It stood there, seemingly intelligent eyes observing his every movement. Smaller than the lions had been, the black panther seemed to somehow manage to look so much more terrifying, mother nature's perfect predator evolved on ether to become the beautiful beast before him.

The perfect killer.

Arthur KNEW he was fucked.

Graceful and elegant, it placed one foot in front of the other as it slowly approached the only evolved variant amongst the dead lions, as if it had all the time in the world. It probably did. No one would be getting in its way. Certainly not Arthur.

He couldn't even breathe, almost as if he was surrounded by oil instead of air, the thick liquid corrupting his lungs with every breath he took, sapping more and more of his already dwindling reserves of energy.

Terrified, his body didn't seem to want to respond to his commands. Arthur knew that sometimes prey froze up at the sight of a predator, a natural reaction when faced with death, if not a good one, but what Arthur was feeling was a completely different thing altogether.

Despite his terror, Arthur would have never given up on his life and yet try as he might, he couldn’t do anything.

Arthur literally couldn't move, as if the black panther had somehow locked him in place with its gaze, probably intending to save him for dessert after it had finished its feast of lion flesh. After all, right now Arthur was an incredibly rare delicacy. He was probably the last live human on Earth right now, fresh and juicy. Gritting his teeth, Arthur tried to dismiss his meandering thoughts. Now wasn’t the best time to be considering how he tasted.

Trying his best, Arthur was able to take a single step backwards before his vision flickered strangely, fatigue overcoming him; as if Arthur had run a marathon instead of moving the half meter in a retreat that he had actually managed to. Looking down at the ground, Arthur realised why. His shadow was somehow connected to the black panthers, a single dark tendril from the beast's own linking with his. Identifying the panther again, he found out what was going on.

Identify has reached level 2.

Shadow Panther level 11- This deadly creature is an extremely rare result of a successful evolution from the ordinary black panther. This hunter favours the darkness and is able to use shadow magic to help catch its prey. If allowed to grow, this monster has been known to decimate entire cities in the span of a single night.

EXTREMELY DANGEROUS!

If spotted, please refer to your local system authority.

Ether 2380.

Arthur's dwindling hope reached rock bottom after reading that description. He now knew what the mysterious shadow tendril was all about but the information did him little good. It seemed as if his only choice was to simply wait for his end and pray it was quick.

His identify had managed to gain a level but Arthur couldn’t bring himself to be happy with the achievement. The skill would do him little good if he didn’t live long enough to use it. For the first time in a while, Arthur felt himself sink into the pits of despair.

Maybe he should just give up. Maybe he’d already done enough. It was a shame that he wouldn’t be able to bring Rize back, but she couldn’t blame him. She wouldn't. She'd understand Arthur had tried his be-

What the fuck is going on! Arthur felt like a bucket of water had been upturned on his head as he experienced a single moment of clarity amongst the waves of indecision and hopelessness that he was feeling. It felt like he was drowning and it took all his willpower to not succumb to the emotions the shadow panther inspired from him.

‘Is this another part of the monster's shadow magic?’ If it was, which he was pretty certain of as it was the only explanation to his strange sense of helplessness, then the beast was far more dangerous than Arthur had initially given it credit for. You didn’t even WANT to run when facing it, never mind fight.

As Arthur looked at the panther eating its feast, his pitiful emotions began to quickly be replaced with rage. Arthur just couldn't accept the fact that after almost being killed by a cat, a lizard and a lion, he was going to be eaten by the monster in front of him. The fact that he had been emotionally manipulated was the last straw. Even if he couldn’t survive this fight, Arthur would make sure the beast also breathed its last.

He realised how naive he had been to expect his brains and intelligence to help him survive in this new reality when it had become glaringly obvious from the first day that the rules of the game of life had changed and he needed ether to even try and play it.

Ether that he had little to no access to, unfortunately, due to his flawed system.

He tried to calm himself down. Whilst anger was a good resource to tap into at times, Arthur knew that he needed his wits about him to even have a chance at surviving this encounter. This wasn’t a fight that could be won with brute force. He needed a plan and he needed some luck. A whole lot of luck.

Come on Arthur, think, think!

Arthur desperately went through many different scenarios in his head and quickly discarded them when he realised that they weren’t feasible. He didn't have the tools, the energy or the strength to carry out any of his plans. All he had with him was a katana he couldn't use properly and his tranquillizer gun that was out of darts. Maybe he really should have got his hands on a gun, and yet looking at the predator before him, he wasn’t entirely sure that the weapon would even give him an edge in this fight.

Right, what's a shadow panther's weakness. They seemed to like the darkness which meant that they most probably weren’t fond of the light but Arthur had nothing to create said light with if the panther would even let him do so uninterrupted.

Once again looking down at his shadow, Arthur saw that it was connected to the big cats from a point at his left hand. Slowly, the beginnings of a plan began to form in Arthur's head,

It was stupid, it was reckless and there were probably a thousand ways this could go wrong, but that was exactly why Arthur thought it might just succeed.

It was unexpected.

Still, it all depended on how the panther viewed him. Was he a threat, or just another prey to be eaten in the majestic beast’s eyes?

Knowing this was a stupid idea, but unable to do anything else, Arthur began to struggle against the panther's shadow magic to bring his katana into position. He considered just stopping his plan right there but steeled himself. It didn’t matter how much this would hurt.

The big cat didn’t seem too concerned with the fact that its captured prey could move, albeit with great difficulty and seemed content to just let him struggle in peace. Or maybe its proficiency with magic still hadn’t advanced enough to realise that its victim wasn’t quite so helpless. Arthur hoped it was the latter.

The blade was now in position, placed right above his left wrist. Come on, you can do this! Gritting his teeth, Arthur quickly applied pressure to his sword, stifling the scream of agony that threatened to come out of his mouth when the sharp edge started to cut into his flesh. His gums had begun to bleed with the pressure he’d applied to them and the pain made him almost blackout. Nauseous, Arthur tried to not look at the gory mess his hand had become, which now hung off at the wrist, still attached to the rest of the limb with a thin string-like piece of flesh. He'd had to disconnect the bone instead of trying to break it, the little leverage he had far from enough to accomplish the task.

The shadow tendril connecting him to the beast started to flicker and with its gradual failure, Arthur regained his freedom to move properly. The big cat looked up for a moment when it smelt the new source of blood in the surroundings, but once again it didn't appear to care if its next meal struggled to free itself. That reinforced Arthur's belief that the shadow panther hadn’t realised, perhaps couldn't, that its magic was no longer binding the young man or maybe it simply didn't consider the weak human a threat even if it had somehow regained its mobility.

Arthur's vision darkened, due to the rapid blood loss he was now suffering from and the acute sense of agony that was now at the forefront of his mind but he forced himself to stay focused and awake. He’d die if he went to sleep now and he refused to lose his life to self-inflicted wounds.

Being careful to not make a sound, Arthur glanced up at the feeding beast. Its head was submerged in the lion's shoulder up to the beginning of its neck, and he hoped that it could no longer smell nor hear him so well. Arthur would only get one chance at this, and then it’d be over. Win or lose, live or die, it would all depend on the next few seconds.

Locating the most prominent part of its spinal cord on the panther's muscled back, Arthur held the katana overhead with his single working arm, struggling slightly to control the weapon's two-handed weight properly now that he was crippled.

Taking a deep breath, Arthur jumped-

and the panther turned around.

As if it had been waiting for him to make his move. Instead of severing its spinal cord and rendering its mobility moot as Arthur had initially hoped for, the sword slashed into the feline's face, cutting through its right eye like it was a particularly juicy grape and stopping an inch into its skull, a mortal wound most certainly, and yet sadly, not fatal enough.

So it seemed that the beast most probably hadn’t been waiting for him, but had simply turned around when he had leapt off the ground due to the noise he had made. He did not doubt that he’d be dead otherwise if the monster had been baiting him into attacking, a corpse before his feet even left the ground.

Arthur sighed dejectedly. The panther would die from his attack, most certainly, but not quickly enough for it to not kill him first. It didn’t even need to with the amount of blood Arthur had already lost from his severed hand.

He didn't have anything left in him and it was sheer willpower that was still keeping him on his feet when he should have long fallen to the floor. If anything, Arthur was tenacious. I will not die lying on my back!

The panther looked at Arthur with confusion in its remaining eye, its once beautiful features now scarred with an ugly cut as if Arthur had betrayed its expectations by trying to attack it, which he guess he had. It seemed almost shocked that this pitiful creature even had the gall to strike it.

Weakening already, the cat tried to swipe at him with its clawed paw, but lost balance and stumbled, maybe due to the residual anaesthetic that had been on the sword. Instead of striking his chest as it intended, the greatly weakened blow landed on his knee. That was more than enough.

Feeling his bone shatter, Arthur finally fell to the ground, unable to even stand any longer. He barely registered the pain; he was too far gone for that right now, his vision fading in and out of darkness. Arthur felt both cold and hot, happy and sad. At the gates of death, Arthur had become an entity of contradictions, happy that the panther would die with him and sad that he’d been unable to achieve any of his goals.

The panther crawled towards him, dragging itself on a single front leg. It seemed to be the only one working now, the fact that it now replicated its prey’s state almost poetical in nature. Arthur forced himself to stay awake. He wouldn't die with his eyes closed, he decided; a final act of defiance against the cruel hand fate had handed him.

Waiting for the final blow to arrive as the cat raised its clawed paw, his only regret was that he’d failed to bring his sister back. He would die without redemption.

Life however seemed to have other plans for him, as the monster suddenly shivered as if it had been struck by lightning, freezing up completely. It seemed to teeter on the edge of the living and dead for an agonizingly long moment before falling on top of Arthur, lifeless.

The level 11 shadow panther was dead.

The rush of ether flowing into him was greater than any previous amount, and revitalized his will to live, clearing up his vision and giving him a slight bit of strength. Just about enough to give him a chance to keep breathing.

He’d still die if he didn’t do anything about his bleeding arm soon, but now life didn't seem so bleak. Stubbornly clinging to his last vestiges of hope, Arthur crawled back from under the massive cat, dragging himself by his single working arm towards where he could see the blood-gel bottle he’d somehow dropped earlier in the fight.

It beckoned to him, a chalice of healing, his last chance of life. Drinking the regenerative blood flowing from his gums to keep himself alive long enough to reach it, Arthur struggled forward, feet by feet, until he finally had it grasped in his one remaining arm. Clenching the cap in his teeth, he viciously rotated it and spat the lid onto the ground in front of him. Arthur doubted that a healing gel of only rare rating would be enough to regrow his hand, but he could at least use it to reattach the severed tissue together. He still had the severed limb. After all, it had only been cut a few minutes ago and if medical surgery had once been capable of achieving such feats in similar conditions, Arthur was certain that ether could replicate the same results. Taking in a large mouthful of the rare blood-gel, Arthur held his mutilated body part against his arm and waited for the now-familiar sensation of burning fire in his stomach. Arthur took a moment to appreciate the miraculous properties that the system had gifted his blood, thanking the fickle mistresses of fate, before passing out.

His hand had started to heal.

When Arthur woke up, the sun had already set, and the chill of nighttime was steadily creeping in. He felt incredibly refreshed and rejuvenated, like every other time he had taken the red medication of life and his reattached hand seemed to be working perfectly. Sadly, it seemed like his DIY cat armour hadn’t really been able to defend against the shadow panther's dark magics. It had been useless in today's battles.

Testing his new limb a few times, Arthur realised that whilst it felt a little stiff as if he’d just slept on it, he retained the full range of motion. Making his way over to retrieve his trusty katana, Arthur stopped for a moment to observe his defeated foe. The dead shadow panther looked much like how it must have before it evolved, the regal lustre it had held in life now lost in the cold embrace of death. Sighing wearily, Arthur sat down next to the corpse. This was the third time he had nearly died since the system's arrival, the first time whilst fighting against a cat and the second against some strange lizard. By all rights, this last encounter should have spelt his end. It was only dumb luck that he was still alive.

“I’m sorry buddy, but you had to die,” Arthur spoke to the dead corpse. The panther had never shown him any hostility; hadn’t even tried to attack him until he had, and probably might never have done, but the potential threat had been far too great for Arthur to ignore and he didn’t believe in half measures.

Arthur had killed it so he could live comfortably, knowing that such a terrifying monster was no longer out there in the wilderness, always getting stronger. If Arthur could trust what the system had said about the beast, then he had managed to destroy a massive problem early in its roots. Looking again at the corpse, Arthur spotted something in its skull glittering in the moonlight. Identifying it, a wide grin began to make its way across Arthur's face.

Shadow panther core (Rare)- Monster cores are consumed by other beasts to grow stronger. This core was formed prematurely and so is just as likely to help one grow as it is to lead them to an early grave.

Identify has reached level 3.

The item’s description did explicitly state that it could only be consumed by other beasts, but Arthur felt hope quickly blossoming in his chest. If this fight had taught Arthur anything, it was that he desperately needed to get stronger to simply survive in this new world, and his current rate of progression just wouldn’t cut it anymore. Maybe if he hadn't come so close to death he wouldn't consider resorting to such drastic measures, but fighting the panther left him feeling weak and vulnerable in a way nothing else ever had. Here was a path to power, dangerous as it was right in front of him, and he’d be an idiot not to take it.

Maybe if his system was working properly, he wouldn’t have to take such an extreme measure, but if years of studying science had taught him anything, it was that even the most volatile sources of energy could produce explosive results if handled properly. Well, not literally explosive hopefully. And Arthur already had a really good way to eat the damn thing. He prayed he wasn’t being stupid.

Looking at his canteen of blood-gel, he saw that there was very little of the substance left. Arthur hoped that it was enough for what he had planned. Now all he needed to do was somehow get the core through the tiny lid and into the bottle of magical blood, which he hoped would mitigate the risks that the core presented with the healing properties of the red jelly. As the core was far too large to fit through the lid, Arthur decided to simply slice the top part of the bottle off. No matter the outcome of his crazy experiment, this would be the last time he’d have to use the metal container anyway since his blood-gel reserves would be finished.

On an impulse, Arthur decided to add some of the unique blood flowing through his veins into the strange concoction, in the hopes that it would increase his chances of success at least a little. The dark red mixture began to take on a purple colour as the monster core rapidly dissolved into the mixture. This actually looks like it might work.

It looked terrifyingly ominous by the end of it, pale violet colour with streaks of black running through it. Identifying his creation, Arthur couldn’t help but laugh.

Shadow elixir (Rare)- An elixir created in the hopes that through its consumption the creator can absorb a portion of the shadow panther’s powerful magic and agility. Chances of success: 74%.

There was nothing else to it. Either it would work or it wouldn’t; there was no description about it being poisonous or anything of the sort. Picking it up, Arthur quickly put the metal rim to his lips before indecision could start plaguing him. Closing his eyes, Arthur drank.

Current progression: 14,700/42,000