Chapter 24

**Badump* Badump* Badump

Lwanda's heart beat, his vision became blurry. It was like he was fading in and out of consciousness all while remaining standing. He couldn’t afford to collapse here, not here, not now.

He looked at the creature before him and it stared back, occasionally letting out a terrifying growl. It was so loud Lwanda thought the sound was booming in his brain directly.

The beast continued to stare at him, not making any move, licking its lips like it was savoring the sight of its next meal.

Lwanda’s sense of doom was now higher than it's ever been before, he could feel it clearly. He knew he would surely die today if he didn’t do anything and no one would do a goddamm thing to save him.

He felt it, he felt it as clear as day. It was the first time in his existence he’d ever felt so alone. His future was entirely in his hands, no one was coming to save him, all he had was himself.

Lwanda stared at the sky above, he felt nothing. He knew the convenient help he’d always received was gone, he didn’t know why, all he knew was he was indeed alone and that was that.

Lwanda shifted his gaze towards the jaguar once more, it growled as it stared back, still lost in its bliss after licking Lwanda’s blood. He then looked around him, the entire place was covered in gigantic trees, it was hard to discern which location was the best to flee towards.

He looked towards the holy looking spring, it felt safe but Lwanda couldn’t quit take that gamble, the spring didn’t look all that deep and the jaguar would have a breeze fishing him out of it.

As Lwanda was cursing his lack of options he finally noticed two plant roots in the spring. The roots were so seamless it was hard to tell at first glance. For some reason the roots had mutated to resemble the sapphire color of the spring, if one didn’t look keen enough one would have definitely missed it.

Lwanda tried looking at where the roots led, but his view was obstructed by the jaguar. Lwanda felt the roots where odd, the spring felt perfect and pure, whenever he looked at it, he got the feeling anything dropped in it would sully it and that’s why Lwanda didn’t go near it, it was a subconscious reaction, he didn’t even have to think about it.

Watching the leaves that dropped everywhere but the spring it was obvious that the spring had something special about it. So, the fact that there where roots stemming from it was indeed odd.

Lwanda thought hard on how he should escape the beast and make his escape. With his vision getting worse he knew he didn’t have much time left.

He glanced at his staff that was still in his right hand. The loyal staff was still there even when his hand was yanked off. Lwanda looked at the golden crystal at the top of the staff, he didn’t know how effective it would be against the jaguar but he had to try to at least distract it, even if for a second.

Lwanda focused and channeled his will to the crystal. There was a slight buzzing sound then followed by a spark of lightning surging from the crystal. The surges intensified and soon the whole area was covered in what seemed to be a lightning storm.

The jaguar was taken aback by the sudden change of things, its face showed genuine confusion as it looked at the lightning bolts surging through the air all around it. Lwanda stared at him and uttered but two words

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“Absolute lull”

Suddenly the surging and thundering lightning bolts all came to a stop. The entire place fell silent as the bolts remained stack in midair almost like they were frozen in time, not moving one bit. It was indeed an absolute lull, the sight was breathtaking, Lwanda and the beast posed bellow the midday sun, rays of light gently caressing their skin as they pierced through the thick canopy up top. Under any other circumstance this would be a sight to behold, but this wasn’t one of those times.

Just as quickly as they froze the bolts started to rile up, they surged through the air connecting to and engulfing each other. Soon all the bolts were gone except for one giant one that took on the shape of the artistic illustration of a lightning bolt.

It was massive; spanning about five meters long and the power it exuded felt dangerous.

The jaguar noticed this and tried to pounced at Lwanda but it was too late. The bolt quickly made it through the air and struck it right in the chest. Lwanda didn’t have time to marvel at his creation, he quickly bent and picked up his staff and took off running.

The booming sound of the panther roaring in pain filled his background all like a symphony orchestrated just for his escape.

Lwanda ran fast, as fast as his legs could carry him. His vision was still blurry and his motion was indeed zigzag but still he ran. He followed the roots to where they led.

**Roaaaaaaar**

Lwanda heard the panther’s roar from behind him, it seemed it had recovered from the attack and it was pissed. Without wasting time to assess the situation behind him Lwanda continued running.

It didn’t take long for him to notice more and more roots on the ground, it was obvious whatever he was looking for was just ahead of him.

Lwanda mastered a faint smile as he passed his final tree. His destination was sure to be just beyond that tree.

When Lwanda saw it, his heart fell. All the hope he’d mastered was taken away from him and he felt desperate. There was a big dark pit in his heart and his eyes went cold.

His so-called anomaly and savior turned out to be vine plant that scaled the trees close to it forming a network of intricate stems resembling a labyrinth.

Sure, the vine plant had the holy sapphire shine to it and the stems were slightly thicker than Lwanda’s arm but it was nothing to write home about. Before the monstrous jaguar they seemed like they would rip apart like paper.

**Rooooaaaar**

As Lwanda was still lost in thought and disappointment he heard a roar from behind him, the jaguar was dangerously close. With no other options nearby Lwanda decided to risk it all, he ran and jumped into the labyrinth of vines. He dug deeper in trying to put as much distance between him and the jaguar as possible.

Soon the jaguar scaled the corner, his gaze fell upon Lwanda, it was pissed, it shot a death stare at Lwanda before pouncing at him. There was still about seven meters between them but the jaguar covered that in a second.

With its ferocious right paw before it, it flexed its monstrous claws that were shaped like daggers. They gave off an intense aura, one that thirsted for blood, his blood.

Lwanda watched as the beast soared through the air, he was powerless to stop whatever was about to happen. He coldly stared at the jaguar as that was the only thing he could do.

Soon the claws were upon him, they cast a long shadow as the paw covered all the space before him.

**Whoooosh**

**Booooooooooom**

…....

**Huh?**