Chapter 85: Star Panther Tribe!

Finally, the Beast was dead, laying at their feet as steam was rising from its ruptured hide, its blood seeping out into the ground and darkening the moss beneath it as the forest slowly reclaimed the noise of battle.

The echoes of its final roar faded between the towering trees, replaced by the distant calls of birds and the soft creak of branches swaying high above all of them.

Ashanti realized she was holding her breath once she saw this, and only when Kael straightened and drove the butt of his spear into the ground did she finally exhale.

"Clean kill," Kael said, voice steady. "Good pin. Good timing."

Dorg snorted, rolling his shoulders as he stepped back. "Shield’s intact. Took the worst of the charge."

"Barely," Mirela replied lightly, wiping her saber clean on the beast’s thick hide. "If you’d been half a step slower, you’d be paste."

Dorg grinned, tusks flashing, "But I wasn’t, funny how things always work out eh Mirela?"

Ssil emerged from the shadows without sound, blades already sheathed as he looked at the Beast, "Its heart stopped clean. No lingering curse or death burst, seems like this is a normal once,"

Kael nodded once, satisfied, "Then let’s continue moving, no point in lingering around here,"

The hunters moved immediately, each slipping into a role so smoothly it almost felt choreographed.

Lysa knelt near the forelimb, pulling a compact knife from her belt. With practiced precision, she cut along natural seams in the creature’s plating, prying free thick, iridescent bone ridges.

"These’ll fetch a decent price," she said, tossing one to Dorg, who caught it and slid it into a runed pouch at his waist. The pouch swallowed the oversized ridge with ease, the enchantment shrinking and preserving it instantly.

Mirela crouched near the beast’s head, crimson eyes focused. She extracted the tusks carefully, avoiding the glandular sacs at their base.

"Venom-infused," she noted, "Still potent. You can sell all of this to traveling merchants, who’ll sell it off to Alchemists y’know,"

Jax nodded while Ssil moved faster than the regular eye could track, harvesting sinew and muscle fibers with surgical efficiency, "Its tendons are reinforced," he said quietly. "Useful for bowstrings or certain rituals."

Ashanti watched, transfixed on what all of them were doing, and how efficient they were, no hesitation at all. They seemed to effortlessly control their mana to make this process as fast as possible.

They spoke calmly, even casually, as they dismantled a monster that could have annihilated a small patrol on its own.

Jax stood beside her, hands relaxed at his sides, eyes sharp but unreadable.

"You see it," he murmured.

Ashanti nodded slowly as she heard what Jax said.

Kael approached with a thick, pulsating organ cupped in his hands, already sealing it into a pouch, "You two don’t look squeamish," he said, "Most travelers do, first time they see this."

"I’ve seen worse," Ashanti replied honestly, and Jax nodded, "Same here, I’ve been through a-lot,"

Kael studied her for a moment, then grunted, "Figures, you two don’t look like your regular travelers either,"

They moved on shortly after, the forest swallowing the traces of battle as if it had never happened. As they walked, the conversation turned quieter as they talked about a more serious topic.

"Used to be," Lysa said, adjusting her crossbow strap, "we’d run into something like that once every couple of weeks. Now?"

She shook her head, "Feels like every other day."

"Displacement," Mirela added, "Territories are constantly collapsing and predators crossing lines they never would’ve crossed before to survive, hitting other ecosystems,"

Ashanti frowned, "Because of the Holy Church?"

Kael’s jaw tightened, "Partly. Burn enough land, slaughter enough beasts, and the ones that survive move. They don’t care whose land they end up in as long as they’re away from the ones destroying their own land,"

"And when they move," Ssil said softly, "they collide with the people originally at the land,"

Jax glanced at Kael. "You’ve lost people."

Kael didn’t deny it. "Three, in the last month. One was my cousin."

The forest felt heavier after that.

They hunted twice more before noon. The second beast was smaller but faster, a pack hunter that tried to ambush from above. It died quickly, pinned by Dorg and finished by coordinated strikes.

The third was a burrowing creature that nearly escaped underground until Ssil flushed it out and Mirela severed its spine mid-leap.

Each fight reinforced the same lesson to Ashanti, who felt she was gaining quite a-lot from this trip.

During a brief rest near a shallow stream, Ashanti sat on a fallen log, wings tucked in close as she listened.

Kael crouched nearby, sharpening his spearhead. "This week’s main target won’t be like these," he said.

Jax looked up. "Oh?"

"The Star Prowler Tribe."

Ashanti’s head snapped up. "Star Prowlers?"

Mirela’s smile faded, "You’ve heard of them."

Ashanti nodded slowly. "Yeah, I learned a-lot about Beasts. They’re... rare. Panther-like beasts that draw mana from stellar alignment. Mostly nocturnal and solitary."

"Not anymore," Kael said grimly. "Something pushed them out of their old hunting grounds. Now they’re here."

Lysa spat into the dirt, "What’s worse is even after they kill prey, it still affects the environment, draining it of life,"

Ashanti felt a chill, "They resonate with a special kind of mana. That kind of energy doesn’t disperse easily and have corrosive effects if left untethered to them,"

"Exactly," Kael said. "They leave dead zones behind them, causing crops to fail and that leaves some beasts to starve, which causes chaos for us as they come to our farms,"

"And they’re hard to find," Ssil added. "They erase their tracks and they bend light, which allows them to mask their presence."

Mirela leaned back against a tree. "Which is why they’ve been decimating the environment unchecked."

Kael met their gaze, "All of that’s why we’re hunting them this week. If we don’t, they’ll wipe out half the forest and turn their gaze to the village and farm,"