Chapter 79: Chapter 79: The Panther
Siderius tucked the map inside his shirt and darted toward where Red was. He held the bow in his right hand and a handful of arrows in his left.
The horse was being tied at a stump, next to the water streams. It tried its best to break free from the leash but it was in vain.
One single leg reached out from within the thick wall of the woods. A large leg of a black-fur cat. Its paws squished the dirt.
Four razor-sharp claws extended out.
A dark, unidentifiable liquid covered its leg. The liquid was dense and possessed a god-awful smell. Droplets of it dripped on the ground.
This was no ordinary beast.
Its leg alone was almost as big as a full-grown dog.
Amongst the darkness of the woods, only the eyes of the beast were observable. The rest were shielded in the shadow of the trees.
Those eyes were dark, similar to Siderius. But when it looked out to the sunlit path, its pupils constricted into vertical slits, revealing its bright yellow irises.
A Chaos Beast had appeared. The notorious killer of the woods that Siderius had never had the chance to encounter.
Siderius had no time to untie Red. He drew his half-broken sword and cut the horse free then slapped at its side.
"Go!"
The horse bolted away, fearing for its life. The beast came for Red. Siderius needed to protect the horse first.
The beast put its second legs out on the road. Its body moved forward, revealing its entire body to Siderius.
A black panther with a coat made out of pure black oil. It must be twice the size of Red, the biggest cat Siderius had ever encountered, bigger than any lions, tigers or ordinary panthers.
Those dark oils formed a layer on the beast’s skin. Siderius could only guess that it was a special kind of natural defensive armor.
The panther opened its mouth. Thin dense lines of saliva dangled on its teeth.
The beast let out a low growl and its eyes aimed at the hunter. An obvious statement of its aggressive intention. It would kill him now.
Siderius struck first. An arrow screamed through the air. The panther reacted fast. It ducked down, dodging the arrow. The arrow grazed its back and scraped off a little bit of the black oil.
Siderius connected the shot with multiple arrows, aiming at the panther’s biggest body mass, its torso. His fingers turned into a blur on the bowstring.
He held at least ten arrows in his draw hand, making it a continuous ten arrows barrage. The shots were not only aimed at the beast’s body but also to its surroundings, cutting off its retreat.
The panther jumped around, dodging most of the arrows but still got hit by some. But the black oil stopped most of the arrows. Their tips didn’t even penetrate its skin.
"An anti-arrow fur..."
Siderius dropped his bow and drew his half-broken sword. With the bow becoming useless, it was futile to continue using it.
The quiver strap was released from his waist. The quiver landed on the ground, reducing the weight on Siderius and allowing more freedom in his movements.
The black panther circled Siderius, its walk was slow and calculated, looking for his weaknesses, a predator assessing its prey.
Siderius stood his ground and remained facing it. His sword pointed at the beast. And when it moved, Siderius followed the sword right after, making sure to create a wall between them with the sharp tip.
The silver bracer materialized on his left wrist and was ready to execute any sigils.
Siderius’ mind came back to the Alchemist Compendium. He had never seen anything like it, not in person nor in books.
This beast was unique to this world.
The panther had a pair of slit pupils. But a normal panther should have round pupils. Only small felines, like cats, had slit pupils.
As for big felines, lions, tigers, or panthers, they used ambushing as their main method of hunting. But this beast made its presence known and didn’t care to hide.
Both its behavior and anatomy contradicted what Siderius knew about panthers.
It must have a different way of attack. Siderius thought.
Panthers were a variant of felines. They could be a black leopards or black jaguars. They ambushed their prey and lunged at them in an explosive attack. Their flexible shoulders allowed them to wrestle and hold the prey while the panthers bit the victim’s neck off.
Only one thing could have changed this natural behavior and years of evolution. The breaker of rules, Dark Aether. Or in other words, Magic.
Chaos Beasts were told to be corrupted by magic. If that was the truth, this beast no longer belonged to the Kingdom of Nature. It was either under the Kingdom of Monster or Chaos.
Suddenly, the panther leaped at Siderius.
Siderius had anticipated this obvious attack and at the moment its muscles tensed up, Siderius quickly jumped to the side.
The panther went past him. He grazed the half-sword on its skin when they were the closest.
Its black oil burst like a balloon. Black droplets landed on the ground and squirmed like worms. The oil-fur was much more fragile than Siderius anticipated, even weaker than the skin of a normal panther.
The panther slid on the ground. Its sharp claws scratched over the dirt to stop the momentum of its huge body.
Sideirus made use of this chance to draw a <Vertigo> sigil.
Vertigo seemed to have a strong effect on this beast. It stood at place and spun its head ferociously.
Siderius used those precious seconds to launch a range attack at the beast. He quickly opened his leather pouch and took out an explosive clay ball.
The Explosive Projectile left the spinning sling and shrieked at the panther. It didn’t have any chance to dodge.
The clayball exploded at its face and with the explosion, the black oil scattered around the area like splashed blood.
But there was no blood. Only black oil. And Siderius was sure that the explosion should have dug into its flesh.
His doubt was answered immediately. Once the black smoke of the explosion dissipated, Siderius saw the beast again.
It had lost half of its face. But there was no flesh under it. The black oil wasn’t a protective layer on its skin. It was the panther.
The black oil crawled toward the beast once more and fused together. Its half exploded face bubbled and soon, the beast had returned to its original state.
It was as if it had never received an injury before.
"Tch." Siderius clicked his tongue. A self-healing mechanism.
Magic had granted it a power outside of the natural order. Killing this beast would not be easy.
The panther switched its tactic. It retreated to the shadow of the woods and disappeared. Its dark pupils enlarged to fill its entire eyes.
The beast was forced to return to its natural hunting method. It had not used ambushing for a long time. Not since the moment it had grown to this size and its bite was enough to kill most animals in one strike.
But this human was different. He was dangerous.
Siderius smiled. He took off the obsidian glass, revealing the big round dark eyes that were similar to the beast.
"Darkness is also my friend."
The beast moved silently. There was not a single rustling of the plants nor the noise of footsteps. But Siderius didn’t need them as he could see the beast amongst the darkness of dusk.
He loaded in the sling a Sticky Projectile. And before the beast was able to jump at him, the clay ball came first. It went flying through the air and smashed on the body of the beast.