As we were about to leave, I thought of something and ran over to take a few pictures of the runes on the obelisk with my cell phone. I figured one of the books might be able to tell us what they meant. We then left the temple and started following our path back the way we came. Something felt wrong, however.

At first I couldn’t place it, then I noticed it was too quiet. I had gotten used to the quiet inside the temple and now that we were outside there should be the sound of birds and bugs again, but it was still quiet. Shadow started hissing and her fur poofed out and Lin held up her hand to stop us. I couldn’t see anything, but something was definitely wrong.

A roar came from close by which sent shivers down my spine and something burst forth from the bushes. It headed straight for Lux for some reason, ignoring the rest of us. Lux quickly swung his shield around but it was batted out of his hand and he screamed as the arm holding the shield was severed at the elbow.

The rest of us were shocked and didn’t move. Standing over Lux was a creature about the same size as the bear we had dealt with before but it gave off a much more dangerous aura. It had the usual green fur but it was a darker green which turned to black toward the belly. I could only compare it to pictures of Saber Tooth Tigers I had seen in school.

It was cat like and had long claws on its four paws and two saber like fangs coming out of its broad mouth. It also had two tails with barbed ends which swished around violently. Ann was the first to break out of our paralysis and fired off a stone arrow before rushing to heal Lux.

The creature jumped back to avoid the stone arrow and as Ann rushed to Lux’s side, I sent off a wind blade to keep it busy. Lin also pulled out her bow and fired arrows at it. The large cat didn’t like being bombarded from two sides so jumped back again, giving Ann room to work.

It roared again as one of my wind blades managed to gouge its side. It was avoiding Lin’s arrows but seemed to be having a hard time seeing my wind blades which I capitalized on. I fired them off rapidly to keep it off balance but that meant I wasn’t putting that much mana into them, so it wasn’t causing much damage to the creature.

Ann reached Lux and began to heal his arm which soon stopped bleeding. Neither of us could restore his arm with our magic but I was betting one of the potions we had scavenged might be able to do it. We would need to get him back to the mansion first.

The jungle cat must have figured out I was the one shooting wind blades at it because it turned and charged me. I didn’t have any defenses to speak of since I hadn’t learned the earth manipulation spell to make a wall yet. I charged up the strongest wind blade with what little time I had and fired it at its head while diving to the side.

Its claws still managed to rake me across the side of my chest which sent me flying. My armor was instantly shredded and deep gashes were torn in my skin, spraying blood. My scream was cut off as the wind was knocked out of me from bouncing off the ground and hitting a nearby tree. I groggily tried healing myself as I lay bleeding but it was hard to concentrate.

Stolen novel; please report.

I didn’t know what happened to the jungle cat and expected to be finished off any second. I was finally able to heal myself somewhat and opened my bleary eyes to see Ann shooting more stone arrows into the beast while Lin shot regular arrows at it. It looked like my last wind blade had taken out one of its eyes and left a large wound on its head, slowing the beast down. A few arrows were stuck into it, so Lin managed to hit it a few times.

I wanted to help out but was still too weak and just continued to heal myself. Ann switched to lightning which caused the jungle cat to freeze up and Lin was able to shoot an arrow deep into its undamaged eye. The beast swayed and finally collapsed, hopefully dead. Ann then rushed to my side and added her healing magic to my own.

“Matt, are you alright?” Ann asked in concern. “I’ll live but my armor and clothes have seen better days.” I assured her. “What about Lux?” I asked. “Father will be fine. We have several bottles of elixir back at the mansion that will regrow his arm but it will take a couple days.” She replied. I thought she was being a little nonchalant about the grievous wound but being adventurers they were probably used to injuries.

Lin went to the beast and cut its throat to be sure it wouldn’t get back up. I was soon back on my feet but still felt a little weak. Lux was back on his feet as well which was good because I didn’t know how we would carry him otherwise. His shield was crumpled so we just left it as there was a replacement in the loot room.

Lux went over to the jungle cat and ripped out both of its saber like fangs with his good arm as a souvenir. I just smiled at the show of strength. Shadow came out from the bushes where she had hid during the fighting and sniffed the jungle cat’s body. She turned up her nose and returned to Lin’s side. We didn’t wait around and continued on before any more creatures were drawn to the area.

We moved at a slower pace since Lux and I were still a little weak but didn’t run into any more trouble on the way back. I felt relieved once the mansion was in sight. It was good to be home. Ann immediately found one of the elixirs and gave it to Lux. She said it would take a couple days to fully heal so we all could take a break in the meantime.

Lux went to lay down and I found a comfortable seat to watch Ann unpack her book collection. The loot room was overflowing so she used the large dining room table to set out the books. She looked as happy as a kid in a candy shop while lovingly placing each book down after quickly thumbing through them.

Lin laid down on a couch and started messing with the old flip phone I had giver her. She was fascinated with my cell phone so had given me puppy dog eyes when asking if she could have it. I couldn’t charge it anyway so readily agreed. I was guessing the battery in my cell phone would last another month at best if I refrained from using it and kept it off. Before then I needed to make copies of the rune pictures but that could wait.

“Let me know if you see any books on runes.” I told Ann which she just hummed in return, fixated on the books. I had taken pictures of the symbols in the summoning room as well so it would be nice to know what they all meant. After watching Ann for a while I decided to go and start getting a meal ready as I was getting hungry.

Lin put the phone down and helped me in the kitchen, getting closer than necessary and bumping hips with me. I’m not sure why she was in such a playful mood but didn’t mind. Her fluffy tail was swinging happily but I tried not to stare too much. These sisters were definitely a handful.