Chapter 28 - Achieved

'There are still two pots left.' Thought Pan.

 That was the number of live mandrakes he could take back.

 While Pan thought, Peter and his men were packing up all their hunting gear. They would use dream dust to knock out the mandrakes just like Pan.  Another expensive product, but the switch would be worth it if the mandrake is caught alive.  Everyone just had to be careful where they step.

 The beginning was the boring part, as during the day the little devils hide in the tall grass. If it weren't for Pan finding two, the group would still be trying to find their first.

 A few more hours passed and Pan finally noticed two more with his senses. One for him and one for the group, which ends his hunt.

 Pan then threw the sleeping powder on the first mandrake which rolled to one side and then the other before coming to a stop. The scene would be cute if Pan didn't have the science that the little one could impale him when awake.

 "It was really timely to meet the noble apprentice," Peter praised.

 Normally, finding even just one mandrake when the star was in the sky could take days. But Pan had already found three!

 And to the man's surprise Pan soon found a fourth. But when he throw the dust of sleep on the little devil, things didn't go as planned, instead of getting sleepy the mandrake got angry and spread its roots in all directions.

 Pan was quick to react. Activating the state of absolute clarity, he masterfully dodged the thorns.

 'I'll catch you.' Thought Pan.

 The little mandrake continued to wiggle, shrink, stretch and twist its thorny and now huge roots in all directions. The sight of the brown fluffy ball turned into a storm of raging, angry branches that attacked everything around it.

 Pan could just walk away.  But he wanted to test himself.  He'd spent the last four months getting used to using his left arm and was wondering if that, along with absolute clarity, would be enough to compensate for the loss of his dominant arm. So he decided to throw himself into the storm

 A thorn was thrown towards his eye, so he threw his neck slightly to the side, another came towards his left leg, but was stopped by his sword, a root tried to sweep his feet, but a small jump at the right moment saved him from the fall.

 Pan continued in this struggle of resistance, crouching, jumping, blocking... But with each approaching centimeter things became more difficult. Every time he used the sword to block, the mandrake threw more and more branches towards him.

 He now found himself dodging and blocking up to four branches at a time. A scene that impressed Peter and his guards.

 Pan was not fast, not strong, not agile. He just seemed to act at the perfect moment every time, no hesitation, no doubt. He walked towards the root with a pot hanging from a string around his neck and a backpack on his back.

 But this perfect performance wouldn't last forever.  Soon, one of the roots grabbed the backpack strap and ripped his left shoulder superficially. Pan could only say thanks for not having taken the cord, or all this would be in vain.

 Then, when he was two meters from the mandrake, he pushed his sensory capabilities to the limit, crouched down and did a crawling leap, almost touching the ground towards the mandrake, a huge branch passed inches from his face, making Peter and his men sigh. But in the end it didn't hit

 Pan then passed to the right side of the root and over it with the sword raised horizontally to cut the two main branches that came out of the mandrake's body and went upwards, while segmenting in the middle and at the ends in a tangle of thorns.

 He used what was left of his essence to hone the sword as much as he could, a use of strength for the essence that he worked very hard to learn  It was nowhere near as powerful and effective as a brown, but Pan could balance quality with quantity, no apprentice brown would have as much essence as he.

 The movement was sublime, quick and fatal, for a moment Pan looked like a snake stretching out in the tall grass.

 The mandrake's "arms" were cut like butter and Pan stopped his momentum a little later, before turning around, dropping his sword and pulling the pot with enough force to snap the rope. He then placed the pot between his legs while crouching, opened it, turned it over and closed the mandrake between the glass and the floor.

 'I achieved.' Pan thought with his heart pounding against his ribs with so much adrenaline and excitement.