CHAPTER 17: [The curse land] - [Smell lost] - [Damian’s boss fight]

It was only at sunrise that Gu-washi appeared out of the forest and fainted on the temple's door having lost a lot of blood and was found lying unconscious by guards a couple of hours later. Gu-washi was brought in to be healed and even though he was heavily injured his life wasn't endangered as long as he received proper treatment.

For the second time since the beginning of the war Ying-be investigated the cause of the endangered state of one of the generals only this time it was the strongest and that was even more worrying for him.

Ying-ba flew up in the sky and observed the temple and its surroundings, he quickly found traces of a fight outside the main temple and landed to investigate. After looking at the traces of the fight he was able to reconstruct it in his mind and followed it as if he had been present that night.

He arrived at the wall and directly went to the location of the mist arrow that Gu-washi had fired, he had already seen it when he was flying so he could easily retrace its location. A hundred meters away he found the destroyed area where Gu-washi's arrow had pierced the ground and where he had then fought with a new enemy.

He tried reconstructing the scene in his mind but he strangely couldn't, he actually couldn't learn anything from the scene. It was like someone had purposely made it so that this fight stayed hidden. Only after exiting the area could he see signs that Gu-washi had been defeated and of him returning to the temple injured. There were no sins of the last assassin escaping from the scene or of the misterhouse being that most likely intervened in the fight.

Ying-ba returned to the temple and announced that they would leave now as they couldn't lose any more time or they would continue slowly losing their generals to the enemies' assassination attempts.

"Let us go to their not so mighty temple and trample them, let's show them that cowards like them that can only send assassins deserve to be crushed under our feet like the ants they are." Fearlessly shouted at Ying-ba while facing his army before marching for war.

——{somewhere in the same jungle}——

Since Damian had found the oscillatoria flower he had been able to gather quite a good quantity of oririum and after putting it back at the cave he once used as his shelter he had left in search for the *purple wood* for the handle of his hammer.

Damian swung proudly from tree to tree using vines while imitating Tarzan's famous cry, he wasn't scared of the forest anymore as it had been almost two months since he had arrived in this forest and he had imposed himself on the native animals of the forest as one of the apex predators. Thus he didn't risk a lot by shouting and revealing his position and most importantly he enjoyed life in the wild and the challenges it brings on daily bases, he had had numerous fights against strong beats that didn't want him to enter their territories and he had ever defeated them or escaped unscathed every time.

Damian's plans for the day were to explore a new part of the forest and to fight the beast that reigned in the territory as it also served as training for him to improve his fighting experience and skills.

After traveling for a full day Damian arrived at the border with the new territory and decided to rest for the night to regain all the energy he had used to travel before entering the undiscovered territory.

———

The next day Damian woke up at dawn and directly entered the new area without doing any other preparations. Only this time he moved on foot as he didn't know what kind of animals inhabited this new territory.

Damian was surprised as the flora was gradually changing as he got deeper within. He hadn't seen anything similar in the other territories he had explored previously, their flora didn't vary a lot from each other.

After walking for forty minutes his environment had completely changed, he couldn't recognize the forest anymore, it was as if he had traveled to another dimension. The plants were of a reddish color and the ground of a deep gray and there were no animals to be seen or heard.

Damian continued walking further and arrived in a big clearing, at its center was a big throne made from bones and tree trunks, on this throne was a big Panther with a red fur. It was sitting with a royal demeanor in a human-like fashion.

The Panther didn't seem to mind Damian trespassing, it looked at Damian like humans looked at insignificant bugs. He thought himself to be hugely superior to Damian and didn't see him as a threat or a possible contender to his throne.

Damian could also tell all this just by looking at the Panther's expression, the Panther wasn't trying to hide its superiority, contrary to that it was as if it was saying to Damian "come here and try your luck little bug".

As Damian was one of the most prideful beings of this world he couldn't just take it, even if it was a dragon and he was a lot weaker he couldn't accept someone looking down on him. Back on his earth even ants could kill huge animals and devour them. He had always surpassed the odds since his arrival here and the old Damian had done the same by attaining the level of a 2-star aura user without being able to use aura.

The king he had to face as of right now was nothing compared to the enemies he would face in the future. It may have been the king of this big territory but Ivental was so big that there was always something stronger than you even if you were at the top of the food chain.

If Damian compared this beast to the members of the monkey elite assassin group it was half a star lower. It was something that he could hardly face at his level and he knew the battle wouldn't be easy, he would have to give it his all for this battle. But he couldn't walk away now that he had been looked down upon.

"I hereby challenge you who think to be above all. I promise that today is the day of your death, you should try being less provocative in your next life." Damian announced as he smirked as his enemy.

"Human I have heard about you from my predecessor, he told me you were feeble beings that rely on tricks and weapons to win. He also told me humans are prideful and can't understand when it is their time or not, I can see he was right about all that from your words." The Panther responded in a bored tone as he looked at Damian.

Damian couldn't take it anymore and sent his sword flying in the direction of the beast's head like a javelin champion, the javelin pierced the air with seemingly no resistance only producing a "woosh" sound. The Panther didn't move from his potion and simply used his fang to deflect it.

Still sitting on his throne he faced Damian and a smile appeared as Damian's sword embedded itself in a nearby boulder. The Panther then got up and slowly opened his mouth and roared so loudly that the trees in the roar's direction were unrouted, the soil turned other, the clowns were torn apart and the sky began to darken over the Panther's area.

Damian was pushed back before he could hold on to anything, he was flung in the air and could only save himself by catching a tree and holding it tightly, causing him quite some damage.

"Not too bad human, you are stronger than you seem. I didn't expect you to survive that. But that doesn't change the fact that you are human and feeble." Said the Panther with a voice that reached Damian tenth of meters away.

Damian hadn't said his last word, he had taken on the duty of killing this beast and would leave until he had done so.

"Hahaha, damn! You are indeed a king. But that doesn't change a thing, you will still be defeated!" He shouted from afar before charging the beast bear fists.

Damian had the same mastery in the sword hand to hand. Because he couldn't freely use aura he had learned multiple fighting styles. He could only use aura by having a portable mana reserve that took the shape of a ring and needed to be filled up occasionally by using a mana crystal.

HIs ring suddenly stopped providing him with mana and he lost balance, but he quickly strengthened himself and he stayed on track. Damian was now going to face a powerful enemy without using mana but Damian didn't show one ounce of hesitation whatsoever.

His footwork was disturbed because of the stop of mana he used to coat his feet to enhance his performance by lips and bound and surpassed the human capacities. Now Damian had to run and attack his enemy using pure strength. Damian's strength without using aura was still respectable as he was like sixty-four men combined.

The Panther didn't move as he thought Damian as he now saw him as an even smaller bug as he had seen that he had lost his aura. Damian arrived near the Panther, directly jumped on the Panther's leg and he ran up to his body. He jumped to dodge the Panther attacks that was struggling to hit him.

"Little human do you have no self respect, you small mosquito." The beast shouted as it couldn't hit Damian.

Damian quickly arrived at the torso of the Panther and used it to propel himself in the opposite direction, the Panther's elbow. The next moment the Panther felt intense pain cousin through his body, Damian had hit the Panther on a nerf causing him to become furious.

'How could a majestic being such as myself be hurt by a mere human.' He raged inwardly and decided to end Damian's life.

Damian landed on the ground and created a gap of a few meters in between himself and the Panther as Damian could feel the huge killing intent coming from the beast. The Panther suddenly jumped out of his throne and joined both his hands before smashing the ground with all his strength.

The ground in the clearing cracked open and the throne that previously stood proudly behind the Panther started to crumble. This was the last droop that made the bowl overflow and the Panther went berserk, he had used a great deal of his time to create it and it was truly his masterpiece. He had killed every animal in the vicinity for their bones that were needed for his craft and now no more animals came to this part of the forest.

In his tribe all potential kings must leave their village at the age of fifteen and travel the world to find a territory to conquer, what's more they have to be able to build a throne as their tribe are very skilled with their hands. After five years they must send news to their tribe and they then would be evaluated by an inspector. After deliberation the inspector would then decide which of the candidates has more skills and potential to become the king.

Now that the Panther's throne was destroyed he only had a few months to recreate a throne and leave the forest in search for a suitable territory. The territory he had currently wasn't suitable as it was in the *curse land* and was very difficult to access, he also needed an authorization from the guardian of the forest to leave or enter the forest.

He had planned to use the forest to gather strong bones for his throne only then would he leave to find the territory he had to present to the inspector.

Chunks of ground flew through the sky and Damian jumped on the pieces of ground so fast he landed on the ground before the pieces had yet to fall back on the ground. He grabbed his previously fallen sword, but he hadn't time to rest as the Panther got up. The beast was standing proudly on its back legs, giving off a feeling of dread looking down at Damian from his twenty-five meter tall body.

This time Damian could feel that the Panther had become truly serious so he didn't initiate any attacks and simply waited for the panther to attack first. He didn't have to wait for a long time as this time the Panther sucked the air and mana around him before producing an enormous roar that made the trees in its way of his instantly unroot, obliterating the closest ones as it made contact with them.

Damian desperately used his sword as a shield and tried to protect himself from the powerful roar but he could only protect himself to an extent, he was pushed back and suffered greatly as he was pushed through several trees and his bones were shattered.

TO BE CONTINUED…