“I don’t know, maybe my stats. I still feel when they disrupt my attacks, it’s just weaker than for you.” Merlin answers my question about the source of his resilience against the feedback from the beast’s mana disruptions attacks. They seem so much more violent when you are coughing up blood.
“Later.” Interrupts Richard as he connects to the village to the next rune instead of relying on the one we were gaining distance from the beast as we fly.
“Comand center to Air force one. Do you copy?” The voice from one of the comm operators in the village echoes through the flying craft.
“Yeah, just switched a comm rune ahead of us in the network. We have two minutes at the current pace with low mana consumption.”
“What is the status of the beast?”
“I don’t…” Richard starts but after looking at me cuts himself short.
“The panther is keeping pace with us,” I say while pulling a small screen from the inner world for everyone to see the panther. Attaching the corresponding camera on the lower portion and checking the screen is visible to everyone, the scene on the edge of my perception field comes to light.
A panther keeping pace with us like it’s nothing.
I connect the camera to the village and suddenly they can see it as well.
“Ohh shit, are you in any danger?”
“I believe not immediately,” I answer.
“Can’t it drag the flying craft to the ground or maybe just slow it down?”
“It’s a single beast, not a group like when I entered the HLZ, the best I think it can do would be slow us down. Even that I find unlikely,” I say pensively.
“If the craft flew closer to the ground, the beast could probably touch us and interfere directly with our flight. But as things stand with just one pursuer a reasonable distance, I don’t see how it could do anything dangerous.” Says Merlin.
We all go silent for a few moments as the mana cost starts to ramp up with our distance from the comm rune, but I don’t cut it until the operator starts talking.
“Are you coming straight back to the village?”
“Yep.” Says Richard. “Why?”
“Just checking.” Replies the operator.
“If there is nothing else we are signing off, we getting too far away from the comm rune.”
“If there is any news on our side we will contact you.”
I move to the back as the last couple of people finish their first aid efforts putting healing salve and other concoctions to help speed up their recovery in the couple of hours until we are back to the village.
For the entire time, the black panther is keeping up with us. Even with the weaker illumination of the moonlight, we can clearly see it.
Flying at the maximum altitude, just short of the 50 meters a craft this large can attain, the panther is just barely within my perception field so I study it as it moves powerfully in the ground. I can also faintly sense the mana it wields in a constant stream out of its limbs in long and gracefully strides.
For a moment I forget that unlike the similarly stunning animals on Earth, so far we found not a hint of a possibility of peaceful coexistence with these beasts. Long lopping and powerful strides propelling it through all the mild obstacles. Precise steps aiming for the perfect spots for it to step upon, and nearly perfect lines effortlessly dogging all the tree trunks.
About fifteen minutes in the beast slows, but somehow I don’t doubt that it would manage to keep on our track and not just because we were going on a straight line.
My gut is very active these last few days and telling me a lot. Though I don’t mind, hell, I embrace all knowledge and wisdom coming from my intuition.
We advance on the village for the next three hours, entering everyone that is not yet fully recovered goes to the doctor to get topped up.
Fully connecting to the underground network, I look carefully back and in a minute find what I’m looking for. Barrelling in our direction, just 40 miles away the black panther is unflinchingly and precisely heeding our direction.
Everyone prepares for the attack to come and it is coming in less than thirty minutes.
Most of the village joins on the walls, though not quite as prepared as against the gobbling and wolf attacks. Especially given that few can stand even a single blow from a beast like this and the number of people outside the village on their own endeavors.
Our small group walks from the wall, as I continue working even in the last few seconds trying to add a few more runes underground trying to eke out every smidge of an advantage against the beasts. Ad I do that because we are going to need it.
The situation had after all changed only slightly, in the grand scheme of things.
Passing through the clearing, the 11 foot long beast from head to tail slows while heading for us.
There are none of the usual defense emplacements in a wide stretch on the middle of heading for the gate, but with a beast like this, even te best defenses and traps would be of limited use.
As it stalks closer, though we all can clearly see it, I accompanied it with my perception field looking for anything out of the ordinary, anything that might give us even a smidge of an advantage.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
“It’s recovering its stamina,” I say.
“We guessed that from the slow approach.” Says Richard standing on the little hut built atop the walls that are supposed to be a ‘command center’ close to the action.
“Now it’s confirmed,” Greg says. “Should we advance and deny it the chance of resting for these couple minutes.”
“No. It wouldn't put us in a better position. The closer it gets to the village, the greater our edge. Not a large difference, but I will take any small edge.”
I look for the faint pull of the system and find it there, faint but present. Still stronger than a couple of hours ago, so it can’t delay too long, but it could spare a couple of minutes to catch its breath.
I let a smile light up my face underneath the wooden armor set I’m wearing, as it slowly approaches our position in a straight line passing over the exact spot the goblin leader had perished in one of the attacks.
“Prepare to fireball him in 70 meters.”
I say in a low tone even though I have a sound isolating rune in place just in case the beast was smarter than I gave it credit for.
Heading for the epicenter of the formation with the only chance to end the beast in a single fell swoop, I cross my fingers hoping to end the attack in one fell swoop. Finish it off without anyone else being injured, without any more suffering on our part or any chance of another village being attacked on the way back.
At the very least, it should debilitated the beast enough that we have an actual shot at fighting it.
30 meters.
20 meters.
10 meters from the middle of the formation and the Back Panther, the beast I was most familiar with, jumps to the side with a pulse of mana before sprinting for us.
“Shit. It’s gonna miss the formation.” I curse.
“It would have been too easy if it had fallen on the trap.”
We all prepare. Floating in the air I have out plenty of shields out and behind each one a thread of my attention and Aspen’s will so they don’t become like tissue paper in front of the beast’s claws.
I look forward to Alex and through the perception field, I can clearly feel his eyes completely focused as he lowers his stance readying himself for the battle to come. With the first +7 spear on the village, made with him in mind, I can almost feel, almost taste the sharpness surrounding him.
----------------------------------------
Alex POV
I will…. Succeed.
This beast won’t stand a chance against me.
There is no other choice, no holding back.
I will put forward my entire being in each of my swings and achieve something beyond all I have done till now.
I grab Aether, something Nash taught me how to wield, and spin it around me trying to reinforce the mantras on my head.
I’m the bloody spear wielder.
The beast had higher stats and alone I wouldn’t last more than a single blow, but with the dozens of people around me, as long as I don’t make any mistakes, I am safe enough.
The panther couldn’t focus its entire attention on me otherwise it would be opening itself to half a dozen counterattacks, but I had in my grasp something that helped to bridge the gap and I would not let it go to waste.
“You are going down,” I mumble and the very last instant passes as the beast advances.
I let a grin form as Nash’s shields pop up around us. Dozens of strong mana shields and roots start to come from the underground trying to ensnare it.
Neither will by itself have an enormous effect, but it will distract it a little bit. Every instant it had to focus on the magical attacks and every moment that I saved in the maneuvers around or through the mana shield gave us another instant to position ourselves around it.
I spin my spear as I feel the roots gripping my arms in a gentle constriction that doesn't hinder my movements in the slightest, just reminding me they are there ready to help when necessary.
One-handed. Two-handed.
Short attack, long attack.
Side to side, down then up and repeat all over again… in a difernet order.
I thrust the lower corner and after seeing an opening with a slight twist which forces the beast to move off and let go of an attack that would have injured one of the other warriors.
I attempt to control the mana flow leaving me. Something that was still not quite natural to me, but infusing myself gave me the stamina to keep this effort that normally would only be sustainable for a few seconds and extended that a lot.
Level 20 something in mana manipulation. Not anything impressive, even by most people’s standards. Especially when compared to Nash's ability to pulse his mana for incredible bursts of speed even with his relatively low agility stat, but it is more than most fithers can do. I pursued a more common and easier path of sending mana to my muscles and it managed to help in holding the beast back.
I didn’t have an impressive mana pool but using about 5 mana a minute meant I had enough to last several clashes against these beasts.
These battles were short but more intense than anything else with most only lasting at most 2 or 3 minutes.
I hold myself back ever so slightly. Not from fear, but because I knew that the beast hadn't shown its full capabilities yet and I need to be ready to counter it.
Thirty seconds pass and despite my best efforts 4 people are out, but we find a rhythm that manages to hold it back, and against so many opponents along with the reinforcements that we can call from the village, it finally decides to take us seriously, even if…
Suddenly with stronger and more uncontrolled pulses of mana out, the beast starts to move incredibly fast. Not even Nash’s help, so make greater in range of the village and with the roots underground is enough to hold it back.
I stop conserving even the slightest bit of my stamina and dive head in with a singular purpose in mind.
To thrust or to swipe it and open a gash in its thick hide, I would even take a poke with the butt of the spear, but that isn’t particularly dangerous for an opponent of this caliber.
That is when everything starts to go wrong.
Nash manages to hold it for an instant but instead of being it trying to evade one of the attacks from the single person perfectly positioned at its flank, it dives in on another of the fighters and with a pulse of mana to its paws, it frees itself and bites a forearm.
A screaming fighter and a shallow gash instead of the well-placed deep trust I hoped for. It tries to circle at the back of everyone.
The entire group manages to turn around fairly accustomed to the style of the beast, but even that is not enough as one by one the beast eliminates the weaker fighters using them as cover and getting further away from me and Greg.
No physical fighter in our village even has a chance of standing a single blow if they were alone. We two however we real dangers to it if it didn’t protect its flanks. Frustration builds in my chest at my inability, my lack of speed and power and the system’s coldness.
My Aether starts to bubble around me and I send a thicker stream trying to squeeze every bit of an improvement out.
I’m no longer gaining any skill levels, but there were occasionally subtle improvements that would be very welcome right now.
Thrust, swipe, step closer, retreat. Thrust, retreat, advance, swipe, and swipe.
A stumble, a knocked spear, a slight defocusing, and someone falls knocking me to the side. The beast’s eyes lock on me. My spear is out of position, my footing is all wrong, shields in place to stop its charge, my heart almost freezes, but I don’t let that or the dozen people with serious injuries get to me. I pulse my mana out and swipe my foot across the dirt on the ground. I pull the spear with all my strength as a 500-pound beast barrels toward me with no one else in a position to break its momentum.
The spear tip moves so slowly into position, the position that should be braced so I could put my weight behind as I aim for a spot right at the base of its throat that would end any animal in seconds before the system, but even with all its vaunted power, the panther would still be severely debilitated if I hit it square on.
As I twist my own body and the spear tip gets into position at the exact angle I feel something, a warning in mind with an epiphany about how to proceed.
Trusting the instinct, I relax all my muscles and hold the spear steadily fully prepared for the blow putting with more strength than I thought possible in the instant that I need. More strength than anyone else managed to exert which penetrates the base of the Panter's throat.
The familiar feeling from a skill increase level is overwhelming and I let my face brighten up.
Level 100 skill.
Finally.