The Flame-Tailed Tiger's territory was a stretch of burned forest where nothing grew and the air smelled of ash and old blood. Bai Xiaochun's squad — himself, Du Lingfei, and a grim-faced Inner Sect disciple named Hou Xiaomei — crouched behind a fallen log and watched the tiger pace through the charred trees.

The tiger was enormous, easily three times the size of the alpha wolf that had nearly killed Bai Xiaochun, and its tail — as advertised — was wreathed in actual fire. The fire wasn't just decorative, either. Every time the tiger's tail twitched, nearby bushes ignited.

'Standard attack pattern,' Du Lingfei said, her voice barely a whisper. 'Hou Xiaomei will engage from the front. I'll flank from the left. Bai Xiaochun, you're on the right.'

'I'll be in the back,' Bai Xiaochun suggested.

'You'll be on the right.'

'Is there a position further back than the right?'

Du Lingfei gave him a look that had ended many conversations before they started. 'You're the one the obelisk said is hard to kill. If anyone's going to take a tiger claw to the chest, it should be you.'

Bai Xiaochun could not argue with the logic, but he resented it deeply.

The attack began with Hou Xiaomei's war cry — a piercing shriek that was meant to intimidate the tiger and mostly succeeded in scaring the birds out of every nearby tree. The tiger spun to face the threat, its fiery tail carving an arc of light through the air.

Bai Xiaochun took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and ran toward the tiger. His legs were screaming at him to run in the opposite direction, but he had learned in the past months that screaming legs could be ignored. Just barely.