Her worst nightmare didn't take a few minutes to manifest into reality as the monster shot several shells in quick succession and in close proximity to each other. As a result there was a distortion in the sea of water that took a moment of Sarah's entire attention to amend.
Since she could not stay focused on the panther in that moment, she lost her perception of it for those few seconds. She racked her mind wondering what the panther wanted to do by creating such a diversion. It couldn't attack her since her defense still stood strong in front and behind her the wave acted as a barrier. Not to mention she would be alerted to any attacks beforehand. That only left the panther with one option which would be to cross the wave during the momentary gap in the water.
