The Amazon whispered. Then it screamed.
Kaiser hovered above the emerald canopy, a silent shadow against the shafts of golden sunlight piercing the jungle mist. His yellow eyes glinted with primal hunger. Below, the rainforest stirred.
Six jaguars slinked through the underbrush like shadows wrapped in muscle. Their movements were coordinated, almost unnatural—this was no random hunting party. Their formation had purpose. Strategy.
Kaiser's sharp mind clicked through possibilities.
They were not natural. As far as he could remember, Jaguars were solitary creatures.
So why were they hunting in a group? did the increase in concentration of mana, change their behavior, or do they have someone stronger in their group leading them.
Then he saw it
The lead jaguar emerged—a beast apart. It moved with measured grace, each pawfall deliberate. Its fur shimmered ever so slightly, as if mana pulsed beneath the skin. A dense aura clung to its frame, heavier than any jungle mist.
Common Tier Beast, he suspected because it gave him the almost the same amount of pressure as the alpha wolf.
He felt the pressure was bit stronger compared to the alpha.
He used his inspection skill.
{Analyzing...Creature identified}
{Name: /
Species: Giant Jaguar
Rank: Common (F)
{unlocked its ancient bloodline, due to increasing concentration of mana}
Kaiser's system confirmed it.
He didn't wait.
Predators don't hesitate, He also felt that he could take it down.
With the silence of a falling leaf, Kaiser dropped. His wings compressed into a dive angle, his body a guided missile of instinct and death.
The first jaguar never stood a chance. A split-second flash of steel—Kaiser's talon pierced its spine, exiting clean through the chest. It collapsed, twitching, its heart already still.
The jungle exploded.
The second jaguar lunged at him mid-air, but Kaiser twisted—feathers folding, body spiraling—his talons caught the cat mid-pounce. He rolled through the air, bones crunching beneath his grip. When they landed, only one walked away.
The Giant Jaguar didn't attack him, but was observing him.
It seemed that it wanted to figure out his combat prowess, and also wanted its kin to tire him out. So that it had a better chance of killing him, with less injuries.
The third tried to flank him. Smart. Fast. But Kaiser was faster. His wing flared wide—like a blade forged of obsidian—and cracked across the jaguar's skull. The creature's body spun like a broken toy, colliding with a tree. The impact split bark. And bone.
Three down. The other Jaguars began to panick, so they attacked him in a hurry.
The fourth and fifth came together, attacking in tandem. Fangs bared. Roars loud enough to shake birds from their trees.
Kaiser exploded upward. His wings beat once—a thunderclap of force that lifted him skyward. He twisted in mid-air, tucked his wings, and fell like a guillotine.
The fourth jaguar met his fall with a pounce—but Kaiser's talon speared through its open mouth, snapping its jaw in reverse.
He landed atop the fifth, crushing vertebrae with his weight. One bite to the base of its skull silenced it forever.
Only one remained.
The lead jaguar, the common-tier monster, stood alone among the carnage.
Its golden eyes locked with Kaiser's obsidian gaze.
They moved.
Predator met predator.
No wasted energy. No posturing.
The jaguar pounced, its claws shimmering faintly with mana. Kaiser spun mid-air, talons whistling through space. The two forces collided like twin storms.
Fur tore. Feathers scattered. The forest floor trembled.
Kaiser clawed across the jaguar's side—ripping fur and flesh. The jaguar countered with a swipe that sliced across Kaiser's side, drawing the first blood.
But Kaiser didn't falter.
He roared. like an eagle.
He flared his wings, blinding the jaguar with a storm of feathers and wind. Then surged low. His talons curled beneath its exposed belly—he lifted the jaguar, spinning mid-air in a death wheel before slamming the beast down with a sickening crack.
The jaguar staggered up, blood dripping from its jaw.
It growled. Kaiser growled back.
Final exchange.
The jaguar lunged.
Kaiser stepped into the strike.
His talons plunged beneath the creature's chin—deep, brutal, final. He drove it to the ground. Eyes locked. Until the jaguar's glow faded.
Silence.
The clearing stank of blood and broken earth.
Six bodies lay around him.
Kaiser stood—panting, scratched, but alive. Victorious.
Then he felt it. The pulsing, glowing core within the lead jaguar's corpse. It shimmered with unspent potential. A promise.
He had not seen a core inside the Alpha wolf, was it because it was weaker or something else he did not know and he was honestly too tired to care.
He swallowed it whole.
{Bioenergy: +45}
{Mana : +23}
The warmth hit instantly—surging through every feather, every cell. A step forward. A climb on the evolutionary chain.
The wind returned. The forest held its breath.
And Kaiser, took flight to heal and rest, back to his comfy nest.
***
A pulsing, amber-glowing magical plant bloomed beneath a shaft of sunlight, exuding an aroma thick with mana and madness. It was bait—divine, intoxicating bait.
Because it was still growing.
The jungle shifted. Stirred.
They came.
Five groups of predators, each led by a Common-Tier Alpha:
A pack of wolves, silent and synchronized, eight of them in total
A troop of monkeys, jittering with energy and calculation, twelve of them.
A jaguar, low and lethal, flanked by two other Jaguars already blooded.
A deer, antlers aglow with faint mana, accompanied by lithe, four aggressive deers.
A tiger, larger than most, eyes burning with instinctive territorial wrath.
They didn't speak, but they felt it.Competition. Challenge. Not between them but the being's territory they intruded upon.
Each group had an instinctual understanding of getting rid of the bigger threat.
They watched the threat.
And it watched them back, watching from coiled stillness, hidden beneath fallen leaves and false terrain, was the Anaconda King.
Thirty meters long.Scales matte-black, some reflecting like obsidian edged in emerald.Eyes cold, calculating—and fierce. It did not slither. It did not hiss.
It judged.
The first paw touched sacred soil.