! CRACK!!! CRACK!!!! CRACK!!!!!
One by one, Mark felt all of his bones cracking, wandering everywhere inside his body, as his backbone started to rise, his facial bones started to grow and come out, his eyes started to dig inside his sockets, his hands and legs started to get shrunk, changing their shapes, turning into claws.
His teeth started to grow out, and his tailbone started to swell as if something wanted to come out.
As suddenly growls started to ring from his throat, wanting him to roar out loud with all his power, and so he did, he roared, and he roared out loud.
RRROOOOAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR...…
His roar rang everywhere on the island. It was so loud that birds got frightened, monkeys got scared, humans got shell-shocked, and they all started to run away.
Away from the place where the roar had come from. Away from the place where the smoke had risen before.
As finally in place of Mark, there stood the big black great tiger. Bigger than the tiger that Mark killed, it must be as tall as five feet, as big as a cow itself, and it looked powerful.
So powerful that if anyone saw it, they would piss their pants right there and then.
And this beast was Mark, the killer who killed hundreds of humans and who would continue to do so, while all the wounds on his body had disappeared as if they had never existed.
As finally, the status panel of his bloodline came into his sight, and everything hidden was revealed in front of him.
[Ratrijita]
Race: Feline
Type: Bloodline
Title: (1) Darkness Overlord (2) The Ravager.
Grade: D
Darkness Affinity: D
All stats: +10
Passive Skill 1: Darkness Overlord: Can come and go anywhere in the darkness. Nothing in darkness can hide from the overlord.
Passive Skill 2: The Ravager: Can ravage and destroy things twenty times stronger than oneself.
Passive Skill 3: Sixth Sense: Can sense danger and opportunities even before they strike 50% of the time.
Just the 10+ in all stats was enough to leave Mark speechless, not to mention the other three passive skills.
Now, he understood how and why the great black tiger always knew whenever he was about to attack it.
In the end, he had to go for the most ruthless method he could think of, and that was to trade injury for injury.
Fighting again and again with the tiger, he realized that until it could hit him, he couldn't hit it.
The only reason why he could hit the tiger in the beginning was a total surprise and its lack of alertness.
So he needed all three ingredients to kill the great black tiger. It attacking him, it lacking alertness, and a total surprise, which came at the very end.
Combining all three ingredients, he was able to kill the great black tiger, and the result, now he was the great black tiger.
No, Ratrijita.
That was what the great black tiger was called.
As Mark tried to disappear into one of the shadows. He did not even had to try, just think, and his body disappeared into darkness as if he were born to do such a thing.
Inside the darkness, he felt such warmth that he could not describe it. He just wanted to remain there forever.
It was as if nothing could touch him here. This darkness, this domain, everything in it belonged to him and him alone.
Nothing here could hide from him. He could see everything, feel everything, and know everything.
He even knew where the humans were running and hiding; he could see them. He could see them from miles away.
As long as they stepped into any of the shadows, they were in his domain, but he also realized his limitations doing all this.
First, even though he could feel and know about all these things, he couldn't appear that far all of a sudden. It would take time travelling there. Of course, that time was short, but the faster he went then his total agility, the more his magic power and stamina would consume, and when those two things were exhausted, he would get exhausted too, just like the great black tiger, which, using its powers again and again, was huffing like crazy.
Secondly, as long as he used his agility and other stats according to his true power, he could use his power in the darkness and outside world with normal stamina and magic power exhaustion.
That means hiding inside darkness or riding in the darkness normally did not exhaust any of his stamina and all.
He could even rest, sleep, or hide inside the darkness to attack other creatures suddenly without them knowing, just like the great black tiger had done previously.
Thirdly, he was much more powerful and bigger than the real great black tiger, cuz his stats were much higher than its, and as more of his stats would grow, he would grow alongside them.
Fourthly, now he possessed the great black tiger's sixth sense and could sense danger and opportunities from miles away, and right now that sense of his was tingling like crazy, pointing towards the three red dots, which still hadn't moved and maybe were still hunting the fishes by the lake.
So without waiting, he moved, rushed towards his new targets, but before moving, he did not forget to put his knives back in his space together with his gun, which now only had 20 bullets left.
Of course, he had three other completely filled magazines, too. Combining them, he had 170 bullets.
He used six bullets during the fight with the group, and twenty-four bullets just now fighting the great black tiger.