Immediately, the oil skin of the beast started to bubble furiously like boiling water.

The beast stumbled around, growling and hissing like an injured animal.

"Finally feeling some pain, huh?"

Siderius approached the panther again. He deliberately avoided to use the Phosphorus Projectile as it would destroy the beast body.

Siderius needed its body to stay intact. He wanted to study it and to take its eyes. Phosphorus would have burned everything to a crisp without the panther's regeneration ability.

His flaming sword struck down at the neck of the panther. The blade was only able to cut into half of its neck.

Black oil splashed like gushing blood. Siderius quickly grabbed his bear cloak to cover himself, avoiding full-on contact with the oil.

The panther roared fiercely and counter-attacked. Siderius' left hand drew a cross in the air. The <Parare> sigil appeared and formed a protective green sphere around him.

The panther hit like an elephant. The excessive force pushed the sphere and Siderius away a few meters. Cracks started to form around the sphere.

The panther was much stronger than the bear. But still, it wasn't capable of destroying Parare.

Siderius approached the big creature again. His flaming sword drew another curve in the air. This time, it aimed directly at the middle of the panther's forehead.

The panther raised its paw to slap at the sword.

Blazing Soul went through the oil skin, burning the surface entirely.

The beast growled and stumbled backward. Its eyes were full of rage and humiliation. It couldn't believe that this tiny human, an ant that was only half the size of its body.

"Hmmm? Your regeneration is slower."

The neck was still filling itself up. Normally, the panther should have finished healing by now.

"I see. The Mana Core is the source of your power. When I disrupt the magic, it messes up your supernatural ability.

So logically speaking, to neutralize you, I need to go after your Mana Core."

Siderius' left hand drew another <Dispellera> in the air.

The beast roared even more. Its skin bubbled. The healing in its neck and paw stopped abruptly.

Siderius treaded forward and drove the flaming sword into the beast's stomach. The blade plunged into its skin and burned fiercely.

The beast wailed in pain. Its front paw slammed down upon Siderius.

He grabbed the sword tightly and spun his body. The blade slipped off the dense black skin of the panther and with the same motion, Siderius slashed into the underneath of the panther's front legs.

He ducked down to avoid the paw strike and counter attacked at the same time.

The beast's front leg was burned and chopped off. Its remaining three legs still held it standing.

Siderius rushed forward and slid under the beast's belly. His flaming sword swung in a circle, cutting into its two hind legs.

The panther's enormous body dropped to the ground heavily. Dust flew off into the air.

"I thought you'd be stronger, beast."

Siderius didn't waste any time and got on top of the panther. His blade aimed downward, at the center of its belly, where the physical Mana Core was placed.

He aimed slightly outside of the core. He didn't want to destroy it but rather, to extract it.

Suddenly, the dense skin of the panther started to bubble aggressively.

"Hmm?" But Siderius didn't use <Dispellera> this time.

He quickly jumped backward.

The panther's skin exploded without warning, blowing up dust and stones all around the area. A giant cloud of white smoke filled the air.

The panther stumbled out on one side. Its giant body was reduced to an average height panther. The panther's actual appearance was extremely skinny. It was nothing but skin and bones, a walking skeletal frame.

On the other side, the white smoke slowly faded away to reveal the broken green sphere and the gray bear cloak towering over Siderius' body. Stones and pebbles filled the cloak.

Siderius stood up and flapped the bear cloak, pushing the pebbles on it away. He was mostly unharmed but his right hand was bloody. The hunter uniform had a large tear at the right forearm.

"Tch. Tch. Tch. I was being a little bit too careless."

Siderius took out his Flesh Restoration Tonic and chugged it down.

[TOXICITY +20]

[TOXICITY LEVEL: 20/100]

The torn skin quickly closed itself up. All the blood veins reconnected with each other. There was still leftover blood from before but he had stopped bleeding entirely.

"You aren't the only one with regenerative abilities, beast."

Siderius put the Flesh Restoration Tonic bottle away. Each bottle had three charges with substantial healing capability. For an ordinary wound, one charge was sufficient.

The flaming sword was put off because of the explosion. A dense black oil stuck onto it, preventing Siderius' oil mixture from continuing to burn. He took out the hunter's knife and scraped along the spine of the sword twice, getting rid of that oil.

The Mana Core inside the beast's stomach vibrated. New dense black oil poured out from within its pores to cover its skin.

"I ain't going to let you recover."

Siderius lifted his hand and did a third <Dispellera>. His entire body felt the tiredness right away and his eyelids became heavy.

Dispellera required a lot of stamina.

The beast's magic was disrupted. The newly formed oil skin dripped to the ground instead of sticking onto it.

Siderius' footsteps echoed. The beast snapped its head to him and growled.

Then, it showed him his tail and ran as quickly as possible. Survival instinct had taken over it. It rather abandoned its pride to keep its life.

"Hmmm? Giving up already?"

His bow and quiver were discarded temporarily to avoid hindering Siderius' movement. They weren't with him at the moment.

But he still had his sling. Siderius pulled out his old sling and grabbed a big stone on the ground.

He spun the sling and hurled the rock directly at the panther. Siderius didn't want to use the projectiles to avoid destroying the body of the beast too much.

The ears of the panther perked up. It turned up only to be hit by a rock at its hind leg. An unfamiliar snapping sound was heard. Its bone was broken.

The panther hadn't felt anything like that for a long time.

Siderius laughed and continued to hurl rocks at it. The rocks screeched through them, slamming on the panther repeatedly, mainly aiming at its legs.

The panther's escape attempt was futile. Its body slid on the ground as its legs gave up.

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.