IRON TIGER'S PATH

"I'll go flank them on the left. You help Luce."

Hector released his cores, two green, four blue, and one black. Then the four blue cores glow simultaneously.

As they glow, changes began to happen to Hector's body. His skin became brick red and his limbs bulged, a tiger head tattoo formed on his back and blue runes came out of it.

In that single moment, he became a giant red man with claws on his fingers and runes all over his body. He was about eight feet tall now.

[ IRON TIGER'S PATH - RED TITAN ]

As soon as Duke Levi saw Hector transform, he headed straight to where Luce is going. As he saw Luce, he's mood became grim. He gasped as he saw the bloody face of the man who he has deemed as the strongest man in the empire.

"What are you doing here, old man?! Stay away, you can't beat this guy!", Luce screamed in rage as he saw the old man running towards him in shock.

'Why are you still here?! You could've waited for me in the middle ring!', Luce thought, full of regret and anger, he's angry at himself as he underestimated the opponent.

"Wow, what a display! The Marquis Velfort of Iron Mountain is here and as well as the Grand Duke of Leviathan, the uncle of the Emperor?! I can't believe you're together with this man, I will deem you two as a traitor as well, then!"

Lumiere stopped at a tree branch and watch the situation unfold. Luce is now leaning on Levi and while Hector fought the Zodiacs that seemed to have changed completely.

"We will get you out of here, Luce. I promise you! Even if one of us has to die, you must come back! Ack-!"

Hector shouted at them but took a blow to his stomach and was sent flying to the giant trees.

"Your too noisy, can we just finish this and go home, I don't have time for this useless fighting."

Mu, the Martial King said as he brush of the dust off his robe. His the one who sent Hector flying.

"Lumiere, let them go. They have no part on this. They just wanted to escape from the Empire.", Luce said, panting. He was exhausted due to bearing the combined attacks Lumiere and the Zodiacs.

He had no choice but to run at the moment he saw them chasing him, he won't kill Lumiere, not with the Zodiacs together with him.

"Hector, do me a favor this time. Please live.", Luce said.

"I'll try my best. Maybe if I had a better breakfast this morning, I'll be able to beat the shit out of them."

Hector got up and released his cores, then his aura glew indigo. It means, it's time he got serious.

[ 7TH STAR CORE: MANIFESTATION - IRON TIGER]

Suddenly, the tattoo on Hector's back became alive and used it's ethereal paws to touch the ground. A moment later, a huge black tiger, was standing with it's hind legs beside it's master.

The two were both equal in height and released the same color of aura.

"Hahaha! Let's go!!!", Hector shouted as he and his tiger attacked at both sides, gaining control.

Even though they were eleven of them, the heroes are suppressed due to the overwhelming power of a [Saint Rank] at it's later stage.

Hector leaped up to punch Mu, one of the heroes in the face. Mu got caught and smashed on the ground, falling unconscious.

Hector spat the dirt on his mouth at Mu's face then walked towards the other five.

"One down."

Mu, in terms of hand to hand combat was the best on the twelve Zodiacs but, he was overwhelmed simply with power of the guardian of the Iron Mountain, Hector Velfort.

The other five got angry at Hector but, they can't do anything to him without their most powerful attacks.

"Jack, cover me!"

One of the two women in the group summoned her weapon soul, a bow, and aim directly at Hector.

Jack the Ripper, dashed ahead with his weapon soul and swung the big scythe in the neck of Hector.

"HAHAHA! You think you can beat the Zodiacs?! You're imagining things!", Jack said in mid-air as his scythe met the neck of the eight foot tall Hector.

The body and the weapon soul collided with a large clang and Jack lost all his hope as his weapon soul, that he was most proud of, bounced on the neck of Hector and left nothing but dirt.

"No! Impossible!", Jack sat down on the ground, his legs trembling and despair was in his face.

Hector grabbed Jack's head like nothing and lifted him up by the neck until their faces are facing each other.

"Are you imagining this?", Hector said to him with a fearsome grin.

Jack, out of fear lost consciousness in the hands of Hector then the other three also attacked him in all directions.

Hector instinctively threw the baggage in his hand towards the girl with the bow but, he found his feet stuck in the ground.

Turns out, it was Dastan, the King of the Sand, used his ability on Hector.

[THIRD STAR CORE - SCORPION SAND PIT]

Behind Dastan, who was releasing all his gracia to hold Hector was a woman wearing a golden silk dress with black hair above her shoulders.

"Janus, now!", the woman shouted.

Hector struggled to get away from the sand pit to look for the other one on his blind spots and found a man with floating mirrors circulating around him.

[GEMINI'S PATH - REFRACTAL MIRRORS]

Suddenly, all the mirrors flew towards Hector and took all his eye view's directions, parallel to each other.

'What is these?!', Hector thought in irritation.

"Cleo, charm him!", Dastan ordered the woman.

[VIRGO'S PATH - SERPENT'S TEMPTATION]

All six cores of Cleo glew simultaneously then a golden fog flew towards the mirrors.

Hector watched the flew and bounced around towards his face repeatedly. His face shows no panic at all.

As Hector was concentrating on the fog all of them attacked together, including the other five on the side of his seventh ability.

The other five took it down as they saw Hector was struggling to get away and was met with a combination of the three of their comrades.

The eleven heroes dashed towards Hector to finish as they thought he was charmed, including Dastan who let Hector go out from his sand pit.

"Your dead!!", Jack shouted with a big smile on his face. His got to behead the Iron Tiger.

Suddenly, Hector released his two green cores and they glowed simultaneously.

[IRON TIGER'S PATH - TIGER KING'S ROAR]

Hector roared super loud that the eleven heroes flew away from the shockwave and was smashed to the big trees.

They all spew out blood and fell unconscious under the enormous trees. Hopefully, none of the trees have fallen or Hector has to clean it up after the battle.

"Whew! That was a nice fight! Thankfully, all of you are only [Legend Rank] if not, I'm gonna have to get serious. Train more and have battle experience, you morons."

Hector turned back to his normal size, with golden yellow hair and beard, and the normal sized muscles.

Hector fell flat on the ground and lay there and tried to feel the presence of Levi and Luce.

However, he was shocked to feel nothing, even Lumiere, the man with the monocle.

"Where the hell are they?"