Roger and the beast stared at each other for a second, neither side moving quite yet.
Recognition passed through the tiger's eyes as he slowly rose to its feet, shaking with the exertion and reopening some of its closing wounds.
It staggered, catching itself by its wounded paw, causing it to whine a little. Fury built up in the creature and it released a roar, although this one was far less intimidating than the ones it had let loose before.
Roger was unsure of what to do, fear and dashed hope blocking his mind from properly considering his options.
What changed everything for him was when he spotted the claw still lodged in the tree, and the seed of an idea appeared. It would be risky, but he stood no chance of trying to flee again. His leg was worse off now than it was yesterday, leaving climbing out of the question.
Steeling his resolve, he stared at the tiger and screamed at it.
"Is that all you have you ugly kitten? Gonna try and hunt me? Well, come at me then! You don't have the balls to finish what you started!"
He didn't expect the beast to understand, but it seemed to boost his own morale to be able to stand in the face of such a fearsome foe.
The tiger lowered itself on its hackles and launched forward, its tail carving a trail through the air behind it.
Jumping to the side, much like he had done the day prior, he once again narrowly avoided death by the beast.
His body hit the ground with a painful thump, his vision momentarily blinded by the agony the blow caused. A dust cloud had formed when he fell, and he spat to clear his mouth of the dirt.
Roger quickly pulled himself to his feet and started hopping towards the tree with the claw.
Behind him, he heard the beast mewl quietly as it stood up again. It was clear it was in a large amount of pain, whatever it fought the last day having left permanent marks.
Reaching the tree in record time, Roger grabbed the first handhold he could and pulled himself up high enough to reach the claw. A piece of flesh was still attached to where it had been ripped out of the tiger, with some blood dried to the stump.
He wrapped his hand around it and yanked hard, but it wouldn't budge.
A roar alerted him to the tiger charging back towards the tree.
With seconds to spare, he climbed a little higher and reached a branch, using the claw as a foothold. He pulled himself over the edge and swung his legs onto the platform.
The beast leaped into the air and sank its claws into the bark, its jaws snapping with an audible clack as it tried to bite Rogers's leg.
Hooked onto the bark, it slowly began to push its muscled body up towards the teenager, foam building at its lips.
Unable to think of anything else to do, Roger stuck his foot over the edge and roughly kicked at the creature's snout, hitting hit and stunning the beast, but it kept its hold of the tree, already growing closer to Roger.
He began to grab at loose pieces of tree bark, throwing them at the approaching feline. Most of them bounced off, but a few seemed to disorientate the creature.
Soon, it put a clawed paw on the thick branch and started to heave itself up. Not knowing what else to do, Roger climbed up to the next one, not stopping his ineffective attempts at dislodging the beast with pieces of the tree.
They continued this stalemate as they grew higher and higher, but Roger knew it couldn't last forever.
Either he would slip due to his bad leg and fall to his death, or they would run out of tree to climb. Once one of those happened, the beast would have won, and Roger would be little more than a very unfilling meal.
Desperation built in him as the branches thinned and more sunlight broke the canopy, letting him see every detail of his soon-to-be killer.
He once again felt anger at his rotten luck, first at being put in prison and now being given a second chance at life, only for it to be ripped away so quickly.
He cursed the government, the beast, the Administrator, and even the opportunistic eel for leading him to this fate. The gods were the last thing he cursed, blaming them in particular for all the wrongs in his life.
As he vented his frustrations, a thought slowly took hold in his mind, and his attempts to survive slowed.
He could blame the government for placing him in prison when he was just ten, but that was the way Earth's society was. They needed to fuel the war machine somehow, and the cost was forcing prisoners into labor.
If the prisoners weren't able to complete their work, it had to fall to someone.
Even if that someone was just a child.
As for Avar, it wasn't the gods that put him in this position, it was his own choices.
The Administrator had warned him about the creatures of this new world, but he had stupidly ignored them. He had wandered off without knowing anything about this place and immediately risked his leg by putting it in the river.
He had then mocked the tiger when it first appeared, never once believing it would have a way to traverse the rushing water.
He had led it to the tree and gotten stuck on it, attempting to escape but forgetting to be wary of the other creatures that called the forest home.
And now, he was back on the tree, leading the beast to a point where it had to do nothing but knock Roger down.
He climbed to the next branch and looked up.
There were only two branches left before he would have to stand his ground and face the consequences of the past two days' actions.
He picked up another piece of bark but immediately dropped it.
It wasn't doing anything, nothing he could do would.
He had to accept his fate.
Strangely, in his final moments, he thought about his fellow inmate, Terrance.
His mind went to the stories about ancient civilizations Terrance had spoken about, including their weapons.
In a strange show of interest, Roger had asked him what kinds of weapons they would use in a siege, and Terrance happily filled him in.
One type of weapon was machicolations, which were holes defenders would drop boulders from. The heavy stones would then fall down the wall and crush anyone trying to climb over or hide alongside it.
Adrenaline filled Roger as he realized he didn't want to accept fate, he wanted to stand against it and take it into his own hands.
Not giving himself time to rethink his decision, Roger looked down at the tiger and backed up on the branch.
Giving himself enough space to run up, he charged off the side of the platform and dove towards the beast, screaming as he went.
The two collided on the side of the tree, causing the tiger to lose its grip and fall, a grunt of confusion from its gaping maw.
They hit multiple branches on the way down, but the beast's body blocked Roger from the worst of it.
Within seconds they hit the ground with a resounding thump, the sounds of broken bones echoing out into the nearby area.
Rogers's body felt like it had shattered, but he knew the job wasn't done. The job was never done.
He rolled his ravaged body off of the tiger and crawled towards the tree, every motion causing fresh waves of pain.
Once he reached the trunk, he pulled himself up and once again pulled at the claw. His earlier pressure on it seemed to have loosened it, and he yanked it out with an undignified yip.
Turning back to the slightly moving body, he lunged forward and began to violently stab the claw into its belly again and again.
Blood spurted from the wounds, covering Roger in the thick vital fluid.
It tried to move away from him during the first few blows, but could only wiggle and cry under his relentless onslaught.
After a few minutes of stabbing, Roger was sure it was dead. He had targeted where he assumed the heart and lungs were in the first few strikes but wanted to make sure he killed it.
He wasn't taking any more chances.
Not that he would be able to after this.
Once he was positive it was dead, he fell into the chest cavity he had just carved out, his ravaged body finally giving up on him.
Despite the situation, Roger felt peace in his mind.
He might die alongside the beast, but he went out how he should've. Fighting for his own fate, not just living to live.
He had lived to win for just a few minutes, and those minutes meant everything.
Just as he felt he was finally going to die, the System appeared in front of him again.
[System Finished Initializing]
[Rebuilding body, please stand by…]