A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor

He knew that with the coming of the Third Boundary there would inevitably be that burst of Progress as there had been with the Second, but this felt even more overwhelming. He wondered whether that was because of the way that he'd burst through prematurely?

He hadn't been as far along the Second Boundary path as he shouldn't have been and hadn't gained all the strength that progressing further down that path should have given him, and yet, here he was now, on the Third Boundary path, rushing ahead.

Was it possible that the Second Boundary progress he'd neglected was rushing to him all at once, combined with the natural boom that came from breaking a Boundary in the first place?

It certainly seemed likely to him. It wasn't just those two big lumps of progress either. They were just things that he could place his finger on, and call out above everything else. No, there were far more little bits of incremental progress that he'd hit upon alongside them. The lightest little insights, that all added up over time. Like the insight he'd had as he fought the Water Sprites.

Fuelled by that enthusiasm, it seemed hardly any time at all before he was deep into Moonbear territory, seeing ferocious claw marks on the sides of trees, the likes of which should likely have felled them, given their depth.

The book that Oliver had read had compared Moonbears and Hobgoblins in their combat capacity. Both groups were brawlers, it had said, but Moonbears managed to achieve the strength of weapon-wielding Hobgoblin even without that weapon. Seeing those deep gauges in the trees, Oliver could well see what weapons they were referring to.

Luckily for Oliver, these creatures weren't exactly subtle. They were aggressively territorial. The marks on the trees marked the edge of one particular Moonbear's territory, and so served as a good indication for where might have been a good idea to look.

Inside that zone, Oliver put Ingolsol's awareness to use again, instead of merely trying to make sense of the mess of tracks in the scattered snow.

Immediately, he could sense something significant, but murky, not too far away from where he was. It was hard to tell exactly what emotion that creature held, but it was easy to tell the magnitude of it. The aura of the creature seemed bold enough to account for a whole army of those Bell Birds that he had defeated before.

He proceeded in that direction, with his sword ready, one eye to the tracks in the snow, and the other part of his consciousness following Ingolsol's sense for the creature's presence.

He made the lightest steps that he could, avoiding the patches of ice that had formed where the snow had been compressed to heavily. Slowly but surely, his awareness of the creature became more and more concrete, even before the moment that he laid eyes on it.

Soon, an overwhelming tree rose up ahead. It was thick enough across to shield a whole group of men, and just as tall, by the look of it. It was a thoroughly ancient tree, and as if out of respect, within a certain ring near it, not a single tree seemed to dare to reach.

Beyond that tree, Oliver was certain the Moonbear sat. The tracks pointed towards it, as did Ingolsol's awareness. The question was, which way to approach it?

The Moonbear seemed to have its own thoughts on that matter. It must have caught a whiff of Oliver's scent, for a massive paw reached around the edge of the tree. It was a paw as big as a small table, with what looked like hatchets for claws, all attached to a leg thick enough to rival some of those nearby trees.

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Just by looking at that forepaw, one would expect a creature that was at least ten or even fifteen feet tall. Something of massive, overwhelming proportions. Such a guess would be close, but it would be misguided.

A head stuck around the side of the tree and a nose on the end of a long and pointed snout continued to sniff the air until its eyes fell upon Oliver, and it hissed like an angry snake.

It seemed a noise that was half-fearful. Not the sort of noise that should proceed an advancement. But the monster showed no hesitation. It rounded the tree towards him at a speed, charging at him without a single ounce of hesitation, its massive legs pounding a vicious beat through the snow.

Oliver jumped to the side to be free of it. He could have ended it there, but to do so would have been a waste, leaving the corpse damaged. There had been no clear way of going for its neck, not when its neck was so small, and the rest of it was so big.

Its head was so out of proportion to its body that it appeared to be some sort of mistake. The head was at least a quarter of the size that those massive front legs would make one expect. It was a head no bigger than that of a wolf, whilst the thickness of its front legs rivalled that of an elephant.

Though thick, luckily for the creature, they weren't particularly long. At least, not long enough to match their thickness.

Its back legs, by contrast, were a good deal smaller. It was like the opposite of a human being, with the front limbs carrying all the mass, whilst the back limbs seemed to be mere extra appendages that it had no use for.

An odd creature, to be sure. The spiralling pattern on its belly did nothing to offset that image, nor did the massive fangs jutting from that pointed face of his. But, oddity seemed to be the essential ingredient of all monsters. They were twisted, unnatural things, devoid largely of the sensibilities of true wildlife.@@novelbin@@

With its charge dodged, the creature's anger increased. It and a Hobgoblin certainly seemed to be equal when it came to wrath. It snarled its displeasure and pounded those massive front paws against the ground, making the small stones nearest it jump into the air from the sheer impact of the reverberation.