Meanwhile, in a village in another universe, a group of warriors rested after a long day of hunting. Unbeknown to them, a group of robotic panthers (six in all), were closing in on where they now relaxed. They were sent and controlled by an evil scientist, with the intention of using the creatures to seize land from the tribe.

As the panthers crept closer, a portal opened just above ground level. Through it, John could see the panthers and the village.

At this moment, an alarm sounded from the village as someone spied the approaching threat. The chief was trying to obtain a closer look when they attacked. Two warriors were killed and another seriously wounded.
John witnessed the attack, and the ferocity of the cats caused him to fear for the others. He realised that he was in a position to help them, so determined that he would try to save the village and the people.

The chief said, "Get the women and children into the huts and get your spears to defend yourselves."

With that the warriors mounted a concerted counter-attack on the panthers. However, their weapons did no appreciable damage to the robots, except leaving some minor scratched to their armor.

John saw how ineffective their spears and swords were against the advanced metal creatures, so he decided to enter the portal to attempt to assist them in their struggle.

As John stepped through the portal, the panthers immediately notice him, and stop for a moment to assess this new development.

He is 6'4", with an athletic build and fire red hair, wearing loose clothes, and holding the sword.

John said to the amazed warriors, "Don't worry. I’m here to help."

He approached the first panther, swung his sword and severed the metal head from the body. In a spray of sparks, the metallic body crashed down, and the head bounced across the ground to land at the chief’s feet.

Forgetting the villagers, the other creatures focussed on John and advanced towards him. John knew that he had to stop these things and whoever made them. He sliced up two more that jumped at him, while another circled around him and jumped at his back.

Spinning round, John side-stepped the leaping panther, but not quite far enough. The creature’s claw raked his left shoulder. That shocked him for a second, until another jumped at him. Moving faster this time, he avoided those claws and sliced it in half from its shoulder to its tail.

Then the one that grazed his shoulder started attacking him a second time. This time, John was only able to catch it on its shoulder, but succeeded in damaging it so it couldn’t walk on that foreleg.

Leaving only one undamaged panther and the one with the damaged shoulder, the villagers started to regroup behind John.

Turning the two panthers silently retreated, running away from the villagers to wherever they had come from. John hurled his sword through the air slicing the non-wounded robot panther' head-off, as the other limped away as fast as it could. No one seemed to have the heart to follow it.

With the fight finally over John started to shake. He walked over and retrieved his sword as it lay on the ground next to the body of the panther. He was returning the sword into its sheath when the chief approached him.

"Thank you, O great warrior, we would not have been able to defeat those monsters without your help."

John smiled weakly at the man. He hadn’t realised how much the fight had taken from him.

"You are the chief of these people?” he asked.

“I am.”

“My name is John, and it was a pleasure to help you. I have one question.”

“Name it.”

John said, "These creatures are not natural. They have to have been made by someone. What is happening here?”

"These are dark days, Warrior John. There is an evil man who seeks to take our land, but for years we have been strong enough to beat him off. He uses more and more complex machines to try to lkill us, but this time they are too strong,” the chief explained.

John looked at the villagers as they appeared from their huts. They looked scared and vulnerable, there were many children amongst their number.

"Look, I’ll help with the problem to keep your people safe. If we are to defeat the evil man, we need to know where he is.”

"We do not know exactly where he is, but it should not be too hard to follow the beast I will have one of my best trackers help you find him. I will even send a part of warriors with you on this journey."

"Thanks, Chief, that would help greatly."

As the adrenaline seeped away, his shoulder started to hurt.

“Come, my friend, we will tend your wound and give you food, drink and rest,” said the chief, taking John by the good arm and leading him to his hut.

The next day, feeling refreshed, John wondered what ointment they had placed on his wound, for it was stiff and did not hurt much at all. After overseeing the collection of supplies, John met the tracker. He was a small man, swarthy and unkempt. He wore coarse clothing, but he had keen eyes and a ready smile. He wore a vicious-looking knife on his belt. They were joined by three tall warriors.

The Chief and most of the village turned out to see them off, bidding them good fortune.

They set off on foot, over quite difficult, rocky terrain. The tracker took the lead, followed by John and the warriors. The tracker watched the ground all the time, following the unmistakable tracks of the robot.

"Do you know how far we will have to go?" John asked.

"Not exactly. I think that it’s about half a day's journey from the village."

"So, great warrior, where did you find such a weapon?" one of the warriors asked, looking at John’s sword.

"I found it deep in a cave under an old castle. It was very tricky to find, as someone went to great lengths to hide it well."

The group hardly talked for most of the journey. One of the warriors carried a skin containing water, so offered John a drink.

John thought to himself, 'What am I doing? I don’t know how to use a sword and I was lucky at the village. I was lucky that the blade of this sword is sharper than anything imaginable in this universe.' Just thinking this sent a shiver down his spine. Not knowing what the forthcoming might ensue.

After several hours tough hiking, they came across the cat that John had damaged. It lay in a broken heap on the track, all sign of life gone. One of the warriors kicked it, hurting his foot.

"Well, now we know what happed to this one, it looks like it collapsed,” said John.

"I have never seen one like this,” said the tracker.

John bent down over the cat, examining the damaged shoulder. He could see through a chink in the armor plate that he had severed a hydraulic line.

“Tell me, what do you know of these things?" he asked.

"Very little. We know that the madman sends them to destroy our village," said the warrior with the bruised toe.

“And that they are hard to kill, but you don’t seem to have that problem," said the second warrior.

“How is it that you can kill the metal beasts so easily?" asked the tracker.

“I guess that my sword is made from a very hard steel, so is very sharp for one; and two, its like when its in a fight it has a mind if its own but with me staying in control. If you wouldn’t mind, I need to rest a while. I’m feeling a bit tired. "

“It is getting late. If we stop for a rest here, we might as well make camp and continue tomorrow,” said the tracker.

“Well, tomorrow will be another day. I wonder what it will bring?” said John, sitting down on a grassy bank. He was relieved to see the warriors were also pleased to rest here.

“It will be better to be refreshed if we have to fight in the morning,” he said.