Pearl's opponent was technically stronger than him. While he had the upper hand when it ca to physical prowess, his enemy easily surpassed him with Qi. Even when his power was diminished when he used the White Tiger's Steps to split himself into two, his Qi would still be stronger than his, so he had to be careful.
Pearl had no intention of fighting two opponents at the sa ti when they were both stronger than him. So his only option was to defeat one as soon as he could.
There were really only two ways to defeat soone using the White Tiger's Steps that he could think of.
The first, and simplest, was to destroy one of the beasts, leaving the other to beco the main body. That required Pearl to be strong enough to defeat the tiger, which he knew he wasn't.
The other one relied on breaking the tiger's concentration. It was concentration that kept the technique active and the two tigers separate, so as long as he could find a way to remove the beast's concentration, he would succeed.
In the split second that he saw the tiger separate, Pearl made the decision to go with the second thod.
His body blurred, moving back as the first of the two tigers tore through the space he stood on before. At the sa ti, he stabbed his spear forward, the powerful attack reaching the tiger before it could dodge.
A dull golden glow appeared around the tiger again, blocking Pearl's attacks. The tiger was strong enough that its body did not get destroyed even by that attack, but Pearl had known that beforehand.
His spear quickly gathered with the sa energy again, spinning around the spear. Each ti Pearl used the technique, he grew an inch closer to attaining the technique's understanding at a
fundantal level so that he could use it with his Sword Domain.
But the distance between Sword Aura and Sword Domain was miles long, and inching away toward it was going to take much longer yet. Pearl dodged the second tiger and struck it around a bit to get a sense of its power. From what he could tell, this tiger was around the sa strength as him. That ant that while there was absolutely no chance of winning it via the first thod, the second thod was looking a lot more feasible.
Still, Pearl didn't want to get to it right away. The longer he forced the beast to stay separated, the more it would use up its Qi and ntal energy. Forcing it to stay separated was better for him in the long run. And from what he knew, every single advantage counted because his opponent wasn't going to stop when he was down.
He was going to kill.
Pearl didn't know if the tiger had a plan to kill him or not. But what did now was that the tiger was most definitely here for his strong bloodline, and the easiest way to take it away from him would be to kill him. If this tiger was a purist, then it would rather kill him than not.
The tiger roared as it fought, its massive claws swinging down at him on every other charge. It lunged toward Pearl, wishing to fight at close range, and stayed there for the majority of the battle.
That was... good.
The tiger thought he was incapable of defending himself, so that would get its guard down. When the tiger next charged, Pearl acted.
His body disappeared, teleporting next to the tiger's other body, which reacted to Pearl's sudden arrival. Either it had expected that or had just noticed on accident, that did not matter to Pearl.
Pearl raised his spear with its glowing, swirling energy, ready to attack. Seeing the attack, the tiger used its own defensive technique as well, its body glowing a dull golden.
Only, Pearl wasn't going to attack.
Breath left his throat in a massive roar as Pearl pushed all of his spiritual power into that single attack. A tiger's roar swept through the surroundings, like a shockwave with Pearl at its epicenter. Just like a shockwave, the roar beca weaker the further it went away.
However, at the epicenter, his enemy could not handle it.
The tiger's eyes went wide and then disappeared into its eyelids, its entire body turning into soft golden motes of light. The light flew toward the other tiger, rging into it, as the tiger ford one.
Even as that happened, Pearl acted.
Space between him and the other tiger shrunk to a point where the beast was in the reach of his spear. And his spear had waited for a
victim for a while now.
Pearl stabbed forward in an accurate stab, striking the tiger's neck. The spear's energy churned through the fur and found skin, digging into it. Skin gave way to muscle, and soon red marred the white fur on
the tiger's body.
The White Tiger roared in pain, having been finally attacked. But Pearl was only getting started. His body vanished, arriving at another location as he stabbed down on the tiger's back.
Once again, the direct hit led to blood.
He teleported again for a third hit, but this ti the tiger used its defensive technique, which stopped Pearl's attack.
Pearl flew backward, gently landing on the soil as he watched the
tiger holding a look of divine anger. The wounds he had made were shallow, just deep enough to draw blood.
The wound bled for a few seconds before healing back up on its own.
It was just that shallow.
"You!" it growled. "You think re wounds like these are enough to win against ?"
"At the right place, yes, they will kill you," Pearl said, preparing his spear again. "If not, then I will just have to make a lot of those wounds
instead."
A single one posed no threat to the tiger's life, but make enough shallow wounds and draw enough blood, and even an elephant would
die to an ant.
A White Tiger was nothing.
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