Rising from the Ashes (Andrew and Lauren)

A ferocious roar echoed through the dark mountain forest. In the pitch-black wilderness under the moonless night, the sound was particularly bone-chilling.

With the dim light from the torch ahead, Andrew could finally see what it was. It was a massive black shadow leaping high into the air, its long tail whipping through the surrounding brush and snapping branches left and right.

At first, Andrew thought it was a bear. On land, when it came to predators of this size, bears were the only thing he could think of. However, he quickly realized he was wrong-it was not a bear.

With two powerful leaps, the enormous black shadow caught up to Ralph and raised its claws, slashing viciously across the survival expert's back.

"Help me, Mr. Keller! And you brave men from Patoajo, help me! Save me!" His terrified cries for help echoed through the forest, absolutely blood-curdling.

A series of musket shots rang out at that moment, and bursts of sparks exploded in the dark. No one knew how many shots hit the creature, but the giant shadow crashed into the trees from the impact.

After two weak growls, the ground trembled slightly. Incredibly, after taking about eight bullets, the creature was not dead. Instead, it had escaped.

Buzz commanded the Patoajo warriors, "Reload now! That beast could come back any moment. Stay alert!"

Some of the warriors quickly and calmly cleared the residue from their muskets and refilled them with gunpowder.

Mohave was the youngest and most inexperienced among the group of Patoajo warriors. Andrew watched as he fumbled with the reload, his hands trembling, clearly rattled by the earlier attack.

The weapons these tribal men carried were extremely primitive gunpowder firearms, and these things could not even really be called guns. In fact, they were more like gunpowder launchers.

They fired lead shots, iron pellets, or iron balls with limited power and terrible accuracy. If they had modern submachine guns or assault rifles instead, that monster would have been killed on the spot.

Then again, it depended on the shooter. If Andrew had been the one holding a musket just now, and at that distance, he would have blown the thing's head wide open.

Chantelle rushed forward with a grave expression and knelt down to examine him. "Mr. Sutton, are you okay?"

Ralph lay sprawled on the ground, screaming in agony. When Chantelle lifted his skirt to check his back under the flashlight, they saw that the half-inch-thick bulletproof steel plate had actually been torn through, leaving five massive claw marks.

Logan exclaimed in shock, "Holy crap! That thing's claws were brutal. What kind of creature was that beast? Nowadays, there's no way any wild predators of that size still exist in Etharia."

No one answered his question because everyone else was still reeling from the shock of what had just happened.

Magnus, the geomancy specialist, was mumbling prayers nonstop, barely able to stay standing. "A Dire Tiger! That had to be a Dire Tiger-one of those legendary beasts."noveldrama

Tiana snorted. "Ridiculous. Even the Etharian mountain lions couldn't possibly be that size. It looked more like a massive bear."

Andrew shook his head. "It wasn't a bear. Bears don't have that kind of agility." As he spoke, he looked toward Buzz, the leader of the Patoajo warriors. Buzz was also staring intently back at Andrew. "You've got nerves of steel, sir. When that beast was attacking, everyone else was hiding and scared stiff."