Chương 55: 1.3.11 - Show Us What You Got

I took a few paces back, recognizing the beast from the bestiary entry I read. Another Lightning Bolt already primed in my hand. The problem with books written from the accounts of adventurers was that they were never consistent. The Sabertail Panther took a few steps to my left as I circled right. I was trying to get into a more favorable position as I needed more room to evade its attacks. There were only a few bits of useful information that I could use now that I was already facing the panther.

First bit was that it had a metal affinity, which was quite unusual for beasts. The metal affinity gave it iron reinforced bones and let it grow that blade at the end of its tail. The muscles on its front two legs flexed and it leapt towards me, trying to pounce on me with its powerful metallic claws. I used Lightning Infusion to dodge backwards, releasing my Lightning Bolt which it was able to evade as it was not fully committed to the attack. The second bit of information I recalled was its attack pattern.

I was keeping my distance because the panther could attack using its bladed tail as well as its powerful claws. The thing the book called out was that due to its metal affinity, it was able to increase the strength of its attacks by controlling the metal in its bones and tail directly. The bladed tail was the main thing to watch out for, as it could defy the logic of physics and attack from unexpected angles. I kept my eyes on the tail swishing through the air.

Considering its reflexes, I would need to attack it from a shorter range so that it would have less time to dodge. The next time it pounced, I jumped to the side and released my Lightning Bolt. The spell landed squarely on its body, the panther convulsed — the muscles on its body visibly spasmed while its leg was stuttering. I thought I had it and prepared another bolt of lightning to fire at it. Without warning, the panther pivoted on its legs to twist its body partially.

Through my Electrolocation, I could see the tail fully extended, the blade attached giving it the extra reach it needed to slice at my neck. I could only partially dodge the incoming attack and had to use my vambraces to deflect the attack. CLING My boots skidded on the soft soil as I landed after the hurried dodge. The panther was still shaking off the paralysis but in my vision, I could see that it was somehow diverting the Lightning mana from my attack towards its skeletal frame and then grounding it.

It took a few seconds which meant that my attack should still be able to paralyze it, but would not be able to cause as much damage as it normally did. My right arm was sore from the impact, and a quick look at my right vambrace revealed a long gouge on the metal — a dent already forming at the initial point of impact. While my heart ached for my newly bought gear, I shuddered to think what would have happened if it had been my bare arms instead.

What the book had not covered was its strengths and weaknesses — the ability to ground lightning was not listed anywhere and had caught me off guard, nearly causing my neck to be sliced clean off. The cat and human chase went on for a few more bouts. I adjusted the distance I would dodge to take into account its extended reach. It would take a Lightning Bolt every time it missed a pounce and would ground the lightning quickly.

I could see that despite its ability to ground my lightning spells, the damage was starting to accumulate as the panther looked more strained and there were spots of burnt fur on its body. There were a few exchanges where I would fire a Lightning Bolt at it mid pounce. It was able to deflect the attack with its tail or claw, probably coating them with its own Metal affinity mana to not conduct the lightning through.

"Hoooh" I breathed hard after the last exchange. Even though the damage was accumulating on the panther, my core was at about half capacity after all those exchanges. I could see the increased electrical signal activate as usual right before a pounce, and I decided to fire a Lightning Bolt at it as I dodged to the left. Instead of using the tail to deflect the bolt of lightning, it had used it to slice at me as I was mid dodge.

I saw it coming and was able to shift my body to evade the tail as it sliced through where my body was a moment ago. What caught me by surprise though was that instead of finishing the swing like a normal blade would, the tail froze mid air for just a quick moment before flying sideways right at my body. I only had time to raise both my arms in front of me and took the full blow to my body. I was knocked back a few feet, losing my balance as I fell on my back and rolled backwards.

I quickly tried to adjust my body and get into position but I already saw the Sabertail Panther leaping towards me. Fuck. I tried to jump out of the way like a normal human would without my Lightning Infusion but before I could act on it, a giant earthen wall was raised between me and the panther — effectively saving me from being mauled.

"Mrraaaow" I could hear the panther meow angrily on the other side. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

"That's enough of a demonstration" I heard Randell call out. I had momentarily forgotten about the team in the heat of the battle.

"Take a break while we finish up" was all Randell said before I heard the team engage the panther behind the earthen wall. I quickly got up and out of the way, the taste of iron in my mouth indicated that I took some damage from that last hit. Randell was engaging the Sabertail directly. Unlike me who mainly used evasion as the defensive measure, Randell was only evading body checks or when the panther used its claws.

He mainly parried the tail using his sword, and used a combination of his Earth Wall and Ground Spike spells to restrict the panther's movements. Blows that he could not completely avoid he took with his Stone Skin. Whenever Randell stepped back, Annie would fire a salvo of ice shards at the panther. The panther deflected some with its tail but a few always found their mark, embedding themselves into the panther's flesh.

Waldo would always time his Focused Beam to temporarily blind the panther whenever Randell was caught out of position by a poor parry or footing, giving Randell time to recover. They worked flawlessly as a team, wearing the panther down with cuts from Randell's sword and ice shards from Annie. The cold, coupled with all the damage it had taken, was gradually slowing the panther down.

Waldo took the opportunity when he saw it and blinded the panther in a timely manner, allowing Randell to thrust his sword into the panther's neck, assisted by a Ground Spike to the pommel to push the sword in deeper.

"Waldo you can take the core this time. The next Yellow cored beast would be yours Damian, unless it has a Water or Earth affinity." Randell said as he wiped the blood on the panther's fur.

"The hide would be worthless with all those cuts and puncture wounds, Annie help me with the tail while I work on the claws. Waldo help me after you're done absorbing the core" They got to work efficiently, only stripping the most valuable parts of the panther as we did not have time to remove all the bones in the middle of the forest. After they were done stripping down the beast parts and keeping them, Randell made a pit to push the panther inside before burying it.

"We don't want that attracting any other beasts and setting them on our trail. Let's get a move on. Waldo will give you some first aid as we walk" Randell gave me a hand to help me up. As we walked on, Waldo placed his hand on my shoulder and cast Infuse Light.

"There, that should prevent any wounds from festering. You should still drink a Basic healing potion. It'll help with any light internal injuries" Huh, useful information. I'll take note next time. I uncorked one of the bottles with red contents and also one of the blue ones and downed both in a single gulp. While my mana core was still half full, I remembered Sylvia's advice of not waiting until I'd bottomed out to drink the mana potion.

Considering that we'll be travelling deeper into the forest and that I still need to keep my Electrolocation on, it was better I made sure my mana was topped up. Randell came up beside me after Waldo treated me and went back to his position.

"So, how did you think you did?" I thought deeply about my performance, honestly it was dismal and primarily attributed to the poor match up. While I wanted to say that it was bad luck, the grim reaper's scythe did not really care about poor match ups or any excuses. If I was by myself, I would have died.

"I think I probably failed. I would understand if you don't want to party with me after this mission" I said in a dejected tone. Randell just chuckled when he heard that.

"Don't sell yourself short lad, you did not do well but not for the reasons you think. I would give you a barely passing mark" I looked at him, surprised by his assessment. One thing I had now learnt in both lifetimes was that there were usually nuggets of wisdom that people more experienced than you in certain fields could impart. Peter with political insights, Garrick on his merchant trade as two examples. I kept quiet as a sign for him to proceed with his explanation.

"The first was that you did not do your research" I wanted to argue that I did but he just held up a hand as an indication to let him finish.

"I could tell that you recognized the Sabertail Panther at a glance, what I meant was doing more to understand how to fight it. There are things that you could infer based on their affinity, like knowing that Metal magic could control the movement of metal. If you did, you would not let that last attack catch you unaware." It was true, I had let the destructive ability of my lightning spells do so much of the work that I had kept my strategy really simple. Dodge and shoot lightning.

"The second was not recognizing that you were a bad match up after that first exchange and retreating immediately. There is no shame in running away from danger that you can't overcome" Randell said as he ducked beneath a branch that was too low. That was always true, the only time I had tried to run was the encounter with the Weepwrym and that was because it had a grade on me. That and the Muckapes, and that was only because it was an annoyance rather than danger.

Randell held up a third finger as he finally said "The last is that you forget that you were in a team. After a few exchanges where you did not make any progress, you should have called out that this was not a beast you could take down by yourself. I was waiting to see how long it would take you to ask for help but I had to jump in to save you after you were knocked down" I went quiet with that remark. I had no counter for all the points Randell listed.

"Still, you're young and as long as you learn from your experiences, Caelora is yours to explore" Randell said with a smile.

"I would give you some points though for the actual combat. You have good intuition for fighting, and if it was any other beast, it would have gone down with a few spells. I could totally see how you might have developed some bad habits due to previous successes. That was why I said you barely passed" Randell explained. We encountered another Yellow cored beast which we promptly dispatched, working together as a team for the first time.

With Randell occupying the beast's attention, a few Lightning Bolt s from me quickly put it out of its misery. The beast had an Earth core so Randell absorbed it. We reached the targeted area on the map after a few more hours and found a clearing which also had some of the plants indicated in the mission brief.

"Alright, let's make camp here. We'll set up the watch rotation after supper. Tomorrow, we'll track towards the dungeon and look for these mythical giant ants" I shuddered at the thought of plodder sized ants, hoping that none would crawl up on us when we slept tonight.