Level-Four Blue Rock Panther

By the time the hunter with a crossbow on his back stepped into his own trap, the level-four Blue Rock Panther had already come down the slope.

The trap did not catch his leg, only the sole of his boot and part of his trouser leg. He had come to retrieve a tool he had lost the night before last, but had failed to notice that the panther had dragged the trap to a different spot.

Helian Yuan saw it happen from the northern slope. His first instinct was to retreat.

The Blue Rock Panther was closing in from the rocky gully to the east, with the hunter between it and the spring. If Helian Yuan left along the northern route now, the panther might not chase him.

The hunter saw him too.

"Go!" The man did not ask for help. Instead, he drew his knife and tried to pry the trap open.

That was his choice.

Helian Yuan turned and ran two steps, then stopped.

It was not because of a friendship that had yet to form. If the Blue Rock Panther ate someone by the spring, the Gray-Robed Retrieval Team would have an easier time using the corpse to seal off the hunting grounds tomorrow. The hunter knew the panther's routes, the team's schedule, and the hidden passage through Sunken Bone Slope. He was more useful alive than dead here.

Helian Yuan recalculated his route.

He could not block the panther head-on.

He pulled a hemp rope he had buried on the northern slope. An iron nail tore open the first tobacco packet, which rolled into a brazier along with animal fat. Thick smoke rose along the water channel. The Blue Rock Panther did not retreat, but turned its head away from the smoke and slowed slightly.

The hunter finally pried the trap open, but his boot sole had been torn, leaving him limping as he ran.

"Head for the water channel!" Helian Yuan shouted.

"That's a dead end!"

"Not anymore."

Helian Yuan kicked out the second wooden wedge. Stones piled above the channel tumbled down, forming a narrow ridge along its bottom. A person could step across it, but if the Blue Rock Panther pounced straight down, the water and sharp stones would force its four paws apart as it landed.

The hunter argued no longer and changed course, charging toward the channel.

The panther leaped behind him.

Helian Yuan threw an animal hide smeared with his own blood and badger fat to the other side. The Blue Rock Panther turned its head in midair and caught the hide with its front paws. It recognized Helian Yuan's scent and remembered the man who had invaded its territory. Its attention was drawn away for half a moment.

The hunter seized the chance to cross the stone ridge.

After landing, the Blue Rock Panther did not pursue the hide. It turned straight toward Helian Yuan.

It had found its true target by scent.

Helian Yuan retreated along the northern slope, deliberately letting the panther see his short spear. Only when the Blue Rock Panther had pounced to within two steps did he summon Tiger Shadow.

"Come!"

A black shadow pressed down along the spear shaft. Helian Yuan did not thrust at the panther's head. Instead, he used Shadow Follows the Spear to turn the blade at the last instant, flicking it toward an iron nail beside where the panther's front paw would land.

The spear tip sent the nail flying, and it struck and snapped the rope of the third smoke screen.

Wet grass, horseradish, and fine ash poured down from the tree, landing right in front of the panther's eyes.

The Blue Rock Panther closed its eyes and turned its head, but its momentum still carried it forward. Helian Yuan rolled sideways into the water channel. A panther claw swept past his shoulder and tore open his pack.

Packets of medicine, dried meat, and a bag of iron nails spilled into the water.

The hunter stood on the opposite side of the channel, his short crossbow already cocked. He did not shoot the panther. Instead, he shot through a dead branch above Helian Yuan. The thick branch crashed down between the panther and the channel.

"Come over here!"

Helian Yuan stepped onto the stone ridge and leaped across the channel.

The Blue Rock Panther did not follow immediately. After the thick smoke cleared, it stood at the edge of the channel, its golden eyes moving back and forth between the two men. Its front paws were unhurt, but when it had twisted around earlier, its old fur had shifted to reveal a stretch of dark iron beneath its neck.

An iron collar.

It was the same size as the old collar in the badger's den. Its edge had grown into an old wound, as though it had been fitted when the panther was young and the chain had later snapped.

The Blue Rock Panther let out a low growl and finally retreated into the rocky gully to the east. It had not been defeated by the two men. Its prey had crossed a narrow channel it was unwilling to enter recklessly, and the smoke and traps made further pursuit no longer worthwhile.

Before retreating, the Blue Rock Panther did not look at the hunter, only staring at the lingering traces of black shadow on Helian Yuan's short spear. It had distinguished the threats posed by the two men: the crossbowman could inflict sharp pain from a distance, while Helian Yuan could change the direction of an attack near its landing point. The next time it pounced, it would first restrict the short spear's room to move.

Helian Yuan told the hunter his assessment, but did not ask him to cooperate again next time. If the man was absent, the strategy still had to work; otherwise, the so-called new ability was merely a chance success dependent on having the same companion.

Helian Yuan waited until it disappeared before looking down to assess his losses.

The hemostatic powder had washed away, and he recovered only half the dried meat. Nine of his thirteen iron nails were missing. The badger armor plates had also been torn by the panther's claws, reducing their sale value by at least half.

Helian Yuan did not sit down immediately. He first walked the length of the water channel, confirming that the level-four Blue Rock Panther had not circled back from upstream. Then he stamped out the still-smoking bundles of grass one by one. If the smoke continued to drift, it would tell the gray-robed men that a deliberately prepared fight had taken place here.

He recovered as much of the medicine and as many of the iron nails scattered in the water as he could. A great gash had been torn in his pack. The relocation slip inside its oilcloth wrapping had not fallen out, but the panther's claws had pressed a crease into it. Helian Yuan used wet hemp thread to stitch the pack shut for the time being and counted his losses: all the hemostatic powder was gone, only four iron nails remained, the dried meat would not last two days, and only three badger armor plates had survived.

He also recovered an iron nail that had washed farther away. Its shaft was bent, making it unusable in a trap, but it could still show the direction of the Blue Rock Panther's claw force. Helian Yuan put it together with the fragment of the badger's iron collar: one showed that the living panther had once been collared, while the other showed that it could now easily destroy ordinary hunting gear.

These two objects made "retrieving the Blue Rock Panther" a comprehensible danger, rather than merely a status in a booklet.

The rescue had gained him no resources. Instead, it had left him less prepared for the gray-robed men's arrival in the mountains. If the hunter ended it with a word of thanks, Helian Yuan would bear the entire cost. So he had to ask for specific repayment rather than accept a vague offer of goodwill.

The hunter did not give up all his secrets simply because he had been rescued, either. He promised only information on the number of men and carriages, and one night on watch. He made no promise to take sides later. Both men were preventing a shared danger from pushing their relationship into a position they could not sustain.

As Helian Yuan cut away the hunter's damaged boot, he saw that there was only a ring of bruising around his ankle; the trap's teeth had not pierced it. If the bone had been injured, a night on watch would be worthless, and he would instead have had another person unable to walk to carry. He explained the injury clearly and let the hunter decide for himself how much he could repay.

The hunter moved his ankle twice and agreed to stand watch, but refused to return to the stone hollow with Helian Yuan immediately. "I'll retrieve the rest of my traps first. The panther smelled my blood. It'll follow the old route looking for me tonight."

The first thing he did after being rescued was still to tend to his own hunting grounds, rather than make declarations to Helian Yuan. Helian Yuan found that reassuring instead. A man with his own priorities would at least not make a promise in a moment of excitement that he would regret the next day.

The hunter sat down against the rock wall, cut off the damaged boot sole, and then checked his short crossbow.

"I didn't ask you to come back," he said.

"I didn't save you for free, either."

"What do you want?"

"When the gray-robed men enter the mountains, tell me how many men and carriages there are."

The hunter stared at him. "That's not worth a life."

"Then add one night on watch."

"Deal."

There were no thanks, nor did a life-saving debt weigh on their relationship. The hunter exercised his right to choose how to repay him, and Helian Yuan accepted a payment that could be carried out.

Before the two left the water channel, Helian Yuan looked back in the direction the panther had retreated.

Old iron collars were not found only among piles of retrieved tools.

One was also fastened around the neck of a living level-four magical beast.

Sunken Bone Slope was not an empty hunting ground waiting to be retrieved.

It was itself an old cage without walls.