33: The Tiger’s Last Resort
Episode 33: The Tiger’s Last Resort
“Huuu, huuuu, huuuuu!”
Tae is being tortured.
“Huuu, huuuu, huuuuu!”
Tae was locked up in a laboratory installed inside Grid and Jeong Gang-rim’s flagship.
Originally, this was the laboratory Talia used most frequently, but it had become vacant after she moved her residence to Fox Island.
All items had been moved to the laboratory on Fox Island, leaving behind only the bare minimum of equipment and supplies.
The Tiger Clan chief was being held captive in that now-empty laboratory.
He was restrained on a delivery table, completely naked.
A gag with a hole in the center was forced into his mouth,
and numerous electrode pads were attached all over his body.
“Huff, huff, huff, huff!”
Due to the electric current flowing from the numerous pads, Tai was subjected to nonstop electric shocks every day.
No matter how hard he tried to hold on, even the mighty Tai found it difficult to endure the pain of electric shocks coming at him from all directions.
“Zzzzzzt, zzzzzzt, zzzzzzzzt!”
It hurts. It’s torture. Let me go. Let me go, let me go!
Even as he pleaded like this, no one listened to Tai.
Even as tears streamed endlessly from Tai’s eyes,
even as saliva dripped down his chin,
even as breast milk flowed from his chest due to the stimulation,
even as clear liquid and hot liquid flowed simultaneously from between his legs,
not a single person stepped forward to save Tai.
No, there was no way there could be.
With nothing but enemies around, how could she possibly ask for help?
“Why? Why must I, the strongest in the tribe, Lord Tai, have to endure this?”
There was no one within the tribe, nor among the beastmen, who could overpower Tai.
The only one who could even hold a candle to him was Su-ah, the leader of the Nine-Tailed Fox clan, but even she could not defeat Tai in hand-to-hand combat.
Tai was immensely proud of himself for this.
He believed he had reached the same level of dignity as his father, the previous chieftain.
After all, his father had been so strong that no beastman could defeat him.
The thought that he had become as strong as his father made Tai’s shoulders rise instinctively.
And it was Grid, that hopeless piece of trash, who shattered those raised shoulders.
He shattered them, leaving him with a body that could never again live as a warrior.
Because of that piece of trash, Tai had become nothing more than a lab rat locked behind bars.
Why had he been reduced to a slave?
Was it only natural to lose everything after a single defeat?
Was it only natural to lose everything and become a plaything?
Why must he become that scum’s plaything?
Must he be tortured until his mind is reduced to dust?
As he endured the electric shock torture, Tai asked himself over and over.
Why did this happen? What went wrong?
What caused him to fall this far?
“Why, why do I have to suffer this for that piece of trash?!”
More than two weeks had passed since the Suin Alliance’s invasion of Rabbit Island.
Judging that matters had settled to some extent, Kangrim issued an order to return to their regular duties.
Following that order, Atria took the prisoners back to Fox Island,
and Iris resumed her conquest activities.
With his wounds healed, Kangrim resumed his visits to the occupied territories, which had been put on hold.
Tae was forced to tag along on Kang-rim’s schedule.
Kang-rim claimed he was taking Tae along to personally train him,
but he had a different, hidden motive.
‘H-how dare you use me as a tool….’
A tool for controlling the occupied territories.
Kang-rim publicly exposes Tae—once hailed as the strongest fighter in the Beast-Human Alliance—now reduced to a slave.
He made sure the whole world saw Tai writhing in agony as he was subjected to electric torture in front of everyone.
Gangrim exposed Tai, who was screaming in agony after being raped by him, to the beastmen living in the occupied territories.
Upon seeing this, the beastmen lost even the slightest trace of resistance.
They realized that once the strongest had fallen to slavery, fighting was no longer meaningful.
This isn’t limited to the occupied territories alone.
As rumors spread that Tiga had been reduced to a slave, more and more Suin began defecting from the Alliance to submit to Kang-rim.
Even though they knew full well what would happen once they were subjugated.
That’s how much Tae-gi was a symbol of hope for the beastmen, and with that hope shattered, it was only natural that they would surrender.
If Tae-gi hadn’t chosen to spare Kang-rim for a prisoner exchange, he wouldn’t be being used as a propaganda tool like this now.
“Why did I do such a stupid thing….”
Tae still regrets it to this day.
If only he hadn’t hesitated and had turned Kang-rim’s head into minced meat.
Why didn’t he just go for it without thinking about the consequences?
If he’d at least saved the warriors, it might have been different, but didn’t he fail at that too?
If he’d known it would turn out this way, he should have killed him right then and there.
But no matter how much Tai regretted it, it was impossible to turn back the clock.
It was impossible to restore the warriors, who had been reduced to breeding stock for that trash, to their former selves.
It was impossible to restore his own body, which had been altered by that trash, to its original state.
And,
it was also impossible to undo the fact that he had given birth to a child with that trash’s blood mixed in.
“It’s a girl. Thank goodness it’s not a boy.”
Tae gave birth to a daughter on Rabbit Island.
This was because her labor suddenly began just before they were set to set sail.
Gangrim temporarily halted their departure to assist Tae with the birth.
Though all he could do was hold her hand.
And so, Tai had to endure the humiliation of giving birth to her enemy’s child right in front of him.
She also had to suffer the indignity of having her baby taken away the moment she gave birth.
“You’re just livestock, aren’t you?”
That was the reason.
“It is my duty as the owner to manage the offspring of my livestock. Livestock are supposed to be raised separately anyway.”
“Since you’re livestock, you have no right to raise it.”
For such a preposterous reason, Kang-rim sent Tai’s daughter to the nursery.
From then on, the daughter would be reborn as a warrior devoted entirely to Kang-rim.
“It’s hard, isn’t it? Painful? Then surrender. Surrender and accept reality. Then you can be at ease, just like Su-ah.”
Gang-rim urged Tae to surrender.
And then,
-As proof of your surrender, hand over your Tiger Clan’s sacred artifact to me.
He also presented the terms of surrender.
-I know everything. Just like the Gumiho, I know that you Tigers have an object that has been guarded by your ancestors for generations.
Sua, the leader of the Gumiho Clan, became Trash’s livestock.
As proof of her subjugation, Su-ah presented Trash with an object directly tied to the survival of the Nine-Tailed Fox Clan.
She offered the purple spirit stone—a sacred artifact passed down through generations of Nine-Tailed Fox Clan chieftains—to the trash before her.
“Just as Su-ah did, hand over your sacred artifact to me.”
That was the condition Kang-rim had set,
and Tae had not the slightest intention of accepting it.
“I won’t give it to him. I’ll never give it to him!”
She hadn’t lost yet. She had merely been defeated by a momentary lapse in concentration.
Just because she had been defeated didn’t mean everything was over.
She could get back up. She could stand up and fight. If she could fight, she could avenge herself.
So there would be no surrender. She wouldn’t hand over the sacred artifact passed down through generations of the Tiger Clan either.
No matter what humiliation he suffered, he would never bow his head to that scum.
Even if torture killed him, he would never say he would become a slave.
Even if he were used as that bastard’s breeding stock…
In that moment, Tai’s mind went blank.
Even the pain of electric currents piercing his body felt nonexistent at that very moment.
‘Damn it.’
Tae remembers.
“Ah, aaaah! My stomach, my stomach!”
The day her water broke and the contractions began.
The day she writhed in agony that went beyond the feeling of her flesh being torn apart.
No other day had been as painful as that one.
Nor had there been a day when she felt as relieved to have her enemy by her side as she did that day.
The pain of childbirth was nothing short of a living hell for Tai—so much so that such a thought crossed her mind.
The vortex of pain that had been tormenting Tai vanished in an instant.
Instead, a loud cry echoed, as if to prove that she had finally emerged into the world.
At the sight of her daughter, who looked exactly like her, Tai was instantly overcome with terror.
And she realized instinctively.
That she had now become a piece of trash’s livestock.
That as livestock, she would now have to bear soldiers for this bastard for the rest of her life.
She realized that with all her strength and ability to fight gone, all that remained was despair.
But Tai didn’t want to give up.
“I have to escape from here somehow.”
She had to flee before she lost herself completely.
If she stayed like this, she would truly be destroyed.
-I’ll leave her like this until this round of inspections is over.
This is training. It is not torture. It is part of the training designed to break Tai’s spirit.
I’ll stop if it becomes dangerous, but until then, I’ll leave you like this.
When your hate-filled gaze is filled with despair, I’ll set you free.
Choose whether you’ll stay like this until the schedule is over and we return to Fox Island, or whether you’ll wave the white flag.
Gangrim left after saying only that,
and Tai had no intention of surrendering or simply enduring this.
‘Who do you think is afraid?’
No matter what he does, I will win. I will definitely rip his head off.
Despite Tai’s resolve, her body was trembling violently like an aspen tree.
‘I won’t lose. I won’t lose.’
Even as she repeated those words to herself, there was nothing Tai could actually do.
“….”
No, there was one thing left.
“Aren’t you going to use that power?”
While preparing for the invasion of Rabbit Island, Su-ah’s younger sister, Seol-hwa, spoke up.
Su-ah’s younger sister, who had gone into hiding after Fox Island fell, suddenly showed up and urged Tai to use her trump card.
“I heard that the Su-in possess the power to return to their true forms.”
It is said that in the past, the Su-in did not look as they do now.
Literally, they were beasts, but it is said that through the grace of the Creator, they came to take on human forms.
Also,
-I heard that if you use the magical artifact you possess, you’ll return to your true form. My older sister told me that.
It’s said that if a shapeshifter desires power—even if it means giving up their current form—they can return to their true form.
Currently, there are virtually no shapeshifters who can use that ability.
The only ones who might be able to are the leaders of the Gumiho clan and the Tiger clan.
These two clans are the only ones that possess sacred artifacts passed down through generations.
They can use those artifacts as a medium to return to their true forms.
Seol-hwa urged Tae to use that power.
“If there’s a way to end this, you should use it. Are you just going to leave it there like a sacred object? If we leave it like this, we’ll all be doomed. Surely you don’t want us all to meet King Yama together, do you?”
As if foreseeing the future, Seol-hwa urged him to use that power.
“Use it. If you don’t, you’ll regret it for the rest of your life.”
Even after hearing those words, Tae ignored her.
He was already strong enough without using that power—why on earth should he use it?
His father had specifically warned him not to use it recklessly. Wasn’t it a bit excessive just to take on a pirate leader?
After all, that Grid guy wasn’t exactly a living disaster.
-I warned you.
Leaving only those words behind, Seol-hwa walked away.
-Ugh, they’re all such fools. Why do they act so recklessly?
Tae was a bit surprised that the usually mature girl had spoken so harshly, but that didn’t matter.
The most important thing was that Tae had ignored Seol-hwa’s warning.
Because he ignored it, Tae now faced the worst possible outcome.
He was now in a situation where he was being tortured with electric shocks, not knowing when he might be roasted alive.
Would the situation have been different if he had done as Seol-hwa said?
Tae regretted it, but that didn’t matter now.
There was only one thing that mattered.
Whether he would unleash that power or not.
‘If I use it, I’ll have no choice but to live as a beast for the rest of my life. But….’
There’s no other choice. I have no other option. I have no choice but to become a true beast.
That is the only chance to kill that scum and bring peace to the Beast-Human Alliance.
If that’s the case, there’s no reason to hesitate.
“Huuu, huu, huu, huu, huu!”
Tae began chanting the spell in his mind.
A spell that had been passed down through the generations, but one that must never be used.
And then,
●●●
-Kwaaaaah!
With the scream of a massive monster, the flagship of the Descent exploded.