CHAPTER 336: CHAPTER 336: SHE OF ALL TIGERS

"What if he was just playing a prank on me?" Oliver asked himself as he walked slowly through the trees with a nervous expression on his face.

He was in his humanoid form, naked and looking like he was ready to pounce on anyone who tried anything funny.

His antlers glowed softly with the powers of the forest flowing through his body and into the antlers in his head.

With the antlers, he maintained a soft level of control and awareness in the forest, this was his own way of seeing what his eyes could not see, a way to avoid being ambushed.

He could smell it already, the presence of another terrifying tiger.

On his way here, he had passed through the territories of other tigers. The owners of most of them were far more eager to engage in a fight with Oliver just because he was within their territory without their knowledge.

Luckily, Oliver wasn’t dropped on the head and knew that he had to admit defeat before the fight even started. That was how he was able to pass through those tigers unscathed.

It was a very annoying tradition, yet, even he would not allow another average tiger to cross his territory without consequences.

One could imagine how chaotic and frustrating it was for tigers who did not live near a water source. They would have to cross other tigers repeatedly during the week just to drink water.

Only the Magus Tigers had it a little bit better as they were able to innovate a better way to do things. They were even willing to put aside their solitary culture so that they could come together to work on a method to elevate the tigers.

Unfortunately, those at the top liked to keep things interesting. Even though the tiger race in the peach valley looked fractured and displaced, they still had some unifying body that came together to make decisions for the general whole.

This governing body was not decided by a popularity contest or something else, it was decided by strength and strength alone. As the tiger was the strongest, he would be the leader.

This was why the tigers appeared to be somewhat stagnant, the strongest was not always the smartest.

Alas, Tiger Logic was different from Lion Culture or any other form of political mindset. Whereas lions cared about Lionhood and conquering, the tigers leaned more toward fighting and combat.

They ruled by violence and by combat.

The territory that Oliver was entering now was the territory of the strongest of those leaders, and the scariest.

He lived closest to that ’thing’ ever since he defeated the last leader and took his place as leader of the tigers.

When the other tigers Oliver had met on the way discovered that he was heading to this place, they all showed him looks of pity. They were sure that he did not give anyone permission to come and meet him, but Oliver was still going.

None, not even those who were like friends to Oliver, were willing to escort him.

Oliver didn’t want to go either, yet he had some unspeakable fear within him that would rise any time he thought of turning back.

Kael’s words remained in his head. If anything happened and they were looking for someone to blame, they would blame him.

Kael had explained things in such a way that he made it look like he wasn’t even willing to be in the peach valley but had to come because of the urgency. He had been vague and refused to tell Oliver what exactly was the matter which only served to heighten his curiosity.

Oliver could only make wild guesses that were related to Darius.

Suddenly, as Oliver was getting close to that place, he began to perceive something interesting.

Usually, since ethos was the territory of just one tiger, Oliver was expecting to perceive his lingering scent.

But now, he was perceiving two different tiger scents, and he was very familiar with both of them.

There was a rising chill in the air. Oliver was starting to see his breath in the form of white mists. The temperature was dropping very fast and it was worrying.

Oliver had a frown on his face, his guess was correct, only one tiger that he knew had this particular scent and caused the temperature to drop like this.

But this was the territory of that tiger, even if the whole world was supposed to freeze over, this place should remain warm as summer time.

What’s going on? Oliver wondered.

Another thing that came to his mind was that he had already gone quite deep into this territory. He could always see that piece of metal structure rising into the sky.

This was a sign that he was already too deep. If it was before, he should have already heard warning roars and would have met the territory master by now.

That Oliver was able to get so close was very strange to him.

’Unless...’ A thought came to Oliver’s head but he quickly crushed it before it could blossom. It was just too outrageous.

His eyes focused on the curved metal structure that he could see jutting out into the sky. He could make out the shape and the structure under the afternoon sun through the branches with pink blossoms.

The slightly curved metal structure was covered in creeping moss and other vegetation that had managed to make their way up the body.

From the looks of it, the way it was curved and looked like an incomplete, tilted, circular object, it appeared to be the body of a much larger object.

Oliver had entered the grounded object once, he remembered his wonder at how everything looked far different on the inside than the outside. It was so magical that it made no sense. The interior of the vessel was much larger than the outside, much much larger.

Unfortunately, they were only allowed access to certain parts of the object and for some reason Oliver was not aware of, they could not access more.

The current main leader of the tigers was the one who lived here and had the unrestricted privilege of entering this place whenever he wanted.

If anyone knew the secrets of this place in depth, it would be him. Then again, Oliver seriously doubted that with how maniacal that guy can be.

As he got closer, the temperature got lower and he was starting to see a bit of snowflakes around. He shivered, not from the cold, but from the conclusion he was coming to.

’No way,’ He thought to himself.

As if to confirm his guess, a wave of heat hit him out of nowhere. The heat wasn’t too bad and he was able to brush it off easily. But it still stunned him.

Cold and hot in the same place, as if they were taking turns to show their power. How come?

Then Oliver felt it again. There was a lasting coldness, but that coldness would be suppressed by the wave of heat. It followed a pattern that Oliver paid attention to.

It was rhythmic, sometimes, the heat came fast and in multiple rapid series. Other times, it came slowly as if it was crawling.

Oliver seriously wanted to stop at this point, his legs began to slow down. The fear of interrupting whatever was happening was greater than the fear Kael had implanted in him.

At least, with Kael’s warning, he may be able to find a way of surviving. But now, if he truly interrupted what he guessed was happening, he might die before he could explain himself.

Just when he was thinking of turning back, he remembered Darius and gritted his teeth. He stood there, unsure of what to do

He never thought that he would actually meet her here. She of all tigers.

As expected of the leader, he got the feistiest ones. However, Oliver felt strange, even a bit of a heartache.

It was then that an even stronger force acted upon Oliver, one that could even override Kael’s fear seed. Curiosity.

Curiosity could kill.

So Oliver’s legs moved, taking him closer to the massive moss-covered metal structure that was not even far again, just a few tens of meters away from the base.

That was when he heard it.

The soft growls, the sound of heavy paws gently tapping the ground.

A tree blocked Oliver’s sight so he had to peek behind it to see what he wanted to see.

Two massive tigers the size of huts were going at it with each other. Oliver’s green eyes opened wide in shock. The world seemed to lose all color with what he was seeing.

One tiger was pure white with black stripes, her fur coat was just beautiful, added with her mature aura, she was truly exceptional and one of a kind.

Another tiger was present, a muscular tiger with the regular orange fur and black stripes. His body brimmed with the power to destroy mountains and burn the sky.

These two tigers, the orange and white, were currently engaged in sexual intercourse. Occasionally, they switched from their tiger forms to humanoid forms, with the muscular orange tiger humping tirelessly on the white tiger.

Oliver didn’t know when his mouth hung open as he stared foolishly at the female white tiger below the orange tiger.

He recognized her well, how could he not? Her son had been a hot topic some time back.

The white tiger growling and moaning under her mate like a wounded beast was none other than Darius’s mother.