Chapter 3: Deep into the Forest

Before he knew it, he was plummeting towards the forest floor with his head facing skyward, but all he could see was the black panther diving towards him with its claw reaching out eagerly. Seeing his demise either way, a thought of giving up flashed in his mind. It was gone as fast as it appeared.

"Not today." A smirk formed on his face. At the same time, his limbs fully spreaded out suddenly, startling the panther with his out of the blue change in appearance. Unlike his slim figure before, with the camouflage unfurled, he looked massive. But intimidation was not his aim— it was the wind resistance!

Straight away, his fall slowed for a brief moment. It was a short second, but it was enough for the panther to catch up.

Rip!

Valier avoided the claw by hairbreadth with his nimble movements, but the camouflage was not fortunate enough — a large chunk was torn away. However, he did not care, and he did not hesitate to grab one of the panther's wings.

The foreign touch instantly triggered the panther in a way that it violently tried to shake Valier's grip. When it proved unsuccessful, it attempted to scratch him with all its might. But its limbs were shorter than its wings, so the attack did nothing.

Realizing this, the panther reached out to the bark, and embedded its claws to stop their descent. It would have been easy if not for the additional weight on its wings, so the claw created long lines of mark in the process. But they finally halted, but it was too sudden.

Bam!

Valier was slammed against the tree, causing his head to spin. But still, his hold remained strong.

GROWL!

The creature growled furiously seeing its plan fail, and quickly resorted to another to shake him off. It looked at the forested area and glided towards the trees. But since it was unbalanced, flight was hard to control, and the panther also struggled to dodge the sharp leaves and branches. But it did not matter, as long as Valier let go. But that did not happen.

Crack! Rustle! Snap!

Despite most of his body covered in bruises and splinters, Valier did not lose his tight grip. This only made the winged panther more wild than before, that it thrashed him around more forcefully. This happened as they transferred from one tree to another, and the treatment got worse and worse.

Bam! Crack! Rustle!

He had already lost track of how many branches had smacked him, how much time had passed, and where they were at the moment, as the pain assaulted him. He just knew that they arrived at a different area of the forest evident from the tall thorny trees that stood several tens of meters in height and stung like there was no tomorrow, and that he should not let go.

Certainly, with how much the panther hated him, it would rip him apart once it got the chance. Looking up, he met its hostile eyes. It was perched on a branch, panting heavily in exhaustion, while Valier clung on its dangling wing, primarily driven by willpower to survive. With the short relief from the pain, he did not waste a moment and scanned his new environment.

GROWL!!!

After the hateful growling, once again, the attempt began as the panther flapped its wing and soared. They glided amongst the congested thorny trees, and Valier was the one to suffer the most injuries as he bled from the cuts. And the panther seemed to enjoy this as it slammed him on thorns repeatedly. But not for long.

He had already observed the surroundings, and he looked for ways to kill this panther for good. And he finally found one that could work, a short distance away, were hanging vines. He was certain this place was an unexplored area of the Shrouded Forest, and hence the strange terrain.

It was darker compared to the areas he was used to, and it was mostly due to the thick vines covering the canopy and the rocks tied to these vines that ranged from pebbles to boulders. It was as if it rained rocks of all sizes here. It was strange, but Valier did not think much of it at the moment as he needed to take care of something first for him to live. And the terrain was the key.

Without warning, as they speedily glided, Valier removed one of his hands from the wing and grabbed a hanging vine laced with spiraling thorns that reached the forest floor. His hand bled heavily as the flesh of his palm was shredded, but he was glad it worked. The sudden halt threw the panther off guard.

Before it could even register what had transpired, Valier had already let go of the vine and they both started falling down. But this time, it was Valier who was behind. Without letting the panther have a chance to balance itself, he nosedived towards its back. He landed successfully.

GROWL!!!

The reaction of the Beast was more violent compared to him holding its wings, like it did not care about anything anymore than to remove him. But despite the constant shaking, he was unfazed as he had gone worse with the earlier experience.

Pulling out a dagger from his belt, Valier growled wrathfully, recalling the amount of suffering he had gone through just for this moment. He eyed the wings, particularly the part connecting them on the panther's body, since this was the one of the only spots his blade could actually cut through.

"FUDGE YOU!"

Plurt!

GROWL!

The agonizing pain sent the winged panther into a frenzied state, but Valier did not care and stabbed the same spot continuously, spurting crimson blood in all directions. Since he had no time to fully detache the wing, since there was a bone connecting it, he stopped when it looked to be unable to function. He then moved on to the other wing, which was already injured with an arrow. And plunged his dagger manically.

Plurt! Plurt! Plurt!

GROWL!!!!

The panthers tried to resist, but it could do nothing with its claws. They were too short to be able to reach the back, which gave Valier the chance to do whatever he desired. His desire at the moment was to get away from the panther, since they were about to crash on the rocky ground. For a flimsy human like him, he would die in a blink.

Glancing at his palm, Valier pitied himself and hastily tore a part of his camouflage suit to wrap around his hand. Afterwards, he promptly jumped off the panther and clung on a thorny vine. When he stopped swaying, he used his feet to hold himself on the vine while preparing his bow and arrow for a shot.

He could see the winged panther was trying to fly desperately, but its wings could no longer be used.

With the height of the fall, plunging without a stop towards the forest floor would ultimately lead to broken bones for the Beast. The panther knew this, so it tried desperately. But all attempts were fruitless.

BAMM!

The panther plummeted on the ground, sending dust and debris in the air. It has not even got up, yet Valier had already prepared his awaited vengeance. His bow made cracking sounds as he pulled the string to its full potential, but he did not aim for the panther. He knew normal arrows could not penetrate through its fur. Instead, he was going to crush it!

"MEET YOUR MAKER!!!" He bawled the top of his lungs and released his grip.

SWISH!

Shatter!

His bow shattered to pieces, as it had reached its maximum limit. He felt a tinge of sadness, since this was something special to him. But he quickly realized that being alive to see the next rising was the most important, and this bow could be mended together with some effort. He looked at the canopy, and saw what he expected.

Snap!

The arrow pierced through the vine, snapping it in half. This led to a massive domino effect as the webs of vines around a massive boulder began breaking apart one after another. Following the snapping sounds was the panther's growl as it realized what Valier aimed to do.

Growl!

The panther suffered injuries in its front limbs upon crashing on the ground, so it limped out of the way as fast as it could. However, it was too late as the final vine holding the boulder in place gave in.

SNAP!

The boulder began falling, casting a large ominous shadow on the ground. The panther trembled in fear, knowing it was impossible to outrun it due to the size. Still, the Beast did not stop and tried desperately.

BOOM!

A grand amount of dust and pebbles flew in all directions followed by a shockwave that made the surrounding trees waver, causing more rocks to fall from the canopy. This terrified Valier greatly that he held onto the single vine like his life depended on it, because it absolutely did.

Snaps echoed throughout the whole area, making Valier grit his teeth. Fortunately, the whole place began to calm down after a minute. He sighed in relief and waited for more time, until the snapping sounds no longer reverberated and the rocks had stopped falling.

As silence fell, he glanced at those around him for anything that could indicate which part of the forest he was at. But he found it unfamiliar like before, he grew certain this was an unexplored area. And being in this foreign place was akin to having a knife firmly positioned on his throat.

The Shrouded Forest was large, massive even, and home to a large variety of fauna and flora. Some were harmless, while others were deadly. This brought about the division of areas. Areas indicated in yellow were explored and safe hunting grounds, while orange meant explored but with harmful animals and plants. The last area was presented in red, which meant it was unexplored. Being in red areas was something he never wanted to experience. How knows what he could find?

"Damned it… I have to find my way back!" He exclaimed in a rush as he looked below him. He could see the edge of the boulder, and the splattered flesh and blood from the panther. Carefully, he proceeded downwards with caution.

When he got on the ground, he felt the Beast was a fully wasted opportunity. This creature could sell for a large amount of money, and here it was crushed beyond recognition. The only thing salvageable at this point was the left wing that managed to avoid being turned to paste. Sighing downcastedly, he got the wing and strapped it on his back. At least, he could have this as a reminder of his achievement.

"Now… A way back." Valier took a deep breath thinking about it. He did not know his location, and his main weapon was in shambles. He was literally almost defenseless at this point. Just as he thought he had survived, he found himself in the middle of nowhere.

Racking his brains, he loitered around the place to find the direction he came from. If he could retrace his blood, perhaps he could find his way back. He looked upwards, and inwardly gasped in amazement at the sight before him. Now that he was on ground, the size differences were emphasized.

The humongous trees with blackened barks adorned with thorns, and the vines that stretched all the way from the canopy to the ground made him look like an ant in comparison. The same with the boulders in the vines— some were outright massive that he even wondered how it got there in the first place. The only thing he thought of was that it rained rocks.

"Wait… what?" As he thought about it, he noticed something and slowly rotated his body. His eyes swept the boulders and the rocks around him, and he became confused. They were literally around him, forming two rings, with him right directly at the center.

From his estimates, the circle was almost half a kilometer in diameter, perhaps bigger, as he could only properly see the big boulders that were in the layer closest to him. All other smaller stones were behind. This left him stumped, since the entire thing looked unnatural with this addition.

He did not think much of the shape of the rocks before, thinking it was just a natural occurrence to form a nearly perfect square with each one, but with the formation, he became certain this was made by something intelligent.

'A human… or a Beast.' He thought of the two possible creators. Humans naturally had the capacity to think to create such things, but so do Beast, though not at a human level capacity. They could mostly discard their natural instincts and make simple decisions. But there were Beast that nearly rivaled humans in terms of thinking, and those were creatures he never wanted to face.

Drip…

As his mind twirled with worry as he had possibly got into a Beast lair, he did not notice his blood falling onto the ground from his wounds. The drop seeped into the soil silently, with nothing significant happening.

"Fudge, I should get the freak out—!"

Rumble!

The ground abruptly trembled, taking Valier by surprise that he fell on his butt. When he looked around him, he saw the trees swaying, but that was not what caught his attention. It was the rocks, or the cubes. They were moving!

"What the heck is happening!?" Valier yelled in panic and hurriedly got up. He did not hesitate to sprint his way out of the circle. But as he got closer, he began to consider otherwise, and halted.

The cubes tore apart the vines, and began moving in unison in a circle in slow motion that eventually got faster as the second passed. This terrified him, not knowing what was happening. As his eyes darted desperately, he noticed the cube that had crushed the panther was floating off the ground. It fitted snugly in the circle.

Crack!

Out of a sudden, the ground he stood on began cracking apart and disappearing, revealing an ethereal green glow beneath. Horrified out of his mind, Valier broke in cold sweat and tried to get away from the cracks.

However, despite his speed, he was unfortunately unable to outrun fast enough. His foot was caught by the green glow, and unable to budge. He was swallowed without leaving a trace of his existence.