I was mentally screaming in unison with Bug Jacob as I fell, unable to gain flight again with the hole in my wing. Then I sensed another ball of nothing coming from a different direction than last time.

  I had one of my Rain Ravens snatch me out of the air, bringing me out of the way. Then, below, I noticed one of my Anteaters being attacked, so I had them strike whatever it was with lightning.

  Then nothing else happened. I waited for a tense moment, standing on Guppy's cocoon as the butterflies healed me. I waited and waited, but nothing happened.

  Then, the moment I relaxed, another barrage of projectiles came towards me. I went to the side to dodge them. But Bug Jacob screamed in my ear that something was wrong, so I turned to the direction they indicated.

  But there was nothing there, then I felt jaws crush down on me. My thorax half collapsed under the pressure, and inside the creature's mouth, I was being carried away from my army and into the forest. I had my swarm of Ravens follow; they pecked and scratched at the thing carrying me.

  But I had to be careful because I was within their range of fire. But it seemed that none of their attacks were doing real damage, even the two level 9 ones.

  So I had one of my Ravens go near its face, and me. Trying to pluck the thing's eyes out, but the thing just swiped at it, killing the bird in an instant. But while it was doing that, I had snuck a strand of Moon Silk through the monster's teeth, attaching it to the bird.

  While the Raven was still alive, I took its Skill, then released a blade of water inside its mouth. The surprise making it spit me out instinctively, and I took the opportunity to get out of there.

  Using the Ravens to distract it from trying to snatch me again. And then, when I got far enough away, it shot its bullets seemingly made of nothing. I wasn’t fast enough to dodge them, so I used the Ravens as shields. But more importantly, I finally got a good look at the bullets themselves. And they seemed to be made from shadows, and they originated from that things' shadows as well.

  Oh lord, that’s shadow magic! Shadow magic! System, if you have any balls, give me shadow magic right now!...

  The System didn’t respond.

  Fine, I’ll still have my even… cooler…. enslavement magic… Oh God, that sounded horrible. I really need a reality check soon.

  When I was done fangirling over the objectively coolest magic, I had the butterflies heal me again; only five of them had some charge left. And tried to figure out what that thing attacking me was.

  It has jaws and claws like a predatory vertebrate. So it was probably something like a big cat or canine, maybe even a Tasmanian Devil if I'm getting creative with my guesses. It also had shadow magic, which… told me nothing about its species.

  As far as I knew, nothing on earth even had magic. Then my mind wandered to the question that had been bugging me.

  Why was it even attacking me? I seemed to be its main goal, and I didn’t really strike myself as a tasty treat. But from what I’ve seen, it seems incredibly intelligent. Maybe intelligent enough to be an idiot by holding a grudge and trying to kill me after failing the first time?

  If it was something like a Tiger, I might’ve subjugated its cub, then fed their XP to my minions. And now they're trying to get revenge for it now, they did do that back home.

  Or maybe it had something to do with magic. I was a rather high level creature from what I’ve seen in the forest. So it could be trying to level up.

  Then a disturbing thought came into my head.

  The second phase of The Great Debate, maybe this was it. A boss monster to defeat, but how would that factor in the leader board? Maybe the board judged how fast or well the participants defeated the boss?

  But in the end, those were all guesses, and the reason why didn’t really matter, only that it was happening. Then the Panther attacked again, killed a few of the ravens, and then left before I could even do anything.

  Then it happened again. Bringing my total of Ravens from 15 to 13, then 10, then 8, then 5 over the dark hours of the night. Changing their tactics constantly so I couldn’t prepare a counter. Varying the times of their attacks as well. At first, the attacks would be a long stretch of time apart..

  And I was constantly in the air, so the thing couldn’t sneak up on me, the act tiring but necessary. I thought of maybe going out and getting more minions by venturing off into the forest.

  But I couldn’t leave Guppy undefended, and also, this was the only place I knew that I could defend against the thing attacking me. And no animals were wandering towards me either because I had fed anything that tried to feed off the hills of corpses to my elites. The surrounding fauna quickly learning not to come near.

  And my butterflies were on their last fumes of energy, which I found way too relatable. But my last hope was arriving; the darkness just before dawn had come. Heralding the sun, allowing for my healers to refill on energy, and telling me that the time for Guppy’s hatching was near.

  But it wasn’t there yet. I waited and waited, flinching at every warning that Bug Jacob gave me. One of the false alarms nearly getting me killed when it distracted me from a volley of shadow bullets.

  But I was able to dodge, then I had my Ravens counter attack with a barrage of water blades. I didn’t really use them for damage, but more to tell where the thing was from where the water splashed weirdly.

  Then I had the Anteaters go over and electrocute whatever was in that general direction. I heard a pained yowl from the creature attacking me when one hit, but I accidentally killed one of my birds in the process. Bringing their number to four.

  But then the thing attacked an Anteater, biting down on its neck. But before it could kill it, the second Anteater shocked it from behind. And I finally got a good look at it, a pitch black Jaguar with spots of dark purple, snarling.

  But then I couldn’t sense it again, and it attacked the other Anteater. But I sent the Ravens to distract it with blades of water as the Anteater electrocuted it again. Then I sent the butterflies to the injured Anteater, using up the last of their MP to bring them from the brink of death.

  But the Jaguar attacking me just kept going and going, unlike the last times, where it would retreat if it got injured. My Anteaters barely managing to hold it off.

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  Come on, Guppy, just finish evolving already!

  Then the Jaguar killed another Rain Raven, leaving three left.

  Finish Evolving, damn you!

  I commanded Guppy, an unexpected message popping up.

  “Level up, +1 Level to Royal Will.”

  Then I saw the white concrete cocoon Guppy was in, cracking, slowly at first, but soon it crumbled completely. A lizard four times the former size of Guppy emerging, with wings on its back, and their slimy skin gaining a solid look it didn’t have before.

  Then Guppy roared, a deep throbbing sound that I felt more than I heard. And when it resonated out, the world seemed to stop at the presence of this new creature, even the Jaguar. But it didn't last long, as the Jaguar had a new target.

  It didn't waste any time attacking Guppy. The scratches, bites, and shadow bullets didn’t do as much damage as they did against the rest of my army, but they still left their mark.

  And I had to puppet Guppy manually the entire time, which I was used to, but I just wasn’t familiar with puppeting their new body, so there was trial and error. I thought of bringing in my other minions, but they were all nearly dead, and I had the jaguar suitably distracted.

  It was attacking me (And Guppy), but this was much better than not knowing where it was at all. So I was biding my time for the sun to rise, and for my healers to finally come back into the picture.

  I kept at it as long as I could, wincing at every bloody wound Guppy gained, and every strike I failed to land on the Jaguar. It was just so much stronger and faster than anything I'd faced before; the only advantage I had was that Guppy was an absolute tank.

  Taking hit after hit, that I thought should’ve killed him, but just didn’t, though it didn’t stop his HP from dropping. Currently in the darker shades of Yellow. I mentally bit my lip, waiting, then I felt a warmth on my wings.

  I turned around and saw the sun rising above the horizon, the glow on my butterfly's wings returning. I immediately had them heal up my Elite minions to a decent enough condition, the jaguar only noticing a moment later.

  But it was too late; all my minions were running away, two of my Ravens sent ahead for a mission. One staying with me, just in case. Then the Jaguar attacked us over and over again, trying to get at anything, but I just had Guppy block all of it.

  Though right now I was more focused on the Ravens I had sent ahead, and it seemed to notice my distraction. So it sent a shadow bullet towards my exposed self, looking smaller and weaker than the ones from the night before.

  And I was too slow to dodge it, so I had my Raven block it, judging that it wouldn’t kill them. But it had hit it right on its skull, killing the bird instantly.

  It sent another barrage of bullets, but this time I was prepared and hid behind Guppy. The bullets punching into the dragon's hide, a worrying message popping up.

  “Warning, minion Junior Mud Dragon HP is in the red.”

  But I wasn’t worried, the Ravens I had sent ahead had finally come back, and with a present. A pissed off swarm of Junior Prince Cutter Ants just behind them, which they attracted after disturbing some nearby nests. Their wings beating together in a buzzing frenzy.

  I had one of the Ravens hide behind the Jaguar, who, understandably, but stupidly, attacked the swarm that hadn’t thought of them as an enemy. That quickly changed, though. Some diverted their attention to the Jaguar, more and more joining as it kept struggling against them. Sinking deeper into danger, the more it struggled. Like quicksand.

  While the Jaguar was preoccupied with that, I was running away, some of the swarm following me. But I just had the Anteaters kill them off with their lightning, and we’re far enough away that we didn’t have to worry about their death Pheromones attracting anymore.

  I was celebrating my survival by doing little circles in the air,

  Ha ha, suck it, you stupid cat!, I’m a dog person, you know, they’re just the better animal. Sorry, not sorry!

  I don’t know why I thought that, since I was actually a cat person. But I think it was the delirium from 14 straight hours of fighting and stressing over my life.

  But that didn’t matter to me, the haze of ecstasy from surviving lasting the entire day. Then it was abruptly cut off the next night when I was attacked by that damn Jaguar again. The ants having not dealt with them properly, like the lazy bums they were.

  I knew there was a reason why I hated them so much.

  But I survived the night, and I ran during the day, going farther in one day than during any other time I’d spent here. Hoping that I would lose them, but I just couldn’t shake them off. And then sometime during those days, the leaderboard had updated without me noticing.

  Leader Board:

  Must be within the Top 5 in (8/14 days) to get to the next stage, or be automatically eliminated.

  1: Fifth of the Mist

  2: Krath Nixm

  3: Julian Seawrite

  4: Second of the Snow

  5: Urg Flaow

  6: First of the Sea

  7: Jacob Davidson

  8: Ninth of the Flame

  9: Jones Parker

  10: Halian Rith

  11: Anya Abashev

  12: Hanna Guy

  13: Trom Halk

  14: Grn Fet

  15: Eighth of the Stone

  Great, now I was officially last place.

  But I didn't pay much attention to it. I just kept on fighting the Jaguar every night. I got better at it, eventually. Fending them off with less casualties, learning their limitations and capabilities. Becoming intimately familiar with their tactics to the point where it felt like I knew what they were thinking sometimes.

  But as is the curse of any intelligent opponent, it did the same, and so we evolved alongside each other during the night. And during the day, I ran through countless biomes, crossing countless miles, but there was one thing that didn’t change.

  Bug Jacob, the name I had given, the instincts, and thoughts that this body naturally felt. Kept up their antics. Startling at the smallest thing, it was useful since it was the only way I could sense the Jaguar when it was hiding. I kept it at a distance, though, to make sure I wasn’t consumed by every false alarm, but that just seemed to make it worse.

  As I was thinking of ways to eliminate this problem, I ran into something I never thought I would. The end of the world, or more appropriately, the edge of the giant square I had been placed on.

  The place beyond looked similar to Jaguars' shadow bullets, but those just pushed away things, making a space of nothing. But the void beyond was just nothing. Even the stars seemed to cut off here, and I could see the sun set, the night descending, and the Jaguar coming out on cue.