The team cut through the thick veins and branches towards the river. The canopy was already thick enough but coupled with the dark clouds in the sky, they barely had enough light to see what's in front of them.
"I should have brewed the cat's eye potion" Michael reminded himself. His face had many tiny red spots courtesy of the mosquitos in the forest. The whining sound of these blood-sucking insects proved to be more challenging than the annoying undead monkeys.
Thud!
Michael suddenly heard a thud sound like something heavy hitting the ground. He paid close attention to the front to see Jessie, the thief lying on the ground.
"Hey, you alright?" Brownie reached his hand out to help Jessie,
"Yeah, got stuck in a vein" He quickly got up with the help of Brownie.
Stumbling and falling in a place like this was nothing out of the ordinary therefore they continued to walk forward as nothing happened. Yet, Michael's brows creased,
"Weird"
Logan who was walking beside him was busy slapping the mosquitos to pay attention to Michael's look on his face.
Crich!
"Stop" Michael's face muscles tightened as he ordered them to stop.
"Did you hear that?"
Crich!
"Formation"
Ross whispered as the fighters in the group such as Michael, Logan, H, and Marcella surrounded the weak to protect them. They stood still instead of moving.
Crich!
This time they heard the sound of twigs breaking more clearly. Michael felt like he was inside the Predator movie. The forest in the movie was not nearly as thick as this one. Everyone looked at their surroundings. All they could see was vegetation, nothing more.
Crich!
Crich!
It was clearly the sound of something big stepping on the twigs. Marcella slowly raised her crossbow higher in the direction of the sound. They prepared themselves for another battle. Michael could tell something is about to jump out from the darkness.
"Dudum dudum dum dum" he played horror music inside his head for fun.
"Please be something big and less fast" The team would lose their mind if they heard Michael's wish. The Doombringer in his hand was not suitable to kill something that tiny and agile as the undead monkeys without using the Lightning Dash. If something emerged from the darkness big and slow, he would have an easier time killing it.
"Fuck" Marcella cursed as her eyes went wide in shock. the others swallowed mouths full of saliva looking at the creature standing on top of a branch.
Finally, Michael turned his head and realized his wish had come true. The creature that was standing on the branch was an undead black panther.
No one dared to close their noses despite the stench coming from the panther.
The panther's skin wasn't coming off of its body as it was with the monkeys. It was evident that this panther has been turned into an undead recently or even a couple of hours ago. If it wasn't for the stench and the lack of pupils, they wouldn't have assumed the panther to be an undead.
Unlike those monkeys, it didn't mindlessly leap at them to attack but jumped from branch to branch as it was studying their strengths and weaknesses.
"What's it doing?" Logan whispered,
"Don't make any sudden movements" Ross whispered while holding his silver scimitar tightly. He also moved closer to Maria so he could protect her when the panther starts to attack them.
"Let's back away, slowly" H whispered before slowly taking one step at a time.
"Grrrr," The panther growled as their bodies went stiff,
Thud!
Finally, the panther leaped down to the ground from the tree branch. Looking at the team, the panther bore its teeth menacingly.
"Come on kitty kitty" Michael raised his Doombringer as the panther scratched the ground with its paws.
"GRRRR!" Suddenly the panther leaped at them. Its drool splattered across the ground, permeating even more stench. Due to the lack of pupils, they were unable to guess its target. It looked like it was targeting Michael but just when he was about to attack, the panther changed its target to Logan.
Michael swung his Doombringer but he missed it by an inch. The Doombringer brushed past the panther's head while it lunged at Logan.
Fortunately, Logan had a quick reflex as he raised his sledgehammer to prevent the panther from taking a bit out of his neck.
"I don't have a clear shot!" Marcella shouted, trying to get a good shot at the panther. Logan and the panther rolled on the ground, the panther was trying to bite him while Logan was trying to push away the big cat on him
"Don't move!" Michael yelled at Logan. He held the sledgehammer that's stuck between the panther's jaw even tighter.
Boom!'
This time, Michael didn't miss. His Doombringer's blunt head struck the panther's rib cage. The panther went flying away from Logan. It then hit a large tree before falling down. The tree the panther hit trembled due to the force.
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Marcella used the opportunity to shoot bolt after bolt at the panther. Although every single bolt hit the panther, none could penetrate the thick skull of the panther.
"GRRRR!"
The panther growled again. The Doombringer caved in the panther's rib cage. When it stood up, black fluid started to ooze out of the wound yet it didn't slow down the panther's movements. With a forceful push to the ground, the panther leaped into the air.
Everyone raised their weapons to defend themselves when they saw Michael also leaping higher into the air. Their jaws almost dropped to the ground in shock, even Ross's eyes went wide.
"What the fuck?" Logan's eyes looked like they were about to pop out from the sockets. His mind couldn't figure out how David could jump so high with that heavy weapon in his hand.
[Ding! Congratulations to the host for successfully being a badass. The reward is 700 badass points]
[Ding! Congratulations to the host for successfully being a badass. The reward is 1000 badass points]
….
BOOM!
In the mid-air, Michael and the panther clashed. Michael swung the Doombringer with all his strength. The Doombringer struck the panther's back but it wasn't without a cost, before the attack could sin in, the panther headbutted Michael in the chest. Everything happened so quickly, the team only saw the panther hitting the ground after getting struck by Doombringer and Michael flying into a tree before hitting the ground.
"Shit!" Logan wanted to help David but in a blink of an eye, the panther stood up with its spine sticking out of its back. It lunged at them, fortunately, it was not as fast as before because of the broken spine.
The APD quickly injected a healing potion into Michael's bloodstream, healing the wounds as well as easing his pain. Even after he was completely healed, he didn't stand up to join the fight. If he did otherwise, they would definitely suspect him more as a normal human being would not be able to stand up after taking such a blow. Jumping into the air was already pushing his luck but the four thousand badass points were worth the risk.
While lying on the ground pretending to be injured, he stared at the fight happening a couple of meters away from him. The more he watched the fight, the more he realized the threat within the team.
On the other side, Logan was swinging his Sledgehammer while Marcella fired bolt after bolt at the panther. After seeing the endurance and the strength of its body, the others backed off from the fight, leaving Marcella and Logan to deal with the panther. If any of them tried to attack the panther with a sword, they knew they would be killed in a second.
Experienced fighters such as H and Ross took an occasional slash at the panther. Their experience was evident to Michael. The two guys slashed at the muscles joints connecting limbs, further slowing down the panther.
The more time went by, the worse the panther looked. Countless bolts sticking out of its body and the black fluid was oozing out of the wounds. Since the panther's speed significantly slowed down thanks to Ross and H, Logan was able to land heavy hits on the panther.
"AHHHH!" Michael noticed Logan letting out a battle cry. His muscles flexed out, each muscle had perfect definition, especially his biceps that were bigger than many peoples' thighs.
"Finally something interesting" Michael mumbled. He fixed his eyes on Logan who's fighting more and more violently. It seemed like he entered a berserker mode.
Thud!
Thud!
Thud!
Thud!
The panther was getting pounded by Logan left and right.No matter how much black ooze spattered on his body, Logan did not slow down. He kept beating the black panther all over its body.
"Hit its head, idiot" Michael rolled his eyes. If Logan had landed those hits on the panther's head, its head would have split open by now, ending the fight.
He wanted to rest until they finally killed the panther but he had to intervene before the team got slaughtered by the new threat that only Michael knew about.
"Go for its head!"
Marcella screamed at Logan looking at the panther's vulnerable state.
"Cut off its limbs!" Ross shouted at H before dashing towards the panther. The two experienced fighters in the team worked together to cut its limbs. While Logan was going berserk on the pa nether, they slashed at its limbs as strong as they could.
"Grrrr,"
The panther growled when Ross and H cut off the four limbs. The two of them pushed their limit to move fast and cut off its limbs.
"AHHHH!" Logan roared loudly before bringing down the sledgehammer onto the panther's head. The moment the sledgehammer collided with the panther's head, it cracked open the head like a coconut. The brain matter exploded into a black mist. Finally, the team was able to heave a sigh of relief looking at the panther stops moving.