Wild Tiger Chase - Chapter 61: Chapter 61

— Léon - the exact eight seconds before pulling the trigger —
There was so much he couldn't understand.
To name a few, the voice in his head, the shouts in the distance, and the ethereal substance around his neck. But if there was something he could understand, it was the likeness between what happened now and the nightmare he had when he woke up in Old Continent.
Eight seconds.
In that nightmare, just like right now, Léon saw himself in the center of a hurricane that destroyed everything in its path with raging fury.
In that nightmare, just like right now, he didn't know what to do to save himself and his loved ones...
But unlike that nightmare, right now, he'd be damned if he didn't at least try.
Seven seconds.
Léon expanded his powers with a burst, projecting them out to form the mantle at his back. Purple energy took shape around his shoulders and neck, but it soon dissipated. It was painful. The more power he used, the more power Toni's gun swallowed.
Fuck.
Six seconds.
He shouted and tugged at his own arm, trying to control it.
Wait. Rafa used her powers inside her own body, fortifying it—perhaps Léon could try that too! With a grunt, he directed his powers inward and tried to lower his aim. It was useless. He was frozen. Chained. Helpless.
"Fuck. Fuck!" he shouted.
Five seconds.
The books and movies were wrong. Life's not a stairway to climb, and it's not a path to follow.
It's a fucking desert, massive and desolate, with no obvious route or goal besides moving forward. And how could he fucking do that if every time he tried, someone attempted to take or use his powers against his will? How many times had he decided to keep fighting? How many times had he tried to be brave, like Rob and Satina? And how many times someone more powerful had forced him to do something he didn't want to?
People don't just decide to get better; there was more to it. And while he didn't know exactly what... he felt that his wounds and his powers could soon break him for real.
Four.
Pain coursed through his arm, forcing him to raise the gun towards the old mansion. Léon grunted again, trying to stop himself, but his trembling thumb pulled the pistol's hammer.
Maybe he just couldn't get better. Maybe his wounds were too deep to be cured.
Tears filled his eyes.
Three.
"Don't listen to that voice."
He felt, more than saw her presence. Her furred body brushed against his back, and she circled around him, maybe in her own version of a hug. Her claws, once long and sharp, were cracked and filed. Her eyes, once smart and piercing, now looked goopy and tired. And her fur, the same Léon had groomed so many times before, was falling.
And despite all that, Bonee roared like the proud and mighty protector she was.
Two.
Her roar did something to his heart. If Léon was in a spiral before, now he was suspended, present in himself and in this very moment. Bonee's message was clear, sent in a single thought, void of spoken words:
"We. Stand. By. You. You are not alone. Break these chains!"
A shiver crossed his entire body. Léon blinked to clear his sight and looked to his right.
Through the dangerous wind roaring around him, his eyes met Rob's, Satina's, Amma's, and then Rafa's—what the hell were they doing here?
His breathing picked up.
One.
He was not alone.
His conversations with his family and friends came back to his mind. He didn't know what the future held for him, but...
He was not alone.
Léon looked around. There were ethereal chains tugging and pulling his limbs as if he was a puppet. This was the first time he saw those chains; they were thick and old, covered with rust, mold, and little cracks that spread all over the ethereal links.
Bonee was right. He should break those chains.
You are not alone.
Zero.
Léon roared as his companion had done. He reached forward with his powers, and this time, instead of projecting them in a burst, he focused as little of them as he could in the cracks he saw on the chains. It wasn't a matter of how powerful he was—Modraniht was right once again; it was a matter of how he used his powers. Once his energy was in place, he made it expand.
The ethereal links broke, freeing his arms and legs and his whole body. The matter from it shattered and melted when it touched the ground.
"No, stop! What are you doing?" said the voice in his head.
Focusing his attention on Toni's gun, Léon swiveled around. He could feel there was enough energy in it for at least a couple of shots, but he only needed one. He knew he could control it. He had to! And so...
He pulled the trigger.
When he did, the devastating blast launched towards Jackal with surgical precision. It hit and went through her wrist with the sound of a mirror breaking; then, it dissipated against the hurricane, tinting it with purple energy. As the purple energy spread, a nightmarish screech filled the forest.
The wind calmed down. The hurricane disappeared.
Léon's ears rang with the sudden silence. Panting, he forced himself to relax his shoulders, only then noticing how tense they were.
Was this... the end? Had they won?
He rubbed his face and grunted. His neck was burning. The ethereal leash was so cold, Léon was pretty sure he would get a burn scar there.
"Y-you... you broke it!" Jackal shouted. Her voice was shrill, grating her throat at every word. She pressed her undamaged arm against her chest. There was still white energy circling her wrist and the symbol in it—something between a sun emblem and a somewhat-round bite mark—but it wasn't as strong as before. With the tattoo cracked in two, its influence was ebbing away. "What did you do, Léon? It's ruined!" Tears rolled down Jackal's cheeks. "The mark is broken!"
"Your mark was a brand. You were chained, Jackal." Léon stumbled a step to the side and massaged his temples. "I freed you."
"No, you did not. You locked me inside a nightmare." Jackal gestured around her to show the trees. When she did, part of the mark fell from her wrist and shattered on the floor; the sickness was about to reach the trees. "Now I am powerless; all I can do is to watch them die... all over again!"
Léon furrowed his brows and opened his mouth to answer, but rushed steps approached. He turned around to see the massive bear running in his direction. Toni's gun became heavy and still hummed with power, so Léon turned the safety back on and tucked the gun in his belt, at his back.
"Bloody fuck, Tiger!" was all Rob could say in a wobbly voice.
Rob's chest crashed against Léon's front like a muscular train, while his strong arms wrapped tight around him. Rob hugged and pulled him up, stealing a small smile from Léon.
"Calm down, Bhalu, I'm here." Léon grimaced with the tight hug. This was a good kind of pain, though. The arms of a loved one are always a comfortable place to be. And sure, Rob looked less like a bear and more like an excited puppy right now, but that only made Léon happier. He cupped his husband's cheeks and pulled him to a kiss.
"You're really here," Rob whispered against his lips. "It's you."
"It's me." Léon beamed when Rob put him back down. "Still in control."
Rob let out a teary chuckle and pulled him closer still, sinking his face on Léon's neck.
"It was bloody scary," Rob whispered. "But I knew you could do it."
Léon smiled; he closed his eyes and let Rob's presence spark something in his chest. His love felt like home, warm and gentle as it always was—and now truthful, honest, trusting like never before. Léon melted against his man, his partner, his lover. For the first time in a long time, he held him and let himself be held without reservations, doubts, or mistrust.
Goddess, this felt so, so good.
But it didn't last long.
Léon picked up something in the air. It was a pure, cold, dangerous static that reminded him of the presence controlling Jackal. Léon raised his sight and saw Rafa, Amma, and Satina getting close. His eyes widened.
He tried to shout, "Stay back!" but someone else let out a deafening wail, interrupting him. The sound was so sad and so painful, every hair in Léon's body stood on end. He turned around, and it took him a moment to understand what was happening.
"Jackal, stop!" Rio said.
Some meters away from them, Jackal dragged Toni towards the mango trees while Rio did what he could to stop her. He tugged, pulled, and tried to pry her fingers open, but nothing worked. The white energy coming from the broken mark on Jackal's wrist was shaped like a big, scrawled jaw with long, pointy fangs. The white shadow bit down and ripped the flesh on Toni's shoulder. He wailed again.
"Jackal, stop! Please, please don't kill him," Rio tried, louder and more desperate than before.
"There's no other option, Gregorio." Jackal pushed Rio away and growled, "I know I can wake him up. He'll either give back the Life Force he stole, or he'll finish this for me."
"No, no, no. Jackal, you can't." Rio tried to tug at her sleeve one last time. His fingers lost force as the white fangs sank deeper, making Toni's blood gush outside. Rio's hand slipped from Jackal's arm and stopped at Toni's waiting hand. Toni was looking at him. Toni was crying. "Please," Rio repeated. "I know I can help him."
"Oh, fuck. She's reviving Toni," Satina said. "We need to stop that fucker!"
"It's too late for that!" Jackal shouted.
Léon wasn't sure if those words were meant to Satina or Rio. Either way, Jackal roared in pain while the mark in her arm dissolved to fortify the fanged shadow. This shouldn't be possible for a non-wielder, but still, Jackal used the mark to transfer not her powers, but her Life Force to Toni. As the white fangs sank deeper, Jackal's arm started to rot as if targeted by a super-fast version of the sickness affecting the trees.
"We have to do something!" Rafa insisted.
Leon shook away the surprise gluing him in place. He shared a look with Rob, Santina, Rafa, and Amma.
Jackal growled and wailed. The flesh in her arm shrunk and dried up to show the contours of the bones underneath it. Chunks of rotten flesh fell from it, dark green and dead, while her now-bony fingers dug deeper into Toni's shoulder.
To prove that her plan was working, Toni outstretched an arm and opened his fingers. His gun slipped off of Léon's belt and flew towards it. Toni gripped it, tight and firmly, and aimed it towards the old mansion.
Satina took in a deep breath. Her body language shifted to something Léon recognized really well.
"Bear, Warp, do you remember attack pattern code gamma? We cannot let them crack these pocket dimensions open."
"Positive, Bureau," Rob said. "In and out."
"Precise attack on target, minimal confrontation time," Léon added.
"Burst them with everything we have," Rob completed.
"That's it," Satina said. "Let's fucking end this."
Léon and Rob nodded in unison. The first looked to his side and said, "Stay behind, Amma. This can get dangerous."
"Keep an eye on her, Sis," Rob added.
"What? No! I want to fight too!" Rafa said.
"Not with your arms like that, you won't." Satina bit down on her lower lip as if preparing herself to say the next words. "Don't make me force you to stay behind, Rafaela."
Rafa let out a huff. She knitted her brows together and mumbled an answer before Amma nodded, a fond smile on her lips.
Toni wailed again. Something inside Léon told him their time was about to end.
"Be careful, baby boy. And you too, Tiny." She started to pivot around but stopped. When she faced Léon again, Amma's eyes were widened. "Destroy the gun, Léon."
"What?" Rob mumbled.
"Forget that McCockay bastard! Destroy the gun!" she repeated.
Léon shared a wide-eyed stare with Rafa, Satina, and Rob.
The air started to concentrate again around Toni. He cocked the gun. Something in his eyes shone with cruelty and satisfaction.
"Auntie is a genius. No gun, no interdimentional break-in!" Satina said. "But—how can we destroy that shit?"
Rafa took a step forward. Her face twisted in pain and shame until the words finally came out.
"His pistols are his companions. No matter their shape, they are still alive—Toni just made them into silent partners who wouldn't defy him." She spat the words, maybe only then discovering how disgusting they really were. "Still, they can be killed or knocked out; whatever you feel is right."
Toni shouted again, and this time, there were words laced in his voice.
"Let's end this!" he shouted.
A burst of light covered everything in the clearing. Léon narrowed his eyes and looked for its source. Toni. Jackal stood behind him, letting the sickness consume her body to feed him, while he seemed way too worried about recharging his gun. The light coming from inside him lit up his core and passed through his flesh and skin, drawing his blood vessels, bones, and the cracks where his skin was sewed after his first death.
Never before had Toni's death been so apparent.
And never before had Léon felt Lampee like that—in another person.
"Now that's just bonkers," Rafa mumbled, her eyes widening by the second.
"You see it too, right?" Léon growled. He felt Bonee shifting inside him as if she agreed. It was Lampee. It was his stolen tiger! And... something was happening. Maybe because of the proximity between Léon and Lampee, he felt Lampee's power again. He let the power rush inside his veins, fortifying his body.
"Listen," Rafa said in a hard voice. As the words left her mouth, orange crystals covered her arms, stronger and shinier than ever before. With the crystals' help, she raised her shattered arms, spaced her legs, and folded her knees. "We don't have much time. I'm counting on you to stop them. I'll stay here... and I'll fucking break that piece of shite if he tries to shoot!" With those words, blocks of crystal fell with heavy thuds in front of her, giving shape to what looked like a shield.
Satina snorted. "It seems you found a way to use those arms again." She relaxed her shoulders and shared a glance with Léon and Rob. "Let's go, then. Take me close enough to fight Jackal—you take care of Toni. Are you ready?"
"Yes!" the other two shouted.