The second the leopard lunged, the world compressed into a single moment.
Three meters of death barreled toward me, all sleek muscle, sharpened bone, and predator rage. The ground shook beneath its paws as it launched with enough force to splinter a tree.
I didn't move.Not yet. The key was timing.
One—
Two—
Three.
I sidestepped just as its claws slashed through where my chest used to be. My foot twisted in the dirt and I spun, conjuring a string and snapping it in the air. It was a razor wire whip, sharpened at the end with a needlepoint glint.
The string struck its flank, not to wound but to redirect. The beast howled and landed off-center, its claws scraping trenches into the earth as it rebounded.
It turned growling, tongue flicking blood from its lips.
I rolled my shoulders.
"Yeah. You're fast. But I'm faster."
It pounced again but this time I was already moving. My body dropped into a slide beneath its belly and as I slipped through its shadow, I threw a net—woven from my own Flux-forged threads—up and around its midsection.
The net clamped tight, compressing mid-air like a vice.
But it didn't even stumble.
It twisted, spiraling in a mid-air rotation that shredded my net to fibers. So my strings aren't they strong yet huh?
I barely rolled out of the way as one of its claws punched through the dirt where my head had just been. It gave a roar that hit me in the chest harder than a punch.
My legs screamed to run, but I dug in deeper.
I wanted this.
I pulled two more threads—these were tighter, almost invisible—and anchored them between two trees like tripwires. As the leopard prowled toward me, I backed up deliberately, luring it between them.
It lunged again at full force.
This time, I sprang upward, letting my string tether pull me ten feet above the forest floor. The beast didn't stop. It ran straight through the tripwires and got trapped.
The wires snapped inward like jaws, forming a crisscross weave tightening around its torso and locking its forelegs. The big cat smashed into the ground, unable to correct its motion, flipping on its side with a furious growl.
I didn't wait.
I dropped straight down, spinning mid-air, and threw my leg in a downward kick aimed at the base of its skull. The impact landed but barely phased it.
It bucked.
My whole body launched backward, flung like a ragdoll into a tree.
Everything rattled. My spine, my ribs, even the inside of my skull. I hit the forest floor with a cough, dirt in my mouth.
Okay. That was fair.
"Alright… you hit hard," I muttered, wiping blood off my lip.
But so could I.
I reached behind me, snapping open one of my thicker strings. They took longer to craft, but they acted like armor. I looped the strings around my limbs, arms, waist and legs.
The strings snapped into tension and I launched faster than before. My foot shattered the branch I used to jump and I was already mid-air, descending with fists wrapped in whipcords.
I threw a punch and released a blast of compressed thread like a bullet from my knuckles.
It hit the leopard square in the face.
It stumbled. Not much, but enough.
It swiped and caught my shoulder, tearing open skin, but not deep enough to disarm me. I rolled with the blow, using the motion to wrap its arm in my threads. Then I pulled, flipping myself over its back and dragging the thread with me like a lasso.
I wrapped it around its neck.
It thrashed. I tightened.
I reached out mid-fight and spun a string circle around its front paw, looping it like a snare. Then the other paw. Then its back legs. My movements were fluid, like sewing a pattern across its limbs.
We were locked in a deadly dance. Every time it moved, I moved faster. Every dodge was a stitch. Every strike, a thread tightened. My Stringweave was responding to me like a second skin.
But it wasn't giving up.
It bit through one of my lines and broke loose, knocking me to the ground and pouncing again.
I had one last trick.
As it leapt, I opened my arms, welcoming the strike.
And with the momentum, I wrapped it fully, thread after thread, locking it into a cocoon mid-air. I poured every ounce of string I had left. The threads sealed like a sarcophagus, glowing faintly with the power of my Flux.
The beast crashed into the ground, rolling, trying to break free but it couldn't.
It thrashed one final time… then stilled.
I crouched beside it, hand on the pulsating glow of the cocoon.
The final moment didn't feel real.
It thrashed one last time beneath me, still wrapped in my threads. My hands trembled, my knuckles bleeding and my vision swimming in and out of focus. I could feel every fracture now, whispering pain through every nerve in my body.
But I had no time for sympathy. This was what I came for.
I called back my threads and looped them around his throat, angled so it wouldn't cause unnecessary bleeding.
I muttered under my breath, "Forgive me."
And then I pulled.
The tension snapped tight with a muted crack. The great jungle leopard stilled beneath me. Its body slumped, its muscles giving way, those deep, feral eyes closing for the final time. It didn't struggle.
It was gone.
There was no glory in that moment. No thrill. Just... finality.
The silence that followed hit me harder than the beast ever did. My arms dropped to my sides, my muscles barely able to keep shape. Blood dripped from my temple, from my side. Hell, I couldn't even tell where all of it came from anymore. It just hurt.
The adrenaline was already burning out, leaving behind the full extent of what I'd just put my body through. My left shoulder screamed with pain. I looked down and saw it was completely dislocated.
I gritted my teeth.
"No one else is going to do it for me."
I grabbed my wrist, turned toward a tree, and slammed my shoulder into the bark.
I screamed.
It echoed through the forest.
I dropped to one knee, gagging, shaking uncontrollably, but the shoulder was back in place. It would swell soon. I knew it. I didn't care.
I forced myself back up, stumbling to its body. My legs were half-dead already, but I bent down and grabbed his tail. It was thick and heavy. Dragging him was going to be hell.
But I had to.
The silkworms I needed for my Flux? They only thrived near mulberry trees. And the bond I wanted to make couldn't form until my blood mixed with the beast's at a site of natural convergence.
Which meant… now. No matter how broken I was.
Step by step, I dragged him. The tail scraped deep lines through the dirt, over tree roots and across fallen branches. My body screamed louder than my thoughts. At one point I blacked out for a minute, came to leaning against a mossy stone, clutching my side like it was the only thing keeping me together.
Hours passed. I could barely tell. The sun had started to drop, painting gold onto every leaf, turning the sky above into melted amber.
And then finally, I saw them.
The mulberry trees.
It was an entire grove, gentle and quiet, humming with the soft breeze. My mouth was dry. My vision doubled but I could see it. I'd made it.
And that wasn't even the most beautiful part.
There were hundreds butterflies, maybe more.
Their wings glowed in the falling sunlight, casting shimmering reflections on the bark and forest floor. It looked like a living painting, like something out of a dream I forgot I once had.
I dropped its tail, collapsed to my knees and laughed breathlessly, tears slipping down without asking.
"I actually did it... I actually made it."
My body felt like it was going to dissolve into dust, but I wasn't done.
I reached into my pouch and pulled out a knife. My fingers barely had the strength to close around it. But I flipped it in my hand, walked on trembling legs to its still form, and drove the blade carefully into the side of the leopards shoulder.
Blood flowed out slowly.
I took a shaky breath, turned the blade on myself, and cut a line across my palm. The pain barely registered.
And then I pressed my bloodied hand deep into the open wound, letting our bloods mix beneath the wings of those silent butterflies.
The moment it touched, I felt it a ring in my mind
And then, everything faded to black. My body gave out completely.
The last thing I remember was seeing the butterflies heading straight for me.