That was the very first thing Wanda truly noticed—two eerily luminous spots silently gleaming within the boundless sea of encroaching darkness. They hovered, unmoving, like twin watchful eyes, staring directly at them from the depths of the forest.
Her breath hitched in her throat, a cold, sharp intake of the frigid night air.
It was... a creature. Something massive and unseen was watching them, hidden between the skeletal silhouettes of the trees. A creeping, primal fear, ancient and instinctual, slithered up her spine like ice water, tightening every nerve. Her heart pounded wildly in her chest, a frantic drum against her ribs.
No, that's not a bear.
She had heard whispers, vague and fragmented stories, about black bears lurking in the deep parts of this forest. But this... this was profoundly different. The silhouette—only faintly visible under the fragmented moonlight, broken by the dense canopy—was far too large, too unnaturally fluid in its form. The way it stood on four powerful legs, its body sleek and muscled like liquid steel, a predatory grace even in shadow... this was nothing out of any biology book she'd ever skimmed. Not that she'd studied much, but even with her limited knowledge, she knew—nothing like this should exist here, not in this quiet, mundane forest.
The creature, however, didn't seem interested in her or Pietro. Its chilling, glowing gaze had locked onto one of the men behind them—the one who clutched a gun in his shaking hand.
Then, with a terrifying, almost silent grace, the beast lowered its stance, muscles coiling tight like a spring, gathering an immense, explosive power within its frame.
"What is it doing...?" Wanda whispered, the words barely a breath, lost to the swirling wind.
But before she could even finish her thought—everything blurred. The world around her seemed to warp, the trees, the ground, the very air, dissolving into streaks of indistinct motion.
A sudden, bloodcurdling scream tore through the night, ripping her attention away from the trees and back to the men behind them. She spun around, her heart turning to ice.
A tiger—massive, monstrous, a nightmare given form—had appeared as if from thin air, erupting into existence right in front of the five men.
Its arrival was so sudden, so utterly silent, that she hadn't even registered the moment it crossed the impossible distance. The moonlight, usually a swift companion to movement, barely kept up with its incredible speed. All she saw was a faint blur of dark stripes and powerful fur, an unstoppable force carving a path through the night.
And then—
"AARRGGHHHHHHHHH!"
The horrifying scream echoed through the ancient trees like a funeral bell, a sound of pure agony and despair. It was loud, raw, soul-shattering—a noise no human should ever be able to make.
Wanda's eyes widened in disbelief, her own breath catching in her throat. One of the men was already on the ground, writhing in unimaginable pain. A chunk of his stomach was simply missing—torn out, as if scooped by monstrous jaws. The blood, a shimmering black under the moonlight, pooled rapidly around him like spilled ink, soaking into the forest floor.
Before anyone, even the remaining, terrified men, could react, the tiger had already pounced on another man.
It looked like a game. A cruel, terrifying game.
The tiger clamped its impossibly strong jaws onto the man's body and began to shake its massive head violently, flinging the man like a helpless ragdoll in its fangs. Bones cracked with sickening snaps, like dry twigs breaking underfoot. Limbs flailed wildly, like torn cloth caught in a gale.
Something wet and warm suddenly hit Wanda's face, splashing across her cheek.
Instinctively, she raised her trembling hand, bringing it up to touch the sticky warmth. When she pulled it away, her palm was slick with blood, dark and viscous in the dim light.
Her breath hitched, a gasp trapped in her throat. The scream that threatened to tear its way out was barely suppressed. If things continued like this, she was sure—her heart would simply give out from sheer terror before the beast even reached her.
It was a massacre. A brutal, one-sided slaughter.
In mere seconds, all five of the men were down.
Their bodies lay scattered, twisted and mutilated—missing limbs, heads half-crushed, and entrails decorating the grass like some sick, macabre ritual. The tiger, with chilling efficiency, had reduced a group of armed, dangerous men into broken, lifeless toys.
Then, at last, the monster seemed to pause—its frenzied attack settling, its terrifying focus shifting.
It slowly turned its massive head.
Its glowing eyes, once fixated on the fallen, now landed directly on them.
On Pietro.
On Wanda.
Leo, the tiger, had instinctively gone after the armed ones first. After all, even if a human's gun couldn't truly threaten him now, Elric had always drilled a crucial lesson into his powerful, developing mind: "Even an ant can kill an elephant if it strikes at the right place. So, don't create such an opportunity."
That simple, yet profound, lesson stayed with Leo.
So, with the armed threats utterly eliminated, the tiger's ominous, glowing gaze now focused on what remained.
Wanda's hands trembled uncontrollably. She tried to rise again, pushing against the rough ground, but her injuries flared, a searing agony that ran through her. Her body screamed in protest, every muscle protesting, her legs refusing to obey her will.
Pietro stood still, utterly frozen in pure terror. His distinctive silver hair caught the faint moonlight, almost shimmering, but his limbs were like stone, locked in place by overwhelming fear.
"No... no, not him..." Wanda whimpered, a desperate plea caught in her throat.
A fierce, desperate fury ignited in Wanda's chest, a burning inferno that banished the cold fear.
The red glow in her eyes—which had faded with the initial distraction—returned, brighter than ever before, pulsing with an untamed, ancient power. It poured from her eyes like molten embers of wrath, radiating an almost visible heat. Her magic, long dormant and fractured by grief and trauma, stirred violently to life, responding to the raw intensity of her emotions. The wind around them began to howl, a mournful, rising shriek. The leaves on the trees shivered and danced wildly. The very forest seemed to bend, responding to the raw, surging pulse of her uncontrolled rage.
But Leo felt it too.
The colossal beast, a creature born of raw instinct and refined training, froze for a moment. Her fur bristled, standing on end. Her powerful body stiffened, a primal tremor running through him.
Something dangerous... is coming.
He instincts screamed at him, a dire warning echoing through his powerful mind. That girl—he was no ordinary prey. If he didn't act now, he might never get another chance.
Leo pounced.
He became a blur again, a streak of striped fury. His massive muscles contracted and released, launching him like a missile towards Wanda, ignoring Pietro entirely. His massive jaws opened wide—a terrifying cavern of fangs and darkness—aiming straight for Wanda's vulnerable neck.
She could see it coming.
The maw of death.
The endless darkness inside, ready to swallow her whole.
Time seemed to distort, stretching into an agonizing, endless moment. The red light emanating from Wanda's body intensified, glowing with furious power. It began to materialize, almost solidifying into reality, shimmering around her, waiting for its master's desperate command.
But then—
A bang split the night.
It wasn't a gunshot.
It was louder. Heavier. More powerful than anything she had ever heard. A sound of pure, concussive force.
The chaotic magic surrounding Wanda suddenly vanished, dissipating as quickly as it had appeared. Wanda's body dropped flat from the sudden pressure, her eyes wide with confusion. Where... where did that sound come from?
Then she saw it.
A man.
He stood not far from her, a figure of incredible power. One leg was raised high, his posture frozen as if he had just delivered a kick with impossible, devastating force.
Wanda blinked, her mind struggling to comprehend. Her eyes darted to the side, following the trajectory of the earth-shattering noise.
Several trees had been violently flattened, their thick trunks broken and shattered as if something impossibly huge had flown straight through them. And among the fallen debris, a giant striped figure lay motionless, utterly still.
The tiger.
The monster that had butchered five armed men in mere seconds—kicked away like trash.
She stared at the man again, her mind reeling.
Who... who the hell is this?
And more importantly...
How did he just do that...?