47 Black Panther (1/2)

”Watch out!” Wuxing pulled Dongmei by the hand back into his arms, backing away a few steps, only to see a black shadow drop right at the spot where Dongmei would be if not for Wuxing's pull.

”Raawr!” A two meters long panther growled at them as she stared at them with her almond coloured eyes. As they walked around in the jungle, they realised they were not the only existence in here as there were many animals there together with them.

Not only normal animals but there were also many predatory ones which they had to be careful of. This panther was their second encounter with such creatures, where in the first one they, fortunately, happened to scare the hungry cat away.

The higher they climbed on the main mountain of the island, the more animals they expected to see. They probably sensed a lot of human activity by one of the coasts so they didn't approach the prison area.

”Don't worry, stay behind me. I will take care of it.” Wuxing quickly assured her as he pulled her behind him and focused his eyes on the black panther which didn't give up on her prey, preparing to attack once again. They entered her territory so they had to pay the price for it.

He noticed it was a female panther, so he guessed that they invaded her lair.

Just as Wuxing thought of how to deal with her, he felt his shirt being pulled up and the gun holder got unstrapped, with one of the Berettas being drawn out.

”No! Don't shoot it!” Wuxing shouted, reaching out to lower the barrel of the pistol which Dongmei already aimed at the panther. At the same time as Wuxing got distracted by her, the panther roared and launched an attack, jumping onto Wuxing the moment his eyes turned away from her.

”Fuck!” Wuxing couldn't help but let out a curse as he swiftly pushed Dongmei to the side while diving towards the black panther before she could land on him with her whole weight. It wasn't a very advantageous position that he was in, but he did not have any other choice, needing to make a sacrifice to save them.

One of the panther's paws was aimed at his head while the other planned to cut his shoulder. The sharp fangs which stood confidently out of her open jaw were heading straight towards his neck. Wuxing's only choice was to counter at least two of those attacks and he, of course, chose to protect his neck and head, leaving his shoulder unprotected.

With both of his hands, he hit one of the paws heading for his head while moving his head to the side. Dongmei was right behind him so he had to pull the panther away from her else she would be unintentionally pulled into the battle.

He totally expected the panther to move her body mid-air so he countered that by attacking her head on, crushing with all of his strength. The black panther power came from her momentum and weight but he could use it by shifting his body to the side before pushing her to the side.

”Roar!” The black panther roared once again, not expecting that her attack would miss, but there was nothing she could do aside from continuing her last strike with her free paw. Her sharp claws easily sunk in Wuxing's back, ripping his muscles to shreds but he still advanced despite the pain.

As they crushed together to the ground, Wuxing quickly set up a choke hold around panther's head and squeezed with all of his strength. The panther tried to get rid of him and began swinging with her massive paws, spilling Wuxing's blood each time her claws connected with his flesh but he didn't stop choking on her, holding her firmly.

Dongmei wanted to help, disregarding Wuxing's call and shoot the panther to stop her from hurting him, but with him so close to the panther, she didn't want to risk it. She could see the calm expression on Wuxing's face despite being covered with blood all around his body, so she stayed put, waiting for the right moment.

Just when the panther's movements slowed down a bit as she clearly started losing her strength, they heard two scared whines from the side. When the panther heard the two sounds coming from the nearby bushes, the will to fight appeared on her eyes and her struggling intensified.

Knowing he wouldn't be able to hold her anymore, Wuxing threw her to the side before rolling away himself and standing up to defend himself from another attack. Fortunately, the panther didn't continue her assault and instead looked worried towards the bushes where the sounds came from.

Just then, two cubs came out and run up to their mother worried about her. With her cubs in the scene, she definitely didn't want to fight with Wuxing anymore. She quickly pushed her cubs behind her and growled at Wuxing, wanting him to back away.

Wuxing didn't move his gaze away from panther eyes and called out, ”Dongmei, it's okay. The fight is over. Don't do anything. We should just back away.” He slowly backed away, pulling Dongmei with his bloodied hand onto a safe distance and only then did the panther took her cubs away, running into the bushes.

”Uff, that was tiring…” Wuxing sat down on the ground and breathed in relief that it was over before looking at Dongmei, smiling warmly, but he didn't see Dongmei smile in return. There was an angry expression on her face and he knew why, but he had no other choice.

Despite being mad at him, she quickly crouched next to him and began checking his injuries. The more wounds she spotted, the angrier she became.

”I know why you did it… But I don't like it anyway! Let's go back. I don't have anything I can clean your wounds with…” Dongmei commented furiously. She didn't want to see Wuxing getting hurt like that, even if it was for the good cause.

Wuxing smiled, assuring her before explaining his actions, ”It's okay… My wounds already started healing itself. I couldn't just kill her. It was our fault for entering into her territory and she was just protecting her cubs. If I did, they wouldn't even survive one day alone. Sometimes one needs to look at the bigger picture, sacrificing a little.”