Seth was the one that initiated the action this time. He casted his Shadow Walk and his body was shrouded in a black fog, merging with the shadows around.
The Blackwind Panther lost him from its field of vision, so it instantly scanned the area with its sense. Somehow Seth abilities covered his traces, making it difficult for the Panther to discover his actual position.
The beast didn't move and observed the environment. It didn't like that its prey was trying to hide and delay the inevitable, so it raised the wind activity in the area, feeding it more mana. With that, the Shadow Walk movements Seth was performing was partially disrupted with all the wind blowing around.
However, Seth was already standing in a strategical point for an attack. He was a few meters away from the Panther and by the time it turned to face him, his mana had already fused with the many shadows on the ground. Many spikes surged from below, encapsulating the beast in a jail of shadow spikes.
The spikes threatened to pierce the beast hide, but when they were almost touching the Panther, wind blades destroyed them all, freeing the beast right after.
The Panther charged towards Seth involving its body in a maelstrom of wind blades. When it was about to rip his body into pieces, Seth vanished again using his skills. The beast abruptly stopped charging, however, it changed directions and started charging again.
"!!!"
"As expected from a late-stage beast. My aura is not strong enough to cover all the traces from its detection."
Seth evaded the attack again. Every time a round of attacks took turn, the forest would suffer with a wide area of destruction, resulting in a shockwave that sent trees and terrain flying. Every wildlife in the area has fled far away. The area they were fighting has turned into a death zone.
After twenty more times, the panther stopped. It couldn't understand how a weaker enemy was able to successfully evade every single attack. Failing more than twenty times in a row has left it annoyed.
A large quantity of mana accumulated inside the beast lungs.
ROARRRRRR!
The Blackwind Panther sent a whirlwind towards Seth, at first it was just in a small area, but by the time it reached Seth, the whirlwind had expanded so much, that it was covering the entire forest around them. This attack consumed a lot of mana, but it would cut Seth's path, blocking him from any evasion attempt.
"Shrouding Light!"
Seth was enveloped in a cocoon of darkness so thick that no light could penetrate.
Swsh! Swsh!
Blade after blade, the wind started to cut Seth's darkness, slicing it apart with every cut.
Swsh!
The storm was so intense that it wouldn't take a lot more to destroy the entire cocoon.
Crack!
After a minute inside this onslaught, the cocoon cracked and dispersed, but Seth was not inside.
Boom!
Seth appeared beside his enemy, kicking it. With his enhanced strength, a kick from him would already be a strong attack, adding the mana he has put on this attack, turned it deadly. The beast body flew sideways, dragging out a lot of ground and dirt on its way.
"Huff! Huff!"
Seth had a large number of cuts on his skin that were bleeding profusely. He steathly left the cocoon earlier to deal a possible fatal attack, but he had to endure the deadly whirlwind for a few seconds, leaving him riddled with injuries. He rapidly used his mana to stop the bleeding and prepared for the next round, he was sure the beast was not dead yet.
ROAR!
BOOM!
A loud explosion occurred and the animal was already standing from the ground. Although its body had a large dent at the place Seth had kicked and many other injuries, the power coming from the Blackwind Panther only increased. Its aura expanded and covered a large area, changing the fundamental laws around it.
"It seems furious. You better take care; the next attack will be tough to resist." Lexi warned Seth.
The entire huge body of the panther started to tremble. Its round white eyes turned sharp, the claws and fangs were now gleaming in a metallic color. The fur on its skin got sharp and spiky.
Seth felt like a blade was being pointed in his direction, threatening to severe his neck apart. He felt that any mistake of his part, would cost him his life.
The aura on the entire environment changed, it was like a blade has cut the connections between Seth and the mana circling around. He felt that it would be impossible to use his arts to escape this next attack.
"Sigh... It's all or nothing now." Seth's eyes turned sharp and decisive. His aura skyrocketed too, but its intensity was a bit lower than that of his enemy.
Although his aura was less powerful, he concentrated it around his body, making it as sharp as a dagger.
"It's not good, I need more power!" Seth forced his aura to the maximum. At some point, his nose was already bleeding, but he still kept channeling more power for his next technique. The Seed of Tyranny inside his body discharged an unholy energy that merged with his own and his body felt it like a shot of adrenaline.
"That's it! Come at me you fat cat, I'm ready!"
Roar!
The Blackwind Panther shot towards Seth cutting anything on its path. Its speed was so fast that those three hundred meters they were apart were covered in a single second.
Seth waited until the last second and when they were just three meters apart, his eyes glowed with a dark glow. His soul power erupted and his Hades inheritance was used for the first time in combat.
"Sever!"
The panther felt the connection with its own power stopping; to be more precisely, Seth used his soul power to forcefully disrupt its consciousness. The beast vision went dark and the senses have gotten duller. This condition would not remain for a lot of time. Normally it would take about a minute for an opponent to recover his senses, but the Blackwind Panther was a Mana Perception late-stage beast.
Seth knew that it would only take some seconds for it to recover. The collision between them was inevitable, but now, Seth could freely move as the beast lost control of the situation. He used all the energy he had built up to slice through the same spot he had kicked earlier using his own body like a knife. His darkness element swallowing up any resistance his opponent's body could give.
Swoosh!
He emerged on the other side fully covered in blood.
Bang!
A huge body crashed lifeless on the ground some distance away.
"Phew..." Seth sat on the ground feeling really spent from this fight.
"That was a really difficult fight. Guess you achieved what you wanted right? You saw your limits now."
"Who would ever imagine that I would be facing a Mana Perception late-stage beast? I was searching for a middle-stage beast. I was lucky to have won this time."
Seth and Lexi kept discussing about this battle, in order to attain more experience for other possible fights, however, they were unaware that someone has been watching him this entire time.
Far away from them, hovering in the skies, there was a pair of beautiful blue eyes observing that battle and its outcome.