The wheel slowed down and eventually stopped on Shang's next opponent.
It was the image of a smug, silver, cyborg-tiger. Its outer casing was shining brightly.
A moment later, Shang's opponent appeared in the distance.
It was a silver tiger, nearly two meters high.
That was about it.
There was nothing fancy or special about its appearance.
However, this didn't mean that it was weak. After all, the trial had obviously judged this tiger to be quite powerful.
'Tigers have devastating offensive powers, and they are quite fast. Usually, their defense would be their weak point. However…'
The jester slowly lifted his hammer and hit the bell.
At that moment, the tiger noticed Shang.
The tiger looked at Shang for three seconds.
Shang wasn't sure what the tiger was thinking, but he could swear he could feel some disdain building inside the tiger.
Then, the tiger's lips parted as it showed its teeth.
BANG!
And it exploded forward.
'This doesn't make much sense,' Shang thought as he saw the approaching tiger. 'If it had perceived me as a threat, it would have immediately shown a reaction.'
'But it also doesn't make any sense that it looks at me like I'm beneath it. After all, if I were beneath it, it would have ignored me or simply intimidated me into leaving.'
'Instead, it waited for several seconds before attacking me.'
BANG!
As the tiger took another step, its body began to shine.
In only a single second, its entire body became coated with metal.
Even more, its speed hadn't decreased, even though this much metal had to weigh several tons.
'Sure enough, a normal tiger wouldn't be powerful enough to count as one of the more powerful beasts,' Shang thought as he readied himself.
BANG!
And Shang also charged forward.
The ape's attack had left quite a noticeable opening, which had given Shang the opportunity to end the fight quickly.
The same thing wouldn't work for the tiger.
If Shang managed to evade its swipe and close in, he would have to deal with the tiger's bite.
The two of them charged at each other, and Shang's left arm began to release steam as he put it on his sword.
As the two reached each other, the tiger swiped at Shang with its metallic claw.
Shang put his power into his sword and struck the tiger's forearm.
CRK!
Shang's sword hit the tiger's forearm, and the Ice Mana inside it exploded forward. The metal around the tiger's arm became brittle, and Shang's sword reached the bone of the tiger's forearm.
However, in comparison to all of Shang's previous opponents, this was where the sword stopped.
While the metal at the point of impact had become brittle, the metal in the other places hadn't been weakened.
BANG!
At the same time, Shang was thrown into the distance by the tiger's attack.
Shang's body was already weaker than a beast at the Initial General Stage, and this opponent was at the Early General Stage.
If Shang had managed to sever the arm, this wouldn't have been an issue.
Shang's body did a backflip in the air as he tried to recover his balance.
Then, Shang heard a growl.
BANG!
Shang pointed his left arm at the ground and released a Fire Blast, which shot him into the air.
Just a moment later, the tiger passed below Shang.
For a split second, Shang could see the tiger's injured leg.
A huge part of the forearm's muscles was severed, and the bone even had some cracks on it.
However, the metal surrounding its body was keeping it stable.
The tiger was trying to come to a stop below Shang since it had noticed that it had missed its target.
As Shang's body spun in the air, he put his left arm on his sword, and a moment later, his left arm began to wither.
An instant later, Shang's legs pointed at the sky since he was still spinning.
And as they did, an explosion of Fire Mana left them.
BANG!
Shang's body shot down as the tiger turned its head to him.
At that moment, the tiger felt some fear.
It felt that this attack was very dangerous!
An instant later, the metal on its back expanded wildly.
Shang's sword struck the metal.
CRRRRRRRRRR!
Time seemingly froze.
On the tiger's back was a nearly meter-thick sheet of metal, and 80% of the sheet had been bisected by a sword.
Shang's attack hadn't even injured the tiger.
An instant later, all the metal the sword had touched transformed into a liquid, which was quickly absorbed by Shang's sword.
Sadly, the tiger had already stopped Shang's attack, and it jumped back to reset its position.
Shang's legs released steam, and his left arm had shriveled up.
However, the remaining absorbed life energy from the last fight, which had been stored all over Shang's body, quickly healed the arm.
A new coat of metal appeared around the tiger's body, and it jumped toward Shang.
It readied its paws for a strike with its claws.
Shang saw that there was no opening and decided to jump back to evade the attack.
At that moment, the tiger's claws elongated!
Several long and sharp swords were about to strike Shang!
BANG!
Shang unleashed a Fire Blast at the ground and passed over most of the claws.
SHING!
The highest claw was severed by Shang's sword, and it turned into liquid metal, which quickly got absorbed by the sword again.
When the tiger noticed that it had missed again, it readied the other set of its claws.
Ice Mana exploded out of Shang's legs, destroying them in the process, and he shot at the tiger.
The claws passed behind Shang.
Earlier, when the tiger had charged at him, it had focused all its power on a close-range attack.
This time, it had focused its power on striking something over two meters away.
Just as expected, when the tiger noticed that Shang had come close to it, it tried to bite him.
From this close of a distance, Shang couldn't muster enough power to injure the tiger with his sword.
But that hadn't been his goal in the first place.
Shang pushed himself to the side by putting his left arm on one side of the tiger's head and made his sword touch the other side.
The metal surrounding the tiger's head quickly entered the sword, and Shang's other hand was now touching the tiger's fur.
BOOOOM!
Shang and the tiger blasted into opposite directions as an explosion occurred between them.
Shang's left arm was frozen solid.
BANG!
Shang unleashed an Ice Blast, and his left arm was nearly destroyed again.
Yet, it very quickly recovered.
When Shang had touched the tiger's fur, he had activated Darkness Absorb for just a moment.
At that moment, Shang had weakened the tiger's natural defenses while recovering his own life energy.
And then, Shang had unleashed all his power in a Fire Blast.
He knew that the tiger's paw would strike him very soon, which was why he had unleashed his Fire Blast. Otherwise, he would have killed it with Darkness Absorb.
Shang looked over and noticed that half the tiger's face had been blown off.
However, it was still alive.
And it was charging at him!
