"We're running out of time, guys, we need to get to the big cats," Zavier shielded his eyes and looked up at the sky. They maybe had two or three hours of daylight left and he wanted to be out of here before then. Zavier donned the Cackle Cloak and took off at a run to catch up to his family.
They stood inside a dark room with a low ceiling, thick glass windows dotting long hallways that stretched out from where they were. The big cats area was modeled to look like a cave for some reason that Zavier never understood. A cave with windows that showed into spaces just large enough for the cats to pace in looping circles. This part had always made Zavier the most sad. Watching these beautiful pieces of living, deadly art just pacing lines into the floor, no natural scents, no chance to hunt, no room to move - his view on zoos had changed forever the first time he'd seen that.
Not now, though. Each set of windows faced into huge expanses that started out as fake scenery but blended seamlessly into jungles, savannah, or forests. The environments should have overlapped but somehow didn't, each series of windows showing their own separate world.
They'd skipped past the ferrets and the Serval cats, they were tired of packs and herds and groups and whatever - enough was enough. They'd considered the lions, but after seeing one with a mane of living fire and the lionesses with dark red, barbed tails they'd decided to pass them by.
The cheetah enclosure became a whirlwind of dust as it sprinted by too fast for them to even catch. Nope, Zavier thought, we'll come back for you another time.
"This is the one," Zavier said as they stood in front of the glass of the Tiger's area. Beyond the deep slashes in the glass they saw a waterfall pouring into a large pool, the dark mud surrounding it was littered with large paw prints. The jungle spread out beyond the pool and Zavier could swear he saw shimmering glimpses of a tail here, a striped leg there, or a flickering ear over there, each appearing and disappearing between the trees so quickly that he couldn't be sure it wasn't his imagination.
"Tess, you take the Cackle Cloak. You're more stealthy than us and I think we're going to need that." He handed it over and stripped off his gloves, stowing them in the backpack.
"The Titan Gauntlets are pretty much spent and I need something that I've never used before if we're going to get full advantage. Luna, I'm going to need your gauntlet." She looked at him in shock and held her gauntleted arm to her chest. "I'm just going to end up getting in the way if I try get up close - it's best if I work from the back. Besides, I'll have this if it gets close," he held up the Rustling Creeper vine. "It's time for you to get into the fight, Baby. You and Cass are better off fighting side by side rather than both of you sitting out."
Luna handed it over with reluctance. "You and Cass each take a shield and Primal Claw. This one is going to be tough so we need to play it smart. I don't know if we can lure it out of the jungle, but no one - NO ONE - is to go into that jungle alone. Tigers were basically the apex predators of the world even before The System - you don't want to be alone in its jungle. Same strategy as with the gorilla - poison it enough to weaken it, I'll attack from range. Everyone got it?"
He looked around and just saw nodding heads. "Okay, good. It's an ambush predator and I'm pretty sure I saw some invisibility magic working in there already. Keep the party chat up and call out anything you see. We are not going to let something bad happen because someone didn't call out something important. I'd rather you be wrong than be silent." More nods followed. "Tess, when it gets into the open try to Fear it with the cloak. Maybe we'll get lucky and we can get in some big shots right at the beginning."
"Oh, last thing. We want this loot so if it looks like it's going down I'm going out the window."
He turned back to the window and motioned to Tess, who pulled out Claw. He admired the dangerous air that ebbed from its yellowed blade as she slashed it through the window. A few cuts later and the window fell forward with a deep, reverberating thump, and the family stepped inside.
When they were halfway to the pool a deep, throaty growl flowed like oil out of the treeline, coating them in nervous sweat. Smells of fresh water and rich mud filled their nostrils and, despite being indoors, the sun felt warm and heavy on their faces. It would be a great day if we weren't all about to die, Zavier thought to himself.
"Three o'clock!" Tess sent over the party chat and they all saw a flicker of casual movement that disappeared as it passed behind a tree.
"Twelve!" Cass sent.
"Eight." Zavier noted and they turned as a single unit, trying to keep the flickering motions in their eye line.
"It's like the damned Predator," Zavier sent. "Watch for it being semi-invisible."
They stepped closer to the treeline and a flash that looked like smoky glass shimmered in and out of view right in front of them. There was a clang and Luna skidded backwards, her feet digging divots in the soft loam. "It hit my shield!" Luna cried out then sent the same thing over the chat.
"Okay, it hits hard as hell but not as hard as the gorilla thing. Good to know. Can anyone see it?"
"Watch the grass," Tess said and they all turned their gazes from the woods to the swaying green blanket.
"Here!" Cass said and they saw a shimmer of rippling air, Cass got his shield up just in time to block what must have been a paw. The second it impacted it flashed visible and Zavier was stunned by the absolutely terrifying beauty of it.
Its shoulders were as high as any of them were tall and its body was semi transparent, its stripes making it look like stained glass in light tints of smoky gray. Zavier's arm was up in an instant and he launched gears between the twins, his level of mastery was such that he could put the shots through the handle of a coffee mug without causing a ripple in the liquid. The first shot hit its face and the following ones hit each of its eyes with perfect precision. It whirled away in an instant and bounded back into the treeline, but not before Zavier had seen the effects of the impacts.
"It looks like we got some of the hyenas' chomping power. When the shots landed ragged edges were ripped around the holes and I swear I heard a crunch of bone."
They continued to circle but the Shadowstripe Tiger, as Zavier had identified, refused to come out.
"It's not playing our game. I don't think it sees any reason to come after us."
"That makes it smarter than anything else we've faced," Tess sent back. "Well," she asked, "into the woods?"
Their hearts beat loudly but their steps were steady as they crossed into the shadows of the trees.
The fight stretched on like a game of cat and mouse, with the sides changing each encounter. Zavier watched for movement and fired unerring shots, most of which actually found the tiger and not rustling leaves. The twins were back-to-back and had been trading blows as it leapt in, taking the swipes on the shields and slashing back with the Primal Claws. The exchanges had been even, the humans taking as many cuts and deep slashes as they gave but it felt like a losing game to Zavier. No matter how many hits they gave they couldn't take as many as the tiger and they didn't have the time to waste.
"Guys, I think we may have to give it up-" his sending was interrupted and he was gone.
Pain like he'd never felt erupted through Zavier, and he'd been feeling a lot lately. One second he'd been keeping an eye on the trees and the next a blinding pain erupted on the entire right side of his body. It only took a moment to get his clarity back but by then he was being carried through the woods faster than he could ever have run. He assessed the situation in a second: Large gashes ran across the right side of his torso and his gauntleted arm was flayed to the bone at his bicep by four long gashes. He was in its mouth, the powerful jaws clamped on his shoulder, and it was dragging him along at a rapid pace that caused white spots to dance in his vision every time he hit a bump.
"Backwards," he croaked out, then realized he had said it out loud. "It pulled me backwards," he sent through the chat. He realized he hadn't released his grip on the whip so he snapped it up, raking the thorns across the tiger's face. It released him with a yowl and pawed at its face. Zavier stood up on shaky legs and backed into a tree to keep his balance.
It stopped pawing and collected itself. Yes, he thought to himself, it actually paused to collect itself. Then it looked back over its shoulders and a dangerous intelligence shone out of those deep green eyes. With deliberate movements it turned to him and lowered its head, stalking silently towards him in careful movements. It stopped and looked down at his whip, then backed up a step to consider him.
"Clever girl," Zavier said and gave the whip a flick to untangle the vines. Zavier swore he saw its wide mouth crook up into a smile just before it lunged.
Paws and vines flashed, claws and thorns ripping and tearing wherever they landed. Zavier was holding off many of the attacks by lashing the whip into the soft pads of its paws, but for every two he blocked one got through and the damned tiger hit a whole hell of a lot harder than he did. Zavier had also been shouting at the top of his lungs the entire fight. In the movies the hero may relish the coolness of a one-on-one fight between two alphas, silent and deadly, but Zavier held no such illusions. He was not the predator here, he was just particularly ornery prey. He was being whittled down and his only chance of survival was that his family would get to him before the tiger finished him off. He hadn't even had time to reach for his pill bottle since, every time he stopped the whip long enough to reach for it, the tiger flickered in and delivered bloody punishment. Zavier's health was down to 23% and he was starting to feel the effects of blood loss and trauma.
His shouts croaked out of him, barely louder than he could talk, but he was past the point of giving up. If this was his last fight he was going to take this fucking thing down with him.
The tiger flashed in again and a massive swipe took Zavier across the head, spinning him into a nearby tree. He felt the skin on that side of his face hanging in ribbons and he rolled onto his back to see a shadow looming over him.
"Sorry guys, I tried," was all he managed to send over the chat. He couldn't have lifted either arm if he'd wanted to. His health had dropped to under 10% and he knew he wouldn't survive long enough for the pills to work even if he could reach them.
The shadow above him spoke. "I got it from here, Love."