A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor

They took a second to focus, as they took in Oliver, and soon Verdant as he arrived behind him. Then, in a shower of rubble that fell from its back as it arose, it let loose a deafening roar, getting its legs under it.

Those legs were just as stony-looking as its body. The book said that it wasn't actual stone that the creature was made out of, but a grey carapace that was equally as hard. Those that nested for a while would often awake with calcium deposits on their body, as their own naturally occurring minerals reacted with the soil and stones that fell on them.

Despite its size, it had fewer legs than a normal crab. A mere four pillars were what supported it, as was the case for much of mammalian life. Yet that was where the comparison to mammals ended. These legs had three sets of knees to each of them, or at the very least, three joints, giving them an odd sort of manoeuvrability.

It scuttled more like a spider than a crab, and despite being the size of one of Oliver's lecture halls, it made it to the centre of the mountain platform in but an instant.

"GET THEM BACK!" Oliver shouted. The book hadn't mentioned how fast the creature would be. It had repeatedly mentioned the creature's strength and size instead – its ability to easily flatten thick trees as though they were nothing more than twigs. The speed was what made it dangerous.

"BACK DOWN!" Oliver said again. Verdant was moving too slow for his liking. "JORAH! EVERYONE! TO THE BOTTOM OF THE HILL!"

Oliver's sword was free of his belt. Before he charged to meet the Boulder Crab, he caught Gavlian watching, his expression strict, as if to tell Oliver that this mess was his fault. Of course, he wasn't wrong.

Diving off to the side, Oliver drew the crab away from the slope, and back onto the stone platform on the mountainside where it had made its home. He prayed that it would follow.

It glanced at Verdant with its bulbous eyes, but then moved to follow Oliver. A sigh of relief came from the boy, as the creature came in at impossible speed. It swung one of those green crab claws down at him like a hammer, only, these hammers were bigger than horses. Oliver dared to raise his sword to block it, or at least, guide the strike off to the side.

All he heard was a deafening crack, as the tip of his weapon snapped clean off. He didn't manage to redirect even a fraction of its force. He was sent hurtling backwards towards the cliff. He hit it hard, and he felt blood on his lips.

He slid six feet to the floor, landing hard.

How strange it was. That much pain. Was that a broken rib that he felt? With a groan, he arose. It was hard to tell. So much pain.

There were probably lines running through his entire body. He was lucky he hadn't broken his back… though his sword hadn't been so lucky. He took a quick accounting of the situation in the half second before the Boulder Crab's next attack. Pain all over his body, a shattered blade… And yet he felt good.

Those tremors that he'd felt on the way up here had receded. The aching in his stomach had disappeared, replaced with the pain of physical damage instead. Physical damage was something that he could deal with, though. Even his head felt clearer. It was as though he'd been plunged into cold waters, and woken back up, revived.

He ducked his head, and a section of the cliff face behind him shattered, as the Boulder Crab's claw dug in deep. A giant chunk of rock bit off and hit his shoulder. Oliver spared himself the worst of the damage as he rolled out of the way.

A quick reappraisal of the Boulder Crab – it was by far and away the strongest enemy that he'd ever faced. Even that Full-Titan that he'd met in the mountains couldn't compare, and Oliver was sure that he was stronger now than he was then. The battle with Francis had changed him, strengthened him. He still hadn't tested the limits of his increased strength since then. He hadn't been able to do it.

But this Boulder Crab – a remnant of Pandora, or so it was said of all the different monsters that inhabited the land. Though, there were some that could not claim her name. Oliver didn't understand all the details of such research, and how the scholars determined from whence the beastly creatures came from. He didn't need to know. His sword would find out.

Again, he rolled out of the way. Another claw smashed into the ground where he'd just been, sending up a wave of shrapnel. That shrapnel flew out and cut Oliver's cheeks and his forearms from where he attempted to protect his face.
Experience new stories on empire

No, it wasn't just that this Boulder Crab was a worthy opponent. It wasn't that it was strong enough to finally test him – it was that it was stronger than him. For the first time in so long, ever since the death of his master, he'd been able to test himself against something greater than he. A feeling of elation ensued at that.

The next claw slammed even closer. Death was right around the corner, his heart bounded in fear, yet why did he feel so alive? Why did it feel like he was taking in more of the world than he ever had before? With the pain that had come from his surviving whatever Francis had done to him, he'd been in perpetual concentration, trying to contain it,, trying to act normal…

Gods, that must have been what it was like for Dominus, all those years, trying to contain the poison of the Pandora Goblin. What poison afflicted Oliver? What had made his fragments seemingly burn away?