Chapter 86: Helping Hand!

The group continued forward, exploring the forest and taking down a couple other Beasts, which they promptly skinned for anything useful to sell and then move on.

But after that discussion, as they moved deeper in the forest, Jax sensed a change in the environment.

The air thinned subtly all around them, as if being sapped away by something else. Sound dampening in strange pockets between the trees as if the forest itself were holding its breath.

Light filtered through the canopy in fractured shafts that didn’t quite line up with where the sun should have been, bending at odd angles, dimming and brightening without pattern.

Jax immediately realized this was due to the presence of a Star Panther somewhere, and decided to help this group of Hunters find it silently.

Instead, he let his awareness widen, not explosively, but quietly. Like a shadow stretching just a little farther than it should. His senses brushed across the land without leaving fingerprints, tasting distortions, feeling the scars left behind by something that did not belong.

There, he felt a dead patch of soil ahead, moss greyed and brittle, roots shriveled like they had been starved rather than poisoned. Even insects avoided it. The mana there was completely hollowed out.

Sensing this, Jax slowly shifted the group in that direction with some suggestions, and when they finally reached near, Kael raised his fist and everyone stopped.

Mirela crouched instantly, fingers brushing the ground. Her expression shifted from predatory calm to sharp focus.

“…This isn’t right,” she murmured. “No scent and I can’t sense any tracks. But something passed through here recently.”

Ssil tilted his head, pupils narrowing to slits. “Light refraction’s wrong. Trees are… bending.”

Lysa swallowed, thumb tightening on her crossbow. “Star Prowler territory.”

Kael exhaled through his nose, grip tightening on his spear. “Alright. Formation delta. No noise. No magic flares unless I say.”

They continued moving forward, seeing the forest shift around them.

The trees were stretching taller, shadows lengthening unnaturally as if dusk were approaching far faster than it should. The birds had gone silent entirely now, meaning there was something in this territory forcing them away.

Then as they were walking, Mirela froze mid-step.

Her eyes widened, “There,” she whispered, “Ahead. Left flank. Thirty paces.”

Nothing was there, but then something was. The Star Prowler emerged not by stepping into view, but by allowing itself to be seen.

It was massive, easily three times the size of a normal panther, its body sleek and sinuous, muscle rippling beneath fur that shimmered like a night sky caught in motion.

Constellations crawled across its hide, glowing faintly, shifting as it moved. Its eyes burned with cold starlight, pupils fractured like broken glass.

“ROARRRRR!” It roared venomously, shaking the entire space around them.

“CONTACT!” Kael roared.

The Star Prowler moved, vanishing as a burst of displaced air detonated behind Dorg as the creature reappeared mid-strike, claws crashing into the boar-kin’s shield with enough force to crater the ground beneath him.

~BOOOOM!~

Dorg was driven back several feet, boots gouging trenches through the soil.

“HOLD FIRM!” Kael barked.

Lysa fired off, her bolt screamed through the air, trailing enchantments, but the Star Prowler twisted impossibly, light bending around it as the projectile passed through an afterimage and embedded uselessly in a tree.

Ssil struck next, appearing behind the beast in a blur of motion, blades flashing.

~SHING~SHING!~

Sparks erupted as his weapons scraped against something harder than steel. The Prowler snarled, tail lashing out in a blur that slammed Ssil into a tree hard enough to crack bark.

“SSIL!” Kael shouted and Mirela moved.

She became a streak of crimson and shadow, saber flashing as she slashed across the Prowler’s flank. Blood, liquid starlight, sprayed into the air, sizzling as it hit the ground.

“ROARRRRR!” The Beast screamed in fury. The stars across its body flared brighter, and the forest screamed with it.

Mana spiked violently as the creature drew power directly from above, the canopy glowing faintly as if reflecting a night sky that wasn’t there.

“NOW!” Kael roared.

Lysa fired again, this time three bolts in rapid succession, each carrying a different enchantment. One detonated in a concussive blast. Another erupted into binding threads. The third pierced clean through the Prowler’s shoulder.

It staggered.

Dorg surged forward, shield slamming into its chest, driving it back with a bellow of effort.

“PIN IT!” Kael shouted.

Kael himself followed, spear blazing with runic light as he drove it toward the creature’s neck.

The Prowler twisted.

Too fast.

Its claws caught Kael mid-lunge.

Time slowed.

Ashanti felt it, the imminent severing, the lethal trajectory. Her mana surged violently, instinct screaming for release as she sensed something, a second Star Prowler emerging.

Right behind Kael. Its jaws opened, starlight condensing between its fangs.

Ashanti’s vision tunneled, but before she could do anything, Jax moved.

~BANG!~

The second Prowler slammed into something invisible and stopped, its momentum erased as if it had struck an immovable wall.

Jax stood between it and Kael, one hand raised.

“Enough.”

The word carried authority.

The beast shrieked as its stellar mana collapsed inward violently, its body convulsing as Jax seized control of the surrounding space itself—pinning the creature down with law.

The hunters froze, stunned.

“What—” Lysa started.

Jax flicked his wrist.

The second Prowler was hurled sideways into a rock formation, buried under tons of stone in an instant.

He turned calmly.

“Focus on the first,” he said evenly. “It’s weakened.”

Kael didn’t question it.

He moved.

The hunters surged with renewed ferocity, coordination snapping back into place. Mirela drove her saber deep into the beast’s spine. Ssil reappeared, blades flashing, severing tendons. Lysa’s final bolt pierced straight through its skull.

The Star Prowler collapsed, constellations fading as its body went still.

Silence followed.

Ashanti stood shaking from restraining her powers, having desperately wanted to step in and help the others. Jax didn’t look at her, but his presence pressed gently against her senses, soothing and calming her down.

Kael turned slowly toward Jax, eyes completely grateful.

“…You saved my life.”

Jax inclined his head slightly. “You were doing fine.”

Kael snorted. “Don’t bullshit me.”

Mirela studied Jax openly now, crimson eyes gleaming. “You’re not a traveler.”

“I am, just a bit special like you said,” Jax responded with a wink, and Mirela just chuckled.

“Well thanks for the help, this is the best we’ve done in a while,”

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