Waking Hour

Sleeping comfortably in one of the tents everyone had set up at the new camping spot I was disturbed when a loud shout pierced through the night silence.

Instantly waking up I looked to my left and saw Floyd who had also been awoken by the sound rush out the tent.

Whoever was on watch was told to scream or yell loud enough to wake everyone up in case any monsters appeared .

Leaving the tent moments after Floyd, A huge fire towered into the sky the countless corpses that were killed by Floyd were all caught and within the huge ring of fire, in the eye of the fire the rest of the group was surrounded by tens of those panther-like monsters.

None of us had any weapons whilst the monsters had bone claws that protruded out from their skin as if tearing through their own flesh, a single hit from those could cause major injury.

Suddenly, I heard the snapping of a branch behind me. Without hesitation I spun around and saw the yellow ring-like eyes of another panther monster staring before I lunged forward at me with incredible speed.

Its jaws were on full display as I barely jumped out the way, it's thin body made it quite the quick thing so it's next attack didn't come too long after it's first.

The claws of the Cursed Panther swiped at me before I could even see it coming, but at the last second seeing the extremely fast claw coming at me from my left I put up a energy barrier and minimized most of the damage but still sending me flying backwards and closer to the ring of fire.

'The monsters black fur made it hard to track in the dark, the only way I could see it was through the it's bone claws or the bone that stuck out of it's skin, but now with it closer to the light of the fire I should be able to keep track of it easier.'

The Cursed Panther's gaze focused on before wavering for just a second and pouncing to attack as It's left claw swung with a massive amount of force.

Back stepping multiple times I avoided the claw and then rushed forward at full speed towards the Panther. The giant panther didn't wait for me to cover ground and reach it it only attempted to claw at me once more.

Using my energy I enchanted my body and jumped up around two meters up only a few inches above the panther's head and high above its attack. 

Falling down I landed on the Panthers head and slid down until I got to it's back where I focused my energy all within my fist and prepared to finish it off in one strike.

Suddenly the panther started to shake with the intent to remove me from it's back but I held on and stayed focus and only a second later did my fist come down I all the force behind it slammed into the back spin of the panther.

A loud crack could be heard, and felt by the monster, as it collapsed to the ground and was defeated in one strike.

[You've defeated a Cursed Panther.]

Felling the energy being automatically absorbed felt great but I couldn't bask in the moment for long as two sets of yellow ring-like eyes caught my attention as they moved closer from the cover of darkness.

'There's more. Two this time.'

The two Panthers seemed more unified at the thought of eating me rather than anything else, the teamwork the Cursed Panthers displayed when they were chasing after us wasn't teamwork at all so I'm a little surprised to see two attacking me at the same time.

Peering behind me for a split second I could barely see anything that went on beyond the wall of fire.

The Panthers both lunged at the same time their jaws wide open. Moving out the way I discharged energy that was solely focused on its damage and power, with a minimal amount of speed I launched it forwards and aimed it at the panther's eye.

The energy hit the panther's eye and bursted causing blood to explode from the now destroyed eye, but the other panther lunged over it's hurt comrades landing right in front of me it's sheering gaze giving me the chill before it swiped at me at launched me closer to the fire.

That wasn't the only problem, as the now one eyed panther swiftly propelled itself forward and off the ground before I could even gather myself from the previous hit.

The panther's eyes bolted through the night as it neared me with it's mouth wide open, just as I expected.

Lifting my hand in view of the Panthers I had gathered a huge ball of energy chock-full of explosive power and launched it into the panthers wide open mouth.

[You've killed a Cursed Panther.]

One down, one to go.

The explosion had given me enough time to come to my feet and prepare for the already incoming attack that never seemed to end.

The claws zipped through the air and narrowly missed me. Using this opportunity I moved in but to my surprise before I could even take my tenth step forward I was meet with a giant maw that shot out from the darkness straight at me.

Using the foot that was supposed to propel me forward I instead pivoted on that foot and sped backwards and avoided the fourth Cursed Panther by the skin of my teeth.

Moving a safer distance back I observe the darkness that appeared to be still only to find ten pairs of panther eyes all staring back at me.

'I'm dead meat.'

As soon as the thought popped up in my head it disappeared as I refocused on battle at the perfect time, right before one of those Panthers lunged at me once more.

'I had been trying not to use it in order to grow stronger but alas it seems fate has a different plan.'

Summoning my Shadow Demon it instantly rises from my shadow and places itself in front of me before it runs forward at a panther that dared to lung at. Grabbing the top and bottom jaw of the panther my shadow demon took the forced head on before it forcefully split the panther by opening its jaw a little too much.

The ten other panthers hiding in the darkness all came forward at once as they simultaneously clawed at and bit at my shadow demon but each and every one of their strikes missed.

The Shadow demon was too fast for even them, the agile panther, and one by one the Panthers fell, each and every one of them tore in two by the bloodied hands of my shadow demon.

[You've killed a Cursed Panther(x13)]

'Now back to the main task.'

Turning my head to the wall of flames that still stood tall and burned bright. I put a circular magic barrier around my body and walked through the fire with my Shadow demon walking right behind me.

Entering the eye of the fire I was met by the corpses of many, many Cursed Panther. Ignoring that a thought came to my mind, looking up I saw that the sun had almost completely risen and the sky was a beautiful red/orange.

'We got to go. Those fly bird monstrosities are coming out and with the smoke of this fire in the sky it's practically waving come here and eat us.'

Before I continued up I unsummoned my Shadow demon and returned it to the shadows.

Atop the pile of corpses was the crew. Jumping up to them I got a better idea of what happened to them.

"What happened?"Reaching the top I asked.

"What happened!? You weren't here that's what happened. We needed everyone here to help and you weren't!!"

Kyle suddenly jumped up and pressed me, his voice full of boiling anger as he walked closer and pushed me with his hand.

 If Azriel did gaze past Kyle he'd completely understand Kyle's anger and oppressive attitude.

Kyle himself had a bandage wrapped around his leg and blood dripping down his barely torn pants, but the rest of the crew fared quite well except for one.

Jasper had a deep cut that went all the way from his shoulder down to the palm of his hands, the gash was dry and seemed to have already poured out blood whilst the cut seemed to be fine and under control but Jasper himself had quite the pale face and was sleeping in a pool of both his own and the monsters blood.

Azriel didn't see this so when he was immediately pressed he wasn't quite just going to take it with a smile.