"RAWWWRR"
The monsters roared as they came into sight, moving with haste as they charged at the humans. Stanis could now see them clearly as they sped past the last treeline, his mind slightly relaxing as he recognised them: no longer a mysterious enemy.
They were as he had Scout and sensed before, compact feline bodies with bulging muscles. Green glowing eyes with angular teeth and a hint of whiskers. They had lustrous dark fur over their bodies, allowing them to camouflage into the darkness as they moved. They had dreadful claws attached to their warhammer-like legs which bit into the ground as the pummelled forwards, now mere metres away from the humans. If he wasn't wrong, these monsters were actually some kind of big cats, most likely leopards or jaguars.
There was no time to think as the two groups clashed, blades striking against claws. Orena had already activated her skills and you could see small slashes randomly occurring in the space around her, as well as the fact that she had activated Dominance. And yet despite her skills, the jaguar still seemed unfazed as it fought with greater ferocity instead of retreating, growling loudly as it did so.
"Fortified guard" shouted Caleb as he slashed his brand new sword in the Jaguar, timing it just right so that he dodged its claws but still hit its skin. However, he found himself shocked in the next second as the sword got lodged in its flesh, the jaguar tightening its muscles surrounding the blade in order to catch him off guard. He was struck in the following moment but managed to come out largely unharmed due to his heavy armour, roaring as he pulled his sword out, coming face to face with the jaguar once more.
While the others had been unsheathing their weapons, Sil had been preparing her spells.
"Fire-bolt" said she as a bright bolt of compacted flames shot towards the incoming jaguar. Nevertheless, the Jaguar ran forwards as it went head-first against the fire-bolt, coming out of the clash with flames eating away at its hair.
"Wind's embrace" screamed Sil, caught a bit off guard as she realised how reckless these monsters were. The jaguar charging towards her was instantly lifted off the ground and held in the air, its struggles useless as the fire continued to burn its body. Despite the strength of this spell, it was also just as mana-heavy and thus Sil dropped it within the next second, ready with her next spell.
One has to remember that these 3 were 3 of the strongest, if not the strongest of Yora village. And yet the Jaguars were currently fighting them as equals, even though they were starting to lose their edge of surprise. This meant that these Jaguars were unnaturally strong, most likely between tier-two and three.
There were four jaguars, one for each human, almost as if they had decided that would be enough to kill them all off. The one charging towards Stanis was the strongest one, a 2-metre tall black jaguar with claw marks all over its body. It was the strongest of the four jaguars here not just because it was bigger, but also because it had a clearer sense of when to go in for a strike. And that time would be now as it saw that Stanis was distracted, his eyes wandering towards those damned spectres.
The scarred jaguar chose to bite instead of clawing and so it bit forwards, its gaping maw heading towards his head. It was when the crooked teeth were only centimetres away from his face that Stanis acted, his right fist moving with blinding speed as he upper-cut the jaguar.
You could see its eyes widen and its jaws close as it felt a dizzying force overwhelm its body. But it wasn't free just yet as a monstrous left arm homed in, whacking it across its front leg and causing it to go flying towards Sil.
The jaguar rushed to its feet after it crashed into the ground, only to find itself diving into the ground once more as it realised it couldn't even stand up…
"Hold that one" calmly said Stanis, finally being able to turn around as he confirmed his suspicions. Behind the group was a band of floating shrouds, shrieking eerily as they floated closer. They didn't move with blinding speed but still would be past all the trees and in the fight scene within about 10 seconds, meaning that the humans would quickly find themselves vastly outnumbered.
The worst thing about these shrouds was the fact how they didn't look real, rather ethereal as they floated in and out of the world, a toxic-yellow shine escaping their bodies. There were about 5 of these shrouds heading towards them. Stanis reclassified them as spectres as he stared at them, the spectres not armed to the teeth with claws or muscles, but still somehow managing to give off the same amount of danger with just their sets of drooping, floating shrouds…
If he had eyes on the back of his head, he would have noticed that both the other humans and Jaguars were getting panicky and on edge as they noticed the howling spectres, the Jaguars to the point that they were backing off…
It was as these spectres were just a few metres away that Stanis realised how mana-rich these monsters were, to the point that they were almost pure-mana constructs.
Sil was now irked enough by the situation she found herself in and also free enough to act due to the space given by the retreating jaguars that she could fire a spell, a fire-bolt piercing through the darkness as it shot towards the closest spectre.
"SHRRRRRRRKKKKKKKK" shrieked the spectre as it was struck, staring at Sil with its narrowed non-existent eyes.
What others had seen was the fire-bolt striking the spectre, which recoiled back in response before shrieking at Sil.
Stanis had seen the same fire-bolt striking the spectre, only his sensitivity to mana meant that he could see the inner happenings a lot clearer. The fire-bolt had basically been absorbed by the spectre's body, the fire-bolt putting up a good fight as it burned and caused havoc inside, before being drowned out in the next second by the amount of mana the spectre had.
This caused Stanis to narrow his eyes as he looked at the spectres now within sprinting distance.
"Blueshot spitfire" said he, a tinge of worry clear in his voice.
This was his first time using the skill and so the astonishment he felt was allowed, his outstretched arm tingling with prickles of pain as hundreds of small mana-bullets were released from it. These bullets then shot towards the spectres, their ferocity far higher than Sil's firebolt as they made quick work of the spectres, cutting hole after hole into the already-ripped shrouds…
Stanis found that he couldn't help but drop his jaw as he watched, his surprise clear as he saw the multiple spectres drop onto the ground, burning away at the mud and grass as their shrouds disintegrated. An acrid smell was all that was left of these harrowing monsters after a few seconds had passed.
"You… you…" muttered Sil, her voice wrought with shock as she struggled to speak.
Stanis had known his skill would be strong, after all, it was the skill of such an impressive sounding class, but for it to be this strong?
There was a new layer of respect as the others now talked to him, the power structure in the group redefined.
"Those Jaguars, they ran when they saw those spectres" said Caleb, rubbing his injured arm as he did so. Stanis used light healing on the party's wounds as they spoke.
"They were strong, I would say at least higher tier-twos" said Orena, her body largely uninjured but her spear coloured in blood.
"They weren't trying to kill us" responded Caleb, his expression thoughtful as he finished his sentence, "Just trying to injure our legs…"
From what he had seen, Stanis was now sure of what had happened.
"Those Jaguars are the ones that had been watching us all this time. They didn't make a move until those spectres moved in, and yet even then, they only tried to injure our legs and ran when the spectres got too close. Sounds like they were just trying to pit us against those wretched ghosts" said Stanis, his theory cutting most of the loose ends off.
Apart from the most important one that was...
"But why?" asked Sil, her voice more reverent and respectful as she spoke to Stanis.
"We'll figure that out as we go deeper" responded Stanis.
"You want to go deeper? I'm pretty sure there will be more than 4 jaguars if we keep going, you really want to push our luck?" cut in Caleb, his voice filled with worry as he spoke, now fully aware of how strong he was in the wider sense. He'd been beating the Jaguar he'd been pitted against but he also knew that that wouldn't be the case if he was against two jaguars, needless to talk about any more than that.
"It's fine; I'll handle it" said Stanis, the golden light escaping the horizon almost celebrating his transition into the limelight…
The group was largely silent as they walked deeper into the woodland. It wasn't a long walk, especially when compared to the stretch of land they had already crossed, but it was the most silent, tense walk any of them had been through so far.
It wasn't but 10 minutes into the walk that Sil spoke up, "Something's watching us…", her voice quivering as she said so. She wasn't a cowardly person but it was a whole another matter when willingly walking towards death, forced to trust a stranger's strength to get through it. They couldn't even turn back anymore without Stanis, after all, they would be ripped apart before even leaving the woodland.
Stanis kept quiet about the situation and just walked onwards, the reality being that he had already sensed multiple Jaguars watching and following them.
Caleb was just as cautious and worried as Sil was, and for the same reasons she was. It was just too much of a leap of faith to make, and for what? What would they even get if Stanis was strong enough to protect them all: an answer for why the Jaguars wanted to pit them against the spectres? Was such a thing really worth risking their lives for?
These questions bounced around his head, his mind feeling like a hurricane had just blown through it. The monsters that had set up close to the village, the ones they had been fighting all this time, were clearly weaklings. He had always suspected such a thing but now he knew it; he now knew how harsh and cruel this world would become if they kept living in their dreamland, believing they were still the apex predator on Earth.
Even Orena was worried as she walked. She liked a good fight: true. She liked a hard fight: true. She loved a fight to the death: true as well. But she didn't like this scenario, it was akin to suicide…
As for the real reason why Stanis was doing this: he had a suspicion. And if that suspicion was right, the potential rewards of this mission were massive.
The silence which accompanied them was only a temporary traveller, eventually reaching its destination and getting off the ride. What took its place were the sounds of the following Jaguars, deep crackling growls and the occasional roar, giving the feeling of a chasing thunderstorm. This quickly proved its effect on the Humans as Caleb tightened the grip over his sword, Orena now walking in a defensive posture and Sil holding a spell on stand-by.
Their surroundings also changed, no longer was it just plain, large trees accompanied by the dark, muddy ground. The trees were now clawed and scratched, pieces of splintered wood decorating the woodland floor. It stank of the Jaguars, but not only of them. It was a minute away from the first chipped trees that they came onto a showing of a different type of damage to the environment: disintegration. Parts of the trees and woodland floor had been disintegrated, the smell acrid and sickening…
Now that the Humans were deep enough in their territory, the following Jaguars began to make advances, a few of them slowly coming into sight. Seeing that the Humans had no plans to stop, the rest of the followers also made their appearance, soon 10s of Jaguars following the 4 Humans.
Most had golden-yellow fur with spots of black over it. These Jaguars were the smaller type, in comparison anyway, only a bit taller than 1 metre for the most part. But there was another type with fewer Jaguars in, a type that the Humans more intimately knew. They had the sleek fur of night, their eyes glowed green and they watched the Humans with a battle-lust. These Jaguars were much bigger, about 2 metres in height. They were also bulging with muscles and had threatening claws.
Just as the other three had feared, they quickly found themselves outnumbered by these black Jaguars as more and more began to follow…
Out of these black Jaguars was a certain one with scars covering its whole body from head to tail. It was larger than even the average black Jaguar and commanded a sense of respect from the Jaguars surrounding it. This scarred one had a sudden spark of confidence and so it followed its desires: getting closer to the Humans, especially the defenceless Human who had humiliated it.
It was very subtle about its movements and this showed as the Humans didn't realise what it was doing until it was only 5 metres behind, following the Humans with a stalker's intensity. It could see one of the female Humans urging the bastard to turn around, only for the bastard to completely ignore her cries. Wonderful!
This was all it needed as the scarred Jaguar leapt forwards, its claws slicing through the air as it activated one of its abilities.
"Ice shot" softly spoke the bastard, his right arm's sleeve suddenly shining with a bright light as an ice crystal slid out of it, shooting towards the now very scared Jaguar. It sensed the fluctuations coming off this ice crystal and all of a sudden knew that this had been a trap, after all, such a strong ability was impossible to instantaneously activate. But the scarred Jaguar no longer had the leisure of thought as the ice crystal pierced through its head, the large Jaguar hitting the ground with a thud, blood quickly escaping its corpse.
The ice crystal returned back to Stanis's arm, fitting snuggly under his sleeved right hand, now wet with blood. His show of strength was enough for the Jaguars as all of the overconfident ones retreated back, their hearts threatening to come out of their bodies if they dared to try their luck.
It was about a twenty-minute walk away from their original position that they stopped, Stanis nodding to himself as he noticed the mana fluctuations here gave the strongest signs. The Jaguar leader was here!
Behind Stanis and the three others were close to 300 Jaguars, all prowling and roaring. In front of them were several boulders and large stones placed in a weird arrangement, a large cave in one of those stones.
"Bring your leader out" commanded Stanis in an authoritative tone as a black-furred Jaguar came out of the cave. It nodded at him before going back in.
It was a long wait for Stanis and an even longer wait for the other three, their minds close to breaking point as they wondered when these posturing Jaguars would finally attack.
"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWRRRRRRR"
A monstrous roar escaped the cave and broke the posturing Jaguars' confidences as all of them retreated, almost kow-towing respectfully as a new Jaguar walked out of the cave.
It was between 2 and 3 metres and had enough muscle and fat in order to comfortably fill that height. It had claws larger and sharper than the black Jaguars' and fangs almost double their size. However, none of these things was the most striking, instead that achievement going to the Jaguar's fur. It had perfectly snow-white fur, with dark, corrupted circles over the white landscape, its eyes the finisher as they were matt-black.
"What do you want, Human?" growled the white Jaguar, its voice deep and crackling like thunder.
This was followed by a heart-clenching silence as all the creatures there, whether they be Human or Jaguar, eagerly waited for Stanis's response. The squeezing feeling around their hearts only grew as the silence remained, Stanis staring into the white Jaguar's eyes.
"You were born here on Earth, weren't you?"…
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