While Akpobir was passing through his ordeal In the temple, Miracle was still asleep not knowing of the danger about to befall him.
To the apes angry not only was it a crown, but a coat of shame for another predator to steal prey from them, if they weren't elders they would be banished from the clan, some even killed. But since they were elders their status would be dropped to those ordinary members and would be punished by the clan, and now a predator of the dark is trying to take their prey away from them.
The black panther quickly jumped onto the tree Miracle was sleeping in leaving a large crater on the floor, it moved gracefully through the trees, looking at it from the dark it only felt like a gentle breeze was blowing through the leaves on the tree.
Miracle wasn't even alerted of any danger incoming, his senses were too dull and tired to notice when the panther reached him. It stood proud and arrogant as it looked at his prey, although it wouldn't be a worthy kill it would be a satisfactory meal for him.
As it was about to use its paws to cut off the head, its tail was dragged making him miss the neck slightly but it was still able to leave a deep gash on the neck.
Miracle woke up and tried to run immediately, he was scared, he almost had an heart attack at that moment, his heart rate went up and blood fueled his limbs as he tried to run, he was held by one of the apes.
He punched, he kicked, and he bit the ape but he still wasn't released, he tried a new method he learned earlier. He swung his arms in a circular motion very fast before hitting the ape, but this only made the apes more furious.
He was held in his arms and legs, as he was about to be ripped in half the black panther appeared from the dark and used its claws to attack the ape from behind.
Woo woo ahh! Ahh!
The ape screamed loudly, five claw marks had been left on its back, and instead of blood to flow out, a dark liquid mucus appeared flowing down its back instead.
I didn't waste a second more and ran away, the apes and the panther were still fighting behind me, and I used all the energy I saved while sleeping to run. I didn't run at full speed due to the darkness, I didn't want to land in some kind of trap or enter the cave of a stronger beast but I was still running fast at best.
When the apes and panther noticed I had left they both stopped fighting and began to pursue me. The apes used their secret methods and the panther sniffed me out with his nose, the panther was faster, it could smell my blood and follow the blood trail I left in the forest the apes seeing this followed behind while still trying to activate their secret method.
I ran in the direction of the palm tree we were told to go to after the hunt ended, there were seniors there, multiple seniors who would be able to defeat the apes and the panther.
Not too long after I started running, I heard the loud footsteps of the apes running in the forest and swinging on vines in the tree.
"If they were this close that means the panther would be even closer," I thought
It was true, the panther was even closer than the apes, it was behind him just playing with its prey because that's when they get excited, if their prey fights back or if it runs away, it gives them thrills.
While running, I saw a few of the tents made by my tribemate I ran past them not wanting the apes or panther to have any idea on them, but I was losing energy rapidly, the open wound on my neck was spilling blood everywhere making me weaker and running for this long was getting exhausting.
I didn't give up, I didn't want to die, I wanted to laugh with my parents after this, and I still wanted to play with my siblings after this. I did not want to die a death like this, then the phenomenon happened again, the exact one that happened in the ape's chase earlier in the day.
His body started excluding white smoke, his eyes turned red, and his whole body felt weightless, the wound on his neck stopped bleeding it was clotting already. His speed doubled, and the apes who were far behind who saw this remembered the incident in the morning and how it was hard for them to keep track of them, if not for their secret method they would have lost track of him already.
"Interesting, very interesting " the panther chuckled to itself.
Shhhhhwwshhhhh
He had moved about thirty meters in just one second, although it wasn't that hard for the panther to keep up, for the apes it was much worse they had only crossed a threshold in strength and they had been running all day they couldn't handle that speed again.
Instead, they adopted a new method they started throwing rocks, trees, dirt everything around them to try and block his surroundings, trying to stop him from running but all their efforts were futile.
As I entered the state, the phenomenon that I excluded this morning happened again, this time I could control It, everything just clicked, the whole world felt slow, and I could see water drops slowly falling from trees, i clouds see leaves and branches slowly falling everywhere because of the commotion, it just felt exciting. I turned around to look at the monsters pursuing me, I saw the apes stop they started picking trees and rocks to throw at me, I looked for the panther but it was nowhere to be seen.
I saw the rocks and trees falling at me like feathers dancing in the winds, it saw slow abnormally slow, and thanks to that I could dodge all the incoming objects, but I didn't drop my guard down just because of this even in this state I couldn't see the panther. this would mean the panther had to be really good at hiding or had speed faster than mine.
While turning back to look at the apes again, I noticed that I couldn't see them anymore, and due to that, I stopped running. I felt I had made a bad mistake, immediately stopping at the speed I was running was bad it felt like my legs had been broken, I lay down on the muddy floor catching my breath, bearing the pain in my legs.
On top of one of the trees here, the panther stared coldly at the human, it had been following it since, and the human was even injured but he kept on running, most animals he had seen would have either died from blood loss or fainted from it yet this human was still alive breathing.
What made it more curious was when it was about to catch up, the body of the human started excluding a white smoke, and in that instant, its speed doubled, it had a skill like that but it didn't bring out white smoke or any kind of smoke when he activated it, the skill only increased his speed.
This human made it curious, for that it wouldn't kill it for now.