The panther seemed to sense his distress. It lowered its body, tensing its haunches for a second lunge. It was waiting for his aura to destabilize.
Lin Kai lunged first.
"Hah!"
He feinted a step forward, swinging his charged fist.
The panther sneered. It easily side-stepped, its speed superior. It didn't engage; it dodged and retreated, letting Lin Kai waste his energy.
Lin Kai gritted his teeth. He couldn't hit it. The beast was too agile in the open field.
'I need to limit its movement. I need to force it to come to me.'
A desperate plan formed in his mind. It was risky. It was stupid. But it was his only card.
He abruptly stopped his advance. He grabbed Xiao Bai with his left hand, turned his back on the panther, and ran.
He sprinted toward the dense treeline of the Bone-Eating Forest.
The panther froze for a split second, confused. Why would the prey expose its back? Was it fleeing?
Then, the instinct took over.
In the wild, if it runs, you chase.
The panther's eyes turned bloodshot. Rage surged through it. The audacity of this weakling to run! Ignoring the dull ache in its withered hind leg, it roared and pushed off the ground.
ROAR!
It was a blur of vengeance. It closed the distance in three bounds. It saw Lin Kai's exposed back, the vulnerable neck just begging to be snapped.
Ten meters. Five meters. Two meters.
The panther leaped, its jaws opening wide to crush Lin Kai's skull.
Lin Kai heard the wind shift behind him. He smelled the rancid breath of the beast.
'NOW!'
He didn't keep running. He slammed his lead foot into the dirt, braking so hard he plowed a furrow in the earth.
He spun around.
The momentum of the turn added centrifugal force to his already charged right arm.
The panther was mid-air. It couldn't dodge. It had committed fully to the kill.
Lin Kai didn't aim for the head. He aimed for the weakness he had created earlier.
Phantom Strike: Full Discharge.
His fist, wrapped in a terrifying distortion of invisible gravity and toxic pressure, slammed directly into the panther's injured hind leg just as the beast tried to extend it for landing.
CRACK.
The sound was sickeningly loud, like a dry branch snapping in a storm.
"GRAAAWR!"
The panther's scream morphed into a high-pitched shriek. The impact shattered the femur instantly. The compressed Aether, laced with the corrosive Grey Qi, flooded into the wound like a virus, deadening the nerves and rotting the bone marrow instantly.
The force of the punch knocked the massive beast out of the air. It spun uncontrollably and crashed into the base of an oak tree.
Thud.
Dust and leaves exploded into the air.
Lin Kai stood panting, his right arm trembling uncontrollably. His knuckles were raw, the skin split, and steam rose from his hand as the excess energy dissipated.
The panther tried to rise. It clawed at the dirt, snarling, trying to push itself up.
But its hindquarters were useless. The leg hung at a grotesque angle, bone protruding through the fur, and the flesh around the wound had turned a dead, slate-grey color.
It collapsed again, whimpering.
The silence returned to the forest, but now it smelled of blood.
Lin Kai exhaled a breath he felt he had been holding since he left the clan. He walked slowly toward the fallen predator.
The panther watched him come. It stopped growling.
As Lin Kai loomed over it, the beast's ears flattened against its skull. It knew what was coming. In the law of the jungle, the loser dies. The winner takes the Beast Core.
The panther shut its green eyes tight. Its body shivered, waiting for the final blow that would end its pain. It surrendered to the void.
Lin Kai raised his hand. His fingers straightened into a knife-hand strike, aimed perfectly at the beast's throat. A swift chop would crush the windpipe.
'Kill it,' the logic of the world whispered. 'Take the core. It's fuel.'
He looked down at the creature.
But then, the panther opened its eyes.
It looked up at him. The ferocity was gone. The hunger was gone. In those emerald pools, Lin Kai saw raw, naked fear. He saw a living thing that knew its end had come and was terrified of the dark.
Lin Kai's hand froze inches from the panther's neck.
The Aether Qi in his hand pulsed, waiting to strike. But Lin Kai felt... nothing.
The adrenaline had faded, leaving behind a cold, hollow emptiness. He looked at the broken beast, dragging its useless leg, whimpering in the dirt.
It was pathetic.
It reminded him of himself.
For seven years, he had been the one on the ground. He had been the one waiting for the strike. He had been the broken thing that the "strong" looked down upon.
But looking at this creature now, he didn't feel triumph. He didn't feel like a King. He felt a profound apathy.
'Is this what victory feels like?' he thought, his eyes dull. 'Just... breaking something else?'
The panther was no longer a threat. It was just a pile of meat and fear. Killing it now felt... tedious. It felt like kicking a corpse.
"Pathetic," Lin Kai muttered, the word tasting like ash in his mouth.
He lowered his hand. The energy dissipated into the wind.
He stared into the panther's terrified eyes with a gaze devoid of warmth or cruelty. It was the gaze of someone looking at a stone on the road.
"Scram," Lin Kai said quietly.
He turned his back on the beast. He didn't care if it survived. He didn't care if it died of infection. He simply didn't care enough to finish it.
He walked over to Xiao Bai, picked her up, and continued walking into the forest, leaving the confused, broken predator shivering in his wake.