Thunder Panther didn't immediately pounce at the three stupid humans and gave a low, deep growl as a warning, telling the three to back off and return to where they came from so they could go on with their own lives.
Eric sighed softly. The Thunder Panther was too cute and generous. It didn't swiftly attack the three pitiful weaklings who had foolishly stumbled into its territory but instead gave them a fair 'warning'. It just showed that it was truly old and only wanted a peaceful life without any more slaughter and fighting.
But sadly, it could only cry and complain to the heavens that the trio hadn't found a single Mana Beast throughout the last month, and so its fate was only to become an amusement and plaything for the evil humans' pleasure and training.
After all, they weren't a 'justice' group, but then again, the 'justice group' would immediately cry out that the 'Beast' was too evil and must be slain due to how scary and dangerous it looked—a great threat to the righteous 'humanity', blah blah.
Eric smiled and addressed the panther, "Brother Panther, you are already old. How about having one last crazy battle of your life and then dying?"
The Thunder Panther's feline eyes constricted as if it understood Eric's meaning, and it roared thunderously, shaking the cave. Thunder rolled out of its body and surrounded it like a coating.
Thunder Roar: A fearsome roar that not only deafens enemies but also calls forth bolts of lightning to surround itself like armor, which also increases its striking power.
Eric, Lyria, and Livy recalled the skill in their minds. Unlike newbies, their constitution was so high that even if they didn't guard their heads with Mana, that roar could do nothing to intimidate or injure them in the slightest.
They calmly stood their ground and waited for the panther's first proper attack.
As lightning covered its entire body and brightened up the entire place, the Thunder Panther's massive size was revealed to the trio.
It had an imposing build, but compared to the Abyssal Grinner, it paled in comparison, only reaching 6 to 8 meters in length, 4 or 5 meters in height, and 3–4 meters in width—though its tail itself was almost the same length as its body.
Noticing the three humans still had no intention of backing off and could also defend against its 'Thunder Roar', the Thunder Panther finally used its first combo attack.
It slammed its massive paws on the ground, creating a deafening sound and vibration that sent out a powerful thunder force field, stunning nearby enemies and making them lose their balance while leaving them vulnerable for its next attack.
After using its Thunder Slam, the Thunder Panther noticed the trio didn't even flinch. It finally realized that these weak-looking humans were very capable, and perhaps this fight might truly end up as its last, as using too much strength and Mana at its current age was the same as reducing its own remaining lifespan.
It no longer held back and pounced at the humans with great velocity.
Eric, Lyria, and Livy noticed that the panther's electrified paw was heading toward them for a thunderous blow and recognized the technique from their 'textbook'.
Electrified Paws: Its paws are charged with electricity, allowing it to deliver devastating blows that damage, if not kill, its opponents on contact.
Eric calmly 'blinked' and disappeared.
Livy backflipped behind Lyria to the far right. The moment she landed, she threw multiple 'Luminous Stones' around the ground and put away her Mana lamp.
Luminous Stones were the ones Lysandra had left on the Heart-Shaped Island inside the rooms. Eric had, of course, taken all of them and distributed them among themselves. Although a single Luminous Stone didn't produce too much light, multiple could produce enough to light up a moderately sized room.
Although those few Luminous Stones still wouldn't be enough to light up the entire huge cave, they could prevent both Lyria and Livy from suddenly going completely blind if the Thunder Panther decided to cancel the light it was emitting throughout its body.
Lyria stood in place and decided to take the Electrified Paws with her 'Crushing Blows'.
Just as the paw neared her torso and head, she activated her 'Hardening' and swiftly delivered a solid punch.
The Thunder Panther thought the human's attack was a joke—it was too tiny compared to its massive, powerful paw, which was also pulsating with condensed thunder.
It thought it would easily squash the tiny human who had dared to stay behind and take its attack head-on. Yet the moment its paw hit the puny attack from the human, instead of squashing her, it was hurled back with massive force all the way to the other end of the cave, hitting the cave walls with a loud boom.
Both Eric and Livy were startled and turned to look at the similarly stunned Lyria, who quickly blushed in embarrassment.
She also hadn't wanted to end the battle quickly, so she had only punched its paw instead of its head—but who would've thought the scary-looking attack was just... scary-looking?
She also learned from this that her Crushing Blow, although about blowing things up, could also produce some pushing force—though mostly it was her own strength with 'Hardening' that threw the panther away.
The Panther adjusted its quivering body.
It suddenly felt that it might truly die tonight.
It slowly moved its eyes to observe its right paw and nearly had a heart attack.
Its entire front right limb was gone! It could no longer use it to run or attack.
It couldn't hold back and let out a loud, deafening roar in anger and pain, shaking the cave walls again.
Then it opened its jaws wide and released a bright bluish-white thunderball, which shot speedily toward Lyria.
Seizing this chance, it also launched the same attack toward Livy and Eric—who was closest to it at that moment.
Eric took this chance to test his 'Telepathic Slap' against a pure elemental attack.
As he slapped the electric ball from an 8-meter distance away, the ball effectively changed direction toward where Eric had slapped, crashing onto the cave wall with a loud rumble that shook the entire cave slightly. A new dent appeared on the wall, continuing to sparkle with thunder for some time.
Eric was surprised. It looked like pure Thunder, but it seemed the thunder was condensed quite a bit—like Livy's 'Hydro Explosion'—and packed quite some power, though not as condensed or potent as hers.
At the same time Eric acted, Lyria did too—she jumped straight up, and just as the thunderball was about to pass her initial position, she pushed her hand toward it and used her 'Absolute Gravity' to press down.
As she had expected, the thunderball—flying a meter above the ground—was forced downward, struck the ground, and created a loud rumble.
The entire cave floor quaked along with the cave. Even the lightning that was supposed to linger after the explosion was pushed into nothing by Lyria's 'Absolute Gravity'.
Yet no matter how explosive both Lyria and Eric's defensive moves were—shaking the entire cave—it was still nothing compared to what happened next.
Livy was the only one among the three at a disadvantage as her Element was weak against Thunder. She couldn't use her 'Water Jet Dual-Whip', as there was a chance she'd be electrified instead.
So, she used her 'Hydro Explosion'. With a quick motion, she swiftly generated a drop of water from her finger, which promptly shot toward the incoming Thunder Ball. She also jumped further away afterward—just in case her attack wasn't enough to stop the thunderball.
Due to Livy's high intelligence and extensive practice with Mana Control, she could now skip the earlier step of drawing water and condensing it—instead, she could directly generate a single 'drop' of 'Hydro Explosion' at the cost of a good amount of Mana.
This drop's power wasn't the maximum she could produce, yet it was still useful. Sadly, this attack wasn't practical all the time due to massive Mana wastage.
As soon as Livy's Hydro Explosion made contact with the Thunder Ball, it discharged into a far more horrifying explosion than the Thunder Panther's Thunder Ball could ever achieve.
The entire cave shook as if on the verge of collapse.
The previous few feet of dent on the wall and ground—caused by Eric and Lyria's defensive moves—were nothing compared to Livy's doing.
Nearly 3 to 5 meters of dent appeared on the cave floor, even though the explosion wasn't directed toward the ground! The damage on the surface itself stretched two to three dozen meters in diameter.
Some rocks even started falling from the ceiling due to the abuse the cave had suffered.
Eric, Lyria, Livy, and the Thunder Panther felt their hearts nearly leap out of their throats.
A huge mountain was directly above their heads—if it collapsed, the nearby smaller mountains might also crumble, leading to devastation and danger for all of them.
Thankfully, Livy and Lyria had swiftly moved further away before the explosion, so both survived unharmed.
All three of them—including the Panther—turned to stare at Livy speechlessly.
Livy blushed in shame and started playing with her long lavender hair in embarrassment, "I-I also didn't expect it would create such a large fusion explosion..."
The Thunder Panther silently wept bitterly in its mind. It felt that if even one of her 'water' landed upon its tough body, it wouldn't be able to endure it. The original thunder armor it was proud of would instead bring instant death!
Eric wasn't mad at Livy. This was why experience was important—these things couldn't be taught in schools or words. Only by experiencing various situations firsthand would they learn better.
He turned toward the silent but clearly terrified Thunder Panther and gave his suggestion with a wide smile, "Brother Panther, the previous thing won't happen again. We'll fight with our physical bodies next. So, keep up your attacks—or this final battle of your life will be your greatest shame. You wouldn't want that, would you?"
The Thunder Panther turned to notice Eric's grin and felt emotional internally. It had never seen any of its enemies smile back at it like that.
It already knew its death was inevitable. It couldn't win against even one of them, much less all three.
This was also its first time meeting such weak yet clearly strong individuals. They were all Rank 1—far lower in stats than itself—yet the power they commanded was beyond anything it had ever seen.
'And as the human mentioned, this will be my last battle... I might as well give it my all. The best battle—the fitting end of my life!'
The Thunder Panther found its strength to stand on its three legs as thunder crackled more robustly across its massive body.
'It seems I still have a chance to become a motivational speaker!' Eric thought as he strangely felt the panther was also grinning back at him.
And so, both smiled and disappeared into thin air, charging at each other at breakneck speed.
The next battle would be purely barbaric—no abilities, no Spells. Of course, the Thunder Panther was allowed to use whatever.
And so, loud booms echoed from the cave while the mountain shook every now and then—though nothing like Livy's previous disaster.