Dagon waited until the tiger was too close to dodge. Raj was ready, his sword was drawn and ready to strike as soon as the beast was close enough.
Time seemed to slow as Dagon studied its movements.
As soon as the tiger zagged left for the last time, it's front 2 feet left the the ground.
He released his arrow at this moment. The arrow was aimed for the head, but still failed to strike true, even at this close of range. The speed of the tiger was just too much.
Even trying to dodge, the tiger was still struck in the shoulder. The power behind the arrow knocked it back a couple feet before steadying itself once again.
Giving Dagon no time to ready another arrow, he charged again.
It's speed was significantly slower, giving Dagon enough time to pull out his swords.
Raj stepped forward as he swung down with all his might. The beast sidestepped him using its good leg, heading straight for Dagon. It knew who the biggest threat was, and didn't hesitate to go for it. It pounced as soon as it's feet landed.
Dagon jumped to his right, the magic running through his feet to propel him to safety.
He narrowly avoided the paw, but two of the beats claws dug into his left shoulder as he moved.
He could hear the tear of his leather armor, and feel the pain of his shoulder being sliced open. Luckily, it was only the tip of the beasts 4 inch claws, or he would've been seriously injured.
The tiger pounced again as soon as it landed, but Raj was waiting for this moment.
Dagon readied himself for the second attack, while Lily began to cast light, blinding the tiger for just a second. Dagon put his left hand's sword away, as his shoulder was in too much pain to wield it.
Raj's sword sliced through the tigers other shoulder as it darted past him.
Instead of dodging this time, Dagon lit his sword ablaze, and swung down with all his strength.
The tiger had no time to dodge as it barreled through the air. It's trajectory was slightly off after the hit from Raj.
Dagon's sword sliced right through its arm, cutting it clean off.
The beast tumbled forward, unable to steady itself.
Raj and Dagon charged forward, unwilling to give the beast any time to recuperate.
The tiger howled, clearly in pain from the loss of its left arm, and the arrow still stuck right above in its shoulder. Blood leaked out of the wound as it tried to stand up and defend itself.
Dagon was the first to arrive as he stared down the beast. Raj quickly circled around to the backside.
The look of defeat was clear in the tigers eyes as it assessed its situation. It couldn't fight under these circumstances, but it wouldn't go down without a fight.
The back legs of the tiger bent slightly before punching towards Dagon. Raj was ready, as he stabbed his sword straight down into the back of the beast.
Another loud howl ensued, as it was stopped mid flight.
Dagon wasted no time as he sliced towards the beasts neck, the sword whistled through the air before separating the tigers head from its body. Both parts fell to the ground with a thud. Blood splattered everywhere.
Of all the encounters in this world so far, this was by far the most dangerous, and difficult, Dagon had been through.
Raj and Dagon both sank to their knees as the adrenaline left their bodies. The pain from his left shoulder finally hitting him with full force.
Lily ran over and cast spell after spell to heal the arm before Dagon collapsed onto the ground.
He wasn't unconscious, just too tired to move. The pain had subsided drastically, but the exhaustion had only worsened.
The group stayed there for over an hour before moving again. After the hell they'd just gone through, it was time to collect their rewards.
The body of the white tiger was placed in Dagon's storage ring before moving to the patch of Haste flower.
They collected 30 flowers this time, enough for the second round of usage.
As they were collecting the haste flower, Raj told the group of a story he'd heard back home. It didn't come to him until the end of their fight. The story was of the king of the forest. Said king was a man eating beast with a coat of white. It hunted all who entered its home, leaving no survivors. Few had lived to tell the tale.
After listening to the story, the group agreed that the white tiger was the beast of the legend. The king of the forest.
If this was true, the white tiger should be the only beast living in the inner layer of this forest. Before any other animals could find out about their kill, they had to collect their loot.
They continued their search at a much quicker pace. The inner layer wasn't that large, it only took them so long to travel in because of how slow they moved. With no need for caution, the group traveled fast.
They found 2 more patches of haste flower before stumbling on a cave in the center of the forest.
The cave was small, just enough for shelter from the skies above. A field of white littered the ground around the cave.
Unlike the goblin chief, the white tiger cared little for gold, jewelry, or weapons. It's precious loot was the haste flowers growing in the inner layer. This explained why the beast was so fast.
They quickly collected all they could find before making their way out of the forest. It was already night by the time they made it out. Dagon was too tired to hunt, so he made dinner with what he had in his storage ring before pulling out all of the haste flower.
After raiding the entire inner layer, the group had a total of 142 haste flowers. Enough for more than a few uses for each of them.
Raj and Lily got to work on preparing them. They'd already finished with the dextria root while training outside of the woods. Raj and Lily has each taken it nights in a row, leaving only 8 left.
Dagon wasn't worried about Targen's cut on the dextria roots. He'd already inadvertently sold him 30, and he'd made it clear they were all too common. Tegran was more interested in the less common ingredients that they'd likely search for later in the adventure.
Once preparations were complete, the group consumed their haste flowers. Not surprisingly, it took them each 6 flowers to before an increase in agility.
Dagon heard consecutive messages in his head as he finished the sixth flower.
[Agility has reached 10]
[Dagon has reached level 2]
[2 stat points have been awarded]
Dagon was gladly surprised at the unexpected notification. He was excited to level up, but he never knew the reward was so nice.
He thought for a moment about which stat to level up before decided on agility. Agility was his lowest stat still, but he didn't use them right away. It was better to wait until he'd used up all of his haste flowers to ensure he didn't use more than he had to.
After they'd all consumed their share, they were left with 124 flowers.
"It's just enough for 2 more uses each, but we still need to give Targen his share, so we'll have to make do with one. I'm sure he'll pay us for them," Dagon announced to his companions.
"That's okay, one share is enough for me. You two can have the second share. That way there's still enough for Targen in the end," Lily said.
"Are you sure," Dagon and Raj asked at the same time.
"Yeah, I'm good. I've already reached 10 with this use, and I'm not as dependent on it as you two. Magic is my main focus."
Dagon and Raj looked at each other before shrugging. They wanted to share, but were both more than happy to get a second use out of them.
They planned to give Targen 30 of them, while keeping the additional 94 for their own use.
"So what's next," Raj asked as he looked at Dagon.
Lily too looked toward Dagon, waiting on an answer.
"Well, I wanted to head toward Valko city from here, but we should probably head back to Harkon for now if that's okay with you guys. I need new armor for the trip, and it'd be better to sell the corpse of the forest king at the guild. We can also get a carriage from there."
Dagon laid out all the things on his mind leading to his next plan.
The group agreed before heading to bed for the night. There were out of the forest, so no watch was needed as they slept soundly through the night.