Sheryl was already very close. She had no idea where she was running or what she was hoping for. Her mind had gone numb from panic, and her brain had completely shut down. If Sheryl had been an ordinary girl, her chances of escaping would have been zero. But in a moment of danger, her racial traits kicked in at full force.
The panther emerged from the forest like a living Shadow, getting closer and faster with every second. Its paws made no sound against the damp earth. Only the dark gleam in its eyes foretold the attack that was coming.
Several long seconds passed in agonizing anticipation.
Grey felt his consciousness literally being torn in half as Junior desperately tried to seize control of the body. It wasn't an easy thing to do when one of the "passengers" was still awake.
Worse still, Senior resisted instinctively, subconsciously unwilling to trust someone else with saving his life. His fingers twitched, his knees buckled against his will. A blurry haze seemed to spread over the world before his eyes.
And yet, at the very last moment, something shifted. As if caught by an invisible current, Junior Grey slipped into the body.
The moment he took control, he heard a roar approaching and saw the panther rushing toward him. Grey assessed the situation instantly.
Sheryl had no chance of escaping. If he didn't interfere, they would lose her here and now.
His fingers tightened around the handle of the kitchen knife so hard that his knuckles turned white, and he lunged straight toward the threat.
Time narrowed into a thin thread. The panther drew closer with every passing moment. One more second and its claws would sink into Sheryl's delicate flesh.
"GET DOWN!" Grey shouted.
Without even thinking, Sheryl threw herself to the side while Grey himself stepped between her and the beast.
The panther hesitated for a brief moment, clearly not expecting its prey to throw itself straight into its jaws. But that confusion lasted no longer than a heartbeat. A moment later, the dark blur merged into one swift mass and leapt straight at Grey.
He barely managed to roll aside, feeling the rush of air from the flying beast nearly knock him off balance.
"Lily, throw it off!" he shouted as he rolled to the side again.
Lily did not hesitate. A strange, high-pitched trill escaped her lips. A wave of magic filled with deception and falsehood swept through the air, making the beast lose its bearings for a moment.
The panther froze, baring its fangs in confusion.
Grey knew they only had moments. Tightening his grip on the knife with both hands, he charged forward and aimed for the beast's side.
But if it had worked, it would have been far too easy.
Despite its confusion, the panther reacted faster than he expected. It spun in place and, before he could strike, swatted him aside with its powerful paw.
Grey slammed into the ground and felt the air burst out of his lungs. Pain shot through his entire body, sharp and deep enough to reach his bones. He struggled onto his back, expecting the panther to finish him with its next attack. But to his surprise, he was still alive.
Lowering his eyes, he noticed three claw marks across his shirt. The fabric had been slashed, but it hadn't been torn all the way through.
"Mom really is way too caring! Only she would make sure that all our clothes, even regular everyday ones, could withstand an attack from a magical beast," a fleeting thought crossed his mind.
This shirt, carefully sewn by his mother and Qin Luo's grandmother from some unknown materials, had truly saved his life. Without it, his ribcage would have already become a horrifying bloody mess. The elastic fabric not only remained intact, but even reduced the force of the panther's strike.
The moment Lily saw Grey fall, she reacted immediately. Pushing her mental strength to its limit, she sent another wave of confusion toward the panther, forcing it to pounce at a thick branch instead.
The magical beast had become heavily disoriented. It did not feel the expected taste of flesh and blood. That irritation made it shake its head, throwing off the spell's effects. Its reaction confirmed that the beast's level was higher than Lily's. Otherwise, her mind-based attacks would have been far more effective.
Lily did not rush into close combat like Grey did. She understood her own limits perfectly. One wrong move, and her elegant, fragile body would be torn apart before she could even blink.
Her caution was completely reasonable. And she was certainly not the biggest coward among those gathered here.
Sheryl, Hope, Aileen, and Irene had huddled together into a small trembling pile behind one of the twisted oaks. Their faces had gone pale, and their bodies shook uncontrollably, as if they had spent several days trying to survive in the freezing cold.
They were still children. Ordinary children who had run into life's cruelty. Children who had suffered a lot, but had never gone through hellish training, never seen blood, and never known what it felt like to truly stare death in the eyes.
No one could blame them. Their fear was natural, instinctive.
No one is born brave and strong. Only relentless training and constant encounters with danger temper one's character. So they covered their ears with their hands and squeezed their eyes shut, as if believing the savage magical beast would disappear if they simply didn't look at it.
To Grey's horror, the panther actually did exactly that.
It literally vanished into thin air...
"Fuck..."
His instincts reacted faster than his thoughts. Grey threw himself to the side, dropping to the ground and rolling again.
Just in time.
Because the panther appeared exactly where he had been a second earlier. He heard the distinct clack of teeth snapping shut right behind him. He could even feel its hot breath against the back of his neck.
"Lily! Hold it back for one more moment!" he shouted as he rolled again to dodge another paw strike.
Without asking any questions, Lily suddenly straightened, drew in a sharp breath, and stretched out both arms. One last draining burst of magic spread through the space between the trees like a wavering haze. The girl's face turned pale as she staggered backward several steps. Her knees gave out beneath her.
That brief exchange had exhausted her completely.
Taking advantage of that brief moment to breathe, Grey threw away the knife and pulled a short sword from his bottomless pocket, a gladius specially forged for him by Grandpa Clark.
This was a real artifact made by a master blacksmith, the same weapon he had trained with since childhood. The moment it was in his hand, he felt much more confident.
It was sharp and posed a real threat to the beast. Unlike the kitchen knife, whose stab had been nothing more than an irritating tickle to the enemy.
The panther appeared again, a patch of darkness at the edge of his vision.
Grey darted aside, making short thrusts and rolling across the ground. His goal was clear: draw all of the beast's attention to himself and somehow create an opening for a counterattack.
Blood roared in his ears. His heart pounded wildly in his chest. Every breath burned painfully through his throat. He could feel his body slowing down and his muscles growing heavy.
But he had no intention of giving up.
Every bruise on his own body was traded for a bloody cut across the panther's hide.
The beast was strong. Magical animals naturally possessed stronger bodies, and this one was at least third level, if not higher. The fact that Grey, a cripple, had managed to hold out this long against such an opponent was already a miracle in itself.
After sensing real danger, the beast stopped playing cat and mouse. It got serious. Constantly disappearing and reappearing made it an extremely troublesome enemy, but Grey had not tortured himself with training for years for nothing.
His body was agile and fast. His instincts were sharp. His strikes were swift and fierce. His fighting style was no less brutal than the panther's. He skillfully used the terrain to his advantage, repeatedly hiding behind trees, using them as shields before suddenly lunging out to strike.
Tired of his vile tactics, the magical beast disappeared once again.
Grey dodged, but the expected attack never came. The beast was still invisible.
The boy hesitated for a fraction of a second. He had already learned all of the panther's abilities. He was certain it could not maintain its camouflage for long, otherwise he would have died several times already. But the beast still did not appear.
"Above!" Senior's panicked scream rang out inside his head.
The panther was falling straight toward the boy.
Fortunately, the warning came at the perfect moment. This was a chance. The chance he had been waiting for all this time. A chance to land a fatal blow.
"That panther definitely doesn't have wings. The tree trunk is too far away, which means it can't change its trajectory. I have to attack. Who knows when another chance like this will come?"
Clenching his teeth, Grey leaped toward the beast. His sword was aimed at the panther's belly. One decisive strike that would determine his life.
The boy was already in the air when he realized it.
Its position had been a trap.
The panther's long curved tail had wrapped around a branch, keeping it from falling uncontrollably.
His strike did not even touch the beast.
The dark mass suddenly changed direction and appeared right above him.
Grey only had time to raise his free arm to block.
A sharp burst of pain struck his brain. Bones cracked treacherously.
Grey cried out and fell as a deadly weight crashed down on top of him. The beast's fur smelled of blood and dirt. Its breath was hot, wet, and disgustingly foul. All he could see were sparkling golden eyes two fingers away from his face.
The panther loomed over him.
Its fangs snapped shut together with his arm.
"Damn it, I'm going to die." The thought was clear and ice cold.
But his hands refused to obey panic. The sword had long since fallen away. He had no weapon.
At the moment between life and death, an unbelievably vivid scene appeared before his eyes:
...his mother... pierced through by a spear... her face still filled with tenderness even in her final seconds...
It was that very scene that had shaken Junior Grey's soul apart and allowed Senior to appear in the desert.
Tears streamed uncontrollably from Grey's eyes. A savage, ancient roar burst from his throat:
"RRRROOOAAARRR!"
His pupils pulsed as if trying to swallow his irises whole.
Lost in a frenzy of rage, Grey started hammering the beast's sides with his fists, desperate and vicious, paying no attention to his injuries or the pain tearing through his body. But his body wasn't made of metal. His vision grew blurrier with every second, and his strength to resist slowly drained away.
Even so, he had no intention of giving up. His killing intent had not weakened in the slightest. Feeling around, he found one especially deep wound and began tearing into it with his fingers like some mindless beast.
A truly savage and merciless one.
The panther howled in pain and pressed its prey even harder into the ground. It was furious that its prey still refused to surrender. Deciding to ignore the hands, it went for the neck instead.
And then...
A dull impact rang out.
For a moment, Grey did not understand anything.
Then came blood.
Warm, thick, carrying the scent of iron. Blood dripped onto his face like spray from a waterfall.
It was Sunny. The skinny boy who had spent his whole life on the streets gripped a woodcutting axe with both hands and mercilessly brought it down on the beast's skull again and again.
His eyes burned with a mixture of madness, fear, and fury. He swung like a jackhammer, striking at a speed of two hundred blows a minute. It was as if he wasn't trying to kill it, but turn it into minced meat.
Lily appeared behind him.
She looked just as crazed. With her disheveled hair, a knife in her hand, and that furious look in her eyes, she resembled a savage witch.
Without thinking of anything else, the succubus threw herself at the dying panther and stabbed the kitchen knife into its body over and over again. It was as though she feared the wounds were not enough, as though the blood was not flowing fast enough.
One final ragged breath escaped from the panther's jaws. Its body convulsed, then finally went still.
Everything fell silent. Only heavy breathing remained, along with thick drops of blood staining the forest floor crimson.
They had won. Grey had survived.
But his eyes remained empty.
===============
Author's Note:
100 chapters. I did it! I actually did it. Right now I'm sitting here with a hookah pipe in my hand, and I still can't believe I've written this much. 150,000 words. 415 pages. And it all started with a simple thought: "Why don't I give it a try? I can do no worse than everyone else."
Haha, it really wasn't easy. Sleepless nights. An office job that paid pennies, and writing. My life feels like Groundhog Day. But there's something pleasant about it. Maybe it's the feeling of accomplishing something.
At the time I wrote this chapter, my work still hadn't even been published. Nothing but pure enthusiasm and the desire to create something of my own.
My friends appreciated my work. I'll publish it.
If you're reading these lines, then it means you've started this journey together with me.
I hate it when protagonists in web novels get their power for free.
That's why Grey has to suffer so much.
But don't they say that everything that doesn't kill us makes us stronger?
That's how it will be for Grey as well. Only after experiencing real hardships can someone truly appreciate moments of happiness.
I live alongside my characters and try to understand each one of them, making this story as alive and emotional as possible.
I hope you enjoy my work as much as I do.]