Chapter 4 The Panther?
By the time Chagrin Came to his senses, it was night, the spear was still there in his lungs, as it hurt to even breathe, and he was lying on the altar, as he realised that he was still unable to move and let out a whisper of grunt from his mouth as he tried to move.
[You should not move from there, not that you will be able to till you have rested for a week at least after overexerting your body]
Chagrin suddenly paled after listening to the voice, not knowing who was the one that spoke. This feeling of helplessness that he felt was the worst, he could not even make out the surroundings, to make sure what happened to the barbarians or the Scout, or where the hell did the Snipers go.
[No need to worry about those people, mister, I took care of them all, the snipers and the scout. In fact, scout was one of the first person I killed to get into your Squad, but when I was transforming into your subordinate, the wretched archer from the barbarian camp saw the glow from my body and I had to kill them, otherwise I had no intention of helping you, well anyways after that I killed of your Snipers, and now I plan on killing you albeit after this chat]
"Who a..a..re you?" Chagrin struggled to speak properly due to his injuries.
[Oh, how nice of you to ask me my name, you are the first one to show such courtesy, most people just scream when somebody tells them that they will die, after taking away their hope. Well, as you have asked me, I am called by your people as The Mad Dragon]
'Dragon? Which of my people call him Dragon? This guy must have a code-name The Mad dragon'.
[No, No it's not a code name, it's my actual name, you rude idiot. Have you still not guessed who I might be, huh? Let me give you a hint, you saw me a while back.]
'The Panther?'
[Bingo, The Panther of the forest, nice guess. As you have guessed correctly, I shall not kill you mercilessly, instead I will kill you in one fell swoop like you killed so many Barbarians.]
'Bastard, if I survive this you will shudder at mere thought of me, one day.'
[I like the tenacity, you know, that is why I let you come to your senses before I decided to make your insides into a bouquet for the lovely Night. You know what... I am quite happy today with so many dead people, I can just rest and heal, all because of your squad, I don't know who sent you here, with all these good soldiers but I am not complaining. So just this once I will let you ask anything you have on your mind, I am very knowledgeable even among my own kind]
'Why the hell is your blood gold in colour, are you not a panther as you say so yourself' Chagrin by this point knew the creature could read his thoughts.
Suddenly, a maniacal Laughter reverberated in the calm forest of the Ruins. [I must say I was not wrong in thinking that you were interesting. Even at your Deathbed, all you could think about was why my blood is Golden]. The creature kept on laughing.
'Yeah, well, I will make you bleed the same golden blood if I survive this.'
[Why will you make me bleed though, did I not save you from your enemies, did I not give you an upper hand by giving you the Information you required to make the preparations for the Ambush, so why do you lust after Violence? I mean I know I said I will kill you, but I have not done so yet, also, I did not injure you, so why do you wish to fight? What if I am a merciful god? If you ask nicely, maybe I might let you go.]
'You won't though, you are not going to let me return because you know more people will come tomorrow, we discussed his in the preparations, and I might hunt you down, let it be... that people call you a dragon, I will keep you as my personal lizard' Chagrin thought angrily.
[Lizard? Did you just call me a lizard, you ape, I was going to let you lie a few more seconds but this was crossing the line, bastard.]
Suddenly Chagrin felt as though he was about to die, when a black panther came near him glowing in gold almost emitting it like aura, it made breathing harder than it already was for the sergeant.
"I, the priestess of night, order the mad one to stand back at once."The Barbarian Priestess's sound resounded inside the Inner parameter.
As soon as the words were uttered the panther's aura died down, and he stepped of sergeant's chest, making it a little easier to breathe.
Chagrin was finally able to move his neck towards the direction from where the Princess's voice came, what he saw was enough to make a normal piss in his pants a hundred times over.
Instead of Princess he had talked to, there was a creature out of the horror stories, with instead of the body of human there were hundreds of eyes on her body all closed, and instead of a human body her body was made of pitch black darkness like the night sky, on her face there was a greyish rock emitting light, which illuminated the entire area, in moonlight. The panther was sitting by Chagrin's side looking frightened.
[Don't you dare order me around, you are mere servant, or caretaker of Night, you have no command over me, only she who rules over madness may use the seed of madness to control me]
A serene calmness fell as the priestess spoke, "I am the one who has been given the authority over madness by Night herself, we already knew of Black Panther sightings in the area, did you really think I won't come prepared, to face the Mad dragon. Nyx is already very frustrated by how you go around challenging the great ones, and not even understand the significance of the position you have been bestowed with, we hereby have received the command to eliminate you, I am here to complete the task."