William stepped away from Aboubakar, staring at the man’s outstretched hand as if it were a cobra poised to strike.
‘Tell me, friend … how many pieces of silver did they buy you for?’ William asked softly, ‘And was it worth it, to lose your very soul?’
The broad smile faded from Aboubakar’s face, replaced by a snarl of anger.
‘This is your choice then?’ he spat. ‘Very well. I have my orders.’
In an instant he shifted forms, his boubou exploding in a burst of fluttering fabric scraps as he transformed into a two-and-a-half-ton black rhinoceros. William responded by transforming himself into his tiger form, shredding his own clothes to pieces in the process. Growling menacingly, he paced back and forth as he prepared for combat.
At that moment the Huntsmen troops burst onto the roof, their assault rifles shouldered and ready to fire. Two of them were about to unleash a volley, but the squad leader held up his hand to stop them.
‘Hold your fire, boys! Let’s watch Aboubakar put this pussycat out of his misery. This here’ll be a fight you’ll be telling your grandkids about.’
The hulking rhinoceros snorted and pawed with primeval aggression, while William paced to the left and right in his tiger form, snarling with bristling fury. This time he was the one who was outweighed, by almost tenfold in fact, and against the rhino’s gargantuan bulk he looked decidedly small. It did not matter, for he had but one choice now: fight or die.
William circled his opponent, waiting for the charge that would explode within the next few seconds … and surely enough it happened. Abou barrelled headlong at William, his head down with both scimitar horns aimed at his opponent. As the van-sized hulk bore down on him at speed, William tensed and then released his muscles in a mighty burst, and with a roar he sprang high into the air, dodging Abou’s scything horns and landing on the rhino’s back. William dug his claws into his armoured hide, snarling as his weapons sank deep into the beast’s flesh.
The rhino bellowed beneath him, bucking and kicking, but William held fast and lunged a savage bite at the beast’s shoulders. Blood gushed from the wounds his fangs inflicted, but his tiger strength could not match that of the rhinoceros for brute power, and with a half-jumping lunge Aboubakar spat him off of his back.
With his preternatural reflexes William twisted his body in the air and landed safely on his feet, but as he spun around the charging rhino careened headlong into him. With a flick of his mighty neck Aboubakar tossed him up over his shoulder. William, airborne, spun out of control, flailing in his descent like an aeroplane plummeting earthward, and he hit the ground with a heavy impact that knocked the wind out of his lungs.
Aboubakar showed neither mercy nor restraint, and he spun about and charged again, while William struggled to get back onto his feet. The rhino’s horns crashed into his flanks, ripping through both his coat and his flesh and slamming into his ribs, three of which snapped with a sickening crack. Aboubakar’s power and force dragged William across the concrete, tumbling and snarling, until the rhino crushed him against a wall. Aboubakar snorted and bellowed, bucking his head down to stab at William and once more dig his terrible weapons into the tiger’s body.
But through the agony and tempestuous violence, William fought desperately on, and despite the searing pain in his ribs he spun and ducked and rolled with his feline agility, managing to latch himself onto the underside of Aboubakar’s throat and chest, where he dug his forepaw claws in to secure his grip. He then began kicking and slicing with the claws on his back legs, while the rhino bellowed and bucked in an effort to trample him beneath his massive forelegs. William gripped Aboubakar’s throat with all his might and dug his talwar canines deep into his flesh, hoping and praying that he would hit the jugular vein or crush his windpipe, for that would be the only way to win the fight against this behemoth.
Hot blood spurted from the wounds, but William did not hit the jugular, nor did he destroy the windpipe, and with his flagging strength he could no longer maintain his grip in the face of the powerful struggles of the rhino. When he finally lost his hold he was pulled under the beast’s hooves and trampled with a terrible fury. Still, his survival instincts prevailed through the pain and chaos, and he pulled himself out from under the rhinoceros and aimed a flurry of slashes from his forepaws at his opponent’s eyes and face. His claws rent a series of deep gashes across Aboubakar’s rhino face, and he squealed in pain and backpedalled away from the raging tiger.
William took this opportunity to scramble back as far as he could, putting some distance between himself and his enemy. He struggled to his feet, his breathing ragged and his limbs weak. Blood was dripping from his lolling tongue, and with every heaving breath a shooting pain blasted through his body. Aboubakar was only in slightly better shape, and he too was panting heavily, unsteady on
