Panther Patroller

The Panther Patroller is a rider on a leaping paper panther — the Profane province’s fastest fold and the Pursuer’s mirror in black. Where the Pious outrider lances through his mark in long jousting passes, the panther fights in pounces: it springs onto its victim, rakes with both sets of folded claws, leaps back out of reach, and gathers itself to pounce again. Same predator’s job, different animal.

At 10.5 speed it is a whisker quicker than the Pursuer, and each pounce lands harder (34 damage a strike) on a slightly slower rhythm. The leap is the point: every strike opens with a gap-closing lunge, so the panther spends almost no time standing in the enemy’s reach. It carries a thin sheet of armor and 140 HP — enough to survive its own aggression, never enough to hold a line. Both provinces bolt their outriders together at the Prototype Plant for an identical bill.

Strategy

The Panther Patroller hunts everything that thought it was safe: fleeing survivors, repositioning Poachers and Pelters, workers strung out along a supply line, healers idling at the back of a fight. Its pounce-and-spring rhythm keeps it slippery in melee — it lands, hits hard, and is already airborne when the counterswing comes — which makes it much better at in-and-out raiding than at grinding through a braced formation. Run panthers in pairs so one pounce finishes what the other opens, and use their speed to arrive where the enemy army isn’t. Avoid dense anti-cavalry clumps and tower fire; 140 HP forgives one mistake, not two. Against its white mirror, the matchup is a knife fight decided by who pounces first — the panther hits harder per touch, the Pursuer touches more often.