Her worst nightmare didn't take a few minutes to manifest into reality as the monster shot several shells in quick succession and in close proximity to each other. As a result there was a distortion in the sea of water that took a moment of Sarah's entire attention to amend.
Since she could not stay focused on the panther in that moment, she lost her perception of it for those few seconds. She racked her mind wondering what the panther wanted to do by creating such a diversion. It couldn't attack her since her defense still stood strong in front and behind her the wave acted as a barrier. Not to mention she would be alerted to any attacks beforehand. That only left the panther with one option which would be to cross the wave during the momentary gap in the water.
Therefore, she sent surges of her mana throughout the water wave under her control but couldn't even find the panther's mana in the waters which could only mean that the panther wasn't trying to cross the wave again.
It was planning something else entirely. Sarah did not like it when she found that out. She hated it when her plans turned their backs on her. This situation was playing out in the same scenario as the one she hated with all her heart.
The panther had left no traces of itself as if what she had been fighting had been an illusion all along. She tried to pull the water close to herself in order to shield herself from all sides in case the panther was trying to surprise attack her.
The moment she did that, there was a loud explosion underground. The location was precisely the spot that she was standing on.
It couldn't be a coincidence as the location of the explosion was too precise. That could only mean that it was what the panther intended to do in the first place.
The panther had used a great amount of its mana and shot several black shells in a row all just to create a diversion for Sarah to move her eyes away from itself. It wanted to hide its position from Sarah since it had a plan in mind.
As soon as Sarah's attention was no longer on it, the panther had dug up the ground with its sharp claws and had crawled into the ground. By travelling underground like a mole, it had reached under the spot where Sarah was and launched another sneak attack that could cost Sarah her life had she been careless enough to ignore that threat.
The explosion sent Sarah flying. Even though she had managed to conjure a thin water barrier around herself, it was not enough to keep the panther from flinging her away.
The panther barely looked at Sarah afterwards as its goal wasn't her but Zach who was currently on the run. If it lingered around to finish Sarah off, there was a possibility that it wouldn't get an opportunity to catch Zach.
Zach was running but his eyes weren't looking ahead of him. They were instead focused on the virtual mini-map that was hanging on the bottom edge of his vision. He was monitoring their surroundings in order to detect any hostile element even a bit faster. A few milliseconds were enough to save someone's life. Moreover, the fear of the panther didn't let him rest easy. The monster was far too strong for anyone to handle at the current stage. None of his weapons worked on it and all the strategies he had taught his men scattered in front of raw and unadulterated power that emanated from that monster.
Before long his excessive precaution proved useful as a light dot appeared on the map. The size of the blip was small which meant that it was still some distance away from them. During the time, Sarah held back the panther, Zach and the others had put in a great amount of distance between them. As a result, even though the panther had escaped Sarah's confines, it would still take some time for it to reach them. But that didn't mean that the panther wouldn't be able to catch up with them. The speed it had displayed earlier when chasing after the trucks was enough to shatter Zach's confidence. Therefore, he knew that it was only a matter of time before the panther caught up to them.
Since running further would have only tired them out and made them an even easier prey to the panther, Zach held up a fist in the air above him and everyone following him came to a halt except Luna who managed to catch up to him in order to find out why Zach had stopped them all. She didn't use her mouth to utter the questions in her mind but Zach had long since learned to read her eyes. He understood what she wanted to ask and Luna knew that as well so she remained silent and allowed Zach to gather his thoughts.
Right at that moment, Kolt's army still had a long way to go if they even dreamed of finding any traces of Zach and his group behind. They had been delayed too much by the Elizabeth family and the Macrae family forces earlier. Even though the Elizabeth family withdrew not long after, the damage to the royal forces was already dealt. It wasn't like the royal force was made up of monsters like the escort mage.
Zach was thinking that his group needed their well deserved rest so they would have the strength to face the panther in the final battle. There was no one else who would be coming to save them this time so he had to rely on the people beside him if he wanted to survive.
"I want all of you to gather your breath. We will stay here until our enemy catches up to us. The pantherian monster from before is chasing after us as I speak; and at a frightening pace." Zach was addressing everyone in the group and he expected them to show some resistance to his decision as well. He was asking them to stay there like sitting ducks as the panther hunted them from behind. This wasn't logical at all.
If it had been in the past, Zach would have taken a different approach to break the news to them but the current situation was far from normal. He didn't want to use politics and manipulative tactics to use the people who had fought and sacrificed for him today. He gave them the hard truth just as he knew and trusted them to follow him despite that.
Just as the voices of concern rose among the people, Zach opened his mouth once again to address the reason behind his decision.
"I know you might not agree with me since you can't see it for yourselves. But the panther is far faster than you can imagine. You have seen its strength far better than me since you have fought it for yourself. It doesn't look like it even gets tired. So, instead of consuming our strength to widen the distance that the bastard can cover in minutes, use it to recover as much of your strength as possible because only by killing that mutt can we move to our freedom and survive. I cannot motivate you all by lying to you or by deceiving you that it will be any easier this time. But I sure as hell am not going to let it drag me away with it. I will either bite it to death if I have to in order to survive or I will die trying. There will be no other ending for me."
Silence ensued; not a single person in his group tried to say anything else. They had received their answer.
Zach's group only consisted of the people most loyal to him and the Special Forces team; or at least what remained of the twenty who had been chosen for this mission. The remaining included the fanatics of the Luther family who considered him to be some kind of god. None of them had the intention to betray him at all to save their own skin.
Zach on the other hand was only saddened to hear no words of resistance because any deaths from amongst the group would be his burden to bear in the future. And he wasn't much optimistic about the situation they were in. Even after the group was all rested and in a better condition, there was no surety that they would win against the beastly mage. The odds were against the group since the difference in strength was far too great to be ignored.
Everyone didn't waste any more time and did as they were ordered by Zach. They began to rest and recover whatever strength they had left in their bones.
Diana too was amongst those people and was more than aware that this might be the last battle she would probably have a chance to participate in. She was adamant on protecting the people she loved and she had the responsibility to see the mission through to its end. She owed that much to the team members who had sacrificed their lives so they could make it till this point.
She didn't let the fear command her or deter her from doing what she thought was right and wouldn't bring shame to her as the commander and the leader of the courageous special forces team and the household of Luther.
While others rested, she roused their doused spirits with her shrilling screams that resonated with their very souls.
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