Wild Tiger Chase - Chapter 62: Chapter 62

— Rob —
Rob glanced at Léon.
That hug and kiss felt different somehow. They were... maybe better and more sincere, almost as if Léon had never been this close to him, as if Léon had really forgiven him, and as if the last barrier between them had finally been torn down.
Rob was electrified. The energy coursing through his body was pure, strong, and it made him ready for bloody anything.
He took in a deep breath and set his blazing sight on Jackal. He wouldn't let her do anything to spoil this moment for him. Or... yeah, to destroy the world or something.
"Now," Satina ordered.
They ran together, but Rob was the first to reach their target; like a battering ram, he shouldered Jackal and pushed her away, trying to interrupt whatever she was doing to Toni. She lost her grip on Toni's shoulder and slid a couple of meters backward. The white shadow coming from Jackal's wrist still had its fangs in Toni's shoulder, but her connection to it thinned as a rubber band stretched too far.
Perhaps they could break it if she was distant enough.
"What do you think you're doing?" Jackal barked. "Antônio, attack them!"
Toni reacted. His blank eyes snapped to the side, looking but not seeing, and he skipped a step forward, way too quick for Rob's reflexes. He punched Rob's chest with his free hand, and the attack was so strong, Rob was tossed back towards Rafa. Rob's arms and legs scraped against the stones and pebbles on the ground, cutting his exposed skin while he rolled to a stop.
"Back so soon, Brother?" Rafa teased.
"Very funny." Rob grunted as he tried to get up. He wailed in pain. Fuck, fuck, fuck! He was pretty sure he had broken something. If he still had his powers, half-dead-Toni wouldn't be a problem for him. But he hadn't, and even Toni's punches were enough to give him pause. He looked at Rafa and furrowed his eyebrows. "You should—!" Help us fight.
The words stuck in his throat. Droplets of sweat rolled down Rafa's face and blood stained her bandaged arms, then dripping from between the crystals; to top it off, her legs trembled as if they could barely keep her up. Still, Rafa was intent on creating massive crystal plates, only Goddess knew why.
Rafa took in a deep breath and sketched a smirk. "What, Beto? Scared for your big sis?"
"S-shut it." The crease between Rob's eyebrows deepened. "You should stay back. We'll take care of this."
Rafa chuckled as Rob turned around.
At his right, Satina stood, her fingers covered by cobalt blue energy while her eyes were set on Jackal; she muttered something under her breath, maybe preparing to establish a contract, but Jackal noticed it.
Her eyes narrowed. "Oh no way in hell," Jackal said in a deeper voice. "I won't let you do that again, hot stuff."
Jackal fully faced Satina—and while Rob wasn't sure what Jackal's fighting style was, he knew it couldn't be good. Jackal balled her hands and flexed her muscles, but Léon didn't seem intent on waiting for their attacks. He ran forward, summoned his scythe, and rotated it, trying to hit Toni's hand.
Rob tried to get up again, but his muscles were still rebelling against his commands. Shite, the pain! Oh, Goddess. What can I do?
Léon wasn't fast enough. Toni gripped the blade as it went down, ending his momentum; with a hard tug, Toni stole the weapon, threw it away, and tried to punch Léon as he had done to Rob. Léon blocked the attack with his crossed forearms, but the blow was too strong. He was pushed two whole meters backward; Léon grimaced and massaged the point of impact.
Then, a noise came from above.
"Bhalu, move!" Léon shouted.
Rob's eyes widened. Without a second thought, he used everything in him to jump aside. Not a moment later, Léon's scythe fell like an arrow in the bullseye. The massive blade stabbed the ground with a hard thud in the exact place where Rob was, not a second ago. Behind Léon and Toni, Jackal and Satina had their own little dance.
"For the Goddess. They're just... too bloody strong," Rob groaned, his chest heaving. With a long grunt, he finally pushed through the pain and got up. Maybe Satina's plan wouldn't work this time.
"Well, you better get back there before Toni fully awakes," Rafa said. "Think fast." She tossed him her half-burnt power-enhancing gloves. "Hopefully they'll help." The joy left her voice as she completed, "You'll need to stop them, Beto. Remember what Toni's weaknesses are, otherwise you'll never beat him."
Rob huffed and caught the gloves. They sizzled and spat a few sparks against his palm. What the hell had Rafa done with this shite?
"I'm not your enemy," Jackal told Satina. She tried a quick sequence of punches, but none of them connected. "Look around you! The sickness is already consuming my family's trees. Can't you see I'm trying to revitalize them? No, not only them—I'll save everything in this Goddess-forsaken place!"
"I can't see much right now; someone's trying to knock me out so I won't interfere with her narcissistic shit!" Satina shouted. She dodged a final punch with a sidestep, connecting the movement with a quick pivot around Jackal. "Stop acting as if your actions don't have consequences!"
Satina took the whip from her hip and used it as a garrote, forcing Jackal to use both of her hands to stop the leather from reaching her neck.
"Now listen to me," Satina started. "Pay attention to my voice. I know you—"
"Save it," Jackal growled. Her words were tight and breathless. "You did it once; you let go. Now your powers won't work on me again."
With an impatient growl, Rob tried the glove's intensity regulator. It still worked, so he slid them on. A buzzing spread down his arms and chest; with a prick, the glove injected a weak analgesic in his veins. This was everything he needed.
"I'm going in, Sis."
Toni's weaknesses. Remember Toni's weaknesses!
Rob gripped the snath of Léon's scythe and tugged it free. "Leo!" With that shout, Rob tossed the weapon towards him.
It was enough to catch Jackal and Toni's attention.
Toni aimed his gun at Rob, but Léon grabbed the scythe in time. He swiped it up to hit the blunt of it on Toni's right hand, making him miss the shot. As the bang echoed in the clearing and still using the momentum of the attack, Léon brought the scythe back and over his shoulder. He raised the weapon again, this time ready to use its blade.
Rob's eyes widened.
He furrowed his brows and charged forward to tackle the short silhouette approaching Léon's blind spot. They rolled on the grass, and when they stopped, Rob locked the smaller man between his knees. He punched Rio's face and gripped his wrists, bashing them down until he let go of the syringes he was holding. Before Rio could recover, Rob tossed the syringes as far as he could and shouted,
"What the bloody fuck, Rio? Whose side you're on?"
"Let me go!" Rio barked. "Toni's my patient! He needs me!"
A heavy thud caught Rob's attention—a body being thrown on the ground. Léon cried out in pain, and something cold twisted inside Rob's chest.
Oh, no... Bloody hell.
Rafa roared and huffed; Roberto thought she had tossed something, but he couldn't be sure. The scene before him took too much of his brainpower. Toni aimed at Léon's head. Without any shadow of regret, he pulled the trigger.
Almost at the same time, a massive plate of orange crystal plunged between Toni and Léon; the ground quaked, and a tall cloud of dust rolled skyward. The crystal blocked the shot, and the slight tilt in its surface redirected it to the trees, leaving splinters and broken wood wherever it pierced through.
Rob let out a sigh of relief and looked at Rafa. She winked and dried the sweat from her forehead. Huffing and puffing, she concentrated once more, perhaps to create the next plate. Rob's eyes widened. She was creating a cage for Toni.
Great idea, Sis!
The situation felt promising. Rio was under control, Satina was taking care of Jackal, and Léon was managing to fight Toni, while Rafa seemed to be creating the perfect cell for him. Things felt good. Things felt really good, and if they managed to continue with that, no matter how hard things went—
"Enough," Jackal growled. The cloud of dust and dirt set around her and Satina. "I... had... enough!"
That last word shaped into a loud, chilling roar as Jackal tugged at Satina's whip. She leaned forward and yanked at the leather with unmatched violence, pulling Satina over her shoulders and directly to the ground. Jackal rested one foot on Satina's chest so she wouldn't get up, and... wait, something was wrong.
Jackal's bones slid out of their sockets, cracked, and elongated as her face became more angular, her nose smaller, and her mouth wider; her tendons stretched, her muscles bulged, and her spine bent forward with disgusting pops and clacks that spread shivers on Rob's arms. And then... silence. Dense, unnerving, crushing silence, broken only by Jackal's heavy breathing and Rob's racing heart. When she rose to her full height, taller and covered in lean, powerful muscles, Jackal bore a row of long teeth at them.
She... was unlike any shifter Rob had ever seen.
Goddess, this was bloody unnatural. The changes in her appearance were small—a shark eye here, a different-looking claw in each finger, sharp bumps erupting from one of her naked shoulders—but the more Rob looked, the more certain he became. Jackal wasn't shifting into one animal but to several of them.
What the fuck?
Before any of them could react, Jackal dove forward and sunk her serrated teeth into Satina's neck—the latter screamed and kicked, but the jaws didn't open. Only when Satina stopped moving did Jackal get up.
Rob's heartbeat slowed down. This was a joke. He registered blood, pain, and an utter absence of movement. His eyes welled up.
Léon stumbled a step forward, and Jackal got up. A low growl climbed up her throat and rolled through her lips with a thick trail of blood-tainted saliva. To make matters even worse, Toni brought his gun up. He blinked and studied it as if he was already regaining conscience.
"My... Satina, she," Léon mumbled in a tiny voice.
Jackal scoffed. She raised her chin and spent a long, painful moment in silence. Finally, as if deciding what to do, she sighed. "Alive. I would never take her from you."
Both Léon and Rob relaxed at once. Léon fell on his knees—a puppet with its threads cut.
"But not for long," Jackal continued. "Take her to the hospital right now, or else my venom will kill her."
Rob shook off the astonishment mounting on his shoulders and tightened his balled hands. Now what? Toni was waking up, Jackal could clearly shred them to pieces, Satina was out of the fight, and Rio got up and disappeared into the shadows again.
Now what?
Léon seemed just as lost. Satina tried to sit up, but the ugly wound on her neck and the venom running through her veins pushed her back to the floor. And Rob? Rob was powerless. He opened and closed his hands, not sure of what to do.
Now what?
Jackal sneered. Well... at least Rob was strong enough to carry Satina to the hospital. Right?
Another roar. Another huff. Jackal widened her eyes and jumped backward to dodge the massive crystal plate that sunk in the place where she stood, seconds ago.
"Wake up!" Rafa shouted. She stopped to catch her breath and stumbled a step to the side. Sweat damped her tanktop, mixing with the blood from her wounds. She grimaced and shivered, then grunted as she rose her arms again. "Don't you dare to give up, Beto!"
Rob sniffed and rubbed his eyes.
"She's right. This... is... not over yet!" Satina added, grunting and groaning as she sat up. She fished for something in her jacket's pocket, then tossed what looked like a round, golden candy in her mouth. She smiled, touched the wound in her neck, and smeared the blood between her index finger and thumb. "You gotta be kidding if you think a little bite will stop me."
The new cloud of dirt still hadn't set when Jackal chuckled. "I knew there was a reason why I liked you so much, Satina. Maybe we can grab a coffee once this is all over?"
Satina scoffed. "I'm not sure about Old Continent, sweetheart, but in NC, Prisons don't have coffee."
Toni mumbled a sentence or two. He shook his head as if trying to free himself from an annoying bug. Bloody fuck. Something in Satina's voice... she was trying to...! Hope, even if small and feeble, blossomed in Rob's chest.
Jackal laughed... and then she attacked. She was quick and powerful—almost as much as The Mayor—and she avoided each lashing of Satina's whips as if she had seen those attack patterns a thousand times. Rob ran towards them. Once Jackal was close enough, she pulled a fist back and aimed for Satina's throat, but Rob grabbed Jackal's arm and kicked the back of her knee. He twisted around and tossed Jackal over his back and onto the floor.
"Let me guess," Satina said. "You'll boast about saving me?"
Rob beamed. While Jackal still recovered, he immobilized her arm in a rear lock. "Only if that will keep you talking, Tiny."
Satina smirked, pure mischief in her eyes. She stepped to the side, trying to keep Rob between her and Jackal. Another crystal plate made the ground quake, and once again it blocked a volley of bullets that would've pierced through Rob's and Satina's side. There were already three plates around Toni.
"Hey, Leo!" Satina shouted. "Do you remember L'Amant Doré and the way he grabbed Rob, right in the middle of the cafeteria?"
A hard attack knocked Léon down. He got up and spat a mix of blood and saliva to the side, then glared at Satina. "I can't believe you're still going on about that. That was almost five years ago!"
"You jumped on the table and said..."
"Are you seriously bringing this up?" Léon's eyes widened. He ducked to escape a particularly savage punch from Toni, then tackled his waist and pushed him back towards the half-finished crystal cell. "Can it wait?"
Satina cleared her throat; her voice felt sweeter. "You said and I quote, Grizzly Bear is committed to me—so I suggest taking your hands off of him, or I'll cut them off. Very possessive, Leo."
"I said, I'd rip them off," Léon corrected. "And..." he clicked his tongue. "L'Amant used his powers to seduce him, I couldn't let him keep doing that. I wasn't possessive."
"Well, isn't that interesting," Toni mumbled.
A genius. Satina was a bloody genius.
Jackal seemed to agree, but instead of being proud like Rob, she seemed furious. With a roar, Jackal grabbed Rob's arm with her free hand and pivoted around to throw him against a nearby tree. Rob cried in pain and fell hard on his side.
Shite, another broken bone.
Without Rob around, Jackal rushed to Satina. She pushed her against a tree and clawed the tree trunk on both sides so she couldn't escape. It was in her eyes and in her fury—she knew what Satina was trying to do, and she couldn't let her. Jackal opened her mouth, her bones breaking and dislocating to make it bigger.
Jackal would... eat her.
"Leo!" Rob shouted, raising his voice as much as the pain let him.
Léon's eyes widened. Not thinking twice, he abandoned his duel against Toni and raced towards Jackal. With a precise movement, he slipped the snath of his weapon parallel to the rows of her teeth and pulled it backward, stopping Jackal from snapping her teeth closed.
"You should've seen Rob's face, Toni!" Satina shouted. "He loved it. He loved being Léon's! And he still does!"
Toni's weakness... was Rob, wasn't it?
"He... does... not!" Toni barked back, that last word elongating to become a yell. He raised his gun and pointed it at Léon's back. A single tear rolled down his cheek, but when he was about to pull the trigger—
"Toni, stop!" Satina ordered. "Lower your weapon."
Silence.
Toni quivered and grimaced. After a long, excruciating moment, he obeyed.
"Now toss the gun away and stand in the middle of the crystals," Satina said.
"Smart little witch," Jackal growled. With her mouth open, her words came out almost understandable.
Toni trembled at first, his muscles tense as if trying to resist the command. Once his eyes crossed Rob's, something in them changed. Toni lowered his gaze and relaxed his muscles. He tossed the gun away and walked quietly towards the crystals. He had barely entered the three-walled cell when Rafa tossed the fourth one, locking him inside.
Their heavy breathing was the only sound in the clearing. Satina leaned against the tree trunk at her back and let out a relieved sigh. As well as he could, Rob got up.
"What now?" Léon asked.
Satina licked her lips and sighed. "I'm sorry, Toni..." She glanced at Jackal, Rafa, Rob, then Léon again. Finally, she locked eyes with Toni through a narrow slit between the crystals. "I want you to give back all the powers you stole."