Jackson went on full alert, he could feel its gaze on him. It was still here somewhere, waiting for him to drop his guard before it struck or maybe it was playing with him?
'Can't something just go right today?' He complained to himself internally.
Adrenaline coursed through his veins as every single rustle of a bush or leaf caused him to turn to look in panic only for him to realise there was nothing there.
Suddenly he felt a chill from his back, his body moved on instinct as he dove to the side only to see a claw swipe where he'd just been standing. Cold sweat dripped down his brow as he hurriedly got back to his feet, only a second later and he'd already have become a pile of bones by this time tomorrow.
The Panther looked confused as it turned its head to stare at him, it couldn't figure out how the slow human had managed to dodge its sneak attack but it didn't intend to miss a second time as it pounced towards him. Its speed outmatched his own as it was instantly on top of him as it tried to maul his face.
"Ugh.." He fell back onto the floor with it on top of him as he began to desperately struggle for his life, "Ahhh!" He shouted in pain as he used his arm to stop its teeth from getting close to his face. Its claws ruthlessly tore at him but all he could do was endure as he tried to push if off him.
But the Panther was much stronger than he was, despite how much he tried his pitiful amount of strength was only just able to keep it from killing him.
Jackson thought fast as he could feel his arm growing weaker by the second, any longer and he was pretty sure he'd become a cripple. He managed to curl his legs up to put the soles of his feet to the panthers stomach and used his whole body to try and move it.
"Get... Off... Me...." He said through gritted teeth as his face went red from exhaustion, fortunately the added strength of his lower body was enough to kick the beast from him much to its own surprise as it toppled onto its back and began to panic from how suddenly it had happened.
Jackson didn't waste his opportunity and stumbled to get up and land a well-placed kick to the animals 'crown jewels' causing it to shriek in pain and provide Jackson a few more seconds as it recovered to throw a few more attacks on the same area causing enraged roars to echo out across the forest as it cried out in pain.
He couldn't keep this up forever however, his body was growing heavy and it'd only be a matter of time before the beast eventually became numb to the pain. He'd read about the regenerative abilities of these 'enhanced' animals, something like this would only take a few days of rest and they'd be as good as new, the same couldn't be said for him.
His eyes darted to a few stones next to him as he formed a plan in his head, suddenly he stopped kicking and dived to pick one of them up - one that looked blunt enough to cause some real damage. Just as he'd expected however, as soon as he stopped kicking it only took the beast the few seconds that he'd stopped attacking it for it to recover and throw itself back on its front.
"Good thing you were male." Jackson muttered with a chuckle as he stared it down once more, the beast had hatred in its eyes as if it wanted nothing more than to rip him apart piece by piece as slowly as possible.
They stared at each other for a full minute before Jackson started to grow impatient, he was growing weaker by the second as more blood began to pour from his wound dying the grass red, if the blood loss didn't get to him and he survived then some other beast that smelled the blood would.
The Panther seemed to know this as it waited patiently, but its eyes would occasionally look over somewhere else and break eye contact as if it could hear something in the distance.
Suddenly as its eyes broke contact with his Jackson collapsed to the ground while panting heavily, his body felt weak as he tried to use one of his arms to make sure he didn't fall to the floor entirely. "Rooaaarr!" The Panther triumphed as it ran at him, he could feel the breeze caused by the claws before they even made contact but that was enough.
He allowed himself to fall in the direction of his arm holding him up as he moved it from the ground and used a small push to rotate himself onto his back as he fell, he saw as the claw swiped the air where he'd just been much to the confusion of the Panther who thought it'd already won the battle.
Jackson from the floor lifted the hand he'd been holding himself up with to the Panthers jaw in an instant, the stone he'd picked up earlier clasped tightly as it smacked squarely into its jaw with enough force to knock it onto its side as it howled in pain.
Jackson didn't waste a moment as he lifted his wary body one final time to smash the stone repeatedly into the Panthers' head mercilessly, he didn't stop until he was certain it was dead as he took out all of his pent up frustration and confusion on it without restraint.
How helpless he felt, how confused he was and anything else all faded into the background as he did his best to survive without restraint, this was no longer the almost-peaceful city landscape of Mayson, he was in a world without protection or rules, a world where the strong continue to live while the weak are stepped on underfoot.
He needed to be prepared to do just about anything to survive...
[Level Up]
That was the final thing he saw before his vision faded to black for a second time in one day.
Thanks for the chapter
Thanks for the chapter