Return to Jorgaldur Volume I: the battle mage

Ebony panther

Its piercing yellow eyes observed irritated that who stood between it and its prey, a being that was no threat. They also perceived the dead insects, insignificant beings that didn't even taste good. And finally they gazed at the unicorn foal, whose nature could help it to increase its power, something it hadn't expected to achieve in that temporary shelter.

It took one more step towards Eldi, calculating the distance, the quick attack with which it was going to put an end to that encumbrance, and then move on to the main course. But, suddenly, the intelligent foal moved away from the man, with the intention of not dragging him to a meaningless death.

The panther discarded Eldi immediately and rushed in pursuit of the unicorn. And although Provoke made it wanting to turn itself around and attack the nuisance, it wasn't enough. It jumped on its prey when it was at the right distance, but, once again, the unicorn used its annoying spell to teleport a few meters away.

It had regained some mana, but the hunter knew it couldn't flee forever. They had been playing the mouse and the cat before, until the foal had jumped into the void as a last resort. Instead of despairing, the panther continued to harass the little unicorn, causing it to exhaust its mana reserves and taking it to a desperate situation.

Then, once again he felt hatred towards that strange being. And again. And again. Finally, it forgot about its prey and turned around, while a terrified Eldi wondered what he was doing, why he hadn't fled, who had told him to become a hero. But also, how was he going to only watch or abandon that lovely foal?

Silent, as if the leaves didn't break under the soft pads that hid their claws, the panther approached the man, focusing its attention and hatred on that being, ready to jump on him. And when it was about to attack, a powerful blow dissuaded it from doing so.

The small but strong hooves had hit it, and, although the damage wasn't great, it was painful. It reacted and turned with dizzying speed, catching up the unicorn with its powerful claws before it could teleport away. When the foal did, its thigh was bleeding, and, although it could heal it, that would mean having less mana to flee.

The panther headed back to the unicorn, but, once again, Provoke stacked its effect and the feline changed its focus.

Feline Response saved him, but the panther wasted no time in lamenting, and was pouncing on him again and again, being Earthen Wall only useful once to confuse it, like the slippery ice trap, while Kangaroo Power made no sense against an enemy more agile than him.

Not even being close Javelin managed to hit the target, due to the agility of the feline. Double Edge barely made a scratch and only managed to block one of its claws, forcing him to use Feline Response again.

Cornered and knowing that his energy would soon run out, he decided to gamble with Impregnable, the skill unlocked at level 10, the wild card par excellence of melee classes. Of affinity 4, it protects from external damage by five seconds in affinity 10 or half a second in 1, and can only be used once every hour, which in the game was called cooldown. In the game it was effective even against legendary enemies, allowing totally absurd suicidal strategies.

When the feline rushed at him, he went against all his instincts and let it hit him. Then, he attacked with the spear and Perforating Impact. The damage was minimal, and neither the electric damage nor its effect were useful. Leaving the spear on the ground, he tried the hammer, fire and Devastating Blow, without much success, and then dodged, because he had run out of the two seconds available. And he was beginning to feel exhausted.

The panther remained motionless, looking confused at the fail of its own attack. It couldn't understand how that lower being could have resisted it, without comforting itself by having torn his clothes.

The black hunter approached again him, cautiously, dodging another Javelin and some arrows that that were being shot desperately. It only spent a second on a small subject that wasn't even food, and was taking objects scattered on the floor.

Finally, the feline decided to attack, and was dodged again. It was frustrating that those two prey dodged again and again, but that wasn't a reason to give up. And this time it turned to the unicorn foal, since the effect of Provoke was dissipating.

It dodged the panther a couple of times more, while close to exhausting its reserves. Suddenly, its attacker turned back to the man, due to Provoke again, who was on a tree and was shooting arrows at it.

The hunter approached the tree to climb on it, something it could do with great agility, but found the surroundings completely frozen and slippery, as well as the trunk. The arrows were numerous and annoying, but nothing more, so the feline began to hit the ice to break it. But again something hit it, making it slide on the ice. It jumped on the bold unicorn, but its prey was more skillful on the ice, nailing its hooves, so it dodged the panther easily, which was sliding again.

Frustrated, the panther roared powerfully, one of its skills, stunning its prey and causing Eldi to almost fall. Taking advantage of the situation, it approached the unicorn, but even in its state of confusion, the foal managed to teleport once more. Unable to direct well where, it came out of the weak protection of the ice sheet, that was beginning to disappear.

And once again, the panther pounced on the foal, which no longer had mana to dodge and was helpless. But a loud sound, like thunder, intimidated the hunter and made it recoil.

Only half-recovered, the first thing Eldi saw was a white magic circle that shone powerful, and the appearance of what looked like a lion, lying on the ground and bloodied.