"Wow! The plants here are all so tall, meow!"
(=ω=)
The little ragdoll crouched on Sherwin shoulder. After lifting her small head to look around, she reached out with a tiny paw and tugged at his ear, pointing in a direction as she urged him on.
"Sherwin big brother, Sherwin big brother, let go that way. Klee Meow can feel other animals over there. Let hurry and go see, meow!"
(==)σ
Before Sherwin could even take a step, a rustling sound came from the direction Klee Meow was pointing at. A gigantic tiger pushed its way out of the dense undergrowth.
"That great! It a big kitty just like Gin, meow!"
(=`=)
"Roar!"
At Sherwin feet, the metallic powder tiger—maintaining the size of a medium dog—let out a provocative roar at this suddenly appearing "kind."
Sherwin had thought that the massive tiger opposite would roar back, but after it glanced at Hancock, it immediately lay flat on the ground, behaving obediently like a little cat.
Clearly, this was a tiger that had once been taught a harsh lesson by Hancock.
Hancock, however, had long since forgotten about it—or rather, even if she did remember, she had no interest in paying it any attention.
"Let go. Robin, didn't you want to investigate the history of this island?" Hancock took Robin by the hand and headed into the dense forest. "If I remember correctly, there should be a ruined relic over in that direction."
Sherwin watched as the two beauties gradually walked farther away and did not have the other cats follow them.
With Hancock strength, protecting Robin on this island would not be a problem at all, and Robin current strength was not weak either.
There was no need to let the cats stay with that "bad woman" who did not welcome them anyway.
The gigantic tiger, which had originally been as well-behaved as a little kitty, saw Hancock leave just like that and felt that it could do it again.
"Roaaar—!"
It stood back up and let out a vicious roar toward Sherwin—more precisely, toward Gin at Sherwin feet.
Haibara Meow took out her small spatial pouch, opened the mouth of the bag, and poured it over Gin body. A massive amount of metallic powder spilled out, and in the blink of an eye, Gin—who had only been the size of a medium dog—became several times larger than the gigantic tiger in front of him.
"Roar!"
The metal tiger lunged forward in a fierce pounce, pinning the still-dazed gigantic tiger flat to the ground.
"Roa?"
As one of the many overlords of Rusukaina Island, this big tiger had never seen another tiger larger than itself before. But out of the pride of an apex predator, it was not about to submit so easily…
The reason it had acted like a little kitten when facing Hancock earlier was only because it had been beaten so many times that it knew it could not defeat her.
But this strange tiger in front of it was only a bit bigger than itself. It was not as if it had never fought animals larger than itself before!
"Roa!"
Having made up its mind, the big tiger began to resist immediately after its brief moment of confusion.
After letting out a howl to pump itself up, it twisted its head and bit down toward the tiger paw pressing on it.
And then…
"Crunch!"
The great tiger proud, razor-sharp fangs were actually no different from a frog tongue when faced with the alloy that Suika Meow had specially reinforced.
"Roar!"
Seeing that this great tiger still dared to resist, Qin opened her mouth and bit straight toward its neck. If that bite landed, the apex tiger that had ruled Rusukaina Island for so many years would definitely have no chance of surviving.
However, at that very moment…
"Wait, meow!"
The voice from the side made Qin stop her movement, but her metal-formed sharp teeth were already touching the great tiger neck. Sensing the danger, this island overlord (one of them) did not dare make the slightest move.
"Don't kill it yet!" Jinx dashed over to Qin side in a flash, first kicking the unlucky great tiger right on the nose, then saying, "This big guy size is just right to be used as a sparring partner for Shirahoshi, meow!"
Although Qin could also change into a body of the same size, her body was ultimately made of metal—and the kind whose density had been reinforced by Suika Meow.
Even if she fully transformed into an animal form, her weight would not decrease much, so she was actually not suitable as Shirahoshi sparring partner.
"Eh—?!!"
Shirahoshi rapidly shook her hands and head.
Facing such a gigantic ferocious beast, the timid mermaid princess wanted to refuse at the first moment.
"N-no! I… I… um! I'll do my best!"
However, after a brief moment of resistance, Shirahoshi clenched her teeth and accepted it on her own, without even needing encouragement from Jinx and the others.
"Princess Shirahoshi… has really changed a lot…"
Jinbe sighed with emotion from the side.
After the cats took turns stepping in and teaching this big kitty exactly who was the boss, the apex tiger honestly cooperated as Shirahoshi sparring partner, and even took the initiative to reveal that there were quite a few animals on the island similar to itself…
"Sherwin! Let hurry up and catch sparring partners for Shirahoshi, meow!"
(=ω=)
The little crazy cat pounced in a flying leap onto Sherwin back, shouting excitedly.
Even if Jinx hadn't said anything, Sherwin had originally planned to take a round around the island anyway.
However, he didn't move together with all the cats, instead only carrying Klee Meow and Haibara Meow, the two members of the toddler group, along with the equally clingy Shermie Meow.
As for the other cats…
Purah Meow directly started tinkering with her mechanical ball on the spot. In the past, she might have followed along to see if there were any special materials to find, but after obtaining Suika Meow Density Fruit, the little tech genius no longer had any worries about materials.
Meanwhile, Seijuro Meow and Link Meow were pulled aside by Hawk-Eye to spar in swordsmanship as soon as they landed on the island. Kaido Meow stayed behind to accompany Shirahoshi in training, as well as to drink with Suika Meow.
Sanji Meow, who wanted to search for ingredients, went off in another direction together with Huamei, who loved exploration. Huamei conveniently dragged away Jinx, who wanted to act alone.
With the current strength of the Felyne Survey Corps, sweeping through Rusukaina Island was an effortless task, so along the way Sherwin didn't encounter any real danger.
As for the "other overlords" mentioned by that giant tiger, Sherwin also found two of them along the way.
One was a lion far larger than that tiger, and the other was a crocodile just a bit smaller than the lion.
However, no matter how much they ruled their territories, they all had to back down when facing Qin, the metal tiger.
As a result, Sherwin, who had originally been riding as a "mount," soon ended up riding together with the cats on the back of that massive crocodile, while the lion obediently followed along at the side.
With proper transportation, the speed at which Sherwin and the others explored the island increased dramatically.
And as the island overlords, those beasts also knew exactly where the more ferocious creatures tended to gather.
Still, what disappointed Sherwin somewhat was that although the island beasts were all absurdly large in size, their actual species were extremely ordinary—nothing more than lions, tigers, elephants, and the like.
Even though there were some differences in details such as fur color and patterns, a lion was still a lion, and an elephant was still an elephant. Because of that, Sherwin Hunter Manual wouldn't open separate entries for them…
Sherwin had already confirmed this point. Even those few "overlords" were no exception they merely updated the maximum size records within their respective species…
Very Monster Hunter-like.