Rio ran through the trees with ease, trying to get away from the High-level panther, as he looked back his heart nearly sank to his stomach, the panther was practically an arm's length away from him, with its jaws wide open ready to bite a piece of Mage flesh
Luckily, Rio reacted in time and used shadow shift to burst forward a couple of feet away from the now clenching jaw, it seems since the panther didn't enjoy the juicy flesh, he was expecting he got even more frustrated and ran at an even faster speed
Rio was Running for his life, wondering why he didn't have an extra pair of legs to escape from the crazed beast, simultaneously using shadow shift and wind chaser to try to increase the distance between the two of them, however, at best the distance kept the same, slightly increasing as a matter of fact.
'It seems I can't outrun this beast, so the only option is to fight' Rio grimaced while thinking It is a good thing he didn't head straight to the inheritance, if Rio went as he was, Rio would have probably died when he met the first beast or person depending if he ran into a vagabond cultivator.
Rio brought out his runic weapons while still fleeing, Rio stopped using shadow shift whilst still using wind chaser, the goal here is to sustain as little to no injury as possible, as the panther got closer and opened his mouth once again in an attempt to feast on Rio, Rio hurled the dagger at the panther's mouth, piercing the roof of his mouth.
The panther winced in pain as it stopped chasing him, the inside of a beast would be naturally softer than the outside, however, the pain-tormented panther used its paws to take the dagger out of its mouth and roared furiously as it saw Rio still getting away.
Naturally, Rio wouldn't leave such a valuable weapon, losing this would be decreasing his battle prowess, he was naturally baiting the panther, into a more advantageous environment for him to kill it or return to take the dagger and leave.
The panther got the blade out from the roof of its mouth and spat it out, resuming to chase Rio, naturally catching up since he wasn't using his shadow shifter skill to still lure it
Eventually, they got to a very high cliff not far from where he threw his dagger, the cliff had a cave at the root of it, Rio entered the cave which he had used as a temporary abode while exploring, Rio ran the hallway as it brought him to an open space, where he jumped to the side while preparing a darkness spell, Rio considered using a fire spell but the destructive force wasn't as powerful as the darkness, Rio wasn't taking any chances.
The panther seemed to have slowed down when he saw the cave and slowly entered the cave and walked down the hall, when Rio heard the footsteps of the panther, Rio chanted a level 5 Darkness spell 'Withering Blade'
A withering blade makes anything it cuts unable to heal and slowly drains away the power of the target. Rio chanted this spell instead of using origin magic as origin magic takes up a massive amount of mana to use, and the consumption was higher than what Rio had, so since he had enough time to chant withering blade, it was a better option
Rio slashed down at the Panther, he didn't have any knowledge in swordsmanship, so Rio just did a simple downward slash, however, the panther sidestepped as he slashed downwards, luckily, it nicked the panther creating about an inch mark on its neck.
As the panther wanted to retaliate, he realized something was wrong and its strength was slowly depleting, realizing that it might die soon if this continued, the beast went into a crazed mode charging at me at full speed as if Rio killed all its family.
Luckily as it was dazed, wondering why its strength was leaving it, Rio chanted a level 2 fire lance spell, which did some damage but only slowed it down for a little bit. Luckily, Rio was a new mage so he had a decent level of reserved mana left even after using withering blade.
There were about ten feet in between us, as Rio decided to use low-level origin magic so still had some reserved mana.
'Shadow Burial'
Rio instantly cast Shadow burial, this was a restraint-type magic to encapsulate the target, causing it to be trapped, this was a level 4 darkness magic that is strengthened if there is no light around, this spell used about 20% of my mana; causing Rio to have around 40% left. the spell wouldn't take too much mana, however, due to Rio casting it using origin magic, the consumption was very high.
Luckily, Rio didn't need to continuously inject mana to hold its form, once it has been cast, it stays intact for a day, or if someone forcefully breaks it. It can deteriorate quickly if the light is shone on it, however, we're in a cave so no bright light is reflecting on the.
Around 2 minutes passed until the loud noises stopped, and around five minutes the panther was dead, all of the panther's strength and life force has been sucked away dry, leaving a skinny dry corpse of the panther
[Ding! Host Killed High-Level Demonic Shadow Panther...]
[Host Gained 10,000 EXP]
After taking a deep breath in and calming his mind, Rio went back to where he tossed his dagger and searched the area, after about a minute Rio saw his dagger from a distance, and as he was walking, Rio heard some talking.
"Haa, that was a good hunt wasn't it Rose"
"Yeah Josh, we should make some nice profit even if we do split it between the five of us"
All of them had happy expressions on their faces as Rio went into hiding.
"Wait... I think I saw something over there"
A guy with an ordinary face and brown hair exclaimed and started walking in the direction of my dagger
'Shit, not now. Why am I so unlucky at the crucial moments?' Rio thought as he saw the guy slowly inching toward Rio's dagger
He picked up the dagger and the others followed him to see what he found, a glint of greed appeared on everybody's faces, and the guy who picked up the dagger seemed to understand his situation, he inserted mana into it attempting to surprise attack the people behind him, but before he could do anything a sword was already impaled into his back coming out of his chest.
Rose and Josh seem to have a closer relationship with one another than the rest as they both look at each other and nod their heads before slaughtering everybody and smiling at each other.
'Is this knife that valuable to kill everyone on their team?' as if to answer my questions Josh spoke
"Earlier than expected but we still proceeded as planned"
Rose laughed and said, "This trash really thought we going to share the loot equally, hahaha, we're mates and they're just mage initiates, if they didn't have such greedy thoughts, they would have been useful slaves."
They both laughed as they walked away, all the while Rio was smiling, now they had gotten rid of their numbers Rio could just kill them and take all their loot including his dagger. However, due to them being both mages, they wouldn't be easy to kill, but they have their guards down, laughing at their so-called former comrades
It seemed Josh was the stronger out of the two so Rio's shadow shifted and cast fire lance and hurdled it at Josh
'Chi'
The fire lance pierced through his chest and only stopped when it landed on a nearby tree in front of Josh
Rio brought out his short runic blade and slashed towards Rose's neck, trying to end it as quickly as possible
'Clang'
Her staff intercepted the short sword, it seemed it was not going to be as easy as he planned it to be, as she repeatedly tried to gain distance, Rio closed in on her, she seemed to specialize in support and probably had some attack spells of her but she needs time to cast.
So, Rio simply didn't give her time, he barraged her with his runic short sword attacks and cuts were left all over her body until she couldn't hold the staff any longer. 'When she defended against my first attack, she would be a threat' Rio thought not letting his guard down
When she realized she couldn't win she started crying and pleading to spare her, however, earlier she had a very beast-like expression filled with hatred and fury when she realized Rio killed her lover or friend, but who cares?
"Please spare me, I will do whatever you want, just spare my life."
"Anything?" Rio replied with one brow raised, showing some interest
Once she heard that she seemed to have a glint of hope at the end of the day, all boys are the same. Just a bunch of horny dogs' she thought and started trying to seduce Rio while crawling to him, saying
"Anything," she said in a seductive manner
"Then...Die for me" Rio said and swung his short sword through her neck whilst making a 'Thud' sound when it landed on the ground.
"Greed makes a man blind and foolish and makes him easy prey for death" Rio mumbled before looting everything the group had.