The flame became even ferocious. With a keen eye and cold head, Jack changed his position and used his tentacle to latch on the almost broken spear, trying to find the right timing and momentum.
When the handle of the shorter spear began to crack as well, Jack executed his move.
He swung his own body using the tentacle. The handle broke and he was launched into the air, together with the broken wooden handle of the spear.
The panther stopped spinning when he noticed that his prey wasn't latching on the spear handle anymore. As it faced the sky, it saw an oozing malicious killing intent from the glowing red eyes of what it thought was its prey. The way of the jungle was harsh, but only when two individuals encountered each other in a fight of life and death, they could glimpse the hardship that the other side had gone through.
Moonlight appeared through the clouds, paving its way onto ground through the humanoid as a shadow. As the tentacle swayed against the wind, it replicated the image of a scythe.
And the red eyes within the frame of the panther's vision, was the epitome of immaculate. Frozen, the beast could only wait its death when the maw of the reaper turned to it instead.
In a fast motion, Jack slammed the end of the wood onto the beast's head, sending its neck downwards and forcing its fangs to stab the ground. With all of the wound and blood loss, the mighty Pomu stopped breathing as it couldn't fight any further.
Jack felt wobbly as he sluggishly moved onto the area near the bonfire, trying to find a good angle to perceive what he had done in trying to survive. Huffing and puffing, he removed the burning leaves on his partially charred apparel.
[Petra Tentacle> Length: 113cm(+10) | Kinetic Strength: 30kg(+5) | Aggressiveness: 52(+20)]
"Hahaha, ahahahah!" Jack backed down and eventually leaned his tired body to the ground, watching as whatever flames that were left from the Pomu's wrath turned into embers. "That son of a gun. If not for Petra, my body would've been pushed back to the flame instead."
[If not by the spear impaling the beast's torso and puncturing its major organs, it would've instantly sliced you in half with a single slash_
[Congratulations, Jack. You fought quite well for someone at your age.]
"Hell yeah I did!" Jack beamed to the sky with a wide grin. "My first prey!—This reminded me of the time I had with the Longcoat Hunters back in the southern woods!"
Jack rambled on with the unlocked past memory after the crazy fight with the Level 70 Pomu for a full minute. Sephiroth listened to him earnestly as he recorded everything into his new database.
[Petra Tentacle has acquired a new Mutated Ability>>
[Partial Stone Layering{M1}: The capability of creating a strong petrification RNA created by the influence of Rock Mutagen that used physical energy to temporarily and bio-chemically turn an organic body part into stone, allowing the tentacle with the said ability to imbue protection to itself and the host when attached as a body part.]
[ 3 Mutagen {Rock}]
—> Partial Stone Layering {Mastery:1}
—> (10%)]
"Finally! I'm a bit saddened at how late it came but it's better than nothing!" Jack wanted to stand but his muscles were too sore to even do so. He frowned although his spirit remained true.. "I'll experiment on it tomorrow—or maybe now. I need to process the beast into something useful before it gets cold. Wait, I think it's better if it gets cold."
He took five minutes of rest while he impatiently began experimenting on his tentacle ability knowing that it was still attached as a body part.
It took him quite a while to be able to use the petrification RNA produced by his tentacle. He decided to rest for a little bit more, allowing his body to cool down from the adrenaline before attempting to even skin the animal he had killed. Currently, he could only harden one finger and that alone showed how much potential the Tentacle System had.
As for the toughness, it was rock hard as expected.
Doing his tentacle ability experiment awakened a new side of him. He then rolled himself across the charcoal grass and gazed at the dead Pomu, drooling as he wondered what kind of cool ability he'd get from a literal flaming panther as a Mutagen.
[You should try to go for the important body part that sparked the flame, Jack.]
"I saw it click its own fangs as an ignitor. I wonder if fire synergizes well with Petra who's building up its rock ability. Huehuehuhue."
After his body wasn't as tense anymore, he got up with gusto, trying to salvage the available material and meat that he could extract from his first prey. Preferably before some other beast smelled the fresh body.
With his unlocked memory of the hunt, Jack was able to skillfully separate everything from the bone, flesh, leather, blades, and the guts. After trying to get more wood to keep his bonfire alive, he created a space for the meat to be placed and cooked.
"Seems like a Level 70 beast is dastardly stronger than a Paratrooper in my world." Jack stared at the fangs with glowing runes on his hands. "Thankfully, it was stupid and it didn't have any defensive capability. It's like a naked barbarian running in a straight line with two heavy greatswords on each hand. Heh."
[We're in a Level 200 recommended area. It seemed like the requirements were heightened because of the fighting difficulty of the dwellers of this forest_
[Meaning that the Universal Level Quotient were actually referring to the raw physical ability and not the combat. Either that or you're lucky and the Level 70 Pomu was under the influence of some sort of catnip.]
"Or!" Jack added with his forefinger up. "There is an extremely strong top-chain predator that is inflating the danger warning!"
It was quite an eerie and satisfying night. Jack used the scrapped dry blood of the panther to mark his territory, exclaiming to the Galamor Forest that a new predator had set his home. It might be counterintuitive but he deemed that there were enough Intelligent beasts around to understand his message.
Planning to stay in this location for the meantime, he prepared the leathers to be dried when the morning rose.
"Leather clothing will be nice." Imagining himself with a fancy leather jacket brought hope to his mind. It might be hard to craft but the experience was what mattered.