Chapter 249 – The Moon Pa War

  Sergeant Barnes:

  My men and I were stationed he wall, deep within our camp. The war raged in the distance, but chaos had already spilled over, spreading like wildfire. We sprihrough the maze of tents, where screams and the csh of swords mingled with the thunderous explosions of magic. The se was a living nightmare.

  Maids cackled with macabre delight as they sughtered soldiers with unimaginable cruelty. Green snakes slithered through the dirt, creeping into the mouths of screaming men whose bodies vulsed as grotesque ped from their skin. Warriors, turned into vegetal abominations, attacked relentlessly, like puppets.

  My mind was a storm of paniy strategies I had pnned were now useless. Everything was falling apart. Squads were divided, disanized; everyone was fighting just to survive.

  In the middle of this chaos, a gnawing utled among us. Every shadow felt like it hid somethihal. Soldiers from my squad began disappearing one by one. First, they vanished without a trace; then, their screams echoed like grim warnings.

  We were a squad of mages, forced to band together out of sheer survival instinct. But something was terribly wrong. It felt like an invisible presealked us, the weight of it suffog, sending shivers down my spih every step.

  "We o help the other squads!" one of my men excimed, his voice trembling with fear.

  I sed our surroundings, trying to pinpoint the source of this oppressive feeling. All I saw were shadows and fleeting silhouettes vanishing before I could focus on them.

  "We 't waste more time here," I said, f my voiain steady despite the growing terror. "Stay close. If you sense anything, anything at all, call out immediately!"

  We pushed forward through the byrinth of tents, each of us hyper-aware of every flicker of movement, every sound. Yet, the pounding of our hearts betrayed our he itent silence was unnerving, broken only by the distant sounds of battle and strange rustling noises nearby.

  My eyes fixed on the fortress in the distaill shrouded by that be, a harbinger of death. A gut feeling told me the worst was yet to e.

  Suddenly, a desperate scream tore through the air behind us. "Help me!" It was filled with sheer terror, freezing the blood in our veins.

  We spun around instinctively, ready to unleash magic, but the sight before us left us frozen. One of our squad's mages was being dragged into the shadows betweeents. His fingers cwed at the dirt as he tried to cast fire spells at whatever ulling him with uing force.

  "Grab him!" I shouted, but it was too te. He disappeared into the darkness.

  Then came silence, a silence so oppressive it seemed to devour even the echoes of his cries.

  I swallowed hard, the fear hanging in the air being unbearable. Something was hunting us, and it was only a matter of time before it cimed another.

  "What do we do?!" a soldier shouted, his voice crag uhe weight of panic.

  "Fire your spells!" I barked without hesitation. We all aimed at the spot where the mage had vanished and unleashed a barrage of fire, illuminating the area with a fierce bze. But as the fmes died down, all that remained was emptiness. There was nothing there. Only silend the suffog darkness surrounding us.

  "Hold your positions!" I ordered, masking my own terror. "Watch every angle!"

  We formed a tight circle, our backs pressed together. It was the only defensive formation we could manage. If something approached, one of us would see it and warn the rest. No one would be taken by surprise.

  The wind whispered faintly, but its sound mocked us, heightening our unease. Shadows danced with the swayi fabrics, morphing into shapes that seemed alive, watg us. Every movement, no matter how small, had us raising swords or preparing spells, eyes wide with tension.

  "There!" one of the soldiers shouted, pointing at a shadow slippiweeents. We all tur once, spells at the ready. But when we focused on the indicated spot, we realized it was just a torch’s refle casting eerie, distorted shapes.

  "I swear I saw something," the soldier murmured, his voice shaky.

  "Back to formation!" I ordered firmly, though my heart pounded so hard it felt like it might burst. Cold sweat trickled down my face, mirr the icy dread creeping through the camp.

  And then, we heard it, faint ughter, barely audible but unmistakable. It wasn’t human. It carried a low, sadistie, as though something was watg us, reveling in our fear.

  "Did you hear that?" I asked, my voice hushed, betraying the fear that seeped into my words. The air felt heavier, as if the very atmosphere spired against us.

  "We should tighten the circle," one soldier suggested in a whisper. I nodded silently. We pressed clether, our baearly toug, ons raised, eyes sing every dire.

  Our steps became slow and deliberate, each sound amplified by the oppressive silence around us. The wind had stopped, and the world seemed to hold its breath.

  Suddenly, I felt something against my back. It was cold, solid, and definitely not one of my men. My blood turo ice.

  “Shit! Ahhh!” a soldier screamed. Whirling around, I saw what froze him, and my throat went dry.

  At the ter of our circle, where there should have been nothing, stood a massive gray panther. Its eyes glowed like twin bdes pierg the darkness. The torchlight reflected off its sleek fur, highlighting taut muscles coiled and ready to strike. Saliva dripped from its open maw, pooling on the ground in near-silent plops.

  The panther didn’t growl, didn’t move. It simply stared at us, its gaze heavy with the knowledge that we were prey and it, the predator.

  "What the hell is that!?" one of the men screamed, his desperation eg the terror we all felt.

  "Fire your spells!" I shouted, my voice crag uhe weight of panic. A barrage of magic hurtled toward the gray beast, fire, water, wind, ah collided in brilliant explosions, briefly illuminating the grim battlefield.

  But the panther didn’t flinch. It remained unmoved, staring at us as though we were nothing more than an inveniehe spells struck it, yet there was ion. No wounds. reat. It simply watched us, its glowing eyes filled with something beyond prehension.

  Then it smiled.

  Not an animal’s snarl, but a deliberate, sinister smile that froze the marrow in our bones.

  "I smell fear..." a deep, drawn-out voice rumbled. It came directly from the pahe words crushed the st vestiges of our posure. My heart seemed to stop for a beat.

  "The panther... it spoke!" one of the soldiers stammered, nearly dropping to his kerror etched across his face.

  "Hahaha..." the panther ughed, a sound so twisted it felt like it resonated inside our minds.

  Before anyone could react, it leaped.

  In an instant, it on one of the soldiers, cws tearing through his flesh. His screams were cut short by the siing ch of bones breaking. Blood sprayed as the beast bit deep, ripping a k from his torso.

  "ROOOOAAAAR!"

  The panther’s roar echoed like a death sente cmped its jaws around the soldier’s head, and with a single, savage motion, crushed his skull. Bone fragments and bits of flesh spttered across the ground and onto our armor, staining the air with the sharp, metallig of blood.

  "Fire everything you have!" I screamed, my hands shaking as I jured a fiery bst, hurling it with every ounce of strength I had.

  The panther, however, was relentless. Before anyone could react, it darted toward another soldier. He raised his sword in desperation, but before he could strike, the creature vanished, not with speed but as if it had been swallowed by the very shadow beh him.

  "Where is it!?" another man shouted, frantically searg.

  It reappeared behind him, emerging from the darkness like an apparition. "ROOOAR!" It roared again, sinking its fangs into the man’s back, pierg through armor and flesh. The panther shook him violently like a ragdoll before hurling his lifeless body away, his corpse nding with a siing thud.

  Every spell we cast was useless. The panther moved like a living shadow, disappearing and reappearing fluidly, striking from ued angles with ruthless precision. Chaos ed us. Screams and blood were all that remained.

  I ran in desperation, my mind reeling as I searched for an escape. Reag a tent, I tried to steady myself, but there it was, waiting as if it had anticipated my every move.

  "Damn it!" I shouted, stumbling to the ground. It leapt toward me, but to my shock, ignored me entirely. The panther disappeared into the shadows again, slithering away like a stream of bck water.

  I looked around, paralyzed, as it reappeared in another part of the battlefield. Each time it emerged, another scream echoed. Soldiers were cut down with no ce of defes cws sliced like bdes, and its fangs tore through lives with monstrous efficy.

  It swam through the shadows, weaviween us like an unstoppable force of nature, leaving only death and despair in its wake. Whatever this creature was, it was far beyond anything we could face.

  The panther grabbed a soldier by the back, its cws sinking deep as it dragged him into the darkness. He screamed, but the sound was quickly silenced, swallowed by the very shadows that ed him. When the creature emerged again, it was a nightmare given form, rising from the ground without warning. With a brutal swipe of its paw, it smmed another man to the ground. The impact was so devastating that he attempted to rise, but his body refused, his bones had been crushed like brittle twigs.

  The beast approached him with eerie calm. Its glowing eyes reflected a cold, merciless cruelty. Without hesitation, it lowered itself over the soldier and began to devour him alive. His screams of agony pierced the air, each bite tearing through flesh and splintering bone, until silence recimed the space.

  The remaining mages tried to fight back, casting spells in frantic desperation. "Fming Tornado!" I roared, eling all my mana into a powerful attack. The spell surged toward the panther, an inferno of destru. But the creature roared iurn, a deep, resonating sound that seemed to shake my very soul.

  The night around us grew thicker, as if the darkness itself had taken on a life of its own, suffog any hope of victory. I stumbled back, fear gripping my chest.

  Suddenly, a new squad of mages appeared in the distaheir voices resolute. "We’re here to assist!" one of them shouted.

  "Kill it! Kill the panther!" I screamed, desperation thi my voice as I tried to muster some sembnce of ce. But as the mages advanced, something horrififolded.

  The darkness around us closed in pletely, swallowing everything. It wasn’t mere absence of light; it was as if the very fabric of space had been ed. The sounds of battle faded, and even our footsteps seemed muted.

  "What’s happening?" a soldier beside me stammered, his voice trembling with panic.

  The realization hit me like a thundercp: it was a Territory Spell. The shadows had formed an absolute domain, sealing us off pletely from the outside world. Desperately, we jured fireballs to illumihe suffog darkness. The fmes hovered around us, casting flickering light over pale, terror-stri faces. But the light only deepehe horror, projeg dang shadows that surrounded us like invisible predators.

  I sank to the ground, hiding behind aurent. I didn’t want to fight anymore. I didn’t want to be seen. I just wao disappear. I khe panther was out there, watg us, calg its move.

  Then came the scream, a pierg, bloodcurdling cry that sliced through the silence like a bde. The darkness exploded with fshes of light as spells were cast wildly in every dire, desperate to hit an enemy we couldn’t see. But it was futile.

  The paruck again, emerging from the shadows like a demonic specter. With its cws, it crushed soldiers as if they were mere rag dolls. With its fangs, it tore ks of flesh, shaking bodies in the air before discarding them like broken toys.

  Blood sprayed, painting the ground and the tattered tents around us. The screams were muffled by the sheer brutality of the attacks, each motion of the creature leaving a trail of destru. The shadows seemed to press closer, as if the battlefield itself was spiring with the beast to snuff out all hope.

  I trembled, my eyes fixed on the creature that, with every strike, proved it was more than a mere beast; it erfect predator, a living shadow that carried death in its every movement.

  The panther hurled a soldier into the air with absurd force. His body spun untrolbly before the creature leapt to meet him mid-air. With a ferocious bite, it tore a massive k from his torso. Blood sprayed through the air like a macabre blur. It chewed the flesh with a ess that was almost more terrifying than the violeself, as if this were just another routine meal. When it was do spat out shards of armor with a metallic k that echoed through the blood-soaked ground.

  I watched it all, paralyzed. My heart pounded wildly, and an overwhelming sense of despair swallowed me whole. That’s when I realized the grim truth: there was no one else left. I was the st.

  My hand gripped my sword with trembling fingers. The bde felt impossibly heavy, weighed down by the fear that gripped me. There was ny, no salvation. All I could do was crouch, trying to make myself as small as possible behind a pile of colpsed tents, praying the panther wouldn’t notice me.

  But the silehat followed was more horrifying than the screams that had filled the battlefield moments before.

  Then I felt it, hot breath behind me. My body froze. Every fiber of my being screamed at me not to turn around, but a morbid curiosity or perhaps the crushing iability of my fate forced me to look.

  With trembling hands, I jured a small fme at my fiip, its flickering light cutting through the oppressive darkness.

  And there she was. The panther. Standing motionless, her glowing eyes burhrough the shadows, log onto me. Her predatrin widened with each passing sed, revealing bloodstained fangs. She took a siep forward, her cws scraping against the ground with a sound that foretold death.

  “This is for hurting my two wards,” she growled, her voice deep and filled with seething rage. The blood of her st victim dripped from her maw, staining the ground as her pierg gaze bore into me with cruel satisfa.

  “NO!” I screamed in desperation, raising my sword as a feeble st stand. But it was futile.

  The panther leapt, a blur of deadly speed, and the world around me dissolved into utter darkness.

  The st thing I heard was the siing tear of flesh and the ch of bones before the void ed everything.

  Author's Note:

  Hello, my friends.

  After 250 chapters together, I think I truly call you that.

  I want to sihank you for making it this far into my story. A few months ago, when I started writing, I never imagihat others would take an i in my ideas and characters. Knowing that you’re here, reading, means the world to me. Thank you so much, truly.

  Today is December 25th, and I’d like to wish you a Merry Christmas. For some, this day might be just another ordinary day, depending on their culture or try. For others, it is a time to gather with family and friends. For me, that is exactly what we’ve bee: one big Evenhart family.

  Writing this story has been a transformative journey for me. It has been like therapy, a way to explore my thoughts and grow alongside the characters I’ve created. Developing them has been challenging but also deeply fulfilling.

  As for the current arc, I believe the events here will py a crucial role iure of the story. Think of this arc as a grand rehearsal for what is to e. Plus, there are mysteries and clues scattered throughout the narrative, and what was revealed in this chapter is one of those important pieces.

  This was my little message for you. The final arc of the third book is halfway through, and I hope you tio enjoy every step of this jourhank you for stig with me this far.