Sunlight filtered through the lush forest and spilled down.
In a clearing among the trees, Ace and Sabo stood one in front of the other, steel pipes in hand, trapping a striped Raging Tiger between them as they watched it intently.
"Ace, here I go!"
Behind the Raging Tiger, Sabo tightened his grip on the steel pipe and suddenly called out to warn his companion some distance away.
"Yeah!"
Hearing this, Ace also tightened his grip on his steel pipe, nodded lightly, and answered.
As soon as their voices fell, only a few short breaths passed before both children moved at once, charging at the Raging Tiger before them almost simultaneously.
They started at the same time, but their speeds differed. Sabo, positioned behind the tiger, was faster. He rushed directly behind it and swung his iron bar viciously at one of its hind legs.
No one knew why Sabo had chosen to target the tiger's leg bones. For a little runt his age, facing a striped Raging Tiger nearly three meters long, even if the tiger stood still and let him strike it with a steel pipe, he might not have been able to break through its defenses.
Moreover, the leg bones were among the hardest parts of a tiger's body. Even with a steel pipe in hand, he might not have been able to harm it at all.
Sabo moved swiftly, his steel pipe descending toward the tiger's leg. But just as his attack was about to land, the tiger, which had been facing Ace, seemed to have eyes on the back of its head. Both hind legs kicked off together, and using its front paws as leverage, its entire body sprang up.
The instant it avoided Ace's attack, the tiger completed a turn in midair. Its gaping