Chapter 313: Playing With Onca The Kitty
While I waited, I quietly transferred all the stored Essence into the Null Heart.
The process was smooth, practiced. And I needed one new soul shackle. A new bond was coming, and the space-themed soul I’d chosen would need a clean slate.
The Essence Engine stirred to life, humming gently in my chest as it began absorbing energy from the surrounding air, steadily refilling my inner storage.
My max limit was 290 units of Essence, so I figured three full charges and a little extra would be enough to form a new shackle.
Barely a minute passed before I felt a ripple in the domain. Dante had returned.
Just like before, I couldn’t fully see him. It was only a shimmering outline in the air, like a heatwave twisted into the shape of a man. But this time, he wasn’t alone.
A black panther floated behind him, caught mid-pounce in the air, frozen in the most awkward position—limbs outstretched, jaws parted, eyes wide with shock. It was like someone had hit pause just as it lunged for a kill.
The first thing I noticed was its size. The creature was big, easily nine feet from snout to tail, and almost five feet tall at the shoulders. Its sleek black fur seemed to absorb the light, making it look more like a shadow made real than a living being.
But even with all that grace, it was unmistakably an Abomination.
The details gave it away.
A jagged horn of black bone jutted out from the center of its forehead, slightly curved and sharp like a broken spear. Its claws were wrapped in the same bone-like substance, thicker and more brutal than anything I’d seen on a natural beast.
Then there were its eyes. Glowing red. Not just red like blood or fire but the kind of red that haunted dreams. The kind of red that didn’t blink.
And the smell...
I narrowed my eyes and scanned the creature.
[Onca Panther – Level 197]
Dante’s voice whispered near my ear, low and calm, "Here’s your requirement. Let’s go."
He waved his hand lazily, and just like that, another portal shimmered into existence.
Without waiting, he stepped through, the panther floating unnaturally behind him like a trophy. I followed right after, my senses sharp, wings half-flared just in case.
This time, we emerged into a vast open field.
The ground beneath us was cracked and dry, with a few scattered craters here and there, like scars left from battles long past.
But beyond that... nothing. No trees. No mountains. No rivers. Just endless, flat earth stretching into the horizon in every direction.
"You can do your practice here," Dante said casually.
And just as he finished, he vanished again, completely gone from my perception.
The moment he disappeared, the Onca Panther dropped from its frozen state and hit the ground with a thud, muscles tensing instantly. It didn’t hesitate. With a low, guttural growl, it took a defensive stance—head low, claws digging slightly into the dirt, tail whipping behind it like a coiled spring.
And then, our eyes met.
Red met green.
The panther didn’t wait.
The moment our gazes locked, it pounced.
Its jaws opened wide, claws sweeping in a wide arc straight toward my face. Its body hurtled through the air like a black missile.
I didn’t retreat.
Instead, I stepped forward, my wings snapping open with a powerful gust and in the next instant, I was beneath its lunging body.
My knees bent.
I clenched my fist and drove it upward, smashing it straight into the panther’s exposed midsection.
BOOM!
A shockwave exploded outward from the impact. The panther’s body shot up like a ragdoll before crashing hard into the flat earth.
"Show me the space laws, kitty," I muttered, stepping toward it slowly.
It didn’t even hesitate.
The moment it hit the ground, it twisted and landed on its feet, claws digging into the cracked soil. A low, guttural growl rumbled from its throat as drool spilled from between its fangs. Its muscles coiled like loaded springs.
Both my Psynapse Fractures remained fixed on the beast, recording every motion, every fluctuation. Then, it placed one paw forward and vanished.
But not instantly. Not to me.
Just before it disappeared, I caught it, the ripple in space.
A faint distortion started from its paw and spread outward in concentric waves, like rings in water. In the next moment, the waves collapsed inward, converging on a single point just to my right.
And the panther blinked appearing mid-lunge, its fangs snapping toward my shoulder.
’Space Blink....Interesting...’
Time slowed in my perception as I shifted my weight, twisted my upper body, and brought my leg around.
CRACK!
My foot struck the panther’s jaw with precision and force, sending it spinning sideways through the air before it slammed into the dirt again with a heavy thud.
I let out a calm exhale and planted my foot firmly on the ground.
Then I paused.
My mind drifted back to Dante’s words.
"To truly understand space," he said, "you must first understand yourself, your own position in it. Ask the hard questions: Can you change your location without actually moving? Can you change your direction without any physical shift?"
I closed my eyes briefly and extended my senses.
The particles that defined spatial presence shifted, molded, and adjusted their position to match mine. But they didn’t detach. They stuck, like loyal shadows. They acknowledged me. Recognized me.
I wasn’t just in space.
I had a signature within it.
My identity was a part of this place.
That’s why I couldn’t just teleport anywhere at will.
That’s why the panther’s Blink left a ripple, it had to negotiate with space.
I opened my eyes.
The Onca Panther was already back on its feet again, snarling. Its red eyes locked onto me, and the horn on its head pulsed with black light.
It was preparing something stronger now. The air around it shimmered, warping at the edges.
I smiled faintly.
It moved again.
One heavy paw pressed into the ground and this time, two distinct ripples surged out from beneath it.
The first ripple curved through space and merged just two feet away from the panther’s own body. The second continued further, distorting the air as it spread outward, before folding in on itself exactly one foot from my forehead.
I raised an eyebrow, intrigued.
’A double blink anchor?’
The panther let out a deep growl, and suddenly, the crude black horn on its head flared to life. A thick darkness welled up around it, then, without warning, it fired a concentrated black beam from the horn.
But I wasn’t caught off guard.
The instant the beam touched the first ripple point, it vanished, disappearing into the distortion the panther had created.
I already knew where it was going.
"Sovereign Absorption," I whispered.
A violet vortex shimmered to life right in front of my face.
The spatial beam reappeared an instant later, erupting from the second ripple point with a violent hiss and crashed directly into the vortex I had formed.
The impact was fierce. The dark energy shrieked and twisted as the Absorption vortex drank it in.
My body remained motionless, calm. I watched as the black energy was stripped down and funneled into my core.
My Essence reserves surged.
The panther’s growl deepened. It clearly wasn’t expecting its trick to be countered so easily.
It pushed more energy into the beam, roaring as it fed it with sheer force. The horn crackled with unstable black lightning.
But it was no use.
The more it pushed, the more it fed me.
After a few more seconds, it realized the futility of it. The beam sputtered and died out as the creature pulled its head back, breathing heavily through flared nostrils.
I straightened up and exhaled slowly.
"Thanks," I said with a slight grin. "That helped."
The beast snarled.
It still didn’t understand.
But I did.
That move had taught me something else, another angle of spatial redirection. Layered anchor points to move attacks through space. It didn’t just teleport itself anymore, but its energy attack.
’Space isn’t just position, it’s pathing.’
’Anchors... entry points... release points... like bending a straight line through a folded dimension.’
I touched my chest as the vortex dissolved.