Chapter 32: Chapter 32

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The Panthara’s head came over the edge of the cliff and you would be forgiven for thinking that there was a satisfied sneer on the creature's leopardine face. Standing at its full height Rain was made painfully aware of just how large the creature was. He himself was by no means short at an intimidating eight feet but this creature's ear tips were nearly twelve foot up from the ground! The sheer mass of its body must have put its weight at several tons, which was worrying as it said a lot about the strength of the monster to haul its entire bulk up a cliff with such ease and speed.

It looked down on Rain and Opal with contempt then, shockingly fast, it lunged forward, open taloned hand reaching for Opal. Rain saw it coming however and he grabbed Opal by the shoulder and yanked her backwards sending her sprawling. His other arm came up to block and the monster’s hand came down on his forearm like a vice.

The Panthara’s eyes widened slightly then focused on Rain. Its grip tightened further and it tried to pull Rain toward it, Rain buckled down, dug his feet in, and resisted. To his surprise the monster managed to shift him, slowly dragging him across the ground despite his strength. However, the Panthara seemed even more shocked than Rain that he was able to resist it at all and had not been pulled off his feet. 

It snarled in frustration and its barbels trembled, twisting and coiling in the air. Then it set all four of its lower legs and heaved forward, pushing into Rain as though to bowl him over. Unfortunately for the Panthara this pushed the scaled hand wrapped around Rain’s forearm toward his mouth. His maw snapped open and came down like a steel trap on one of the Panthara’s fingers. The scales were tougher than anything that Rain had tried to bite before with the possible exception of the Inquisitor’s steel armour, however he was stronger now than at that time. The scale resisted but it could not stop the inevitable, his teeth sunk into the Panthara’s flesh. 

The Panthara roared and flinched back as it realised what was happening, tearing free its hand as Rain’s canines met bone. Blood sprayed and scales came loose as it freed itself, only its ridiculous strength allowing it to escape from the press of Rain’s teeth. 

Red spattered the grass and moss. 

The Panthara paused and examined the damage to its hand. It then eyed Rain warily, its long lizard like tail lashing the air as it began to circle Rain looking for an opportunity to attack.

Rain cricked his paws and neck, shrugging his shoulders up and down a few times and limbering up.

He spread his arms wide and grinned confidently at the monster, showing all his teeth, freshly reddened with the Panthara’s blood.

“Did you think it would be that easy? I’m not a Goblin you stupid fuck.”

The bridge of the Panthara’s nose wrinkled up as it let loose a snarling-roar, it’s whiskers twitching madly.  

“Come at me.”

The Panthara charged, dirt and moss exploding up behind it as its gigantic feet tore into the ground, using all the advantages of being quadrupedal to put on explosive acceleration. The monster erupted forward, the talons of its hands and front legs up and spread ready to lacerate Rain and rip and tear and shred. 

Rain ducked down and put on his own burst of speed but at the same time dove to the ground and rolled between the monster’s legs, he came up sliding and his eyes locked onto the back legs of the monster, he opened his jaws wide ready to bite into and take its leg. Abruptly the Panthara’s front legs came down and it snapped its back legs up, retracting them into the air as it used its upper body as counter weight to instantly lever itself away from Rain’s grasp and avoid his best weapon, his teeth. Rain could only watch in frustration as he slid out from underneath the monster. 

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Unfortunately the Panthara seemed to have supernatural prescient awareness and its massive lizard tail came down like a bullcrack whip, it hit Rain across the chest and with a bone cracking crunch and Rain was sent tumbling and rolling across the ground until he crashed up against a tree in a heap. 

He drew in a painful shaky breath. Cracked rib, maybe more than one. Rain could only compare being hit by that muscular tail to being hit by a landslide of solid stone. He coughed, breathing roughly and trying his best to ride out the pain. He looked up expecting to see the Panthara charging toward him aiming to attack him when he was down, he expected a shadow to fall over him at any moment. Instead, the Panthara simply stood where it was and watched him silently. Rain took the moment to gather himself and using the tree he hauled himself up onto his feet. One paw clutched at his chest, each breath was pain. He was furious with himself for underestimating how aware of its environment the thing was. 

He watched as the Panthara eyed him, a disturbingly intelligent expression crossed its face. This was definitely not some simple minded monster, no, its cunning was on par with any leveler or tribal monster. 

Its eyes narrowed and slid off Rain until they came to rest on Opal who was hiding behind a nearby tree, poking her head around to watch the fight. Opal froze seeing it look at her and then with a yelp of fright dashed away.

The Panthara roared and its four feet churned the ground up as it charged toward her, tail lashing the air and a cruel grin on its face.

Rain blinked in surprise as the unexpected worst thing possible happened. Irrationally, out of nowhere, it was going to kill Opal. A flush of extreme rage and fear bloomed in Rain’s chest and his heart rate peaked as blood pounded in his ears and his vision narrowed. Instantly forgetting the agony of breathing he tore away from the tree, feet driving him forward, compelled by desperation, he sprinted toward the monster. But he just did not have the same explosive acceleration this monster possessed and he could only watch in dismay as it swiftly caught up to Opal, its massive paws thundering across the ground. A huge taloned hand swept down and with a scream Opal was snatched into the air. The Panthara let out a cry of victory and started turning, holding up the Goblin as though it had caught a hostage to hold Rain in place.

Instead, a black furred missile cannoned into its barrel like a bat out of hell. The Panthara’s eyes went wide and its feet went out from under it, its massive pendulous bulk came down to earth with a crash that shook the ground. Wolf, Goblin, and Panthara went rolling. Turf and dirt were ripped up into the air as giant talons clawed the ground in a panic, Opal screamed as she was flung aside and the Panthara roared as it felt a pain like nothing it had ever felt before. It scrambled to its feet, eyes wide, but the pain remained. It bucked its back up, twisted and shook itself, to no avail. It twisted its upper body around to see the black furred beast latched onto its lower back, its teeth already carving bloody furrows of flesh from its fur creating a gory mess. 

The Panthara roared and snarled in fury and tried to reach for Rain, turning its upper body, its taloned hand reaching to grab at Rain and pull him from his back.

Rain simply moved to the far side of its lower body and continued ripping bloody chunks, the grasping hand could only snatch at thin air. The Panthara snarled in frustration and twisted around the other way only for Rain to switch sides once more, latching onto its back like a rat worrying a cat. The Panthara tried once more but was once again met with frustration. It bellowed and roared and began running and then sprinting across the grass, shaking and bouncing desperately trying to shake Rain from its lower body. Blood was waterfalling from its back in sheets by this point and Rain was starting to expose the white bone of ribs to the air as he gnawed his way into it. 

The roars of the Panthara were starting to become shrill and beginning to sound more like screams of agony and fear. In desperation it threw itself to the ground and rolled over the moss and grass, attempting to crush Rain beneath itself. Rain let it happen, he was blind to pain, he didn't even feel the splintering of his cracked ribs under the pressure, even with the full weight of the monster on top of him did not stop, he was a ball of savage mindless instinct. He simply focused on hanging on and burying his teeth ever deeper. 

The Panthara gave up trying to roll and sprung back to its feet, careening across the grass out of control, froth built up at its lips and wild eyed it crashed into a tree flattening it, stumbling and thrashing free it screamed as Rain’s teeth finally found its spine. The chilling grizzly sound of bone fracturing and breaking apart under immense pressure broke the air and Rain’s teeth cleaved the Panthara’s lower spine in two. Its back legs immediately stopped all motion and the monster came crashing down the ground. Frightened eyes looked back at its unmoving back legs, the upper body twisting round to see, uncomprehending why a good third of its body had stopped responding. Its front legs pawed at the ground and it dragged itself forward, it’s back legs limp behind it. 

Crunch. Rain moved upward.

The Panthara screamed. Its upper body thrashed as its lower body slowed and failed to respond. On its back Rain made a crater of gore as he began to eat the creature alive, ribs and muscle and flesh disappearing into his savaging maw. He was ruthless and ate his way down into its chest devouring the monster's lower body as the upper body screamed and shrieked in fear and torment. Strange organs, muscles, hearts, all were blindly consumed, it wasn't long until Rain had split the creature in twain, leaving behind the back half of its lower body as the upper body desperately clawed at the ground and dragged itself forward, spilling its guts out behind it as it went. It didn't help, Rain ate upward, soon the front legs lower chest were gone, unrelentingly consumed and only the upper body was left, panicking breathless and wild eyed it weakly dragged itself along the ground, its entrails falling out leaving a bloody smear across the grass. Teeth flashed and more and more of it disappeared down Rain’s throat. Fearful eyes looked down and could only watch as its body swiftly disappeared. Blood welled up in its mouth and streamed from its lips as the monster died, an expression of terror frozen across its face. It slumped to the ground. Rain kept eating.

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