As the tiger charged at Shang again, more metal appeared around his head.
But this time, the tiger couldn't fully envelop his head in metal.
When Shang saw that, his eyes shone.
The tiger's metal wasn't doing much for Sword at this point. After all, Sword was forged with Late General Stage metals. Even though this tiger was powerful, it was only at the Early General Stage.
But Shang had never aimed to strengthen his sword.
He had absorbed the metal with it to exhaust the tiger's Mana, and now, it was showing its effect.
The tiger tried to hit Shang again, but this time, it couldn't muster the Mana to elongate its claws.
Shang struck the tiger's forearm with his sword.
BANG!
The metal around the tiger's forearm cracked, but without any of Shang's Affinities as help, his sword didn't manage to injure the tiger.
But that was already enough.
The metal on the tiger's forearm transformed into a liquid and entered Shang's sword.
Of course, Shang was still thrown into the distance by the attack. Some of his bones cracked, but that was something he could deal with.
Shang let the attack carry him into the distance and landed around twenty meters away from the tiger.
Of course, the tiger immediately followed up with another attack with its other leg, which was still enveloped by metal.
BANG!
Shang was thrown away again, and the tiger's metal vanished from its other forearm.
At the same time, the metal all over its body began to reduce in size. This kind of metal armor wasn't permanent, and it needed continuous injection of Metal Mana to retain its hard form.
Shang dodged the next two attacks, and soon enough, all the metal on the tiger had vanished.
The reason why the tiger had been classified as a powerful beast was that it was very good in all three categories.
Offense, defense, speed.
Now, it was only great at offense and speed.
Without its metal, its defense was average, at best.
By now, Shang's passive regeneration had fully recovered his entire body.
Shang's Affinity had so many drawbacks.
It continually injured him, and Shang couldn't use his Affinity several times in a row.
However, advantages often came with disadvantages, and disadvantages often came with advantages.
So, while Shang's Affinity had several drawbacks, when it came to endurance, it was unbeatable.
The reason why Shang's Affinity injured him was that he was using the world's Mana instead of his own.
But the advantage also was that Shang's Affinity was using the world's Mana instead of his own.
As long as Shang was still alive, he could use his Affinity.
The health of his body dictated how much Shang could use his Affinity.
Over the course of his fight, Shang had clashed with the tiger many times, and Shang had used basically everything he could use.
After clashing for so long, the tiger was exhausted and had run out of Mana.
And Shang?
Shang was uninjured.
His Mana had recovered.
And Shang could use all his powers again.
Shang was in his peak condition.
The tiger had several injuries and growled at Shang in exhaustion.
Shang calmly looked at the tiger as he readied his sword again.
BANG!
Shang charged forward.
He left behind a cloud of steam, and his arm began to freeze as he put it onto his sword.
The tiger growled and swiped at Shang.
BANG!
As soon as Shang's sword hit the tiger's leg, an explosion occurred, and without the protecting metal cover, the tiger's leg was blasted off.
The tiger tried to bite Shang, but it quickly fell over.
It was unused to only having three legs, and in its panic, it had tried to put weight on its missing leg.
As the tiger fell down, Shang jumped over it and landed near its back. If it still were in its peak condition, Shang wouldn't have been able to do something like this.
Shang put his hand on the tiger's back and used Darkness Absorb.
The tiger shouted in pain, and Shang stopped just two seconds later.
Shang's body was on the brink of explosion, and Shang had to stop.
The tiger had way too much life energy for him to fully absorb.
But that didn't matter much. The tiger had already transformed from a mighty tiger king in its prime to an old, decrepit tiger.
It barely had the strength to move its legs anymore.
Shang quickly ended the fight by beheading the tiger.
The cheering returned, and Shang slowly stepped away from the corpse as it vanished into the earth.
'The only injuries I received were self-inflicted,' Shang thought as he looked at the vanishing corpse.
'This fight wasn't easy, but it also didn't truly push me to the edge.'
'As power increases, beasts become stronger and stronger in relation to humans. Defeating this tiger was probably as hard as defeating a weak Early General Stage beast would have been without the procedure.'
'I can already notice the difference in power, and I'm only at the Initial General Stage.'
'Things will only get worse from now on.'
Then, Shang looked at the leaflet that had appeared.
'At least, for others,' he thought as he walked over. 'My power will continue to increase. As long as I keep growing as I am right now, I will also be able to defeat a powerful Early Commander Stage beast while being at the Initial Commander Stage.'
Shang pulled up the leaflet.
'Something like that is impossible for normal warriors.'
"Metal King," Shang read. "Quite an imposing name, but I guess it fits the tiger."
Shang looked through the leaflet and read it.
'Oh, they actually live in the Zone north of the Empress Cobra Zone, the Adamantite Behemoth Zone,' Shang thought.
Shang had learned a lot about different Zones in the last year, and this Zone was familiar to him.
The Adamantite Behemoth Zone was basically the opposite of a mountain range. It was a crater range, one could say. There were many holes, which all led deep into the earth.
It was also the place where Duke Mithril lived.
Shang remembered the time he had asked about the Volcano Wyrm Zone, which was also under Duke Mithril.
To put the map into perspective, the Storm Eagle Zone was in the middle in the very south.
Northeast of it was the Empress Cobra Zone.
Northwest of it was the Ice Wyvern Zone.
North of the Empress Cobra Zone was the Adamantite Behemoth Zone.
North of the Ice Wyvern Zone and west of the Adamantite Behemoth Zone had once been the battlefield, but ever since the Ice Wyvern had won against the Volcano Wyrm, the battlefield had been annexed by the Ice Wyvern Zone.
Right now, the Ice Wyvern Zone was as big as two Zones.
The battlefield had been a territory that both Duke Whirlwind and Duke Mithril had wanted.
Shang also guessed that Duke Mithril was the one that endangered Warrior's Paradise a year ago. At least, he had a great motive for it.
So, what about Duke Mithril's territories?
The Adamantite Behemoth Zone already belonged to him, and north of the Adamantite Behemoth Zone was the Thunder Horse Zone. It was a flat, black desert with continuous rainfall and lightning strikes.
The Thunder Horse was one of the very few Zone Beasts that didn't hide in some remote location. In comparison to other Zone Beasts, the Thunder Horse roamed the black desert. Luckily, it wasn't aggressive, and it only ate lightning. It even allowed people around its immediate vicinity.
Sometimes, it even walked into a town and looked around.
Not all Zone Beasts were giants like the Storm Eagle. The Thunder Horse, for example, was only a bit bigger than a normal horse.
West of the Thunder Horse Zone and north of the former battlefield was the Volcano Wyrm Zone.
So, when Shang had seen that Fire ore back then, what kind of journey had it undertaken?
It started at the Volcano Wyrm, went to the east to pass over the corner of the Thunder Horse Zone, went through the entire Adamantite Behemoth Zone, and went through the Empress Cobra Zone to enter the Storm Eagle Zone.
It was quite a long journey.
'Interesting, the Metal King journeys along the different craters and holes in the Adamantite Behemoth Zone to hunt its occupants. The Metal King is also a beast that commonly reaches the Commander Stage. Quite powerful.'
Then, Shang saw the quote from the God, and he lifted an eyebrow.
"Hey, we've been trying to reach you about your car's extended warranty."
