The figure of a child with fury-like cat ears and a long, fluffy tail could barely be seen stealthily traversing the forest, using the shadows of the trees and anything big enough to cast a shadow to hide from any predators, Looking forward to a healthy serving of a 4-foot humanoid hump of meat, this creature, was obviously Mau, and he was doing an outstanding job of stealthily navigating the forest.

 This is thanks to the previous owner's life experiences and the natural-born abilities of the shadow panther, which not only gave him incredible speed but also the ability to merge ever so slightly with the shadow. 

 Paired with his speed, this helped hide him from other beasts very well. However, this is something he is only able to do with the one-tier beast, even though he is in the second tier. He is still in the very beginning of it, and in this area, one-tiers are most prominent.

Regardless of that fact, there are some one-tiered beasts that are not far from becoming second tiers. Due to this fact, they have slightly stronger senses than the average one-tier, but these senses are in no way comparable to a second-tier beast. The only reason the two big dogs currently tailing Mau are able to vaguely sniff out his location is because of the little light show he put on not too long ago. 

During that time, they were able to become somewhat familiar with his aura and can now slightly sense it. However, every once in a while, they lose it altogether, giving Mau the opportunity to escape them altogether.

Something doesn't feel right; something is looking at me. I'm not that far from the first tier of the forest, and I would like to hurry up and get there within 30 minutes.   However, I feel like I should try and lose whatever's tailing me. I'm in no position to fight. I haven't had time to go over the necessary information in my head to figure out how to even go about that. Why do I have to be so unlucky? Stupid shiny man! Why would you drop me somewhere so dangerous? Mau thought out loud.

With that, Mau decided that his best course of action was to confuse his pursuers. Mau was naturally very perceptive, even before gaining self-awareness. He already knew the direction and location of his assailant. With this information, he decided to move in strange patterns and release and conceal his presence.

 This was done not only to confuse his pursuers and make his current location hard to track, but also to familiarize himself with this strange ability.   His ultimate goal was to eventually conceal his presence completely. He was already aware of the aura he was giving off and the fact that he wasn't able to fully conceal it.   However, every so often, he would be able to do so completely, but only for short moments, no longer than a minute. He needed it to last longer than that.

"Okay, I guess that's working. I'm getting further and further away from them with every second. It seems like they didn't have a strong lock on my location and were only aware of the general area I was in. I also left traces of my aura in some places while doing this."

Mau was able to do this because he had gained a better understanding of how his ability worked while traversing the forest and through the information the shiny man had given him. This ability was produced by the strange energy used in this land, called Qi.

 

Using qi manipulations is an ability that magical beasts are born with, which is great because it seems everyone else has to practice something called cultivation to progress. Magical beasts can also do this when they receive  human forms, but that's not supposed to happen until the 6th or 7th tier of the beast, depending on how powerful the magical beast is. he was only a first tier, so this is strange. 

Even though Mau had put some distance between himself and his pursuers and scattered his aura around, he knew that as soon as he started moving, they would be able to pursue him again. They would likely notice the aura in motion. Instead of moving, he decided to gather more information.

 Martial artists use breathing exercises to circulate and accumulate more qi in their bodies, which helps them become stronger and gain enlightenment, among other things.   Mau sat down and leaned against a tree in the shade to practice the technique. He started breathing in strange patterns, and as he continued this process, he found himself slipping deep into a trance. 

His mind soon went almost completely blank as he could feel the qi circulating within his body. Being in the shadows, he gained just a little enlightenment.

 

Unfortunately, during this process, due to him absorbing so much energy, more of his presence started to leak out. Mau did not consider this as a possibility, and this mistake would cost him. Luckily for Mau, he noticed that his pursuers were getting closer at an alarming rate. When Mau realized this, he immediately stopped what he was doing, understanding that his actions may have caused this. He had made some progress during his meditation, but not enough to completely erase his presence. 

He decided to rely on offensive techniques and planned to set up a trap to slow them down enough for him to escape.

Bamm!! BOOM!

 

A bright beam of light hit the shadow figure of a humanoid cat, the size of a 4-foot child, obliterating it alone with the bottom half of the tree it was in front of. 

BANG! CRASH! 

A golden 4-foot dog-like creature quickly moved out of the way as a tree crashed in its direction almost instantly. The dog barely missed getting caught in the branches, and the tree tumbled over. 

Instantly after it dodged the tree, five dark slashes came. It dodged 3, but the fourth one ripped off its leg and before it could do anymore damage.

 The dog quickly spun around, leaving the right side of its body facing the direction the dark claw originated from.

 Before it could have time to realize its mistake, before it could even blink, five more dark claws quickly flew at it, chopping it up into five lifeless pieces of flesh.

Mau was surprised by this. He was not even considering that he would be able to kill one of these frighteningly beautiful beasts. The most he was expecting was to injure one of them badly enough to escape. Luckily, the beast didn't seem like it wanted to share their meal, so they were not really trying to work together. It was more like a race to see who could catch the prey first, underestimating their soon-to-be victim in the process. 

Allowing him to catch one off  guard, but the second was not far behind. Doing this twice was something he wasn't confident in. Unfortunately, he would have to do something because he did not have time to really run or set another trap. So he was just going to have to fight. 

 "Oh look, who's here? Are you mad that I killed your friend?" 

"Maybe he shouldn't have been dumb enough to fall for such an easy trick.     My shadow copy wasn't even convincing at all.    It's just a shadow ghost figure that I used to attract all of you to it by putting a lot of energy into it, making it seem like me. But i didn't expect him to believe that once  he was close enough to see it, but to my suprise he did." said mau.

  "I was going to cut the tree down myself, once it realized it wasn't me, but it did that for me. And why the hell would they try to incinerate me? Don't you all need to eat me to get any benefit?" said mau

"Shut up, you're disgusting. You smell like a beast but look like a human. You.. you  abomination, die!!!" said the beast.

The beast leaped at Mau at lightning speed "Dark Claw!"5 dark shadowy slashes appeared and flew in the beast direction as mau quickly moved toward the beast side.The beast opened it's mouth and shot a golden beam blowing the claws up. BOOM! Mau then launched 5 more dark slashes at the golden beast. 

SLASH! SLASH!

The Golden beast tail then glowed a bright gold and smashed into the dark claws, causing an explosion with a dark purple glow. Boom!! The beast was pushed several feet back, giving Mau more time to throw 2 dark claws, causing 10 dark slashes to be seen hurling in the beast's direction. SLASH! SLASH! The beast quickly faced the dark claws and blew another golden beam at them, causing yet another explosion.bBOOM! BOOM! 

Mua used the explosion as a smoke screen, and quickly jump above, it throwing another dark claw. SLASH! SLASH!!

The golden beast noticed this in time to block with it's tail. Boom! this temporarily obstructed it's vision.

To slow, " before the beast could react Mau land on its face digging his claws in its eyes causing blood  to bathed  his hands and leaked on the floor RAAAAAAWWWWAR!!! a loud gut wrenching roar could be heard as  he screamed in agony as it opened its mouth and a golden light could be seen forming but before it could launch a beam ,"DARK CLAW"! 

SLASH! SLASH!

 The golden beast was sliced into 3 lumps of flesh, by 2 shadowy slashes, while  the other 3 slashes hit, and destroyed two trees behind it, causing them to come crashing with a loud.

BOOM! BOOM!

"Ewww, it's all over my hands. Am I supposed to eat that? Did he give me information on cooking? I  know what it is, so he must have."

Mau said this out loud with a shocked  voice it seemed the fight took alot out of him he could barely  stan and his knees where wobbly.

"! I can't believe I won, but I'm about to pass out. What if I'm unconscious and something tries to eat me? And what if they steal my food?"

This thought gave Mau the determination to not allow himself to pass out until he had ensured his own safety. So, he pushed through the lightheadedness and wobbly knees and made his way to a nearby cave." 

"Please let it be empty. I don't sense anything dangerous, but who knows? Something may be able to hide as well as I can."

Mau dragged all the sliced-up meat to the cave. After about 3 minutes, he had arrived and promptly tossed the meat inside. He could feel his eyelids growing heavier; the desire to pass out right there was strong, but he was determined not to die in  his sleep.

"Ok let put this big rock right hear and there" THUMP!

He immediately hit the floor, in fact he fell so hard, little cracks could be seen. fourming on the ground in the area he fell at.

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