"Don't talk like your fire can defeat our claws. My species' claws are the mightiest and can easily tear your species to pieces."
"Oh, We'll have to see about that, won't we?" The Infernal Flame Tiger King replied, taking his fighting stance.
Gang Zhao also got ready to fight. He wasn't one to back down when it came to his species' honor and pride.
At this moment, Ashen's calm voice resounded in both of their ears:
"Huh?" The Infernal Flame Tiger King glanced at Ashen, noticing him only now. All of his focus had been solely on Gang Zhao and he didn't even see Ashen present despite his powerful presence.
He looked at Gang Zhao in confusion and asked while pointing at Ashen: "Gang Zhao, Who is this rude human? How dare he interrupt us?"
Gang Zhao opened his mouth to answer, however, before he could do so, Ashen spoke first:
"Infernal Flame Tiger King, I'm the one who has defeated Gang Zhao in battle. He is accompanying me now."
Hearing this, The Infernal Flame Tiger King had his eyes opened wide in surprise as he looked at Gang Zhao to confirm the truth:
"Gang Zhao, Is this human telling the truth?"
Though embarrassed to admit it, Gang Zhao nodded nonetheless. A Tiger would never hide his loss since that would be cowardly.
As soon as The Infernal Flame Tiger King got confirmation from Gang Zhao, he burst into laughter, mocking Gang Zhao:
"Hahaha, Gang Zhao, you weakling. You lost to this puny human! Now tell me, aren't I superior to you? I've never lost to a human whereas you have. This proves that my species is superior to yours."
Gang Zhao could only grit his teeth in frustration at his taunts. He wanted to say that Ashen was stronger than the humans The Infernal Flame Tiger King had faced before and that he would lose too, but that would be like rooting for a human in a duel between a human and a tiger.
Won't that be a betrayal to his race?
He could only quietly listen to the Infernal Flame Tiger King's taunts without doing anything.
At this moment, Ashen spoke on his behalf, condemning his taunts:
"Infernal Flame Tiger King, you don't need to act so cocky since you will lose to me soon enough. Why don't you save your taunts for later if you are even able to beat me?"
"What did you say?" The Infernal Flame Tiger King shot Ashen a threatening glare before asking: "You think you can defeat me? Do you plan to fight alongside Gang Zhao? Because that's the only way you can even think of defeating me."
Ashen shook his head, answering calmly: "Infernal Flame Tiger King, you don't need to worry. I will fight you fair and square without taking any help from Gang Zhao. I just need one promise from you too."
"And what is that?" The Infernal Flame Tiger King asked, being suspicious as well as curious.
"I need you to promise that if I beat you, I can have you as my subordinate for the next five years."
"What?? Me? Become a subordinate of a human? You can forget it! I'd rather die than be your subordinate." The Infernal Flame Tiger King was quick to deny his request.
Ashen quickly began to instigate him to agree to the proposed promise:
"What? Is The Great Infernal Flame Tiger King afraid? If you are so confident in your strength then why be afraid to lose to me? Why be afraid to make a small promise? If you never lose, then you don't even need to keep that promise, right?"
"Listen human. These provoking tactics won't work on me. On the off-chance that I lose to you. I'd like to rather die than serve you as my master."
"But Infernal Flame Tiger King, I'm only proposing this for your own benefit. Just think, If you were to make this promise, wouldn't that show your confidence in your strength? It will also make you more cautious not to lose to me because something greater than your life is on the line."
The Infernal Flame Tiger King couldn't help but give his words a thought. His words did make sense to him.
If he made that promise and won, it would give him the luxury to brag about this fight to the others for generations.
It would make him legendary in the eyes of future generations. They will tell stories about his bravery and confidence to their children to inspire them to be like him.
He will be remembered for eternity with this. Thinking about this, his greed began taking over.
He knew that there was much to gain by making that promise.
Moreover, if he won, he could free Gang Zhao and make him owe him a debt. This would surely establish a superior standing of the Infernal Flame tigers above the Steel claw tigers.
Considering all this, he agreed:
"Alright, human. I promise that if you are able to defeat me fairly in this fight, I'll become your subordinate for the next five years."
Hearing this, Ashen couldn't help but curl his lips into a victorious grin.
Gang Zhao, who witnessed this, wanted to stop The Infernal Flame Tiger King from making this promise, but remembering his mocking taunts, he stopped.
"Then shall we start with the fight?" Ashen questioned with a smirk. This content belongs to novᴇlfire.net
The Infernal Flame Tiger King nodded before taking a fighting stance, ready to pounce.
The Infernal Flame Tiger King leapt first, claws wreathed in molten fire as he used Blazing Inferno Pounce, turning into a comet of flame.
Ashen dodged the attack by moving out of the way.
The Infernal Flame Tiger King didn't relent. He again took his fighting position as He opened his maw and roared, releasing Infernal Breath Storm—a sweeping blast of hellfire that melted stone and glassed the soil left his mouth, targeted toward Ashen.
It was at this moment that Ashen took out the 72 Heavenly sword bamboo flying swords and controlled them in such a way that some of them created a shield that protected Ashen meanwhile some of them worked together to slash the fire blast into pieces, and the remaining went to attack The Infernal Flame Tiger King instead.
The Infernal Flame Tiger King was surprised to see so many swords coming towards him and that too, the swords made of Heavenly sword bamboo.
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(A/N - Thanks for reading. ^..^)