Arian's heartbeat thundered in his ears.The White Tiger stood before him like a living mountain of muscle and fur, its golden eyes fixed on his. The hunters' chants swirled through the air, weaving unseen chains that tried to pull his mind away.
Choose.The word reverberated in his skull, not as a plea, but as a command.
Arian took a slow breath, then stepped forward.
The silver light inside him burst outward, flooding his limbs with heat and power. For a heartbeat, his vision split — one eye saw as a man, the other as a beast. His muscles tensed, skin prickling as faint stripes began to crawl across his arms.
The lead hunter barked an order, and his followers rushed in. Spears glinted, footsteps thundered over damp earth.
The White Tiger roared.It wasn't just a sound — it was a force. The ground shook, the air rippled, and the closest hunters stumbled as if struck.
Arian moved. Not fully transformed, but faster, stronger. He caught a spear mid-thrust and snapped it in half, the wood splintering in his hands. A swift kick sent its wielder sprawling into the undergrowth.
The hunters regrouped, forming a half-circle. Their masks gleamed under the moon, and for a moment, Arian thought they looked less like men and more like the spirits of the jungle — cold, patient, hungry.
The White Tiger stepped forward, brushing its massive flank against Arian's side. Where they touched, power surged — a bond forming, raw and untested, but undeniable.
"Our blood is one," the voice growled inside his mind. "Fight, and I will fight with you."
Arian bared his teeth. The hunters charged again.
This time, he didn't dodge.
He and the White Tiger moved as one — claws and fangs, speed and strength, a blur of silver and white tearing through the night. Every strike felt natural, every roar answered. The hunters fought with desperation, but the jungle itself seemed to turn against them — roots rising to trip their steps, branches snapping to block their swings.
When it was over, the clearing lay silent. The few hunters who could still stand melted back into the shadows, retreating into the forest's depths.
The White Tiger regarded Arian, then dipped its head slightly — a gesture of acknowledgment.
"You have chosen. Now… you must learn why you were chosen."
And with that, it turned and began walking deeper into the jungle, not looking back.
Arian hesitated only a moment before following. Somewhere ahead, beyond the mist and the ancient trees, lay the truth of his bloodline… and the curse that came with it.
The air grew heavier the deeper they went.The canopy above thickened until only thin ribbons of moonlight pierced the darkness, painting the jungle floor in pale silver. Each step the White Tiger took was silent, yet Arian could feel the ground vibrate under its weight.
No path marked the way forward, yet the beast moved with certainty, as if retracing a route older than the forest itself.
Arian kept close, his senses sharp. The night carried no ordinary sounds — no insect hum, no distant birdcalls. Instead, there was a low, constant whisper, like wind speaking through hollow stone.
"What is this place?" Arian asked.
The answer was not in words, but in images that flashed in his mind:A great battle in the heart of the jungle. Men and beasts falling together. A single White Tiger standing victorious, its fur stained with blood — and a pact sealed in the moonlight.
"The birthplace of the Bond," the voice finally said, deep and resonant. "And the place where it can be broken."
They stopped before a massive stone arch, half-swallowed by roots. Carvings of tigers and men in mid-battle covered its surface, their forms worn smooth by centuries of rain.
Arian reached out to trace the carvings, but the moment his fingers touched the cold stone, the jungle around them shifted. The air thickened, the light dimmed further, and an almost metallic scent filled his nostrils.
The White Tiger's ears flicked, its gaze locked on the darkness beyond the arch.
"You will see them now," it warned. "The ones who wore this blood before you… and what became of them."
Before Arian could ask, shapes began to emerge — ghostly forms, half-human, half-tiger, their eyes glowing like embers. They moved slowly, circling, each step echoing with a low growl that came from nowhere and everywhere at once.
The White Tiger stepped aside."Walk through. Alone."
Arian's heart pounded. Every instinct told him to stay close to the beast, but he knew — this was his trial.
He took his first step toward the arch, and the whispers in the air became a chorus. Names he didn't know, promises he didn't make, all pressing into his mind. The ghostly figures closed in, their claws scraping against the stone.
And somewhere ahead, deeper in the darkness, something waited — something that did not welcome him.
The rain had stopped, but the forest still dripped, each falling droplet sharp against the silence.Arian crouched low in the undergrowth, watching the masked figures fan out through the trees. Their movements were deliberate, almost ritualistic — not the erratic pacing of ordinary hunters.
The leader raised a hand, and the others froze.No words were spoken, yet Arian felt the air tighten, as though invisible threads had been drawn across the clearing.
Something about their presence was wrong. He could sense it in the way the jungle reacted — the leaves curling slightly, the birds falling silent. It was as if the forest itself recognized them, and feared them.
One of the hunters knelt and pressed a gloved hand to the soil.A faint shimmer spread out from his touch, rippling over the ground like water.It reached the edge of Arian's hiding place… and stopped.
His pulse quickened.They weren't tracking by scent or sight — they were listening to the blood in his veins.
A distant roar echoed through the night.It wasn't the White Tiger, but it was close enough to make the hunters glance at one another. The leader tilted his head toward the sound, then toward the shadows — directly toward where Arian hid.
A branch cracked to his left.Not by his own movement — something else was here.
For a heartbeat, the hunters hesitated, their masks turning toward the disturbance.Arian knew he had seconds at best before they closed in.
The question clawed at his mind:Run deeper into the jungle, or confront them here and risk losing control of the beast inside?