Cilen nearly fainted from the pain. The force at which he struck the rock, the speed at which he lost his balance. All of those contributed towards what was known as a recipe for disaster.

As he was falling or rather, flying, through the air, Cilen had a little deja vu moment of when he was seven years old, riding his bike at top speed and slamming into his neighbor's wall. He survived of course, but his mother went absolutely berserk and had forbidden Cilen to ever touch a bicycle again. He listened without hesitation because that was the first time he had ever seen his mother angry.

The pain that time was nothing compared to the pain he felt right now. His body did a 180 in midair and slammed into the base of a tree with his spine. The impact was so immense that Cilen started seeing black dots in his vision as the contents of his stomach threatened to say hello again. His right arm was shivering as he struggled to even hold onto his walking stick.

THUD THUD THUD

Cilen could hear the footsteps of the panther gradually making its way closer and closer. He was almost out of time. He could hear it. He could feel it. But he couldn't muster the strength to stand. The agony, the pain. The black spots were back. He was sure he had broken something. He felt like giving in, but every time he wanted to, an overwhelming urge overtook him. An urge not to live, but rather a desire to not die.

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Gritting his teeth so hard that his gums burst, and with an effort that seemed to have taken all his strength, Cilen clawed with his bloody fingernails at the tree bark pulling his body that was on the verge of death up to lean against the tree. His legs felt like jelly. His spinal cord groaned in pain. His head threatened to explode. But he didn't care. He couldn't die.

Bit by bit, little by little, Cilen made his way to the source of the light. He could hear the growls of the beast getting closer, but it didn't matter. He was close to the light. He was so close...

Finally, he saw it. Sitting in a forest clearing, a huge orb of purple light, flickering, flashing as tendrils of lightning arced towards the ground. It was beautiful, spectacular and it felt incredibly dangerous. Cilen had never seen a nuclear bomb before but he'd imagined that this is what it would feel like, standing next to the detonator. An incredible feeling of power, yet an overwhelming sensation of peril.

Just as he was admiring the scenery, the vegetation behind him burst open, revealing the menacing silhouette of 14-foot black panther and it's glowing silver eyes.

It had enough of Cilen. It was done with the chase, and it was time to kill.