Before anyone else noticed, Elijah was able to discover a wounded beast with his Supreme Astral Sense talent. Examining the beast from a distance, Elijah confirmed that it was a panther, and it was literally licking its wounds. Elijah attempted to use his Supreme Eyes talent to obtain more information.

Dark Panther Lvl 53

Unsurprisingly, Elijah failed. He expected it though. Elijah could sense the powerful energy the dark beast emitted and assumed it was in the first tier. Currently, Elijah wasn’t able to see through beings at the first tier.

However, Elijah learned that he could see through beings at the first tier with enough time. Unfortunately, time was not on his side. Ten seconds after Elijah discovered the wounded panther, it lifted its head to look in his direction.

More than fifty people were moving through the forest at the same time, so it wasn’t a surprise that the panther noticed them. Although they were doing their best to move silently, none of them were using any stealth skills, so sneaking up on a powerful beast would be difficult.

Five seconds after the panther noticed them, it was on its feet and growling in their direction. The goblins were startled by the growl, but quickly became excited. Although they couldn’t see the panther yet, with Clink’s urging, they increased their speed to quickly reach their prey.

Clink did his best to create a fireball while he ran with the group. Using his Supreme Eyes Elijah was able to see fire energy gather and fail to create a ball of fire several times. Elijah guessed Clink failures were cause by his lack of training or he was too excited.

Rushing through the forest, it didn’t take long for the group to arrive at the panther’s location. Following the panther’s growl, the goblins and Elijah looked up to see it crouching on a tree branch. Its dark fur was a great camouflage in the forest at night. However, its sharp white teeth, growling, and angry yellow eyes revealed its location.

Under normal circumstances, the panther would keep silent and not reveal itself. However, it’s wounded state made the concealment ability of its dark fur useless. Even if others couldn’t see it, they would be able to smell blood coming from the panther’s wounds. With his Supreme Eyes Elijah could make out the multiple scratches on its body, and he could see the two patches of fur missing from its leg and side.

“Kill it!”

Before Clink gave the kill order, the goblins had their slings in their hand and were reaching for a pouch containing their ammunition. The goblins roared in response to the kill order, and the panther froze. Although Elijah didn’t see a battle notification, he knew the panther was affected by the goblins’ Goblin Frenzy ability.

With fear in its eyes, the panther watched as Clink created a fire ball and dozens of stones were flung at it. At the last moment, the panther was able to break free of the stun, but by then it was too late. It managed to dodge a few of the stones, but the majority hit it. Because it was trying to escape the panther was off balance and the multiple stones knocked it from the branch.

Clink shot his fire ball at the panther the moment it hit the ground. The panther let out a roar of pain as it was covered in flames. The flames lingered un the panther’s body for a few seconds before disappearing. However, in that short time the panther received significant damage.

Visually, Elijah saw smoke coming from the panther’s burnt fur. He could hear and smell the burning flesh. If Elijah was being honest, the smell was very pleasant. Of course, if Elijah was enjoying the smell, then the goblins reactions were easy to predict.

Other than Clink, all of the goblins took out their mele weapons and swarmed the wounded dark beast. Elijah was able to see their greedy expressions through his astral sense. Clink went forward as well, but Elijah chose to stay behind and watch how things played out. The rest of the battle was, surprisingly, very different from what Elijah expected.

Now, initially, Elijah expected the goblins to quickly drain the panthers remaining health. After all, the panther was already injured before they met. Then, it received another round of weakening from the Goblin Frenzy ability and the goblins had their strength increased. However, despite all of these factors, the goblins still had a tough time killing the panther.

Watching from the distance, Elijah watched the goblins chaotically charged forward and recklessly swing their weapons at the panther. With greedy expressions on their faces, the goblins jostled and shoved each other as they tried to land a hit on the panther. This confusion made it easy for the panther to avoid the majority of the goblins. Of the few that managed to get close to the panther, the majority of them were pushed away by a swipe of the panther’s claw or a kick from its leg. Approximately, one or two goblins actually hit the panther and the damage done was negligible.

“This is going to take a while,” Elijah thought to himself. “Unlike me the goblins don’t have a specialty, passive combat skills and active combat skills. He, I guess this just proves that I’m destined to be above them.”

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An arrogant smirk sneaked on to Elijah’s face. However, that smirk quickly disappeared after another thought appeared in his mind.

“Why is the panther so close to the village?” With a frown on his face Elijah immediately thought of the worst possibility. “Are the dark beasts starting to get interested in the village? Otherwise, why would a tier one dark beast be so close to the edge of the forest?”

Looking at the ongoing battle with the panther another thought entered Elijah’s mind. “Maybe it’s because its injured. It probably fought something and came here to rest.”

“I’m worrying too much,” Elijah said out loud. “Like Jeb said, our current strength is enough to deal with any beast that comes from the forest.” With a confident smile on his face, Elijah stopped worrying and turned his full attention back to the battle.

Clink had finally decided to take action. When the goblins started rushing the panther, Clink created another fireball and was waiting for the right opportunity to attack. The opportunity came and he didn’t miss.

Roar!

Once again, the dark panther was covered in flames and roaring in pain. The flames damaged the panther, but they were capable of damaging the goblins as well. As the panther moved around, the goblins backed away to protect themselves, but their desires didn’t lessen. Instead, they increased as the goblins smelt the panthers burning flesh.

Whether it was intentional or coincidental, the panther’s movements made the goblins spread out and created an opening in their defense. Without hesitation the panther took full advantage of the goblins mistake. It rushed past the goblins and the flames covering its body were quickly extinguished.

Seeing their prey escaping made the goblins go feral. The goblins dropped their weapons and forgot about their other equipment as they threw themselves at the escaping panther. They clung to every part of the panther’s body, by sinking their hands and fingers into its flesh.

One goblin tore off a piece of the panther’s flesh and began eating it. Two goblins next to it saw what happened and mimicked the first goblins actions. It didn’t take long before all the goblins clinging to the panther’s body were furiously devouring its flesh.

Rampaging like a bull, the panther did his best to shake the goblins off. He ran into trees, bushes and it slammed itself on the ground. The goblins refused to let go.

In a final attempt to save itself, the panther released a burst of energy that pushed multiple goblins off its body. It worked, but only for a moment. There were several goblins that were unable to cling to the panther due to a lack of space. Now, that there was an opening they didn’t hesitate to take the place of the fallen goblins.

Standing at the side Elijah listened to the dark panther’s final roars full of pain, anger, terror and desperation. He wore a serious expression as he observed the final moments of the fight with his Supreme Astral Sense and his Supreme Eyes. Throughout most of the fight, Elijah was observing the expressions, mindset, and fighting capabilities of the goblins. Also, he paid close attention to the panther they were fighting. Specifically, he focused on the dark energy the panther used.

Using his Supreme Eyes, Elijah saw an energy that resembled black ink flowing through the panther. Similar to Elder Jeb’s sword energy the, dark energy in the panther hindered Elijah’s talent. While he didn’t experience a piercing pain like before, he did feel a slight chill and it felt like he was looking into, well, darkness.

During the battle, Elijah watched as the dark energy would occasionally gather to certain parts of the panther’s body. Mainly it’s claws and legs, but a portion of energy was focused on protecting the wounds it received before the fight started. Otherwise, Elijah didn’t notice any major changes in the dark energy until it exploded outward and pushed several goblins off the panther’s body.

After the dark energy exploded, it became less dense, and Elijah no longer felt a chill when he observed it with his Supreme Eyes. After the surge of energy, the panther managed to struggle for a little longer before collapsing. It resigned itself to its fate and let the goblins bite it to death while it laid on the ground.

“Oh, is this how the scavenger ability works,” Elijah thought to himself.

Elijah calmly watched the dark panther’s gruesome death and noticed that the dark energy in its body was entering the goblins’ bodies with each bite. As the goblins sunk their teeth into the panther’s body, a portion of the dark energy in the panther’s body would gather at the spot and leave the panther’s body when they tore of the piece of flesh. There was no chewing.

The goblins sucked each piece of meat down their throat as if they were in haling air. Immediately after, the goblins mouths were back on the panther’s flesh. From their eyes, expressions, and entire body, Elijah felt an intense wave of greed radiating from all of the goblins.

Once the panther collapsed, all the goblins swarmed toward its body. Including Clink, all the goblins jostled against each other as they fought to consume the dying panther flesh. Even after the panther took its final breath the goblins continued to fight over its meat. However, there was one slight deviation amongst the goblins.

“Is he, stuffing meat into his clothes?” Elijah thought to himself. “Well, I guess he wants to save some for later. Wait, is that Goblin One?”

Goblin One was the first goblin that submitted to Elijah. Elijah watched as the goblin frantically ripped pieces of flesh from the panther’s corpse uncaring of the hits he received from his fellow goblins or the blood that got on his hands, face, and body. Eventually the goblins finished removing all the meat from the panther’s corpse and the only thing left was a pile of bones resting on a piece of blood-stained earth. However, all was not at peace.

“He still has meet.”

“Hand it over.”

“No, it belongs to me.”

All the goblins set their eyes on the food that Goblin One was hoarding. Seeing their greedy expressions brought a frown to Elijah’s face. As he was deciding on if he should interfere or not, he heard Clink speed up and felt him release his tier one cultivation presence.

“Shut up! All of you get back.”

“Looks like I underestimated him,” Elijah thought to himself. “Maybe he does have a bit of leadership ability.”

“His food belongs to me.”

“And I stand corrected.”

Although Clink was in the leadership position for the goblin race, Elijah didn’t think he had any real leadership skills. At least, what Clink displayed so far didn’t reach what Elijah considered to be the basic standard. Right as Elijah was getting ready to interfere, he heard the roar of another beast.