The First King of Beasts
Chapter 40 Mountain Side

"Good thing we made it on time. If not, it would have been disastrous." Marcel said after reading the notification from the system.

At that moment, everyone had woken up, and those that hadn't were awake after the announcement because of the commotion. Multiple groups had gathered below the mountain, and all planed to climb it the following day, which was today.

Marcel's group quickly prepared themselves and got ready to ascend the mountain. Others must have thought of going a bit later, after all there was no rush, but after seeing Marcel's group, some adjusted their plans.

The Genan group(Marcel's group) started their climb, and just as everybody had thought, the climb was as difficult as it gets. Some parts were just too steep, so they had to replace a roundabout way, and simply climbing the mountain, even though the way it elevated was possible to just walk the whole way till one reached the top, it was strenuous.

After reaching somewhere close to halfway, the group stopped momentarily to rest. Marcel and Nathan were doing ok, but the rest of the group didn't fare any better, not even close.

"Why do we have to do this? Why do we have to climb this huge mountain?" One of the man asked as he breathed heavily while immediately crashing to the ground.

"Man, can't believe you are still so unfit even after everything. You should have gotten used to this already." Another man said.

"That's easy for you to say, you don't have a body as mine. Besides, the other times we were on flat ground, this one is just too demanding."

Nathan listening to the complaints of the men couldn't help but chuckle to himself. He too knew that the only reason why he and his brother could do better was because of their equipments and gear. After taking a deep breath, he stood up and glanced at his brother, who then gave him a nod. Nathan turned to the men who were resting and said in an audible voice.

"We are continuing now! Come on everyone, let's get going! Come on!" He said.

The all grumbled as they stood up and some stretched bit, then as Nathan looked behind them to catch the other groups ascending too, he turned to his brother so that they would resume their climb, but before he even turned, he heard his brother bark out at the entire group.

"Everybody! Fucking run up the mountain as fast as you can, now!" Marcel barked at the top of his voice.

Nathan thought Marcel was being a bit too strict and unreasonable at that moment, so he shrugged his shoulders before turning towards his brother. "You don't have to-" Nathan didn't complete his sentence when he too caught sight of the reason his brother was shouting.

To the side of the mountain, a bit far away, a tiger at least 1.3 metres tall had appeared and was gradually coming into sight. "Hey, hey! Move it everyone!" Nathan shouted as at that point, every other person had also seen the monster. As if one was not enough, another one appeared just behind the first tiger.

Letting out a heart jerking roar, the tigers starting hurdling their way towards the groups' position. Now, without waiting for anybody to tell them, everyone started running up the mountain. Those that were still at the bottom made a roundabout turn to escape into the forest, but to their greatest surprise, so cattle like monsters started coming out of the forest and from their motion it was clear that they were readying to charge at them.

Now, every single person had no choice but to climb the mountain. Those that were already half way seemed to be at an advantage, as the peak of the mountain was closer to them and they were farther away from both beasts.

The tigers that had charged forward ran like hungry predators towards the genan group before one of them broke off and headed for the groups below them.

Without minding what was happening behind, they all kept running like their lives depended on it, which it did in all embodiment of the sentence.

"Keep moving! Don't stop!" Nathan yelled.

"We'll hold it off for a while! Nobody stop no matter what!" Marcel yelled as he ran to the side of the group along with his brother.

They kept on running, nobody giving in to the fatigue their body felt. In less than 5 minutes, the tiger had gotten to them and leaped forward as it did. Marcel moved fast and drawing his blade he was able to parry the beast's attack to the back of the group while they kept running. Nathan once again barked out to everyone not to stop, then backed away to face the beast with his brother.

"You take the left, I'll take the right. Let's go with that for now." Marcel commanded.

Immediately, Nathan leaped a couple feet across and as he landed, he took a stance and readied himself for the next movement.

The tiger snarled at them with his teeth showing out open, showcasing his powerful canines, and as it took slow paced steps forwards, it's claws were drawn out.

With a growl, the tiger charged at them. What they hadn't expected was for such a big beast to have such explosive speed and strength. Each of its attacks felt like blocking sharp boulders, and it explosive speed was almost too fast for them to react to on time.

They could see the tiger's attacks for the most part, but their bodies were too slow to react, and they always ended up reacting on time.

"Arghg! Just what rank is this beast?!" Nathan grunted as he spoke barely, through his teeth.

"Retreat slowly while we defend against it!" Marcel said.

But after Nathan stole a glance behind, he turned back his attention to the beast with a sour expression on his face. "The others haven't gone anywhere yet! That basically a suicide mission for them!" He yelled back.

Marcel couldn't help it and grimaced as he fixed his eyes on the tiger fully focused. "We'll push it back as much as we can. First, we'll need to destabilize it enough for one of us to push it back. No need to even try and cause any injury or kill it." Marcel said.

Quickly, Nathan thought of a plan and shared it with Marcel. It was a good enough plan, and Marcel couldn't think of anything better at the moment so they went with it.

The plan was simple and direct, Nathan ran in front of Marcel as they ran towards the beast, and when they got within range, Nathan jumped into the air as high as he could while Marcel remained on the ground, still a couple feet behind him.

Nathan had maintained a height that would stop the beast from running past him, and as he fell, he pointed his blade directly at its head. The beast responded after Nathan started falling towards it with a leap of its own. At that very moment, Marcel sped up and leaped towards the tiger aiming at it midsection with two of his feet together pointing directly at it.

With a perfect dropkick, Marcel pushed the beast backwards and sent it tumbling it down the mountain side.

"Nicely done." Nathan said.

"Good thinking." Marcel replied as they turned their backs and ran up the mountain.