Bab 4: Disappear
At this moment, the heavy rain had ceased.
A faint moonlight spread over the rain-soaked field, and the scent of wet earth lingered in the night breeze.
Borne and Dillon silently made their way across the damp grass, the dew on the grass blades gently splashing up as the hooves of their horses passed over.
The faint scent of electricity still hung in the air from where the Thunder Tiger had vanished.
Borne glanced up at the dim night sky; the dark clouds were gradually dispersing, revealing a half-moon.
The cold glow reflected off their bodies and the manes of their warhorses.
"The Thunder Tiger disappeared too mysteriously," Borne murmured to himself, the horse's hooves making barely a sound on the soft earth.
They rode side by side, surrounded by silence.
As they moved forward, the darkness on the horizon slowly retreated, and a faint light began to spread across the skyline.
Indeed, dawn was breaking.
They arrived at a fork in the forest path and continued along the road to the right.
"Dillon, how did it disappear back then?" Borne turned to Dillon with his question.
Dillon held his chin with his right hand, his head slightly tilted up.
After a long moment of contemplation, he replied.
"It vanished into thin air."
Borne found this answer hard to believe; after all, how could such a massive creature simply vanish?
He kept asking Dillon about it along the way; this was about the seventh time.
Dillon's mind kept replaying the scene in the field.
Suddenly, as if something had struck him, he dropped his right hand and began waving it excitedly.
"It was a flash of lightning, a very fine bolt of lightning."
Dillon recalled the scene. When he noticed that the first arrow had missed the Thunder Tiger, he rode closer, worried about Borne's safety.
At that moment, as he drew nearer, what should have been the shape of the Thunder Tiger in the storm had transformed into a cluster of lightning.
Borne lowered his head, deep in thought.
At that time, his mind had gone blank, and he had no idea how the Thunder Tiger had vanished.
The outline of the camp gradually came into view.
Their tense hearts began to calm down.
A plume of smoke from cooking fires slowly rose with the morning mist from the camp.
The two arrived at the camp gate, where they saw other weary scouts and a new batch of scouts preparing to head out.
"Looks like you two had quite a haul," the guard at the gate said to Borne and Dillon, still on horseback.
"Haha, just glad we made it back alive," Dillon replied casually as he and Borne entered the camp.
They quickly led their horses to the stables and then hurried to the Decanus' tent.
At that moment, the Decanus was holding a roster, doing a headcount.
Upon seeing them, he set the roster aside and asked:
"Did you discover anything significant?"
Borne and Dillon saluted with a standard military gesture and replied,
"Yes, we've uncovered important information that needs immediate reporting."
The Decanus smiled slightly upon hearing this and led them to the Praefectus Castrorum's tent.
The soldiers at the entrance, seeing the scouts coming to report, immediately pulled aside the tent flap.
"Report!"
The two outside shouted loudly.
The Praefectus Castrorum inside, hearing the commotion, immediately paused his work and responded in a booming voice:
"Come in!"
The two stepped inside the tent, saluting both the Praefectus Castrorum and the Centurion standing behind him.
Before them stood the tall and imposing figure of the Praefectus Castrorum, Bennett.
His expression was serious, but there was a hint of fatigue that he couldn't hide.
They handed over the Beast Cores they had collected and the equipment belonging to the deceased scout to Bennett.
Bennett naturally accepted the two Beast Cores.
However, when he received the fallen scout's belongings, his hand trembled slightly, knowing well the fear that his men might perish out there.
Then, he took out two bottles of green stamina pills and handed them to the pair.
On the battlefield, these pills were not to be underestimated. Consumed directly, they could provide a burst of strength, and when crushed and applied to wounds, they could accelerate healing.
"Alright, you two, give me your report," Bennett said, his tone slightly impatient.
After all, every piece of intelligence on the Thunder Tiger was like gaining a new weapon.
Dillon gestured with his eyes to Borne, indicating for him to proceed.
Borne took a step forward and began his briefing.
"First, this Thunder Tiger has numerous wounds on its body and forehead.
Moreover, it is exceptionally large, at least a size bigger than any Thunder Tiger typically found in this area."
The soldier at the table quickly recorded this information.
"So, I suspect that this Thunder Tiger does not originally belong to this region."
Bennett's eyes widened slightly; he did not understand why such a Thunder Tiger would come to what had once been a death trap for its kind.
"Furthermore, its behavior is very unusual.
Every time it runs, it's accompanied by lightning strikes, which are extremely loud."
Bennett nodded slightly; he had heard similar reports from other scouts.
"And it appears to possess a powerful finishing move."
At this, a wave of murmurs swept through the tent.
Bennett and the Centurion were taken aback, and the soldier writing the report suddenly stopped.
"Are you saying you two faced it head-on?" Bennett asked, probing.
It was clear that those present found it hard to believe that these two had confronted the Thunder Tiger with so little equipment and managed to survive.
"That's right, exactly like that."
Although still somewhat surprised, Bennett motioned for Borne to continue.
"When I approached it, there were lightning-like orbs gathering around it, and then I suddenly felt an overwhelming sense of pressure."
"At that moment, all I felt was endless dizziness and a ringing in my ears."
Bennett looked at Borne before him and couldn't help but marvel at his luck.
Long ago, Bennett had participated in a mission to hunt down Thunder Tigers with his unit.
At that time, Thunder Tigers would gather in groups of two or three, so it was common practice for the main force to have mages set up arrays to trap the Thunder Tigers.
Then, soldiers and archers would be deployed for a full assault.
But over time, the number of Thunder Tigers dwindled.
The remaining solitary ones grew more cautious, and with their kind dying off, they had more access to food.
Gradually, they became formidable beast kings that humans struggled to contend with.
However, humans and their technology were constantly advancing and evolving.
In the years that followed, even the surviving Thunder Tigers were eventually eradicated through human effort and strategy.
The two before him had never even seen a Thunder Tiger before and yet had managed to survive; it was indeed hard to believe.
"Anything else to report?" Bennett pulled his thoughts back to the present and asked Borne again.
"The Thunder Tiger's left paw is different from the right.
When attacking, the left paw carries a lightning attribute, and there's a clearly visible lightning mark on it."
Just as Borne finished describing the Thunder Tiger's attack,
"And one more thing — this Thunder Tiger is capable of instant teleportation," Dillon quickly added from behind.
"What?"
Bennett was stunned once more.
In all the previous Thunder Tiger hunting missions, there had never been a record of such a bizarre ability.
"Could it be that this Thunder Tiger is at least Advanced level or even higher?"
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone