57 Jaguar

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?"…