The massive claw seemed to come out of nowhere, swiping straight at Desmond’s chest. He knew he couldn’t match the claw’s speed, so he resolved himself. Cycling his mana, Desmond performed a powerful side-swipe with his greatsword, aiming to cut the beast in two. If the beast wanted to trade blows, he would ensure it got the worst of it.

As expected, the beast disengaged, causing Desmond’s blade to hit nothing but air. Before he could even get a good look at the thing, it was once again back under the forest canopy, obscured from sight.

A moment later, a giant ball of fire stuck where the beast had last been. The ball erupted in a large explosion of fire, setting the nearby foliage alight. Once more adding to the ever-growing forest fire that was slowly consuming the area.

From behind, Desmond could hear Ben call out. “Fuck Dez, you have to find a way to slow it down. We are making no progress like this.”

“We stick to the plan! Pull back to the clearing,” Desmond yelled. There was no going back for them now. They were committed and would have to see this through to the end. For the moment, the beast seemed content with wearing them down. Not truly committing itself to the fight.

As Desmond looked under the thick forest canopy, all he could see was darkness, no hint of the beast despite all the fire and the midday sun. There was only an unnatural darkness. But his senses told him it was there, looking back at him through the shadows. Then something lashed out, like a long black whip with a bony protrusion on the end, aimed right at his gut. He quickly moved his blade to deflect but was slightly too slow, only managing to push it slightly off course and earning himself another light gash on his side.

“This thing is cutting through my plate mail like it’s fucking paper,” Desmond cursed. “Ben we have to get moving now!” Desmond looked towards his companion and was shocked to see Ben pierced straight through by two more of the black whip-like weapons. The wall of fire he had erected in front of himself had offered little in the way of resistance to the beast’s attack.

As quickly as the bone-like weapons had appeared, they vanished. Leaving in their wake a disconcerting silence that seemed to permeate the air. It was stalking him again, waiting for another opening. Desmond could hear a soft thud as Ben’s body fell to the ground. With Ben’s passing, the raging forest fire seemed to die down a little, losing some of its insufferable heat.

The wound on Desmond’s side was of no consequence, just another cut to add to the growing list. Paying it no mind, he slowly moved over beside where Ben had fallen. All the while watching the surrounding forest for any sign of its next attack. Looking down for a moment to observe Ben’s body, it was clear he had been pierced through by the whip-like weapons. One through the gut, but the killing blow had been through the neck, cutting nearly half of it away. Both wounds were actively on fire and seemed to be searing themselves shut.

It would seem the Phoenix Talisman was doing its job. “I guess this means it’s time for plan B,” Desmond said as he picked up Ben’s body and threw it over his shoulder. He then immediately ran towards the planned clearing at full speed. They had made it within just a few hundred meters before the recent exchange.

Desmond only managed to make it a few dozen steps before he heard something stalking him off to his right. It was running parallel to him through the woods. This was strange, as the creature had been abnormally silent in the fight so far. Either the beast was toying with him, or something else was at play here.

Then came a silence, like a wave washing over the area. All sound was suppressed, and the world darkened a little further. It was coming! At this point, instincts seemed to take over as Desmond tossed Ben’s body to the ground. Turning around to face the beast, he transferred his sword to his right hand and lifted it overhead. The bushes to his left moved as some form of massive black panther jumped free, lunging at his face. Something in his mind was screaming at him that this was not the true threat.

Desmond raised his left bracer to block the creature, feeling it bite down on his forearm. Pain shot through his arm as his heavy armor strained against the force of the bite. He could feel the teeth pierce the armor in places and sink into his flesh, but he paid this little mind. Desmond cleared his mind and focused. He could hear it now, approaching from his blind spot. Following his instincts, he made a full-powered overhead smash down on his right side.

The blade hit nothing in the air, but when it struck the ground, it was like an explosion went off. Dirt and debris flew through the air as a small crater formed under the sword, knocking over the nearby trees. More importantly, Desmond could feel something knocked back by the force of his blow, he had missed the beast, but it had been close.

“There was no way it got away from that one unscathed,” Desmond said to himself.

Desmond turned his attention to the thing, still trying to gnaw off his left arm. It looked like a giant black panther the size of a horse but made of shadow magic. It was just a shadow clone. After the initial momentum-boosted strike, its teeth and claws could find no purchase against his heavy plate mail. Desmond slammed his left arm into the ground, creating another small crater and causing the clone to disperse back into shadows.

Not bothering to look for the beast this time, Desmond moved quickly to get Ben. To his surprise, the grass he had dropped the man on was now empty. “That bastard fled!” he cursed. But now wasn’t the time to stand around idle. Desmond took off running at full speed. Once again, he pushed himself through the underbrush, making his way to the clearing.

His sprint was blessedly uneventful this time as moments later, he burst into the clearing. Quickly looking around, he could see where Ben lay prone in the grass. Rapidly making his way over, he lay down beside the man who looked remarkably uninjured. Only a few scars and some blood stains showed where his neck had once been torn apart.

Ben was a big guy for a mage, easily 6 feet tall and around 250 pounds of muscle. Even prone in grass, he was not easy to hide. However, Desmond couldn’t comment on this as he dwarfed the man, standing 7 foot 2 and built like a tank.

“You really just ditched me back there?” Desmond commented.

“You seemed to have had it all under control,” Ben replied. “Besides, there is no way I’m taking another blow from that thing. I’m a mage! I’m not made to be so close to the enemy.”

He was right, except for the fact that he never acted like a mage. Ben preferred a form of close-range magical combat similar to a magic swordsman, just with a big staff and a lot of fire.

“Well, do you think it is going to follow us?” Ben asks with a bit of anticipation in his voice.

“That’s the plan, and you did do a good job looking weak and feeble,” Desmond replies with a chuckle. “Also, I’m pretty sure I pissed it off.”

Ben laughs. “You do have that effect on people.”

They both lapse into silence, staring at the tree line waiting, no, anticipating its appearance. It had been a long three weeks tracking and hunting this creature. They had wanted to do it right. This was their first calamity class hunt, and it was against one of the local predators at that. They had no intentions of underestimating it.

Even then, the plan had been simple. Feign weakness, then retreat to the clearing. They needed to bring it into the light to kill it, as the forest provided too many shadows to fight it properly. The hardest part about hunting a shadow-affinity beast was its ability to slip away when things were not in its favor, so they waited.

“It’s not coming,” Ben said.

Almost on cue, the trees in front of them seem to darken, their shadows extending further out into the clearing.

“You’re right as always,” Desmond whispered back. “Your frailty seemed to have worked.”

Ben snorted, not dignifying the comment with a response.

As Desmond watched, the beast slowly emerged from the forest. It looked like a black panther, except it was 7 feet tall at the shoulders. Its eyes were like blackened voids, sucking in all light, and in place of a tail, it had three long whip-like appendages ending in what seemed like bone spurs. The whole surface of the creature shimmered with black fire as it moved into the clearing. He quickly recognized it as a highly mutated shadow panther.

“Is it just me, or is it bigger than in the reports?” Ben stated, sounding almost gleeful.

A larger size generally meant more money when it came to beasts. However, Desmond had noticed that Ben’s fanaticism with this hunt in particular had seemed, abnormal. Something that could not be explained by simply a large paycheck. This did work in his favor at the moment, so he did not ponder the issue deeply. Besides, there were more important things to worry about right now.

The panther had stopped merely 100 meters or so from them, preparing itself to strike. With its speed, a strike from this distance would take but a few seconds, faster still if it used those whip-like tails. The sun seemed to lose some of its brightness in the presence of the beast, throwing the whole clearing into a pseudo shadow.

“It certainly is,” Desmond responded while preparing himself for the strike. The reports had put it at about two-thirds this size. Desmond couldn’t help but feel a smile form on his lips. Their plan had worked. The beast was in the middle of the clearing, and they no longer had to hold themselves back. He could finally let loose.

Ben made the first move, stepping back to prepare a spell. With that, the beast was bearing down on them. In this situation, Desmond knew his job was to be the tank. As long as he could keep the creature occupied, Ben would be able to deal a lethal blow, but where was the fun in that?

Desmond accelerated, pushing his body forward to meet the panther head-on. His feet left craters in the ground with each step pushing him several meters forward. For the first time since this fight started, he matched the beast in speed.

In but a moment, the two combatants met. Desmond performed a wide horizontal swing, and the beast met the blade with its claw. Their momentum carried them forward into a devastating collision. Where blade met claw, a deafening shock wave was created, flattening and uprooting grass and dirt around them.

The beast shot away from the impact like a projectile, tumbling and rolling across the ground before its feet found purchase, leaving four trails in the earth as it arrested its momentum. Desmond had knocked it sideways, trying to push it further from the forest and into the clearing. He had only been pushed back a few meters from the epicenter of the attack, though his blade had not gotten away unscathed. The lump of iron he called a greatsword had shattered down to little more than a handle.

“Well fuck, I was hoping it would hold up a little longer,” Desmond cursed. He had long since stopped buying fancy enchanted blades, as no matter what he used as a weapon, it would always quickly suffer the same fate. To be broken and discarded.

Desmond was undeterred as he tossed the broken handle away and took note of the beast. Its front right paw was half severed, and it was slow to get back to its feet. “It looks like we do this the hard way,” Desmond said with a smile. Some primal part of him always enjoyed unarmed combat.

This time, Desmond closed the distance, running straight at the beast. It responded by lashing out with its whip-like tails. Desmond dodged to the side as the bony protrusions dug harmlessly into the earth as he continued his advance. Now, under the light of day, the weapons had lost much of their utility.

As he drew closer to the beast, another panther seemed to form out of the shadow of the first, quickly lunging to intercept him. It was just another shadow clone. Desmond raised his fist and chose to go straight through it, dispersing the clone with ease. Immediately after, he was faced with a large claw descending upon his head. The true beast, having struck from the blind spot behind the clone.

Desmond raised his fist to meet the claw, and to the beast’s surprise, its claw was easily deflected to the side. Not missing this chance, Desmond moved to the beast’s right and landed a punch on the creature’s rib cage. A shock wave spread throughout its body as bones broke and organs were damaged. The beast roared in pain, then lunged to try and take a bite out of Desmond’s throat.

The two exchanged blows in a chaotic melee, where fists met flesh and claws scraped against armor. The beast had been dangerous on flat ground with its speed and shadows, but here, in the melee, this was where Desmond thrived. His inherent strength was perfectly suited for this form of combat. No, to call it combat would be too kind. It was a messy brawl, and Desmond was definitely coming out ahead. From a young age, Desmond had been a talentless mage, but what he lacked in magical prowess he made up for in raw unadulterated brute strength.

Desmond stuck close to the beast, not letting it effectively use its tail whips or greater reach. As the beast could not overpower him in strength, its size had become more of a hindrance in the melee, making it seem almost clumsy. Desmond weaved in and out, always circling the creature and forcing it to turn to face him as he continued to rack up damage. With its wounds accumulating, the beast quickly found it was unable to disengage as Desmond could now easily outmatch its speed.

After a few minutes, the beast was starting to look like a managed wreck. At this rate, he would not even need Ben’s help to kill it. Then, a searing pain shot through Desmond’s head like a hot spike, forcing him to distance himself from the creature. Even through the blinding agony, he made sure to stay between the beast and the forest, but the expected follow-up attack never came.

As quickly as it had come the pain vanished, leaving not a trace it was ever there. Desmond recognized it as a soul attack, a thing very rare for a beast to have and something that was absolutely not mentioned in any report. He quickly scanned the surroundings, seeing that the beast had elected to charge the caster in its wounded state rather than try to get past him toward the forest.

It was not a bad strategy, but it had made the choice far too late. Ben had already finished his spell. High above Ben stood a large pillar of fire the size of a city watchtower, vaguely in the shape of a spear pointing downwards. As the beast charged, the spear of fire started to descend from the sky. The pillar of fire sped up quickly as it fell, soon bathing the whole clearing in yellow light as it plummeted towards the earth like a meteor. This caused the beast to look up and see the threat for the first time.

The panther quickly changed direction, trying to make its way back to the safety of the forest and dodge the massive falling spear of fire. But as the beast ran, the spear altered its course mid-decent, always aiming itself straight at the fleeing panther. Ben was finally utilizing his trump card, [Living Fire].

The panther fled towards the forest, but Desmond saw no reason to intercept. It wouldn’t make it anyway, and he had no intention of getting caught in the blast. So he just looked on as the spear descended. The beast seemed to unite with its own shadow, submerging itself into the ground. The shadow quickly moved across the grass, trying to escape. But even then, the descending spear didn’t lose track of it.

As the spear neared, the beast was forced out of its shadow and onto the ground like a beached whale. The burning spear’s sheer intensity forbade any shadow’s existence, for in its presence, all would be consumed by fire. The beast turned skyward to face its pursuer and let out a soul-shaking roar, one last act of defiance before the collision.

Desmond watched as the massive pillar of fire descended like a meteorite straight down on top of the beast, and with the collision, the world went white.