Level 4 Lightning-Patterned Leopard

The thin twig at the drainage ditch entrance had snapped.

There were no tooth marks or mud on the broken end. The thing had not squeezed through the ditch. Someone or some magical beast had gently snapped it with a claw tip, as though aware that a test had been set there.

Helian Yuan did not touch the twig again.

He retreated twenty paces along the ground above the ditch, then suddenly heard an extremely faint rumble of thunder behind him.

It had not come from the sky.

The level 4 Lightning-Patterned Leopard crouched on the rocky slope where he had just stood, the lightning patterns on its shoulders and back gradually lighting up. It had not come from the direction in which it had left yesterday. Instead, it had circled around the old camp and intercepted him at the drainage ditch from upwind.

It had memorized his scent.

Helian Yuan did not turn and run.

The level 4 Lightning-Patterned Leopard was at least twice as fast as he was. Fleeing across open ground would only expose his back. He held his short spear across his body and edged half a step toward the drainage ditch.

The leopard's gaze followed him to the ditch entrance.

It knew that was his escape route.

The next moment, the Lightning-Patterned Leopard sprang down from the rocky slope.

Helian Yuan dodged left in advance. The leopard's claws still grazed the spear shaft, producing a piercing screech against the iron sheathing, and the impact sent him stumbling backward with his spear. His right foot sank into the mud, and before he could regain his footing, the leopard had already landed and turned around.

There was none of the level 3 Ironmane Bear's clumsy openings.

Missing its first pounce had barely affected it.

Helian Yuan kicked an iron nail into the grass on his right.

The nail struck a stone.

The Lightning-Patterned Leopard's ears twitched, but its gaze never left him.

Ordinary sounds could not fool it.

The second pounce came lower. Its target was not his throat, but the right arm holding his spear. It had clearly noticed that the arm was injured, and that the short spear was the only thing he had that could threaten it.

Helian Yuan had no choice but to summon the shadow.

"Come!"

The tiger shadow surged up behind him. For the first time, it covered more than his arm, closing around his shoulders and back toward his chest. Its black outline formed a thin layer of armor in front of the leopard's claws.

At the moment of impact, Helian Yuan heard a dull crack from his breastbone.

The tiger shadow blocked the tips of the claws, but it could not withstand the full weight of a level 4 magical beast. He was knocked off his feet and sent crashing into a shallow stream beside the stone path. Icy water flooded his nose, and his left ribs felt as though they had been struck with a stone hammer. His breath caught.

The Lightning-Patterned Leopard landed on the bank, giving him no time to get up.

Helian Yuan rolled downstream with the current, and the leopard's claws struck the stream right behind him. Water exploded into the air, and an electric current raced across the surface, instantly numbing his entire left leg.

Its reluctance to enter the water did not mean it could not attack into it.

Helian Yuan had originally planned to escape along the stream, but that route was now blocked as well.

The leopard followed him along the bank, its lightning patterns lighting up whenever he tried to approach the shore. It did not rush to kill him, as though forcing its prey out of the water and back onto the stone path best suited to it.

The current carried Helian Yuan to a sharp bend, where he saw two enormous boulders standing opposite each other ahead. Water rushed through the narrow gap with tremendous force, and submerged rocks filled the passage below.

A normal person would not go that way.

Even the level 4 Lightning-Patterned Leopard paused.

Helian Yuan made a move as though to climb onto the left bank.

The leopard immediately lowered its body and pounced to the left.

At the last moment, however, he grabbed a crevice in the streambed and submerged his entire body. The leopard's claws swept over his head. Helian Yuan let go and allowed the swift current to sweep him between the two boulders.

The tiger shadow still covered his back.

The fourth breath.

The gap between the boulders was narrower than he had imagined. Helian Yuan crashed into it sideways, and his short spear lodged crosswise against the rock walls, nearly breaking his shoulder. He pushed the spear with his left hand while the tiger shadow took the first impact against his back.

The fifth breath.

The current spat him out the other end of the gap.

The tiger shadow abruptly dispersed.

Without its support, Helian Yuan struck two submerged rocks in succession, and his vision went dark. Still clutching his short spear, he swam with the current toward the reeds downstream.

The thunder on the bank stopped at the boulders.

The level 4 Lightning-Patterned Leopard stood on high ground, looking down at the gap. It could have jumped across, but it did not. The other side lay beyond the scent boundary of its usual patrols, and the water carried the lingering bloody scent of another high-level magical beast.

Territory had made it stop.

Helian Yuan plunged into the reeds, not daring to look back. He dragged his numb left leg along for a long time, until he could no longer hear the water, before collapsing beneath a hollow tree.

His left ribs were swollen, the wound on his right arm had reopened, and three bloody gashes from the rocks marked his back. Worse still, he could no longer summon the tiger shadow at all. The shadow on the ground was an ordinary human shape, and no matter how he called "Come," it did not respond.

Helian Yuan did not keep forcing it.

He took out his last packet of hemostatic powder, sprinkled half over his ribs, and saved the rest. Then he tore his shirt into strips and wrapped them tightly around his chest. Each turn sent pain trembling through his breath.

Before sunset, he had to return to the old camp for the supplies remaining in the medicine box.

Helian Yuan took a roundabout route through the low ground, avoiding the stone path. The level 4 Lightning-Patterned Leopard had not followed, but he knew that did not mean he had won.

He had merely taken advantage of its caution toward another territory.

If there had been no unfamiliar scent beyond the boulders, if the water had been a little shallower, or if the tiger shadow had held out for one breath less, he would have died in the stream.

When he returned to the old camp, the north shed's door stood open.

All the remaining iron implements had been taken, leaving only an empty medicine box on the ground. Half a sheet of water-soaked paper lay in the bottom. There was no writing on it, only a gray handprint.

Helian Yuan put the paper away and tended to his wounds first.

Helian Yuan could not rest immediately. Though the medicine box in the north shed was empty, half a roll of hemp cloth from the old hunter and a small jar of oil for the door hinges were still tucked away in a corner. He smelled the oil. Its scent was similar to the one on the iron chain in the bear's den, so he applied half to the iron sheathing on his short spear and saved the rest.

When treating his left ribs, he placed two thin pieces of wood against the side of his chest to stabilize them. His ribs were probably not completely broken, or he could not have walked back, but every deep breath felt as though something were grinding inside. For at least the next three days, he could not twist his waist with full force. He would have to avoid sweeping attacks with the short spear and wide turns.

Beside the map, Helian Yuan made four more small notes: roughly one breath between the lightning patterns lighting up and a pounce; almost no opening between landing and turning; can discharge electricity through water; observes injured arms and escape routes.

The last point made him pause for a long time.

The level 4 Lightning-Patterned Leopard was not merely faster and stronger. It also revised its judgments during a fight. If Helian Yuan treated it as nothing more than a moving mass of strength, he would still be driven down the same dead end next time.

He crossed out "swift current as an escape route" and changed it to "usable only once."

He also hung the torn hem of his clothes downstream of the rapids, letting the water carry away some of the scent of blood. If the leopard patrolled by scent, it would be lured farther away; if it ignored the scent of blood and returned straight to the old camp, that would mean it was guarding a place, not prey.

That judgment would not be settled tonight, but it would determine whether he should bring traps or tools for opening a door next time.

That night, the level 4 Lightning-Patterned Leopard's low growl came from the east. It was closer than yesterday.

It had not crossed the rapids, but it had remembered his escape route.

Helian Yuan leaned against a collapsed wall and laid his short spear across his legs. He drew a thick line at the sharp bend on the map, then wrote two words beside it: "cannot win."

He also drew an incomplete circle beside "cannot win." Today's clash had given him no answer, but it had ruled out direct confrontation and repeating the same escape route. Next time, what he needed was not greater force, but to make the Lightning-Patterned Leopard choose wrong about intelligence, terrain, or target.

This was not admitting defeat.

It was pinning his current upper limit to paper.

The next time he encountered the level 4 Lightning-Patterned Leopard, he could not, at the very least, rely on the same waterway to survive again.