BXBX NOVEL Chapter 91: Training Partner
It glared at the Sentinel before scoffing and turning to Yanael, who had gotten up. The only signs the tiger had hit her were a couple of scrapes and streaks of dirt on her dress. however, Zach could tell that a blow powerful enough to knock her away was sure to have left at least some bruising.
Yanael was a warrior, a battle maid. Bruises were nothing to her. But she was also more than that, so Zach couldn\'t help but be worried.
However, as if to spite Zach\'s worry, Yanael walked right up to the tiger with fire in her eyes.
"Come on!" She called out to the tiger, making it focus on her and ignore the Sentinel.
Zach had a feeling that wasn\'t why she did it, though.
Aside from Jigak, the tiger was the first being to pose a threat to her. It was her first worthy opponent since she became Zach\'s familiar.
The fact that she shouted was proof enough that she was getting fired up. She wanted a fight to the death with the tiger. Zach could tell. What else could the look in her eyes mean, especially when she was signaling for him and the others to step back?
Zach sighed.
It wasn\'t often that Yanael asked for something. Although he was the master in their relationship, it was a relationship that went both ways. Even if he didn\'t want to let her fight alone, he gave in. Unless it looked like she was in trouble, he and the others wouldn\'t interfere.
Dukiel and Julius were still in a state of shock. They happily went along when Zach dragged them further away from the fight. The Sentinel also stuck to Dukiel, and the Mannequin hadn\'t left Julius\' side, so they weren\'t a problem either.
When they were at a relatively safe distance, Zach started thinking about what to do in the worst-case scenario. He would have preferred not to admit it, but it was possible that Yanael could lose.
If that were to happen, they needed something, a trick, a plan, anything, that could deal with the tiger.
Yanael was the strongest card in their communal arsenal, but she wasn\'t the only one. As long as Zach stepped in before she was out of commission or lost too horribly to continue fighting in case she lost, she would still be the main piece of the plan to take down the tiger.
While spectating the fight, Zach\'s mind spun like mad to come up with ways to deal with the tiger.
Meanwhile, Yanael was busy fighting the tiger.
It had accepted her invitation for a duel, even when it knew Zach and the others were waiting on the sideline to step in. To it, no help of Yanael\'s would be enough. She and the others would be seeing their end tonight.
Yanael didn\'t carry a similar conviction. Although she was fighting the tiger to the death now that it had come to it, that wasn\'t the sole reason she had asked Zach to have the others hang back.
For a time now, ever since their first encounter with the fighters in the Giupusta Locale, Yanael had struggled with something.
She kept getting pushed back and knocked around by physically strong but otherwise unskilled opponents. They were strong but not fast or dangerous, so they weren\'t a problem. The underworld fighters. The oversized bronze-toothed ape. The tiger.
The tiger was more than big and strong, especially in its current condition.
But the same problem arose when she was trying to defend or stand in front of Zach.
She repeatedly got pushed back or knocked away. How was she supposed to defend Zach when that continued to happen?
She had to do something about it.
Her light weight made it easy for her to move around and flutter across the battlefield and forest, slicing down monsters. But her sword wasn\'t her only weapon, and she was Zach\'s battle maid. Her purpose was more than to attack. It was to defend as well.
Zach\'s Blessed Defense was great. But it wasn\'t enough.
Yanael had thought long and hard about what to do. She had hoped that the mountain essence from the Giupusta Locale would have helped, but so far, it had only made her weapons sturdier.
She had been at a loss.
Until now.
The tiger had demonstrated its strength and willingly offered itself up as a training partner for Yanael.
If she could stand immovable like a mountain in front of the tiger, nothing except a bigger, stronger tiger would make her move or lose her footing.
That was why she didn\'t immediately go on the offensive. She didn\'t make use of the tiger\'s imbalance or incongruent sense of self. It wasn\'t used to how big, strong, and heavy it was after what the Underworld had done to it.
Yanael could have used her speed and stature to fight a battle of attrition and bleed the tiger to the death. She could have also tried to aim for its reattached leg and cripple it again.
She didn\'t.
She raised her shield and stood right in front of the tiger. She dug her feet into the grass wide apart and lowered her center of gravity. She tensed her midsection and thighs, ready to catch the tiger\'s powerful paws with nothing but her body.
The tiger stood right in front of her, towered over her, and, with a mocking smile, swiped with its paw like swatting a fly.
Yanael braced for impact and at the moment of collision, pushed against the paw with all the strength she could muster.
Something made a loud noise when paw met maid, but Zach had no idea what it was. He only saw that after a brief battle, Yanael was sent flying.