“A Black Lightning Panther,” Alnea said, as he observed the panther sleeping on top of the large boulder. The only boulder in the area. That was an odd occurrence, a lone boulder. But the panther sleeping on the boulder was even more odd. Since the panther was not even twice as large as him, it should have just reached its Adolescent Stage. But being able to occupy such a conspicuous area all by itself described much about its abilities.
As its name suggested, the Black Lightning Panther was endowed with a black fur, with random streaks of purple darting all around its body. That probably brought down its stealth ability by a big margin, but in the darkness of the canyons, it was still stealthy enough to hide from their senses. And so, they had to make sure that they were able to kill it before it could get the opportunity to retreat. In other words, they had to kill the Oren Beast before it could use its Innate Ability, Black Lightning.
Similar to how the Lightning Armoured Rabbits used their ability by wrapping Lightning Armours around their bodies, the Black Lightning Panthers also used their abilities by wrapping lightning around their bodies. Unlike the rabbits though, the black panthers wrapped those lightnings just around their legs. Furthermore, their lightning did not have any defensive properties either. There was a reason why the panthers were called as Black Lightning Panthers, and not Black Lightning Armoured Panthers.
Still, that did not mean that the Lightning Panthers were weak. Or slow. Though the lightning did not give these Beasts any other abilities, it surely did make them fast. Absurdly fast. They were, in fact, so fast, that even the Lightning Armoured Rabbits seemed slow in comparison to them.
“Make sure to not let the panther escape,” Yuri said, staring solemnly at the Black Lightning Panther. “Oren Beasts are inherently very spiteful creatures, taking revenge for even the smallest of grievances. And Black Lightning Panthers are known to be even more vengeful than average Oren Beasts. If we miss our chance, and let it escape, then it will not rest until has its revenge.
“By then, regretting even a thousand times would not be enough. Because when it will come for revenge, it will be too alert to fall into our trap. Even if we were to keep up our guard at all times, and prevent it from it ambushing us, as long as it would be cautious enough to use its Innate Ability in advance, we will not be able to hurt it either. And that would enough for the panther. It will not care if its actions would lead it into an even greater trouble. Vengeful as it is, it will keep haunting us, baiting other Oren Beasts towards us, and keep harassing us, until all of us are dead.”
“…Why do we have to pick it as our first target?” Alnea said, staring at the Panther in the distance, only for Cecilia to pat his shoulders, and grin at him.
“Isn’t it exactly because of how difficult the Black Lightning Panther is to handle that we have to choose it as our first target?”
Alnea ignored his musclehead friend, and turned towards Yuri.
“How are we going to deal with it?”
“As we had discussed earlier, I will be acting as the Scholar. As for you two… Neither of you have any restrictive abilities—
“My Nightmare Arrow—
“That can actually hit the panther even if it senses the attack,” Yuri said, rendering his objection to be invalid. “Besides, didn’t you say that big sis Nyssa has warned against using your Nightmare Arrow too often?”
“…I used it hours ago. That is nothing compared to the times I—
“Regardless, your Nightmare Arrow would not be of any use this time. Just stick to using your Aspects.”
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“…Got it,” Alnea said, gripping the handle of his sword. Though he had not completely mastered the use of his Aspects, he had made quite some decent progress with his Martial Styles. The Star Piercing Style being the simplest of them all had seen the greatest improvement, but his other Martial Styles were not too far behind either.
It looked his affinity with Martial Styles was truly not limited to just those of the Auxiliary type. Or it may just be an effect spilling over from his affinity with the Aspects. In any case, he had enough Martial Styles in his arsenal to cope up with sudden change in the situation. He was not sure how they would perform in real battles, but they should be enough to deal with the panther.
“And the same goes for you, Cecilia,” Yuri continued. “I will use Glyphs to restrict the panther’s movements, so you can fight it head on, without any constraints. However, do remember that even restricted, the panther will still be relatively fast. And cunning. Even a moment’s rest would be enough for it to activate its Innate Ability, and escape from the fight. Neither of you can be careless. And you absolutely cannot give it the time to run away.”
“…We understand.”
“…This is going to be our first planned fight. Let us try not to mess this up, alright?”
“Don’t worry, Yuri.”
“We will be careful.”
Nodding to indicate her acknowledgement, Yuri turned towards the beast, and reached towards the white pouch tied to her waist. An ornamental pouch, or so it appeared from the first glance. But Alnea knew better. It may be a little fancy, and slightly different from the bag he had left back at the cave, but it was undoubtedly a storage bag. The same as the one Cecilia had left back at the cave.
It could not be helped though. Unlike Yuri, who was going to contain the beast from a distance, he and Cecilia were going to fight it head on, and exchange blows with it in close quarters. A position in which Alnea had a tendency of getting injured. That tendency had decreased over time as he had progressed within the Seed Rank, but having advanced to the False Rank, he was sure that the tendency was bound to bounce back.
So, instead of risking all of his belongings being crushed, and lost within the Origin Sea, he preferred keeping his storage bag in a safe place, back at the cave. And Cecilia had followed his example just to be safe. Yuri though, still had her storage bag with herself. And though it may be of just the False Rank, its storage space was more than enough for her. At the very least, it showed no signs of stress when Yuri took out her carving knife, and her Glyph Disc, roughly twice the size of the ornamental pouch, from its tiny mouth.
“Get ready,” Yuri said, breaking Alnea away from his thoughts, bringing his attention to herself. From the glow around her Glyph Disc, it looked she had already finished carving her Glyph. Gripping the hilt of his sword, the sword of Farin, he nodded towards Yuri, and then towards Cecilia, before turning towards the Black Lightning Panther, waiting for Yuri’s signal.
In the next moment, while he was still staring at the panther, Alnea felt a strong fluctuation of Oren beside him. And an even stronger fluctuation of a Mystery. An eerie, dark, and terrifying Mystery, that was looming over him, threatening to devour him, to strangle him, to corrode him, decay him, des—
Without any sound, or flash of a brilliant light, the Mystery, and all the fluctuations of Oren just shot in the direction of the panther. No, not in its direction, but towards the panther itself. And the panther sensed it as well. Opening its eyes, as it got on its four legs, it immediately looked towards the Mystery rushing towards it. A dark grey arrow, with an eerily glowing light around it, was rushing directly towards its head.
The panther did not know where the arrow had come from, or who its enemy was, but it did know that it could not let itself be hit. Fortunately for the panther, the speed of the arrow was not beyond its normal limits. As such, it did not need to rely on its ability. Or so it thought, as it jumped down from boulder, easily avoiding the arrow.
However, while it was still in mid air, the arrow split apart into ten smaller arrows, using the momentum from the split to change their directions, and surround the panther. And before it knew, the arrows transformed into a net of eerily glowing grey light, that fell onto the panther’s body. But instead of trapping the Beast, the net submerged into its body.
Yet the panther was not happy by how things were turning for it. It had been in so many fights, that it did not need the oppressive feeling inside its body, making it hard for it to move, to understand that it was in danger. All its instincts, and experiences told it that it was the time for it to retreat. That it could come back later for revenge. Unfortunately for the panther, it was too late in coming to that realisation.