Threads of the Soul

Chapter 498 - 498: Hypocrisy

Lightning Tiger disappeared in a flash, backing up quickly to avoid the plume of gas that was spewing from the man's back. The next time he appeared, he was already on his knees having scooped up one of the guns that the soldiers had dropped.His eyes rapidly scanned the wooden armour, searching for the weak-points that most had, before pointing the gun to the mans shoulder and pulling the trigger.

Hitting the gap between the plates needed for movement at this distance would be difficult for most, but Lightning Tiger was more than just a normal spy. He was highly trained in sharpshooting. Never-mind hitting that tiny target, he would be able to hit a fly's wings across the room and keep the fly alive.

Which was why when the gun clicked and refused to fire, he clicked his tongue in annoyance. He pulled it a few more times, trying to make it fire, but no matter what it refused to do its job.

It had to be some kind of security feature to prevent this exact thing.

Unfortunately by the time he realised that, Alfie was already lunging towards him, twirling a glaive as he leapt through the air. He raised the gun, parrying the blade with the useless weapon, and retaliated with his own claws.

His hands moved like blurs, carving deep groves into the wooden armour, all whilst doing his best to avoid the spinning glaive that kept coming for his throat. His own armour was robust enough to not completely fall apart at every slash of the glaive, but even it wouldn't allow him to completely shrug off a direct hit like it was nothing.

That's what his claws were for. Attacking and defending at the same time was something only he could do with his speed advantage. He could never be left open and vulnerable, because by the time his enemies blade was coming towards him, he already had his claws back and ready to defend with plenty of time to deal a few more blows.

It was a tactic that had been hell for so many others to deal with, but not this man. It wasn't just the weapon Lightning Tiger had to watch out for, after all. Every time he went for a crippling blow, one of the flowers on his body spewed out a cloud of vile acid that sizzled and melted his skin on the smallest amount of contact.

Lightning Tiger could only grit his teeth and do his best not to be turned into a pile of melted bones. Patches of skin were already burning away on his hands, arms and even part of his face as his left cheek started to dissolve.

If he was going for killing strikes, this would have been much easier. But he couldn't, not until he confirmed the identity of this man. If this turned out to be the old man and he killed him because he was too brash, then death would be the best outcome at the hands of that corpse possessing abomination.

He considered running to get help. The door might have been closed, 'trapping' him in the room they were currently destroying with their combat, but it would barely take him a second to get free of this confinement.

However... The thought of grovelling before that abomination and admitting his own weakness churned his stomach. He had already prayed to one of them and received that thing as backup when he had wanted something human. There was no way in hell he was bowing before that thing.

He was going to find the old man, drag him to that abomination and show him why a pure human was the best. Even if that meant embracing the side of himself he hated the most.

Leaping backwards, Lightning Tiger crossed the room in a second to give himself some space. The Wooden armoured man quickly followed his path, simply by following the gap he left in the gas that now covered the entire floor.

The wooden man tilted his head curiously as Lightning Tiger dropped to all fours and began to heave. His armour melted away, revealing the toned body underneath in civilian clothes.

His toned muscles started to wriggle and bulge underneath his skin, as a pained scream escaped the Russians lips which quickly turned to a thunderous roar. The grotesque sound of bones cracking and popping filled the room as Lightning Tigers body started to shift.

His legs snapped backwards and his feet extended. His muscles bulged and grew so much underneath his skin that it quickly tore apart from the strain of trying to keep it contained, revealing the tufts of pure white fur underneath that was painted with black stripes.

Teeth clattered to the floor, as new ones grew in their place. Long fangs erupted from his gums and split them apart as his jaw reformed itself.

The transformation was brutal and filled with nothing but agony, although thankfully for both of them it only lasted a few seconds.

Once the disgusting sounds had finally finished, the fully transformed Lightning Tiger stood to his full height and let out a deafening roar. Where once stood a man, now stood a Were-Tiger, with pure white fur and black jagged stripes like Lightning bolts.

Electricity sparked around the Were-Tiger as he narrowed his eyes before disappearing. Before the man in wooden armour could even register what could happen, he was already being thrown across the room with a fist sized dent in his armour. A spider web of cracks danced outwards from the impact crater, which his armour quickly tried to repair.

He barely had a chance to land before more attacks rained down on him. Deep, devastating claw marks appeared out of thin air. Tearing his wooden armour apart so fast that he couldn't even see where they were coming from, never mind be allowed enough time for his armour to repair itself.

The claw marks specifically gouged out the areas where the flowers grew, starting with the large pair on his back and then the smaller, acid spewing ones that dotted his torso and arms.