Chapter 64: It Was Playing With Him

The Tiger King continued toward Ethan one slow step at a time.

Ethan’s eyes remained fixed on the massive beast.

It was close enough now that he could see scraps of flesh caught between its long canine teeth. Strings of dried blood clung to the fur around its muzzle. Its breath came in heavy, wet rumbles, hot enough that Ethan could almost feel it from five meters away.

Those amber vertical pupils held nothing but pure killing intent.

No panic.

No hesitation.

Just the calm certainty of a predator that already knew how this would end.

Step.

Another step.

The cracked asphalt groaned under its weight. Dust drifted up around its paws. The dark-red King marking on its forehead pulsed once, faint and steady, like a heartbeat.

When the Tiger King was only five meters away, Ethan suddenly spoke.

"Time Stop."

The moment the ability activated, the Tiger King’s raised front paw stopped in midair.

Its entire body froze.

Even the dust hanging around its claws hung motionless.

Ethan’s eyes widened.

It works.

Even against a Quasi-King mutant beast.

That was enough.

He didn’t waste another second.

One-Way Teleportation activated.

His body disappeared.

For the briefest moment before the teleportation completed, Ethan caught a glimpse of the Tiger King’s pupils contracting. The frozen muscles around its eyes twitched by the smallest fraction~as if the beast had felt the world shift around it and was already trying to understand.

Its raised paw remained suspended in the air.

The beast clearly hadn’t expected its prey to simply vanish.

Inside the Survival Space, Ethan immediately collapsed onto the ground.

He was breathing heavily.

Sweat covered his forehead and soaked through the back of his shirt. His hands were shaking. The one-second freeze had worked, but using Time Stop against something that strong had drained more from him than he wanted to admit.

"That was too close."

Outside, the Tiger King released a deep, furious growl.

The sound rolled through the ruined streets like distant thunder. Its claws scraped against the ground, carving long gouges into the pavement as it circled the spot where Ethan had disappeared. It sniffed. Searched. Paced.

It remained there for nearly ten minutes before finally stopping.

Ethan waited.

After catching his breath, he forced himself to stand and checked his supplies.

The diesel remaining in the Survival Space was enough to keep the generator running and maintain the ventilation system for another seven days.

He also had ten bottles of Healing Essence remaining.

Ethan stared at the ceiling.

It should have left by now.

He cautiously extended his consciousness outside the Survival Space.

The moment he sensed what was waiting for him, his expression darkened.

The Tiger King hadn’t left.

It was lying exactly where Ethan had disappeared.

Its enormous head rested on its front paws.

Its eyes were half-closed, almost as if it were sleeping.

But its attention was still fixed on the exact spot where Ethan had vanished.

Not sleeping.

Waiting.

Ethan’s face twitched.

This damn thing is waiting for me.

The beast had figured it out.

It knew Ethan hadn’t actually escaped.

And it was willing to wait.

So Ethan waited too.

---

The next six days became a nightmare.

Every day, Ethan followed the same routine.

He would first drink a bottle of Healing Essence to restore his stamina and heal whatever injuries he had accumulated. The liquid burned going down, then spread through his body in waves of heat that knitted torn muscle and closed open cuts just enough for him to move again.

Then he would wait for the Tiger King to become drowsy.

The moment he stepped out of the Survival Space, he would activate Time Stop.

One second.

That was all he needed.

During that single second, he would immediately use One-Way Teleportation and begin putting distance between himself and the beast.

Then he would keep teleporting.

Six times.

Over and over again.

He tried every location he could think of.

On the first day, Ethan teleported to the roof of a telecommunications tower nearly one hundred meters tall.

He landed near the edge of the rooftop and finally allowed himself a breath of relief. The wind up there was sharp and cold. The city stretched out below him in broken lines of concrete and rusted steel.

There’s no way that thing can climb this.

He had barely finished speaking when the entire building shook.

Boom!

Ethan’s expression changed.

He looked over the edge.

The Tiger King was climbing.

It wasn’t climbing normally.

It was using the external air-conditioning units embedded in the building’s outer wall as footholds. Its claws punched into metal and concrete like they were soft wood. Its enormous body moved upward with frightening speed, hauling itself from unit to unit without hesitation.

Step after step.

It looked less like an animal climbing a building and more like a monster scaling a cliff.

You’re kidding me.

The Tiger King reached the rooftop.

Its enormous paw smashed through the metal railing. The barrier folded like paper. Chunks of concrete and twisted metal rained toward the street far below.

Ethan immediately activated his second teleportation.

Space twisted.

He disappeared.

He reappeared on the glass dome of an adjacent shopping mall.

The glass beneath his feet creaked.

Then cracked.

Ethan looked down.

The Tiger King had followed him.

Its massive paws landed on the glass dome.

Crack!

A spiderweb of fractures spread beneath its weight. The entire structure groaned. Ethan could see the empty atrium below through the spreading lines~abandoned escalators, overturned displays, the dark shapes of old vehicles still parked inside.

Not here.

Ethan teleported again.

This time, he appeared inside the underground parking garage.

The glass dome shattered behind him.

The Tiger King crashed through after him in a rain of glass and steel. The impact shook the garage. Fluorescent lights flickered and died. The beast landed hard, then rose without slowing, amber eyes already locking onto the direction Ethan had fled.

That became the pattern.

Everywhere Ethan went, the beast followed.

Abandoned subway tunnels, where the air stank of stagnant water and rust. Locked bank vaults that took the Tiger King less than a minute to tear open. Empty warehouses filled with dust and broken crates. Sewer systems crawling with Mutant Cockroaches that scattered in every direction the moment the Tiger King entered.

It didn’t matter.

Walls were useless.

Doors were useless.

Concrete was useless.

The Tiger King tore through every obstacle as though they were made of cardboard. Sometimes it simply walked through them. Sometimes it climbed. Sometimes it waited until Ethan thought he was safe~then ripped the floor or ceiling apart from the other side.

And somehow, it always found him.

The beast never seemed to hurry.

It simply followed.

Neither too close nor too far.

Always there.

Always watching.

What disturbed Ethan the most was the feeling that the Tiger King wasn’t simply hunting him.

It was playing with him.

Several times, Ethan came within inches of death.

The Tiger King’s paw could have crushed his skull. Instead, it would suddenly shift its attack at the last moment. The force of the claws alone was enough to tear open his back, leaving long, burning lines of blood down his spine.

Other times, the beast would deliberately slow down.

It would watch Ethan hide behind some piece of cover~a concrete barrier, a wrecked truck, a collapsed wall.

Then it would slowly tear the obstacle apart with its teeth.

Piece by piece.

As though it wanted Ethan to understand that hiding was pointless.

You bastard.

Ethan clutched his injured ribs.

Pain flashed through his body so violently that his vision darkened. He could taste blood again. His legs felt unsteady. Healing Essence could close the wounds, but it couldn’t erase the exhaustion settling deeper into his bones with every escape.

But the Tiger King simply stared at him.

Waiting.

Its amber eyes never blinked.

Its breathing stayed calm.

And in the silence between chases, Ethan understood something worse than the pain:

The Tiger King wasn’t trying to kill him quickly.

It was teaching him that no matter where he ran, no matter how many times he vanished, it would still be there when the next second ended.