Unsealing Emptiness

Chapter 265: Weakened?

The night passed while Raven and Blaze were properly explained the situation around the village by the village head.

They were naturally curious about this Blood Panther, but they remembered how Ozul had mentioned that it was a Rank-9 Beast.

The thought of fighting this Blood Panther would have been thrilling if not for the fact that they hadn’t already experienced how oppressive the aura of the Rank-9 individuals felt.

Although they were on edge, the two were determined to give their best since Ozul had also stated that it was for their training.

Unlike what Ozul expected, the duo gradually overcame their fear and were ready to fight against the Blood Panther even when they understood how dangerous it would turn out to be.

Both being battle maniacs were also lowkey excited to fight someone so strong.

While they were awake all night, Ozul slept as if it was his own home together with Jinx.

.....

Early next morning, the sun had yet to fully rise when the village head was ready to show them the way to the monster that has been haunting this village for a month now.

Ozul woke up immediately and together with the duo he followed the village head out of his house and into the forest.

They went towards the mountain range not far into the woods. But they still took a few hours before they reached the nearest cliff.

Ozul had naturally first tried to scan the area around to see if he could find the Blood Panther, but he didn’t feel its presence anywhere before. That is why he had decided to ask for the village head’s help.

He might be able to find the beast himself if he searched for a while, but flying all over without a clear sense of direction didn’t sit right with him.

After crossing over the cliff, the village head led them to a narrow path surrounded by giant boulders and rocks.

As Ozul had expected, there weren’t any beasts around the area, and the reason for it was quite evident.

After another few hours, the village head seemed exhausted, but they had reached a steep mountain slope. From there, he pointed at a distance and spoke,

“You see that cave mouth near the other mountain?”

They spotted the cave from miles away surrounded by thick trees around it.

“We are required to bring the sacrifice there...” the village head said with a downtrodden voice.

A fresh breeze brushed past their face which Ozul found quite annoying. The cave was hundreds of meters away, but Ozul could easily feel the oppressive aura around it. He waved his hand in a casual manner and said,

“You can go back now. We will take care of it from here.”

At the same time, he motioned towards Raven who didn’t need much effort to understand his intentions. She took out a couple of Gold Coins from her Spatial Ring and handed it to the village head before sending him off. At this point, this little amount of money was nothing in their eyes.

The old village head kept praying on his way back that these kind people don’t die in the hands of that monster after seeing how generous they were.

Without wasting another moment, Ozul flew directly towards the cave. Raven and Blaze followed right behind.

The distance of a hundred meters was covered in just a few seconds as they arrived at the cave mouth.

Raven and Blaze couldn’t help but tense up under the oppressive aura of the Blood Panther inside the cave. Before Ozul could even take a step in, a shout echoed from deep inside the cave,

“Who are you filth!?”

The voice was hoarse and croaky. Following the voice, a foul smell also invaded the trio’s nose. It made Ozul remember the strange odor in the village.

He didn’t reply and waited for the beast to come out itself.

“Hu? You three are a sacrifice? Keh...” the voice snickered as it got nearer.

A few moments later, the gigantic black panther stood in front of the trio while glaring down at them. There was a blood-red bead on its forehead, the same color as its eyes.

While the duo were in awe of its beautiful appearance, Ozul instead focused on the fact that the Blood Panther seemed weak.

It was Rank-9, sure. However, the aura around it was not as strong as a full-fledged Rank-9 Beast would have.

And he only understood the reason when he examined its body and noticed the slight cracks on the corner of the blood-red bead on its forehead. Adding on to the bloodstains on its back, Ozul could guess that the Blood Panther was probably injured.

If that was the case, it would also explain why it was going out of its way to bully a helpless village.

Some of the Magical Beast were twisted like humans. They would kill and torment others just for pleasure’s sake or for passing time.

The Beasts never had any moral values to begin with, so after gaining intelligence they wouldn’t hesitate to kill people when they felt bored.

Such was the case with most of the Beasts in this world, and Ozul speculated that this Blood Panther was probably recovering from its injury while passing its time by tormenting that village.

“Well, saves me the effort,” Ozul muttered before moving to the side.

He was planning to weaken the Rank-9 Beast before letting it fight Raven and Blaze even before coming here. A full-fledged Rank-9 Beast was not something those two would have any chance of surviving against.

However, this Blood Panther was already injured and in a weakened state. So he was spared the effort.

Now, there was no one between the Blood Panther and the duo.

“How dare you ignore me, you worm!” the Blood Panther gnashed his teeth with his spit flying everywhere.

“Fight with them,” Ozul pointed at Raven and Blaze as he looked for a dark place to spectate from.

“Huh?!” the Blood Panther felt furious while looking at Ozul’s nonchalant behavior in front of him. He might have understood if it was a strong Mage, but how dare an ordinary man behave this way before him!?

The Blood Panther felt no Mana from him and unconditionally thought that he was some villager who had brought those two Rank-8 Mages to deal with him.

“Kehekehe! You think these pups can even scratch a hair on me?” the Blood Panther clicked his tongue, feeling offended that an ‘ordinary villager’ was looking on him.

“Both of you, what are you waiting for?” Ozul squinted his eyes at Raven and Blaze, completely ignoring the Blood Panther which only got more furious by the blatant disregard of his presence.

However, Raven and Blaze didn’t wait for it to say anymore and immediately went in for the action.

Blaze raised giant Ice pillars from the ground while Raven dropped the black smoke that slowly covered the whole area.

“Urgh!! You worms will pay with your life!” the Blood Panther shouted furiously before stomping his feet on the ground that immediately shattered the Ice pillars created by Blaze.

Ozul kept a close eye on their fight as Blaze created summoned Ice spikes to shoot at the Panther before Raven threw a few daggers that hid behind the giant spikes of ice.

Even they could perceive that this Rank-9 Beast was weakened since they didn’t feel as weak as they did before those Rank-9 Mages.

The black smoke didn’t seem to affect the panther too much since it had keen eyesight and its other senses were just as sharp. Although weakened, it was still a Rank-9 Beast.

grraau!

This time, it suddenly roared towards the ice spikes which, to the horror of the duo, immediately shattered as if they were just ordinary glass!

Not only that, but Raven’s dagger that hid behind those spikes also got blown away from the shockwaves generated by that terrifying roar.

Not giving the duo a chance to recover, the Blood Panther ran towards Raven since she was the closest to him with an intention to finish her off in one hit.

Raven was also affected by the roar previously, so she wasn’t able to act in time. Her eyes unconsciously moved towards Ozul’s direction when she noticed that she wouldn’t be able to protect herself from this.

However, Ozul showed no intentions of helping, so she could only grit her teeth and cast as many Spells as she could.

Following that, she tried to move out of the Panther’s way. However, it proved to be a little too fast because just in the blink of an eye, it was already near her!

Fortunately, Blaze had recovered a little, so he instantly raised a giant spike from the ground, right under the Panther.

Being a Rank-9 Beast, the Panther was quick to react and easily dodged the Ice spike.

But it still gave Raven a little time to evade the Panther’s attack.

“Assist me!” Raven shouted before she summoned her two daggers and made a determined face.

Blaze was about to also shout that he was already doing that. However, what happened next made him send as many Ice spikes towards the Panther as he could.

It was because Raven, instead of retreating, rushed towards the Blood Panther!

‘What has gotten into her!?’ Blaze cursed under his breath before also closing in a little, trying to divert the Panther’s attention from her as much as he could.

The Blood Panther sneered while Ozul watched in interest to see what Raven was going to do now.