Chương 64: Chapter 64 - Territorial Dispute

Somewhere in the dark purple lush jungle, two creatures were having a violent dispute. The first creature looked somewhat similar to the modern-day Syberian Tiger, but its color was purple with dark green stripes instead of its orange, black and white Earth counterpart. It also had sharp fangs that couldn't fit inside its much larger and probably stronger jaws.

His opponent was a giant insectoid creature. It sported a similar size as the Tiger-like beast but had 3 pairs of black arthropod legs that were deeply planted into the soil. It's large abdomen kicked a handful of dust and grass as it hit the ground floor. There was thin fur-like hair covering Its thorax, however, it also had a thick black carapace protecting the important organs. The head, which looked slightly smaller than the thorax, had a pair of giant branch-like antennae twitching violently against the wind, just above the pair of black insectoid eyes. The large mandibles had a transparent sticky fluidic substance dropping as the creature fearsomely clacked it against the roaring tiger-beast.

Getting ready for the battle for dominance, the tiger creature stretched its back legs and released a loud growling howl towards the insectoid. As it released the pent up rage it had held, its black irises suddenly got a faint yellowish contour. From its mouth, alongside the loud roar, an opaque ring of energy was materialized and sent crashing towards the armored surface of the insectoid, giant ant-like enemy.

The ant creature did not even seem to flinch, the energy didn't even leave a bruise over the thick, armored carapace that covered the important parts of its body. It looked up to the clear sky, and as its huge antennae violently twitched, it released a high-pitched, loud screeching sound, maybe a call for battle, or just its battle cry.

In the next moment, it suddenly charged forward, rushing towards the tiger beast with great momentum as it kept clanking its huge gooey mandibles against it.

The tiger wasn't going to stand guard and wait for the huge insectoid to crash against it, instead, it swiftly jumped upon one of the abundance of trees surrounding them and proceeded to jump across them, almost becoming a blur whilst releasing a sonic blast from all sides of the insectoid, as the insectoid soon became disoriented from this as it drew closer. Seeing its chance, the tiger lounged itself over the insectoid's head whilst baring its fangs and claws, ready to rip the opponent's head off its ugly body.

As the tiger began to descend and they rapidly closed the distance between themselves, the air between suddenly began to tremble, and blur. In the next moment, space itself seemed to shatter, leaving behind a black amorph breach. A loud low-pitched sonic shockwave surged from the hole, throwing both the tiger and the insectoid off its intended course and putting a stop to their momentum.

In the next moment, a humanoid figure, with dark red markings all over its upper body fell from the breach. It's long, platinum hair fluttered against the wind, as the figure crashed against the muddy ground floor.

A moment later, spitting its traveler out and with its job completed, the breach started to thin, and a second later, it vanished with a loud popping sound.

Bewildered by the strange turn of events, both creatures that were about to rip each other apart didn't resume their battle. Instead, both began to inspect the new invader with keen interest and intelligence in their eyes.

With loud spitting and grumbling noises, the figure slowly stood up and began to clean their face, completely oblivious to his increasingly frustrated spectators.

"Fucking hell… That last hit was something all right… I bit my tongue when it hit me…" He spat out a mouthful of a mixture of dirt, saliva, and blood.

Thanks to his incredible healing ability, the wound on his tongue disappeared in an instant, leaving behind the uncomfortable lingering phantom pain only. It was just now that he seemed to notice the double menacingly growling creatures to his left and right.

Looking to his left first, he frowned seeing the giant insectoid.

"What the hell?! Damn you are one ugly fellow… What did your ancestors do to spawn such an ugly bastard?!"

Then, turning to the right, he spotted the purple and dark green tiger-like creature. His frown turned to a weirdly expectant smile as it measured the beast for a moment before it faded from his face a moment later.

"Huh, now you on the other hand… You look fine… Too bad you don't seem to have anything interesting on you…"

Still keeping his eyes on the tiger beast, he continued with unnatural calmness in his tone.

"So ehrm, what were you guys doing? Having some territorial dispute?" He began to walk to the side as he continued, leaning against a tree in the meantime. "Don't mind me, continue as you see fit, I'm interested in who would win between the two of you."

It was impossible to tell if they could understand him or not, but both had a strange look on its face. The tiger looked somewhat puzzled as its eyes seemed to follow the strange humanoid figure, while the insectoid looked at him as if someone would look at his or her dinner.

Taking a look at the two once more, the figure looked at the tiger with a helpless expression on his face.

"Don't take this the wrong way, but I don't think you have a chance against that dude though. If I were you, I would take a step back before it kills you. But, that's just my opinion, no need to bother with it."

As if understanding his words, the tiger roared with displeasure in its eyes and scoffed. Then turned his attention towards the large insectoid and once again, bared its fangs. The muscles in its back legs contorted as it leaned against them, and in the next moment, it lounged itself to the still hesitant-looking giant ant.

Half-way in its trajectory, the tiger's eyes once again began to shine and the golden-yellowish contour appeared, causing the figure that was leaning against the tree with a bored expression to look at it with a surprised expression.

In the next moment, the translucent energy ring once again shot out from the tiger's mouth and crashed against the head of the giant ant, causing his antennae to furiously twitch and shake. The ant began to shake its head, but couldn't react in time and defend as the tigers large fangs clashed against its head. A loud tearing sound could be heard, as the fearsome jaws found its way through the defenses of the still dazed ant, and began to slowly sink deeper.

However, despite the fatal-looking damage, the ant wasn't defeated yet. First, it began to violently shake its body, madly clasping Its huge mandibles in the air, trying to grab and rip the tiger's body apart. Seeing as this action was futile, it quickly decided to go with a different action. The thick carapace on its thorax began to move, and lift up in the air. Under the carapace, however, suddenly a dark green fluid was sprayed out directly into the eyes of the tiger.

Immediately the heavily acidic fluid started a violent reaction, and amidst the loud sizzling sound, the painful cry of the tiger could be heard as it let go of the ant's head and jumped back abruptly. It quickly shot out another powerful ring of energy out of its mouth before taking several steps in the opposite direction, backing away from the ant, whilst the sudden unexpected energy wave from the tiger threw the insectoid off-balance. Seeing that it had gained some time from its panicked assault, it began rubbing its eyes with its huge front paws, albeit to no avail. The acidic fluid already has done its damage, its right eye was completely gone as the fluid quickly dissolved it into a gooey dark substance on the ground.

The ant wasn't in any better shape either, there was a huge and deep gaping hole where its right insectoid eye was a moment ago and a large crack on its carapace from the sonic blast released by the tiger. Dark green fluid was dripping down to the ground. Both creatures were shaking from the damage, but neither wanted to give in to the other, they continued to look at the other.

Their one-eyed staring contest was interrupted when suddenly loud clapping noises came from the direction of the newcomer.

"Ahaha, that was awesome! I really thought that the ugly ant-thing was gone when you sunk your fangs in so deep. Who would have thought it could pee on you?! Damn that was cool!" With the clapping, hoarse laughter also came. The figure clearly had a really good time watching the show in front of him.

He slowly began to walk towards the giant ant, as it continued to ramble between his guffaw.

"Gosh, that was really, really cool! You know when I was suddenly hit with that teleport punch from the big guy, I never would have guessed I would land between the two of you and you would welcome me with such a show! I can only thank you for the entertainment!"

Stopping just out of reach of the ant who for some reason did not dare to bite at him with its mandibles, his laughter died down, and his previously cheerful expression morphed into a vicious grin. A glint flashed through his eyes, his figure flickered and vanished in the next moment, only to reappear on the thorax of the ant. He raised his right arm in the air, as it quickly transformed into his demi-human clawed form.

As it swung down, the last sentence the ant heard before the darkness pulled its consciousness away was a vigorous taunt.

"Too bad for you both, that I really liked both of your abilities. I hope you don't mind if I will take them for myself…"