"Hang on a second," I said, staring at the chapter title above me. "Don't you think that title is a bit too R18 for what is supposed to be a General Audiences story?"
"What are you talking about, big bro?" Jun Hai demanded, staring at me in puzzlement. I shook my head before ducking under a flying kick from the weretiger.
"Never mind. Nothing. Just ignore me."
The male weretiger spun around and delivered another kick that almost knocked me back even though I parried his clawed foot with my crossed swords. While I skidded backward, he bounced about and slashed from above, a strike that I barely fended off with my Azure Frost. I countered with a riposte from Azure Dragon, but he twisted his body in midair and evaded the thrust by just a hair's breadth. Then he retaliated with a spinning kick that almost pulverized me.
As it was, the ground beneath my feet shattered from the tremendous impact. I grunted as my knees buckled, and this time, I actually dropped to my knees because I wasn't able to withstand the blow. The male weretiger was stronger and faster than the female weretiger.
"Damn it…"
Again, I made use of my superior amount of qi to blast him away, an azure dragon leaving my glowing blades and slamming into the male weretiger. He flipped away, slashing at the dragon, but the qi exploded around him and froze his fur. He withdrew his frozen arm with a growl and smashed it against the wall to shatter the ice.
This was why the whole ranking system wasn't an accurate representation of reality. Both the male and female weretigers were peak Mystic rank, but there clearly was a difference between them. Males were biologically stronger in general, but the females were more flexible and agile.
With a roar, the weretiger launched himself at me, slashing at me with his claws. I deflected them once more, allowing him to brush past me before I caught him in a tornado thanks to my Sylphs. He snarled, twisting around in the vortex, and tried to rip apart with his claws, but I froze him with my Undines as well.
And just like that, I had two frozen weretigers. That ended a little faster than I expected. Not because the weretigers were weak – they were pretty strong and fast, much more so than me. If I hadn't made a spirit contract with the Sylphs and Undines, I would have a much harder time trying to trap them. I didn't intend to kill them, after all. I couldn't help but feel like a Seoul Station Druid, though.
"Sylvie and Silvia! I'll leave the stasis spell to you girls!"
"We have the spells ready."
"Your will be done, big bro!"
When I glanced over, I saw that they had finally bound the female weretiger in stasis. Meanwhile, Jun Hai directed his Steel Tri-horn to carry the frozen female weretiger, strapping her to his armored back. on the other side, the fairy sisters began to cast it on the male weretiger. It took a while, but because he was totally encased in ice, he couldn't resist.
For now.
We were about to proceed back toward the forest on the level below when there was a sharp crack. All of us spun around, our weapons or spells ready. The weretigers were actually breaking out of their stasis spells with brute force alone.
"No way!" Silvia cried. "That's impossible!"
"We should have used a higher tier spell," Sylvie said with an ounce of regret. I shook my head and placed a hand on her shoulder.
"No, it's fine. You did your best."
"What should we do now, big bro?" Jun Hai asked, glancing at me. "Do we have to…?"
"Nah, we're not going to kill anybody." I shook my head. "We'll just have to beat them into submission again. Sylvie and Silvia, this time, take more time and cast a higher tier spell."
"Understood."
"You got it, big bro!"
I decided to keep my swords for now, instead choosing a bow. Holding Obsidian Drake, I prepared to fire a volley of azure arrows. No matter how fast the weretigers were, they wouldn't be swifter than my arrows. Even if they were, I planned to pour out a sheer volume of projectiles that was so numerous that they wouldn't be able to evade all of them. It would be like trying to avoid rain despite being caught out in the open. The only issue was whether they would take cover behind Jun Hai's Steel Tri-horn. I was going to make sure I didn't accidentally hit my brother's summoned spirit beast by mistake, but even if I did, I doubted my arrows would do anything against the heavily armored saurian.
To my surprise, though, both weretigers didn't move. Instead, after breaking out of the stasis spells and dislodging themselves from the restraints tying them to Jun Hai's Steel Tri-horn, they landed some distance away and raised their paws in surrender.
"What?"
I shared a glance with Jun Hai, Sylvie and Silvia, but then lowered my bow. As I did, my arrows dissipating from my right hand into nothingness, the weretigers began shrinking. To our utter astonishment, they transformed from their bestial tiger forms to human appearances.
"They really are were-beasts, huh?" Jun Hai muttered.
"I should have known." Sylvie sighed. "I had heard rumors, but…"
"Now that I think about it, there were always legends about werewolves and weretigers transforming from humans to monsters, right?" Silvia piped up thoughtfully. "But I never thought I would actually see one!"
"Whoa…" I murmured, studying the recently transformed weretigers. Right now, they looked no different from ordinary humans, and though they both shared the same hair color – both had auburn hair streaked with black stripes – they clearly weren't siblings. They didn't physically resemble each other, with the male weretiger being a burly, muscular guy with tanned skin, and the female weretiger being more petite and fairer skinned. For some reason, the guy's hair was cut short, though the girl's hair was long enough that it extended to her narrow, exposed waist.
Fortunately, neither of them was naked, or we would have to revise the rating of General Audiences. They were wearing leather clothing, the type you would see in the cliché movies about, uh, forest people living away from urban civilization for a long time. That meant most of their bodies were exposed, but the more sensitive parts were covered. That was good enough. I was tempted to call them jungle people, except that they were bestial humanoid tigers just a few seconds earlier.
"Greetings." The male weretiger dipped his head politely. We gaped at him.
"You speak Mandarin?" I blurted out. He shrugged.
"We speak whatever language is necessary to communicate."
"Come to think of it, you guys also speak Mandarin," I muttered, glancing at Sylvie and Silvia. Silvia snorted.
"Obviously. What else do you expect us to speak? Japanese?"
That was actually a good point. I watched too many isekai anime to the point where I half-expected almost every non-earth person to be speaking Japanese for some reason.
"I think you misunderstand." The weretiger cleared his throat. "We speak our own language, but thanks to…uh, shall we call it magic, any communication between us is automatically translated. Thanks to the divine energies that flow throughout this planet."
"…oh. That's convenient."
"It is what it is," the female weretiger said with a shrug. "But yes, I'll admit that it's convenient. Makes things easier for all of us too."
"…if you guys can communicate with us, then why did you attack us earlier?" Jun Hai demanded, annoyed. "You could just speak to us."
"We apologize for that," the female weretiger said, lowering her head. "We were…attacked by other humans. They are similar to you in appearance, but their energies seem a bit…off. Ominous. Monstrous."
"The demonic cultivators," I said.
"I guess that's an apt term," the male weretiger agreed, after my words were automatically translated into whatever language he was using. "Fits them."
"We thought you were here to…hunt us," the female weretiger continued. "She who strikes first has the advantage, so we…ambushed you. But when you held us in stasis instead of killing us, we realized that you were someone we can open a dialogue with. Especially since you're clearly more powerful."
She directed that stare at me.
"I'm Tiger Woods," the male weretiger introduced himself. I gaped at him, trying to make out the resemblance between him and a famous golfer.
"Are you serious?"
"Yeah. I really am Tiger Woods. Don't ask. I think my parents were lazy in naming me."
I was at a loss for words. Then I turned to the female weretiger, who also introduced herself.
"I'm his wife, Tia. Tia Woods."
"Oh. Nice to meet you." Thank the heavens she wasn't named Tigress or Tigra. I would have chucked an arrow somewhere if she was. "I'm Song Jun Wen. This is my brother, Jun Hai, and my, uh, adopted sisters, Sylvie and Silvia."
"Nice to meet you all." Sylvie bowed politely.
"It's a pleasure," Jun Hai said.
"Wow! I never thought I would actually be speaking to weretigers!" Silvia was gushing. I cleared my throat.
"Earlier, you said the demonic cultivators were…hunting you?"
"Yeah."
"Huh, I thought they were capturing you guys." I scratched my head, confused. "From the information I heard, they were apparently amassing an army, and so I thought they wouldn't be killing you guys. More like enslaving."
Tiger and Tia exchanged an uncomfortable glance before turning to me.
"Since you spared our lives, we'll trust you a little. But they aren't simply…killing our brethren and other were-beasts out there. They are…corrupting them. It's a fate worse than death. The moment they incapacitate us – and they do it brutally, not like the finesse you displayed earlier by freezing us or placing us in stasis – they corrupt them immediately. I can't see what they have in their possession exactly, but it looks like some sort of corruptive pill that they force-feed their captives and turn them into…monsters. Raging, berserk monsters who lose all their sanity."
"No way…" Sylvie's hands flew to her mouth as she listened, horrified. "How can they do that?"
"Because they are demonic cultivators," I replied coldly. Jun Hai nodded.
"Yeah. That won't be the worst things they do."
"I said they were hunting us because…that's what they do." Tia was furious. "They butcher us. Cut off our limbs so that they can surgically graft monstrous appendages or weapons. They torture us, running us to ground, and then dismembering us. They don't treat us like…living things. More like specimens they experiment gleefully on. To be captured by them is a fate worse than death."
"Demonic cultivators are not known for their morals."
"So…please." Tiger Woods surprised us all by prostrating himself before us. He pressed his forehead to the ground. "I beg of you…please help us rescue our people. even now, we are being systematically hunted down by these demonic cultivators." He gestured toward their corpses, which were being strewn about. "We have been employing hit and run tactics as best as we can, but their stronger warriors are overpowering even the best of us. But if it's you…you have the strength to save us! We'll find a way to repay you, so please…help us!"
"Certainly," I replied without hesitation. Then I glanced at Jun Hai, Sylvie and Silvia. "You guys are okay with it too, right?"
"Yes, I agree. I want to help." Sylvie nodded.
"That's what we're here for in the first place," Jun Hai replied.
"It's only natural that we help those who need it," Silvia said brightly.
"Thank you!" Both Tiger and Tia were bowing. I forced them up, not at all comfortable with their imploring.
"It's fine. I won't pretend to be a saint and say we're doing this for entirely altruistic reasons. The demonic cultivators are a threat to everyone, not just you. If we allow them to corrupt more of your brethren, they will amass an unstoppable army. When that happens, nobody will be safe. Not even us."
"That's perfectly fine," Tiger replied. "We understand, and I'm honored that you are frank and candid about your motives. We wouldn't be able to trust you otherwise."
"All right then." I straightened myself. "Let's go save your fellow weretigers."
"We'll bring them to you," Tia said. "We've a hideout for now, but it's filled with several injured. It'll only be a matter of time before those…demonic cultivators find us, and we'll have to trouble you to help protect them until we can find a way to move the wounded."
I smiled, especially when I saw the notification window from the system. Finally. It appeared that the system had taken an interest in this case as well. Nodding, I placed a fist on my chest.
"Leave it to us. We'll make the demonic cultivators regret that they ever messed with you guys."