Chapter 58 - 58 - A Seemingly Impossible Challenge

After the initial strike, both sides fell down on the grass-covered ground and slid a couple of meters back before their posture stabilized and they both regained their stances.

At one side, the Lucien-Pravitas pair was looking with a wide, battle-hungry grin stretching across his face. Besides being covered in a film layer of the kicked-off dust, he was completely unharmed, in perfect condition and raring to go at it again.

His heterochromatic eyes, one black, and the other blood-red sized up the purple-furred catlike creature once again.

His lips parted, his polyphonic voice lowly muttered, as if one side of him was speaking to the other one.

"Violet Flame Tiger. One of the rare heavenly beasts… Gotta say I didn't expect such a creature to reside in this hidden place." He spoke with an expectant grin that instantly shifted, as the other side, Lucien revealed a mixed expression of surprise and shock.

"Violet Flame Tiger? Heavenly Beast? What is that? Is this one stronger than that oversized wolf thing?"

His shock was instantly replaced by the previous perverted grin, a sign that Pravitas took control once more.

"Yes. Very much so. In fact, as of now, we stand no chance against it…"

Despite his words being grim, his tone, and his expression was of excitement instead of fear and dread. Also, Lucien could feel Pravitas' elation, unbridled happiness. He was truly looking forward to the battle, not afraid of the seemingly impossible challenge.

Strangely, he too shared the same feeling. As it looked at the creature looking at them with those big menacing eyes, its strong, huge feline body as it stood in place in its battle-ready but wary state, he could only feel a growing excitement.

Like Pravitas, he was also looking forward to their fight. He wanted to feel its strength, its overbearing might. He wanted to feel what it was like to put everything you have on the line and charge against certain death.

Walking that very thin blurry line between life and the assured death had a strange, exciting allure to it. Even if he himself was surprised by it, he couldn't help but share the excitement with his other-self.

Soon, the lingering traces of astonishment completely faded, both sides shared the same hungry-looking, grinning look on their shared expression.

"What are we going to do then?"

"Do you trust me?" Instead of answering Pravitas fired a question to Lucien's one.

"No. I never will. Still, what do you want to do?"

"I want to be in control. You have no experience at all, kid. This beast is not those rabbits and squirrels or small little puppies you can play around with. Let me drive for this one. Watch and learn."

"F-fine. But…"

"I know. Don't worry."

Their little monologue finished, they returned their focus on the Violet Flame Tiger. Releasing his hold over his part of the body, Lucien's consciousness was now only a front-line spectator to the battle between the unknown entity named Pravitas and Heavenly Beast.

As he focused his attention on the large body of the huge wild feline creature, he couldn't help but ponder about the name.

'Violet, I get it, but what does the flame mean? It has stripes and not flame symbols… What could it mean?'

As if understanding his inner monologue, in the next moment, the beast's face twisted to something similar to rage, it raised its head and roared into the skies. His majestic holler echoed, completely dominating the area, its thunderous cry reverberating in this grove.

In the next moment, the air around it began to vibrate, visibly distort. Its short, but strong fur stood up and it began to sway against an invisible current. The air continued to distort around its body, further twisting the strange phenomena.

A moment later, the waving sea of purple fur began to change. No singular strand of hair could be seen anymore, it visually merged into a complete purple sea.

The tiger roared once more as if adding more energy, more 'fuel' to the strange phenomenon, causing it to change again. Large ripples began to shoot out from the merged purple sea that covered the strange-looking beast. The waves twisted further, causing the entire sea to churn and rage as the currents would under the heavy duress of a storm.

Eventually, the intensity of the ripples reached the boiling point, causing it to 'explode' and change its form, looking as if the entire tiger was swallowed up by a purple inferno.

"Woaaah…" Lucien looked at the sight with a wondrous gaze, the sight was truly magical, otherworldly. On the other hand, Pravitas was looking with the same grin, not bothered by the magical sight at all.

"I hope you understand where the name comes from, boy." He mumbled, not bothering about the naive boy's response.

"You ready?" Pravitas called out to the beast, before entering into his previous battle pose and raised his right viral appendage, slightly twisting, cocking it ready for a second strike. At the same time, his left hand was balled into a small ball of fist and raised horizontally in front of his body.

As the beast's eyes lowered and was once again focusing on him, Lucien/Pravitas grinned at it, before his figure dashed forward in the next instant.

Like a dark streak, he dashed with all of his agility, arriving at the creature in a mere moment, he jerked his body and swung his right arm. His clawed hand sailed the air, drawing a wide right-winged arc. His attack traversed with rapid speeds, aimed at the beast's large head, ready to slash it to pieces and ending the fight abruptly.

However, the tiger wasn't the undisputed ruler of this magical forest for no reason either, its instincts instantly flared up, it jumped back whilst also pulling its head further, evading the incoming attack with relative ease and causing Pravitas to only swipe the empty air.

Still, Pravitas, being a creature of unknown, but clearly ancient origin, was already expecting this. Mid swing, as his claws closed down on the beast, he suddenly lounged further forward, his legs contorting as his calf was pushed beyond his human limits.

Still, the sudden thrust caught the beast by surprise, unable to properly react. Although it jerked its huge head to the left, it couldn't completely evade the blow. Pravitas's claws plunged below the purple fur, smearing it with a dark stain of red as it pierced through skin and flesh, driving a huge claw-mark on its puffed cheeks.

Suddenly as the pain engulfed the majestic creature, its madness reached new heights. With another roar, the air around it exploded, throwing the transformed boy away and creating some space between them.

As Pravitas landed on the ground and slid back a couple of extra steps before he stabilized himself, despite the tumultuous turn of events, only a couple of seconds have passed in reality.

He raised his right arm, looking at his dark set of claws grinning madly as the tiger's dark red blood kept oozing down from it. Giving it a quick lick, Pravitas hummed with delight, looking at the creature with even more excitement and craze burning in his double-colored pair of eyes.

Meanwhile, the creature's angry look was twitching, its sanity slowly fading, falling into the pit of madness…