Leaping to his feet, Nameless spun towards the noise, his body screaming its protestations at the move. The air swirling around him at his sudden motion, he felt the heft and chill of the muck clinging to his stomach.

While his rise and pivot caused his muscles to tremble and burn, his landing almost made his legs fold under him. All four of his limbs shook heavily beneath his weight, but he buried the pain and fatigue under a deep snarl, his focus on tracking the growl back to its originator…

Though he didn’t have to search for long at all.

Crouched some lengths before him was a Dark Luster Jaguar, fangs bared, another rumbling growl rising from the Beast to make the shallow water around its legs vibrate. The Beast’s coat shimmered even under the shade of the canopies above, Nameless’s eyes struggling to keep its muscled form in focus, “A Second Stage, then.”

“Worrying, but not impossible to fend off. Though…” Nameless met the pale orange eyes of the Jaguar, releasing his own growl back, feeling his chest tighten and sting, “It might be far more difficult for me to fight it, given my current state.”

His eyes flicked to the whipping tail behind the Jaguar – and down its unmarred body – before snapping back, his snarl increasing in strength, “Then frightening it off is the smartest option.”

With a flick of intent, Nameless grasped [Deception], intrinsically understanding that its aid would be invaluable in scaring the Beast away.

He took a heavy step forward, flaring his wings out to either side of him, making himself look as large as possible. He hid the fatigue and pain wracking him with [Deception]’s support, obscuring his weakness best he could, despite the wounds blemishing his hide and fur, “I just have to hope this is enough. Otherwise…”

He shook his head, banishing the doubts with a loud roar, approaching the Jaguar further with another powerful step, “Turn away!”

At his roar, the Beast flinched and begun to step back. The Jaguar kept its body low to the ground as it retreated – nearly sliding along the marshland – its eyes constantly shifting off of him, seemingly unable to stare at him directly.

“Submission? Good, that means my intimidation worke-” His thoughts disappeared like the day did to the rising of the Sister, lost to confusion and…

Pain.

Without warning a weight crashed into Nameless, hurling him over. He felt whatever creature that had hit him latch on and dig its claws into his hide, cutting and ripping away at his flesh, tearing a scream up from out of his throat.

It rode him down, the creature’s mad snarls barely audible beneath Nameless’s own agonized cries, the feeling of his fur and hide being torn apart sending his head spinning, “Off!”

Resounding with a wet clap, he landed loudly in the muck – having just enough time to tuck his left wing to his side – his attacker’s body falling atop him, a muted *pop* radiating up from his chest and echoing in his head.

“GET OFF!” With a deafening roar, he moved with his fall, rolling over and dragging his assailant with him. He pulled his hindlegs up and under the creature – its body flopping over his stomach with the roll – its claws burrowing deeper into his hide… and pushed.

With an audible rip, Nameless dislodged his attacker, forcefully throwing the creature away. A loud yowl trailed away from him, his pain addled mind barely granting it attention, body already moving to put himself on his feet once more.

[Deception] was discarded for [Proprioception], [Observation], and [Tactics]; the bare embers of his focus – not muted by pain – dragging heavily upon the Skills in a desperate effort to bring himself as close to fighting form as possible.

“The Jaguar was looking towards one of its kin, not away from me.” Nameless realized it was a feint, the first Jaguar drawing his complete attention towards it, obfuscating the second for an ambush, “But I know it exists now, so the Beasts will not be managing another trap like that again.”

When his paws met mud and water, he swayed, his limbs quivering underneath him, “One Jaguar was worrying enough…” He staggered and turned, readjusting to put the duo of Beasts within his pain clouded sight, “And two is far far worse.”

His right flank spasmed with the move, that entire side a mass of agony and heat, the scent of his blood lying heavily in the air. The pain flared further as he settled his feet – feeling [Proprioception]’s paws nudge his posture into something more stable – and swept his head towards the Beasts.

The Jaguar he had tossed off of him unsteadily rose to its feet, its lustrous fur coated with his blood, the first coming to its side to cover its kin.

Upon meeting, both sets of the Beast’s eyes stared at him… and Nameless stared straight back, utilizing [Observation] to try and study their every subtle twitch; and even borrowing upon [Tactics] to help in his trying to guess how they would choose to go after him, as well as how to counter himself.

“Their best choice would be to split up and try to and strike from either side of me. So, I should-” Fast enough that, devoid of his Skill, he likely would have missed it, both of the Jaguar’s eyes moved off of him for a moment before returning.

Nameless’s eyes widened, body moving before his mind could even catch up, his wings unfurling and slamming down to turn a dart backwards into a long flying retreat.

Water and loose mud sprayed away from where he stood, the air whistling past his ears, every muscle used screaming at him… but his attention was solely consumed by what appeared in his place.

Another Jaguar had lunged at him, its fur now soaked entirely with the mud and water he had kicked up in the wake of his dodge, now struggling to pull out limbs stuck deeply into the soft marshy soil from its failed attack, “A third, from a tree above!”

Nameless snarled at the appearance of yet another hostile Beast, despair digging its claws into his heart, his mind struggling desperately to figure out a way forward… when he hit the ground.

Snarl turned to pained yowl, further plans evaporating under an uncaring wave of agonized heat, Nameless’s landing violently shuddering up his body. The impact caused his legs to finally collapse – the rest of his body following – his breath forcibly expelled when his chest met the ground.

For a terrifying moment the world went dim, Nameless’s consciousness flickering like Lightning Spiders carried on their webs in the wind. His mind was enveloped within an instance of darkness, nothing; no sound, sight, or sensation of any kind, capable of piercing the dark wall of unawareness that had suddenly asserted itself before his waking mind…

Until – just as quickly as it had appeared – the darkness fell away, and reality returned in a jarring lurch.

Nameless was overwhelmed by the sudden return of his senses, each one slamming into him with almost tangible force; his ears were filled with a buzzing like Nettle Winged Flies, his body so consumed by pain and fatigue that it was almost completely numb, and his eyes struggled to focus – the world spinning and twisting around him – forcing him to squint in an effort to see through the harsh double vision.

It appeared to him as though time had skipped forward, the Jaguars suddenly closer than they were, the duplicates created in his wavering sight weaving in and out of each other as they closed on him.

“They… are coming. Get… Up!” He willed himself to stand, each of his legs shaking so violently that he felt as though he were at the center of a ground tremor, all of them threatening to collapse right out from under him.

Nameless recognized that he was at the very end of capabilities, having recklessly pushed himself to his very limits, his entire self – mind, body, and even soul – on the verge of faltering…

But he would not yield, he would not fall to despair.

Rising to his full height, Nameless exerted every amount of willpower he had to disperse the fangs of desperation and fatigued that gnawed upon every fibre of his being. Struggling to retrieve them with a mind still dazed and off kilter, he gathered his intent and reached out to his Skills, feeling the threads of purpose strike out into the bowels of his soul to drag their support to the surface.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

[Proprioception].

[Observation] and [Spatial Sense].

[Tactics] and [Tracking].

He felt each of his Skills’ support bloom within him, their presence a comfort to Nameless even if they didn’t drastically change his situation or condition.

His intent dove further while the most necessary Skills began their work; bringing [Leap], [Dodge], [Sprint], [Claws], and even [Flight] to waiting, a perceptible pressure building in his soul with so many Skills being frantically grasped at once.

However, the fear of injuring his soul again was nothing but a light breeze to the storm of terror that was the approaching death the Jaguars represented.

“I doubted that I could survive two of the Beasts, let alone three…” He stared at the coming Beasts, [Observation] helping to steady his sight…

And felt the cold coil of worn and tired fear clench tightly around his gut, “But there will be no possibility at all of surviving five of them…”

Instead of the appearance of more than three – created through his struggling focus – another two had actually been added to the Beasts’ numbers.

They were spread out before him, all five sets of eyes upon him, each drinking in his every errant movement and shift. Their approach was cautious, bodies tensed for action… but each was devoid of fear.

“They believe I am done… that whatever fight I have left in me is no real danger to them…” Nameless glared at the Jaguars, their spacing lengthening as they moved to envelop him, “I will make them realize how much of a mistake that is.”

He smiled and growled, the Beasts halting at the deep rumble emanating from his chest, “Because if my survival is impossible, if Death’s claim this day is inevitable,” His smile grew wider, becoming a mad and disconcerting thing, “Then I will make sure that when my final breath is taken, it will not just be my blood shed upon the ground…”

Working at the speed of thought, [Tactics] flowed to the fore of Nameless’s mind, honing and presenting every errant plan and path he could consider. Illusory forms of himself splitting away from him, the Skill building off of his imagination and thought, phantom conflict after phantom conflict playing out in front of his eyes in an instant.

To aid and enhance his considerations further, the Skill pulled heavily upon his memories, bringing clarity to every relevant experience that had remained just outside of his mind’s reach… and landing on one specifically.

For a blink the Jaguar’s disappeared, replaced by a familiar writhing horde of phantasmal I’thekik, flickering like a mirage, “It feels as though that fight were eons ago now… ” The memories of the I’thekik swarm dispersed almost as soon as they appeared, but his copies… they began to shift in their absence, aiming for the last of the Beasts at either end, just as he had done to those insectoid Monsters in the past.

“But it is… fitting, that a true battle performed so soon after my awakening, would be what appears – so vibrantly – to me now in my time of need.” His illusory mimics tangled with similarly imagined Jaguars, engaging in a conflict of guesswork and supposition; every strike, dodge, and shift made – by both sides – ones based on his assumptions…

But just as his time was finite, so too were the limits of what he could conceive.

The further into the false combat he considered, the greater [Tactics] struggled under the weight of possibility, his mimics dissipating into a roiling hazy cloud of chance, “That is the end of it then…”

Nameless shifted his focus back onto the initial strike, the few claws worth of remaining mimics there reflecting what paths he considered most successful, carefully thinking over each, “Now all that is left is to choose.”

Only heartbeats had passed as his mind and [Tactics] worked on plan of attacks, the Jaguars only just regaining their confidence to begin stalking towards him once more, “Use that hesitance and…”

“Strike!”

A decision made, [Tactics] faded into the back of his conscious, Nameless rushing forward with a sudden charge that caused a waft of water and mud to rise in his wake.

In the gap left behind by [Tactics], [Proprioception] and [Sprint] filtered in, the two Skills entwinning tightly with one another like serpents mating. He felt his paws fall with surety, the unsteadying mud and water barely noticeable beneath them; and his body’s every muscle coiled and snapped to his demands, acting despite the strain that burned within them to give his charge the speed and power necessary to catch the Jaguars off guard…

With his Skills underwing, the distance between himself and his target Beast was cleared in a daunting sprint, the Jaguars – for all their seeming prepared – caught flat pawed by the sheer speed of his advance.

The rightmost Jaguar most of all.

With no other sound than the heavy huffs of his breathing and the squelch of the mud under his paws, Nameless slammed through the Beast, acutely feeling the force of their collision radiate through every strained muscle and agonizing injury.

Growling though the pain, his momentum taking him past the Jaguar – its body crumpled to the ground – he was forced to rapidly turn around; the beating of his heart signifying how little time he had left to act unopposed.

The hasty pivot faced him towards the Jaguar, Nameless finding the Beast already rising to its feet… though it was struggling heavily – its limbs shaking and collapsing under it – and the Beast’s eyes were hazy with confusion.

He charged the Jaguar once more, unwilling to let the opportunity of taking at least one of the Beasts out so soon, slip through his claws. His paws dug deeply into the mud, the muscles in each of his legs rippling, tensing in preparation for…

A stop.

He hadn’t been completely focused on the Jaguar he had first attacked. Well aware that there were still four others to contend with, Nameless had watched their progress to his side, taking in their every move and trying to figure out how they were planning to strike back against him… and also, how to turn their own attack against them.

His halt turned into yet another pivot, his body groaning under the stress, wounds across his hide opening further to soak his already matted fur further in his own lifeblood. But his focus was elsewhere, the abuse he was foisting upon himself barely a consideration, his attentions instead consumed by the Beast nearly upon him.

He recognized it in the short instance they locked eyes, its underbelly and legs darkened by blood… his blood, marking it as his original ambusher.

In repetition, the Jaguar was leaping at the same side it had savaged earlier – its hindlegs just leaving the marshen soil – limbs outstretched, and claws exposed in a pose that radiated a feral anticipation…

That quickly turned to panicked horror as Nameless’s injured flank disappeared, only to be replaced by a pounce of his own.

With the additional aid of [Leap], he took off. A sharp bite of agony rushed up and through him in much the same way as the air did past his ears, however Nameless easily disregarded the newest reminder of his state, his interest solely occupied by the Jaguar he aimed to meet.

And kill.

They closed upon each other in mid-air, the Jaguar frantically struggling to twist itself out of his path to little avail – no purchase within reach that could halt or drastically change its trajectory – while Nameless opened his maw, transforming his maddened grin into a gaping pit of fangs.

One that soon found itself filled.

His jaws snapped down on the Beast’s throat, rich crimson spraying from in between his fangs, a gurgling yowl bubbling up from the punctures in its neck. He dragged the Jaguar down with him, his own mass and speed far exceeding the Beast’s own, leaving it entirely to his mercies.

However, that did not mean the Jaguar was without fight. Even with his fangs embedded in its throat, the beat of its heart pulsing on his tongue, the Jaguar lived. It writhed in his fanged grasp – desperately trying to remove itself from his teeth – its claws batting at his hide, cutting and slashing with frenzied mortal strength.

In its distress most of its slashes were ineffectual, barely recognizable against the myriad other tears and cuts marking his hide, the deepest of them mostly along his chest and underbelly – where the Beast’s hindlegs were capable of finding hold.

But, right before impacting the ground, the Jaguar’s right claws dug into his left cheek, the instinctual fear of wounding his eye causing Nameless to unconsciously reel away…

Just as the Jaguar pulled its paw down.

Claws scraped against bone and fangs, the flesh below Nameless’s left cheek parting like grass to a strong breeze, before they skipped off his lower jawbone leaving nothing but mangled threads of skin behind.

The pain made him reflexively bite down further, a hollow *crunch* emanating from the Jaguar’s throat, its trachea crushed under his pain addled grip.

The landing followed within the next heartbeat – dirt flying away – forcing Nameless’s fangs all the way through; releasing the Beast in a weakened, dying, heap at his paws and leaving a mass of gore within his mouth.

Only, he realized none of this.

Opening his mouth the viscera filling it spilled out… and so too did his own blood.

He took a breath, hissing at the pain of the air rushing through the rents in his cheek, his jaw struggling to close fully again with the muscles shredded as they were. He could feel the blood flowing down the side of his face like a waterfall, the blood filling the inside of his mouth acting much like its source.

He struggled to retain his consciousness, his newly mutilated face another torturous injury in a multitude, whose cumulative presences darkened the edges of his sight with the grating whispers of collapse.

Though, whether through a growing madness, daunting stubbornness, or something more, he persisted. Even with his Skills flickering in his mind, his soul aching, and his body failing… Nameless was unbowed and unbroken.

The other Beasts were still, frozen stiff with shock, none making so much as a step towards him, even with one of their own kin dying in front of them.

Seeing their hesitance, their fear, did nothing to remove his near overwhelming agony and exhaustion, however it did give him something else…

A chance.

It was a small thing, but it mingled with his anger, fear, and conviction to breathe a shaky life into his flagging mind and soul once more; the sudden reasonable possibility of survival making even his increasingly tenuous grasp on his Skills feel more assured.

It was a small thing. Just as a small, unsteady step, placed Nameless’s paw over the neck of the Jaguar that had maimed him twice was.

And from it, an indignant determination burning as hot as his wounds, arose, rising in a rumble up his throat, slipping over his tongue, and out his mouth as Naturally as [Telepathy].

“One…” Nameless’s voice broke the silence with a low growl, punctuated by the *pop* of the Jaguar’s spine as his paw pressed upon it…

To the surprise of even Nameless himself.