Chapter 173 Permafrost Royal Tiger

Soon, all of them arrived at the ascension spot where Arkhen, Emily, and Azela ascended. The forest was behind the ascension spot, opposite the direction of the Bariat Kingdom.

"You shouldn't go into that forest. Instead, you can traverse this mountain range to the left side. That forest and area behind that are more dangerous," the lead female shadow guard said.

"I see. It's fine then, we'll traverse the mountain range. I'm mainly here to see how powerful I am right now and upgrade my improved combat prowess," Arkhen said with a grin. 'Ruan, use your special skill.'

*Awoooooooooooooo!!*

Ruan loudly howled as pulses of mysterious power left its body and traveled the far and wide mountain and forest.

After several seconds, faint blue motes started gathering in front of Arkhen and turned into a map that showed an area of ten kilometers in diameter with Arkhen as the center.

Soon, colorful dots started appearing on the map, and it became very lively.

There were over twenty golden dots but hundreds of other dots consisting of white, green, and black dots!

This map was Tasich wolf's special skill!

——

Forest & Mountain Lord: While you are in a forest or a mountain, the wolf can conjure a live map of that forest/mountain with the location of all important resources marked as gold dots and all living beings marked as white, green, and black dots depending on their power in comparison to owner. (one forest/mountain per day. Maximum 100 kilometers diameter area of the map)

——

"What is that?" Meya asked curiously.

The shadow guards were also surprised.

"This is the live map of the ten kilometers area around us," Arkhen said with a grin. "These 24 golden dots indicate valuable resources while the other dots are living beings. White means that a living being is less powerful than me. Green means it's roughly at the same power as me, and black means more powerful than me."

Of course, some dots were whiter, greener, and blacker. More greener meant it was a bit more powerful than Arkhen, but not too much. The extremely pitch black dots meant that Arkhen would most certainly die if he encountered them.

"So this is the wolf's power... So awesome?!" Meya was shocked.

*Awo~ Awooooo!*

The wolf, Ruan, nodded with a prideful expression.

"Let's clear those seventeen golden dots that are on this mountain range stretching to the west direction from here," Arkhen said as he pointed at the mountain ranges in the 3D mystical map made of energy and jumped onto Ruan.

"Yey, let's go for the treasure hunt!" Meya said with a laugh as she also sat in front of Arkhen. Ruan was 10 meters long and eight meters tall right now, so both could easily fit it.

Ruan's maximum size of thirty meters long and twenty-five meters tall, but that would be too big and attract needless attention, so Arkhen kept its size medium.

"The nearest one is 4oo meters to the left. Wow, this map is really so detailed," Meya said as she pointed at the nearest gold dot, and it even showed the distance in numbers.

Arkhen rubbed Ruan and said, "Let's go, buddy."

The wolf started moving while the five shadow guards also followed while discussing softly about Arkhen.

"That wolf is so amazing… What kind of beast is that?"

"Could it be from that Ravenwolf Kingdom? Jakon, you've gone there a few times, do you know?"

"Nah. I've never seen a wolf that could create a map with such information, change size willingly like this, and most of all look this cool in the Ravenwolf kingdom. Although this wolf isn't that strong now, its powers are mysterious."

"This new friend of young lord and young lady is indeed mysterious."

…

After traveling three hundred meters, Arkhen soon saw a giant white tiger from afar. It was crouched at a corner on the snowy ground of the mountain. There was a big tree beside it and a small hidden cave.

"This golden dot in the map is in that cave," Meya said. She then turned back to look at her shadow guards and said, "you all, hide your presence and stay hidden. Brother Arkhen wants to test his current combat prowess, but you will scare that Tiger away."

"Understood, lady Meya."

The shadow guards used some kind of skill to reduce their presence to nothing and hid behind obstacles like rocks and trees.

On the other hand, Arkhen and Meya neared the Tiger while riding the wolf.

When they were just ten meters away from the Tiger, they stopped.

The Tiger had seen them when they were fifty meters away and was eying them cautiously. So, when they stopped ten meters away, it stood up and growled dangerously.

——

[Permafrost Royal Tiger]

-Dire Beast ~ Second-grade

-Life: [1,370,000/1,370,000]

-Stamina: 253

-Agility: 257

-Strength: 258

-Constitution: 248

-Soul: 114

-EP: 248,347

——

'Let's see if I can defeat it without using my army,' Arkhen thought before he jumped off his wolf mount and landed just five meters away from the giant Tiger that was eight meters long and six meters tall.

*Rawr!*

The Permafrost Royal Tiger stood up and roared at Arkhen with a threatening glare.

Meya and Ruan backed further away to watch.

Arkhen's upper body was still bare as his Archion Draconic Armor was in a broken state, symbiotic to his body.

Although he had the passive of reducing incoming damage that hit him by 20%, he couldn't summon his armor. So, there were chances of him getting injured on this trip if some unexpected mishaps happened.

However, his weapon was intact as his right hand turned into the dragon blade. A ferocious grin appeared on his face as he pointed his right hand at the Tiger. "Get ready, big cat."

*Roar!*

The Permafrost Royal Tiger roared again and pounced towards Arkhen as its entire body was coated in a frost-plated coating while its claws got empowered with powerful gleaming ice with patterns.

*Swoosh!*

Its speed was way faster than Arkhen's speed, but that was the difference between their physical speed. Arkhen could still capture the beast's movements and used <Thunder Mirage Dash> to dodge the Tiger's attack before releasing his attack!

He activated his affinity power and channeled it before using his super-skill through his dragon blade… Wave Severam!

The Slaughter blades in crescent wave shape materialized, but along with their usual dark red energy appearance, all of the blades were burning evenly with a condensed flame over them!

The Tiger's eyes showed an alarmed expression as it felt a life-ending threat from the incoming stacked crescent waves of blades and roared before blinking with a burst of ice as it dodged the attack instead of trying to defend it.

'Yo, this tiger is more intelligent than other beasts I saw in the labyrinth.'

[Yes. This Permafrost Royal Tiger has a versatile set of skills that it acquired as it got stronger and also because of its a fairly high-ranking bloodline beast].

'Interesting… '

Arkhen changed his hand's direction and pointed at the Tiger again before releasing more Wave Severams of fire-type.

Alas, the Tiger's speed was fast. Especially after it combined with some kind of skill similar to Thunder Mirage Dash, but instead of creating a mirage, the Tiger would produce a mist of snowflakes and quickly blink away ten to twenty meters away.

*Roarr!*

After dodging the second attack, the Tiger roared before releasing a frost beam from its mouth towards Arkhen.

'Piercing Rain Blades!'

Arkhen quickly pointed his hand at the incoming beam and unleashed Piercing Rain blades of Fire-type.

The needle-like long blades wreathed in flames and shot out like bullets from a machine gun clashing against the beam!

The Tiger's eyes gleamed as it continued releasing the beam while Arkhen continued releasing Piercing Rain Blades of Fire-type.

It was an intense view of the clash between Permafrost Royal Tiger and Arkhen standing 15 meters across each other while both of their attacks clashed against each other.

Sometimes, Arkhen's piercing rain blades would overwhelm the beam and push it towards the Tiger, while sometimes, the Tiger would go up a notch as its beam would push more towards Arkhen.

"Hehe, Big cat, you want to compare who got more gas?" Arkhen said with a sneer as he raised his unoccupied left hand, formed it into a fist, and….

*BOOM!*

Fire Fist: Agnister! Full powered!

A giant lavatic burning fist projectile shot towards the Tiger.

The beast saw it and panicked before narrowing its eyes and jumping up before using its dashing skill again to appear eight meters to the left, creating a mist of snowflakes again.

*Roarr!*

The Tiger roared but didn't attack Arkhen.

It nodded its head and roared once again before slowly backing away.

"You give up?" Arkhen asked with a surprised expression.

"Grrrr!*

The Tiger showed a frustrated expression in its eyes but still nodded as if it understood Arkhen.

"I kind of don't want to kill you anymore," Arkhen said with a grin. "Do you want to become my pet? I can make you stronger too."

After saying that, Arkhen domineeringly looked at Tiger with his Gaze of Conquerer activated. "Come on, Tiger! Come under me and become my pet beast!"

The Tiger's eyes stared into Arkhen's eyes as it felt the human's dominating aura and personality.

Because the Tiger was also proud and believed that it would become stronger and a king on its own, it felt the same kind of thirst as the human in front of it, but on a much higher level.