CHAPTER 83: CHAPTER 83 - PANTHER HUNT

Fresh snow crunched under their feet as they made their way south, the storm growing heavier with each step. The falling snow had grown thicker since earlier, making it harder to see more than a few dozen feet ahead.

’’If the storm continues like this, we’ll be forced to go back early,’’ Livia muttered, glancing at her map.

Logan followed closely behind, holding a hand above his eyes to prevent snow from getting in.

’’We should be almost there now, right?’’ he asked Livia, looking around with his Mana Sight active.

’’A few hundred feet more,’’ Livia responded, gesturing for Logan to quiet down.

As they walked through the snow, their expressions turned serious.

Each of them took their weapons off their backs, preparing themselves for any situation.

’’Be extremely alert from here on,’’ Livia said, her voice just loud enough for them to hear. ’’This is their hunting zone.’’

Logan exhaled sharply, a cloud of mist escaping his lips as he tightened his grip on his weapon.

Suddenly, Livia stopped, crouching down.

’’Hoof prints,’’ she mumbled, feeling the ground. ’’Fresh ones.’’

The exact reason why the snow panthers hunted in this area.

’’There’s a Frosthorn Elk up ahead,’’ she said, glancing back at Derek and Logan.

Derek nodded seriously, scanning the area around them.

’’No signs of any snow panthers yet,’’ he said, his voice neutral.

Logan glanced at him. Derek had kept mostly to himself until now.

’Guess he’s somewhat warming up to us,’ he thought, not quite convinced.

He looked down at the hoof prints again. They were close now.

Moments later, they found what they were looking for.

’’There’s one up ahead,’’ Derek whispered, staring in one direction. ’’And it’s walking away right now.’’

Livia nodded seriously, seemingly in thought.

’’It must’ve caught the Elk,’’ she muttered, before looking up. ’’We should try to surprise attack it.’’

They spread out without another word, silently catching up to the panther from all directions.

The snowstorm helped mask their movements, but it also made it significantly more difficult to act together as a team.

Logan moved right, his expression serious as he held his glaive.

’This one should be less difficult than the last,’ he thought, using his Mana Sight to observe it.

The panther didn’t notice them. Its head was lowered, its teeth deep inside a white elk’s throat, leaving a trail of blood behind it.

Livia had made her way in front of the panther, cutting off its first escape path, while Derek had moved to the creature’s right side.

As they slowly tightened the circle around the panther, its ears twitched.

It stopped moving, turning its head around, growling.

’’Now,’’ Livia shouted, her voice just barely echoing through the snowstorm.

Simultaneously, Logan, Derek, and Livia closed the remaining distance between them and the snow panther.

The panther dropped its food immediately, forming icicles all around itself for protection.

Livia immediately prepared her light element beam. Derek raised his arm but hesitated, releasing a few stone shards that missed the panther completely.

Logan didn’t comment, but he noticed.

Forced to move in himself, he activated the basic version of his Flaming Body technique, pouring mana into his glaive.

The fight dragged on for minutes as the snow panther desperately defended itself, even managing to land a hit on both Livia and Logan with its claws.

After being wounded severely by Livia’s light beams, it tried to make a run for it.

Luckily, Derek managed to cut off its escape path with a large earth wall, giving Logan the opportunity to cut through two of its legs.

The panther still tried to run, dragging its body through the snow, but it collapsed after a few steps—completely unable to stand with two legs gone.

Livia stepped forward and ended it, firing a beam of light that burned through its skull.

Steam rose from Logan’s body as he stopped using his Flaming Body technique and walked toward the panther’s corpse.

Logan glanced at the earth wall.

’Between the missed shards and this... hard to tell if it was an accident or if he’s holding back. Either way, I’m not sure I trust it.’

’’Thankfully, this one seems to have only reached the C-rank recently,’’ Livia remarked, hovering over its corpse.

The creature was over three feet shorter than the scarred panther they’d faced inside the cave, and even its core was a couple of inches smaller.

’’That’s core number three,’’ Derek said, having dug out the core before throwing it to Logan.

Livia nodded, washing the blood off her suit.

’’We need to see if we can get another three or four before the storm gets worse,’’ she said, glancing up at the sky.

Logan caught the core and placed it into his space ring, then looked back at his teammates.

They hadn’t used nearly as much mana as last time, giving them the confidence to immediately set out to hunt another.

’We’ll regenerate some mana as we search for our next target anyway,’ Logan thought, putting his glaive on his back. ’There’s only fourteen hours left before we need to head back.’

’If we want to hit Livia’s goal, we’ll have to keep going.’

They moved again, heading deeper into the panthers’ natural hunting grounds as the snowstorm continued to intensify around them.

The next kill came quicker than they had expected. They found a snow panther within the hour, patiently lying in wait beneath the snow.

Having learned from their earlier mistakes, they managed to ambush the snow panther without taking a single hit.

’’Number four,’’ Logan mumbled, digging through the panther’s corpse.

He still had more than half his mana, but the constant tension and fighting were beginning to wear on him mentally.

’No training really prepares you for this,’ Logan thought, trying to clear his head.

’’We’ll do one more before we take a break,’’ Livia said, breathing heavily.

Heading even deeper into the hunting grounds, they walked up a steep path, finally stumbling on a massive ledge.

Logan held his breath as he looked down.

’’Those are the breeding grounds down there, right?’’ he whispered, staring down at a massive ice lake that spanned over a mile.

’’Yes,’’ Livia nodded, also peering over the ledge.

Staring silently over the ledge, they looked at each other before moving on.

Behind them, Derek also glanced over the ledge, a strange glint flashing in front of his eyes before he followed after Logan and Livia.