The Panther

Hera was barely able to sleep. She practiced her spells while waiting two hours for the stakes to be usable again and went to sleep, only to be awoken by the alarm once more as the panther crossed the perimeter. Hera had to fight it again, but after striking the monster, it ran away again. The pattern kept repeating through the night until the first rays of the sun flooded the room.

"Stupid monster, bothering my sleep. Next time I see it. I'm sending a poison needle with all the mana inside the stone," Hera kept grumbling while packing her things. Before grabbing the first stake, she turned towards the woods and started yelling, "Are you still here? Come get me! Come on!" A few moments passed, but there was no reply.

She grabbed the stakes and put them in her bag. Before leaving, she considered her options. She needed water, and the two sources were in opposite places. One was to the right, where she would reach the ocean and go along the beach. The other was to head to the left for a long time and get to the lake by the end of the day. The better option seemed to be the ocean. It was an area where she could cover some ground, and it could be safer from the panther. Then again, animals usually had a nonviolence treaty when in places where the water was scarce. But Hera had no way of knowing if the panther would act the same way the animals outside the MAZE did.

The better option seemed to be heading towards the ocean. She would be in an open space, and maybe the water could be enough to make the panther lose her trail. Hera went to the right. She wanted to be able to relax, and the area by the sea seemed to be the best place for it. Checking the map for her route, she left the camp, activating her [Hide] to avoid facing even more monsters.

She ran through the woods, trying to keep a jogging pace while using her Pulse spell sporadically. A couple of times, she could sense a chameleon on her range, but the creatures were either too distracted or too slow to catch her. When the trees became less dense, Hera could hear the noise of something in the distance. She focused on her hearing, and to her left, she was able to detect something moving at her pace.

"Is that you?" she asked the noise without stopping. For a while, the only thing that could be heard in the forest was the sound of two creatures moving at a fast speed.

"I guess if you replied, I would be even more worried," she sighed, "Maybe It's just my echo, and I'm going crazy."

The noise continued through the hour. It stopped when she did and sped up when she ran faster. By all accounts, the noise only existed while she was making noise. Hera wasn't sure if the monster would be smart enough to do that, much less replicate her movements so precisely. Distracted with her thoughts, Hera failed to notice a tongue flying towards her. The attack hit her leg and made her roll on the ground, scraping her arms with the impact. Before she could get up, a growl came from the side as the panther jumped on top of Hera. The explorer barely had time to put up her handaxe to hold back the monster. The beast snarled at Hera, trying to bite her. If Hera weren't running with her weapon in hand, she wouldn't have been able to block it. As the beast attempted to bite the explorer, it opened its mouth, and its tongue went flying towards Hera's face. She managed to avoid it at the last moment, but at the cost of her ear. The tongue was smaller than the one from the chameleons, but it was sharper and stronger.

Hera screamed and pushed the panther away, throwing a Poison Spray at it, using all the mana she had inside the mana stone. At the same time, she started using the Mend spell to stop the bleeding. After being thrown, the monster got hit with the vibrant orange liquid. The attack hit its torso, going all the way to the lower legs before the panther even hit the ground. Hera followed up the spell with a fire arrow that lit up the orange liquid, engulfing the creature in flames. The monster started rolling around on the ground, trying to put out the fire. But the flames were relentless, the poison that was still stuck to it fueled the blaze. The panther bolted to the side and vanished into the woods.

"Shit, shit, shit," Hera kept cursing while holding her ear. Tears of pain starting to form in her eyes. The blood wasn't stopping, and the mend spell was doing almost nothing to stop it. She couldn't remember if someone could bleed out by having a piece of her ear cut off. Hera looked around and found a broken branch. Biting down on it, she placed one hand by her ear and used a fire arrow to cauterize the bleeding. The spell hit part of her head, burning a chunk of her hair and skin, but that was nothing compared to the pain she felt in her ear. She poured water in the wound, only to realize that the suffering became even worse as the air hit the wound.

Hera howled with the pain and held her ear as if it was going to fall off. She looked at the ground and saw a piece of the top of her outer ear. Gingerly touching her ear, she realized that there was an entire thumb sized piece missing from the top. She looked around for the panther but wasn't able to find it. However, she did find its trail. Part of her wanted to go after it. It was wounded and burning. Now was the best moment to fight it, but she held herself back. The monster was strong and smart. It could have been running just to lure her into a trap.

"Next time, you won't be so lucky," Hera barked while looking at the panther footprint.

She used her pulse spell and saw the chameleon that caused all her trouble on a nearby tree and rushed at it. If she couldn't kill the panther, she was going to make sure nothing would try to attack her again. It only took her a couple of strikes to deal with the monster, and in less than five minutes, she was heading towards the ocean once more.

She kept using her Pulse, and every time she found a monster on her path, she would take a detour to kill it. The chameleons were very bad at dealing with surprise attacks. As long as Hera got into their blind spots, it was an easy fight. It didn't take too long before she arrived at the edge of the woods. There, she could see the sea. Although, from her point of view, it looked more like a saltwater river. By the cliff, there was a path just a few centimeters underwater, much like the one she had seen by the Sailor's cove. To get there, Hera could only see one option. She needed to climb down the rocky wall. She could also try to jump towards the water, but letting her pack get wet was a terrible idea.

Hera started climbing down towards the water-filled path. Now that the adrenaline had left her system, she realized how hurt she was. The wounds from the pangolins were far from recovered, and the claws of the panther had created large gashes around her legs. It would take some time before she could get help. Even if she kept going at top speed, she would only reach a settlement tomorrow afternoon. She could try to push for the night and make it in the morning, but it would be the second day without proper sleep. Yet, if the panther was still following her, it wouldn't let her rest anyway.

Walking through this path was the first time since going inside the woods that Hera felt genuinely safe. Not as safe as she would be inside a town but safe nonetheless. The path would spread for a few kilometers, and it gave her the chance to refill her water bottles. Yet, after walking for about an hour, she was feeling restless.

"I think there is something wrong with me. Why in blazes am I bored? I'm alone by a monster-infested forest and having to fight against the small waves that crash here. This place is beautiful and amazing, and I'm complaining that It's not exciting enough? Seriously, since when did I turned into an adrenaline junkie?" Hera sighed and took a bite from her protein bar, "Maybe I should see if they have a shrink in here. I think I might need one."

After a few minutes of monologuing to herself, Hera stopped walking, "And why the hell I'm talking to myself!? Since when was that a thing? During the test, at least, I talked with my weapon that was better, right?" She asked Iris, her handaxe, "I'm definitely going crazy. Or the wounds are infected, and I'm delirious. Well, at least you are not replying. The moment you do is when I lose it completely."

Hera finally reached the end of the platform. There was a small drop on the cliff, giving way to a path she could use to climb back up to the woods. Hera climbed up, struggling a bit with the slippery rocks and the wound on her back, stopping her from using all her strength. Hera kept going towards the settlement. Thankfully, the forest here became less dense, and even with the sun starting to set, she still had enough light to keep going. She kept using her Pulse to find out monsters nearby, but the place seemed free of threats. When the sun went down, she kept going for another hour, using the flashlight to move. Hera wanted to keep going for longer, but the batteries of her light had run out. She could use the spell, but if something came after her while she was low on mana, it could be a big problem.

Hera found a tree in the middle of a clearing and set up her camp there. The perimeter had to be smaller, but she still could use the monster repellent fire and climb the tree to sleep among the branches. That way, if something came after her, she wouldn't be caught off guard. The only issue was how to avoid falling from the tree while she slept. She used the air mattress remains to build a makeshift net, and after making sure it wouldn't tear with her weight, she got ready to sleep. She slept with her pack and pouches strapped to her chest. It wasn't very comfortable, but if she had to run, it would be easier.

In the middle of the night, the alarm triggered, waking Hera up again. She carefully looked down towards the camp and saw the panther. Its legs still showed signs of burning, and the wound on its side was in the process of healing. Hera tried not to move too much and give away her location since the monster seemed not to know where she was. She grabbed her pack, but doing so made its contents shift, creating a small noise. Hera stopped breathing while holding the bag close, hoping the panther didn't hear that. Almost as a reply, the monster jumped up, climbing the trunk of the tree, and sent out its tongue towards the black net between two branches, making the air mattress that Hera was using as a bed to rip.

The explorer fell from the tree, doing her best not to hurt herself too much with the impact. She rolled just as she hit the ground and spun around to face the panther again. The wound on her back was acting up, and she felt that the fall worsened the situation on her legs. The monster jumped from the tree, stumbling as it hit the ground. It wasn't in good shape, either.

The panther growled and rushed towards Hera. She was waiting for it to get closer, but suddenly, it opened its mouth and the tongue went flying towards her. The attack hit her shoulder with a force several times stronger than any frog or chameleon she faced before. The monster followed up by jumping to the side as she tried to run to at the last moment, lunging at her. She raised her handaxe to block the claws, and the two rolled into the ground. Hera pushed the monster with both her legs and tossed it to the side. The panther fell on the bonfire and roared as the green flames licked its body.

Hera sent another full powered poison spray towards it. The moment the orange spray hit the fire, it started burning as if it was alcohol. The panther was once more engulfed in flames and started thrashing around, trying to put out the fire. Hera turned back and started running, leaving the stakes behind. The monster seemed more intelligent. The strength of its attack was also different. The only thing she knew that could grow like that were the wendigos that appeared after the wall fell. If that thing was one of them, fighting it was suicidal.

The problem was, this creature kept chasing after her for a long time. It waited as she hunted the pangolin and lurked as she tried to return home. It was very likely that the monster wouldn't let her go like this. But, if she was supposed to fight to the death, it would be on her own terms.