When I was worried about finding the Super tier tiger and Golden Lion Beast. There was something I did not account for even with the maps that Luo clan woman gave me.
The simple reality that Super tier creatures with their quite literal super and extreme stats were not in any fucking way subtle in their actions.
I wasn't that good of a tracker still. But one didn't need 'good' tracking skills to notice a tree that had been knocked over and some poor bastard was impaled on a jagged chunk of the leftover stump.
'Male... From the look of things from his face at least. Do tigers also store leftover food like leopards sometimes stash their food in tree's as well?' I mused to myself with a slight grimace.
As there was the chest was a crater of dried blood and a large spike of wood that had impaled him a good couple meters off the ground so predators woudn't be able to get at him so easily.
But besides just that, there was a couple lines of blood. One from where he was killed and dragged to be impaled on the tree stump. And a thinner line going off into the distance.
The line of the killer, and seeing the large jagged puncture wounds on his body in clear places from his Mutated tier armor shattering under the bite force of a predator. I was fairly sure it was that damned tiger that had a taste for human flesh.
Following the more clear blood trail I evantually got used to the tracks of what was certainly a big cat. And that trail was the best lead I had which I followed carefully.
And that trail... I followed it for two fucking days. I would sleep in the branches of tall tree's to keep myself off the ground. As following the trail of that big cat wasn't difficult as although this area was more on the mountainous side at this point.
An elephant sized tiger with giant claws would scratch the rocks it walked upon. If it walked across gravel, a very large and clear paw print would be left behind.
And soon enough... I 'found' something. But in reality. A chest vibrating roar that echoed across the mountains hit my ears and I perked up as I recongized it as a lions roar in particular!
'The Golden Lion Beast? Wait is that tiger already fucking with it?' I wondered as my feet cracked the ground beneath my feet with a Shave as I launched myself down the mountain towards where I thought the roar was coming from.
It was a stark reminder that with the shape of the mountains that made things echo and the power in the roar of a lion that it took me running full tilt several miles over the next ten minutes to catch another roar that was even louder as I got closer to the source.
Finally! I reached the source of the roaring and the sounds of combat hit my ears as snarls and feline screams hit my ears. Along with the sounds of the surrounding rocks shattering with the force of two cats fighting one another!
The Golden Lion Beast... Was fucking massive. And with a pelt and skin utterly unharmable by anything in the first sanctuary according to Han Sen's account as the mother lioness tore into that tiger that killed Han Sen himself.
And here and now I could truly see what the tiger's true nature was. The male tiger didn't have any special elemental affinity besides extreme speed! Speed that was completely unreasonable in fact!
'Yup... Fuck that. I can't keep up with that tiger that could knock me down and then tear into me.' I thought as I realized something else as I watched the battle.
The tiger wasn't stupid. It was waiting for the Golden Lion Beast to give birth to then eat the cub!
As I could literally see the lion's body going through contractions as she roared furiously and batted at the faster tiger that avoided a direct fight.
A direct fight that the tiger very clearly knew it couldn't win. As it was limping on a leg that had been clearly bitten into by the lion.
'I wonder... In the prime timeline where Han Sen didn't die. I wonder if this tiger went after the Golden Lion Beast and just died. Which is why Han Sen never ran into the tiger.' I mused to myself as I carefully hid myself.
Because why the hell would I force myself into this fight between two Super tier beasts when I could just wait for them to fight it out to the death! I just wanted to get the last hit in, to deal the death blow in order to secure the Beast Soul's of these beasts.
I coudn't care less about who won the fight!
And so I watched, and watched, and watched as the lion and tiger fought for hours. Even as the lion fought off the impending birth of the next generation of it's kin that was within itself.
And eventually. When the Golden Lion Beast took a heavy scratch to the face to bite another set of holes into the flank of that Swift Tiger. I watched as the tiger howled in anger and took off with a heavy blood trail, leaving behind it as it ran off to go lick it's wounds.
'So that's how its going... The tiger isn't nearly as strong as this bullshit lion that doesn't belong in the First Sanctuary, even if it's in the midst of giving birth. So it fights and weakens her, and just keeps on coming back. It is trying to exhaust the mother to death.' I thought.
As for why the tiger was so determined to kill and consume the child of the tiger, and probably the mother as well was very simple. Even the beasts here in the First Sanctuary had the chance for advancement. If they became strong enough, they could get taken to the next Sanctuary and into the service of one of the Spirits.