Silence fell over the forest, broken only by heavy breathing and drops of blood dripping onto the withered leaves.
The panther's body no longer moved.
Sunny and Lily stared at the defeated beast in disbelief. Just moments ago, it had been one step away from wiping out their group. Cheryl, Hope, Aileen, and Irene stood frozen in place, still not daring to open their eyes.
But Grey... Grey wasn't moving for a different reason.
The moment the battle ended and adrenaline stopped holding up his exhausted body, Junior felt a crushing wave of weakness and a complete loss of any desire to live.
The forgotten scene from before the teleportation, his mother's final look as a spear pierced her chest, and his sister's desperate screams crashed down on him like mountains. His mind shut itself off in one last attempt at self-preservation.
Senior's soul rapidly rose to the surface, as if pushed upward by an unstoppable current. A moment later, he had regained control of the body.
His mind cleared, and then the pain hit.
Real, horrifying, animalistic pain.
Grey let out a tortured groan. A choked sob escaped his throat. His right arm... below the elbow... no longer looked like an arm. It was a bloody mess, bones sticking out at twisted angles while the flesh looked like hacked-up meat.
Tears burst from his eyes on their own.
"Damn... damn...! Aaaah..." he groaned through gritted teeth.
Grey had been the most ordinary product of modern civilization. He had been rich, successful, and lived a paradise-like life filled with every comfort imaginable. Even in his worst nightmares, he could never have imagined experiencing such piercing pain.
At that moment, he sincerely envied Junior, who had passed out and left him to deal with the aftermath.
He took quick, shaky breaths, desperately trying to stop the rising panic.
"Can't... can't pass out. If I do, that's it. The blood will drain out, my body will grow cold. I... I don't want to die." Grey forced himself to look around.
Sunny and Lily stood nearby, still stunned by their victory. Disbelief was frozen in the boy's eyes, as if he still couldn't accept that they had not only survived, but had actually killed the savage beast. Lily, despite her exhaustion, stared at the panther's corpse with both awe and horror in her eyes.
"You bastards! What the hell are you staring at?! Help me get out from under this monster!" Grey shouted in a ruined voice.
Sunny flinched and rushed toward him. Lily followed right behind him. But the monster was far too heavy.
"Girls, stop panicking! The beast is already dead. Hurry and help us pull Grey out!" Lily shouted at their frightened companions.
Her voice finally snapped the girls back to their senses. Casting wary glances at the motionless body, they hurried over to help. Only the four of them together managed to lift the panther's massive carcass. Aileen and Irene grabbed Grey beneath his shoulders and started pulling.
Pain shot through his body like a blazing-hot blade.
"Careful, damn you all!" Grey rasped, throwing his head back as another sharp wave of pain hit him.
"S-Sorry, sorry!" Aileen and Irene replied with pale faces, barely holding back tears.
Lily clenched her teeth and let out an irritated breath.
"What the hell is wrong with you? Just a moment ago you were acting all brave and fearless! Now you're whining like a little girl."
Lily was always Lily. She had her own way of dealing with stress. That way involved curses and insults.
"Shut up, woman!" Grey barked, his voice gradually breaking. "You're not the one who almost had your arm ripped off. Try being understanding for once and bring me a rope!"
"A rope? What do you need a rope for, you damned lunatic? Want to hang yourself? There's a pretty good branch over there that can hold your weight." Lily bared her teeth in a grin. "If that's what you want, I won't stop you."
Grey narrowed his eyes from the pain and gritted his teeth in irritation.
"Just bring it! Can't you see I'm spraying blood like a damn fountain? I need to tie off my arm right now. Otherwise I'll bleed out faster than you can come up with another joke."
Lily reluctantly obeyed. Even she could see how serious the situation was, so she quickly found a rope in the bag and tossed it over to Grey.
"Here! Catch! I even thoughtfully tied a loop for you in case you change your mind."
"Thanks!" Grey smirked through the pain and started tightening the tourniquet.
He would never admit it out loud, but that exchange of insults had eased the pain quite a bit.
Using one hand and clenching his teeth so hard his jaw turned pale, he wrapped the rope just above the wound. His fingers trembled, but they moved quickly.
"Pressure above the injury. Not too close to the shoulder, don't hit the nerve cluster. Pull hard. Fast. Hard enough to black out if necessary," he recalled from the survival and safety lessons back in school.
"Sunny, hold my arm. Help me tighten it."
The boy rushed over immediately and grabbed his arm above the elbow. It was the first time he had ever seen such a serious injury, and he was badly shaken. His fingers trembled, his hands refused to obey him, but his eyes were filled with determination.
"Pull! Don't be scared! Better bruises than death."
Sunny nodded and gave the rope a hard yank.
Sharp pain pierced through him again. Grey bit down on his lip until blood flowed, stopping himself from squealing like a pig at slaughter.
Only a low growl escaped his throat.
"Damn, damn, damn! I'm gonna die!"
"Good... keep holding it... keep it like that..." he rasped out between heavy breaths.
No one understood what he was doing, but none of them dared move as they waited for instructions. Aileen and Irene timidly crawled closer, ready to help somehow but having no idea what to do. Cheryl stood slightly off to the side, pale as a sheet. Hope, despite her age, watched everything with a strange kind of adult terror, yet she endured it and refused to let the tears come.
"That's it." At last, he let out a relieved breath. "We're alive."
He met Sunny's gaze. The boy was still clutching his arm tightly.
"Good job," Grey praised him belatedly, then shifted his eyes toward Lily. "Thanks. If it weren't for your help..."
"Enough." The succubus cut him off without hesitation. "I was saving myself. Without you, we'd all be inside the panther's stomach by now. If anything, I should be the one thanking you."
"Heh... Glad we finally agree on something," Grey muttered quietly, then looked back at Sunny. "Sunny, skin the panther and find the beast essence. It looks like hardened energy resin. Search the corpse carefully. It has to be there."
The boy hesitated at first, staring fearfully at the motionless body of the savage beast.
"Are you sure? I've never..."
"I don't care. Learn. Your job is to skin this monster. No way in hell am I leaving its corpse untouched or giving up loot that cost us this many sacrifices. Even in hell, this thing is paying for my treatment."
Once Grey started ranting, he could no longer stop the stream of curses.
Only by damning nine generations of the beast's bloodline could he drown out the horrible pain still tormenting him.
At last, he remembered what he had been saying.
"Come on, Sunny. We can sell all of this. Don't worry, everyone will get their share, including you, since you landed the final blow."
Hearing his boss's promise, Sunny sucked in a cold breath through his nose. Though his conscience demanded that he immediately refuse the reward, the street rat inside him trembled with anticipation.
In the end, he didn't say a word and simply got to work.
Meanwhile, Grey shifted his gaze toward the panther. Even the unbearable pain in his arm couldn't suppress his greed for the beast essence.
Junior had told him that essence was the most valuable part of magical beasts and had countless uses, from alchemy and artifact creation to cultivation and training. It was used everywhere.
Animals in this world were considered creatures most closely attuned to nature and the world itself. Mana constantly circulated through their bodies, feeding their natural agility and strength. In places where mana gathered in especially dense amounts, an essential fluid formed from mana and gradually thickened as the beast developed. The older and stronger the beast, the more valuable its essence became.
As something that was essentially highly concentrated and purified mana, beast essence inherited the properties of the creature's abilities. Grey was genuinely curious what kind of energy had allowed the panther to become invisible. It definitely shouldn't have been ordinary elemental magic.
"What should Cheryl do?" the rabbit girl asked timidly, lowering her head in shame.
Even though, deep down, Grey truly wanted to unleash a storm of curses at Cheryl for leading the panther to them, he swallowed the words that were about to burst out.
Right... what else could he have expected from little girls? If Junior hadn't taken control in time, he would have reacted exactly the same way. He would have run without thinking about the consequences instead of playing the hero.
"You shouldn't blame yourself, Cheryl," he forced out with a strained smile. "The panther had already picked up our group's scent anyway. You were just unlucky enough to run into it first..."
His comforting words and the pained expression on his face only hurt Cheryl even more. Her eyes grew moist, and her long ears drooped.
"But..."
"Really, Cheryl. You haven't even started training yet. So how exactly could you have helped us in a fight?" Grey hurriedly cut her off. "And that goes for everyone else too. I don't blame anyone. You'd be better off checking the area nearby. I ran into a wheel when that beast showed up. It'll help us find that damned estate."
Everyone stared at him in disbelief. Even Sunny stopped fiddling with the panther's corpse for a moment.
"Y... You still want to find the estate?" Hope finally broke the silence. She couldn't believe that an injured Grey still wanted to continue the search.
"M-Mister Grey, shouldn't we return to the city?" Irene asked, and Aileen immediately followed her thought.
"Exactly, you need to find a healer right away."
Grey silently drew a breath into his lungs, holding back the pain that had already started climbing toward his shoulder.
"No. We're finding the estate," he said as if that settled the matter. Then he looked at each of them one by one. "First, we don't have money to hire a healer. Second, I'm not even sure I'd make it back to the city in this condition. It's better to find shelter and rest."
He fell silent and looked toward the depths of the forest.
"And finally... we need to get rid of the smell of blood. I'm afraid it might attract other beasts. If that happens, we're finished."
Grey kept the real reason to himself. He needed to be alone as soon as possible so he could take out the potion from the Bottomless Pocket, whose existence absolutely could not become known.
Taught by the bitter lessons of his previous life, Grey had no intention of showing off his wealth. There was a reason greed and avarice were called one of the seven deadly sins. The value of everything inside the Bottomless Pocket could make not only thieves drool, but even lords.
His allies had no reason to know about his trump cards.
His thoughts were interrupted by Cheryl's voice.
"I found tracks! Wagon tracks. Over there."
The traces left by the wagon disappeared beneath the grass, but still formed a faint path winding between the tree trunks. Grey let out a sigh of relief when his companions confirmed the discovery.
"Aileen, Irene, help support me," he quietly ordered. "Carefully. Very carefully."
The girls nodded at the same time and took hold of his good arm, while Sunny grabbed the other side and wrapped an arm around Grey's waist.
The journey felt no less difficult to Grey than the battle itself.
The wagon tracks they had placed so much hope in would disappear from time to time, hidden beneath roots or thick patches of ferns. Every few minutes they had to stop so he could catch his breath or figure out which direction to go.
With every passing moment, more strength left his body. His arm throbbed constantly, painfully reminding him of the critical state his body was in.
Just as he decided to throw caution aside and drink the precious potion anyway, Irene suddenly let out a quiet cry.
"The estate! Look."
Everyone raised their heads and froze for a moment, as if afraid it would turn out to be nothing more than a mirage.