I Died and Became a Noble's Heir-Chapter 419: Reflective Scales

And around them, faint sounds of movement could be heard.

Creatures stalking through the undergrowth, watching these new arrivals with interest.

Jack’s perception caught glimpses. Scales sliding across bark, eyes reflecting non-existent light, bodies shifting position to get better angles.

They were being hunted.

{Um, Jack} Oscar’s voice carried nervous excitement. {We have company. Lots of company.}

’I know,’ Jack thought back. ’Fifteen entities. Eighteen spreading out in coordinated positions. One staying back, directing the others.’

{And we’re just... walking into their ambush?}

’It adds more excitement, Oscar.’

Behind him, Kaedor’s rings clicked together frantically.

The demon kept glancing at the mist, at the shadows between trees, his instincts screaming that something was wrong.

"Master," Kaedor whispered, his voice barely audible. "Something’s wrong. The jungle’s too quiet. The smaller creatures have fled. That means..."

"Apex predators," Loryn finished calmly, his purple eyes scanning the canopy. "Multiple. Young master, do you want me to..."

"Stay with Kaedor," Jack interrupted. "Keep him alive. I’ll handle this."

Kaedor’s face went pale. "Handle what? What’s..."

He didn’t get to finish.

Fifteen panthers exploded from the mist simultaneously, their movements so perfectly synchronized it looked choreographed.

They came from every direction.

From the canopy above, from the undergrowth on all sides, from behind fallen logs and through gaps in the foliage.

Pure black scaled bodies, each one seven to eight feet long, sleek and muscular.

Their scales weren’t just black.

They were reflective, mirroring the mist and jungle around them.

Kaedor screamed, stumbling backward and nearly falling.

Loryn’s barriers flared to life instantly, purple energy forming a protective dome around himself and the shrieking demon.

And Jack smiled.

"Red Web."

Red lightning erupted from his body in all directions.

The webs shot out like crimson spider silk made of pure electrical energy, spreading through the jungle at impossible speed.

They moved faster than the panthers, faster than thought, expanding outward in a perfect sphere centered on Jack.

The threads attached to everything in their path.

Tree trunks, branches, rocks, and the surfaces of puddles.

In three seconds, the entire clearing transformed into a massive web structure.

Fifty feet in every direction, red lightning threads connected everything to everything else. The jungle became a three-dimensional cage of crackling energy, a spider’s web on an impossible scale.

The fifthteen panthers froze mid-leap, their enhanced intelligence recognizing the trap too late.

They hung suspended in the air for a fraction of a second, their momentum carrying them forward into the web’s perimeter.

But the threads hadn’t touched them yet. The web had built itself around the environment, creating a framework that left the creatures free to move.

The panthers’ reflective scales flashed as they tried to change direction mid-air.

But there was nowhere to go.

They were inside a cage they hadn’t seen being built until it was too late.

His hand closed into a fist, and every thread responded instantly.

The entire web structure began collapsing inward, pulling toward a single point.

A thick tree branch was twenty feet above the ground, directly over where Jack stood.

The red lightning threads swept inward from all directions, moving through the space like a closing net. The panthers tried to run, tried to leap clear, tried to use their speed and agility to escape.

It didn’t matter.

The contracting web caught them. Red threads wrapped around their bodies, dragging them off balance.

The panthers snarled and hissed, their claws tearing at the threads, but the lightning was unbreakable. Each thread individually might have been thin, but there were dozens, hundreds, all pulling in the same direction.

The web dragged them from every angle toward the central point, compressing them together as it contracted.

A panther from the canopy was pulled down. One from the left was dragged right. Three from behind were yanked forward. All of them converging on the same spot, unable to resist the combined force of the entire web collapsing inward.

Their bodies pressed together as the web compressed, forced into contact by the relentless threads. Eighteen individual predators became one writhing black mass.

The compression took less than five seconds.

When it finished, all eighteen panthers were crushed into a tight cluster barely eight feet across, their bodies wrapped in layer upon layer of red lightning.

The bundle hung suspended from the tree branch, dangling twenty feet in the air like prey caught in a spider’s trap.

They snarled and hissed, their eyes wild with rage and fear, but they couldn’t move.

Eighteen Dread-class predators, caught in one skill.

The jungle fell silent except for their struggles.

"What..." Kaedor stared at the suspended cluster of panthers, his voice shaking. "What is that skill? The web didn’t touch them at first. It built a cage around them, then... then it just closed."

"Red Web," Loryn said quietly, his purple eyes studying the web structure with analytical precision. "It creates a web framework using the environment as anchor points."

"The young master created a web large enough to cage an entire pack. Then contracted it all at once, pulling them together from every direction simultaneously. They had nowhere to run."

Kaedor’s rings clicked nervously. "Can they escape?"

"No. Look at the layers."

Even from a distance, they could see multiple threads wrapped around the compressed panthers.

"Even if one thread broke," Loryn continued, "there are dozens more holding them. They’re not getting out."

{Holy shit,} Oscar whispered in Jack’s mind. {That was... that was beautiful. You just trapped eighteen Dread-class predators like they were common mice.}

’It’s an effective skill,’ Jack thought back, already analyzing the trapped panthers with his Flawed Sight. ’Dread-class. All of them. Strong enough to be useful, but not exceptional. I could bind a few for the army, kill the rest...’

Suddenly, he took a pause.

The mist seemed to thicken, or maybe it was just his perception sharpening in response to a new threat.

The air itself felt charged, electricity building to dangerous levels that made the hair on his arms stand up beneath his armor.

Even the trapped panthers stopped struggling.

Their eyes widened, their snarls dying in their throats.

They weren’t afraid of Jack.

{Jack,} Oscar’s voice lost all humor. {Something’s coming. Something big. Really big. And it’s moving fast.}

’I know.’

Kaedor’s breathing became rapid and panicked. Loryn’s barriers intensified, purple energy growing brighter.

And Jack remained perfectly still, his red eyes tracking toward the massive tree in the center of the floor.

The lightning struck without warning.

Blue electricity arced from the tree, crossing the distance to the jungle in less than a heartbeat.

The bolt was massive, easily five feet in diameter.

It didn’t hit Jack’s party.

It hit the trapped panthers directly.

Jack’s Red Web vaporized instantly.

The crimson lightning that had bound eighteen predators ceased to exist, completely overwhelmed by the electricity.

It was like comparing a candle to the sun. His technique was snuffed out without resistance.

It coursed through the compressed cluster of panthers, electricity flowing through their bodies with lethal efficiency.

Their reflective scales, designed to help them blend into the mist, offered no protection against raw power of this magnitude.

They didn’t even have time to scream.

The electricity cooked them from the inside out in less than two seconds.

Their scales blackened and cracked, the reflective surfaces shattering like mirrors under heat.

Their flesh sizzled. The smell of burned meat filled the air.

And then something massive landed in the clearing.

The impact shook the ground, branches fell from nearby trees, and leaves rained down from the canopy.

It stood twelve feet tall at the shoulder.