The moment the black-furred beast emerged, the air around it grew heavy.
Its sheer presence was like a mountain pressing down—an unstoppable force that sent shivers down the spine. The wolf's amber eyes burned, locked onto Keon with an eerie, unnatural intensity.
The beast took a slow step forward, and the ground cracked beneath its weight. Its muscles rippled, its massive frame towering over Keon like a predator eyeing its next kill. The plasma burn on its side? Already healing—the wound closing with unnatural speed, as if mocking the very idea of being harmed.
Keon clicked his tongue. That's annoying.
The woman stiffened, her previous suspicion of Keon replaced by a different kind of fear. She had seen this thing before. And if it was here, that meant—
No.
Her thoughts cut off as the beast lowered itself, claws digging into the dirt. The air hummed with raw power. A predator had found its prey.
And the hunt had begun.
The Obsidian Howler moved.
Its massive claw shot forward—fast.
Too fast.
Keon didn't flinch, trusting his Rift Barrier to handle it. But just as the beast's razor-sharp claws entered the barrier's range—
They vanished.
Keon's eyes widened slightly. What?
A split second later, the claws reappeared, already past his barrier, inches away from his face.
His instincts screamed at him. He barely tilted his head back in time, feeling the rush of air as the claws sliced through empty space where his throat had been.
The beast's attack blinked in and out of existence as it moved through his Rift Barrier—like it had phased through a gap in reality itself.
Keon smirked. Now that's interesting.
The woman, still gripping her plasma gun, looked horrified. "What the hell was that?!"
Keon didn't answer immediately. He flexed his fingers, analyzing what just happened.
His Rift Barrier was supposed to negate physical attacks—but instead of stopping the wolf's strike outright, it had caused the attack to disappear and reappear as soon as it passed through.
Like a forced displacement.
The Howler didn't seem to understand either. It hesitated, its crimson eyes narrowing at Keon as if reevaluating its prey.
Keon exhaled, excitement flickering in his gaze.
"Alright," he muttered, rolling his shoulders. "Let's see how far we can push this."
The Howler's ears flicked.
The Obsidian Howler vanished.
No time to think—only instinct.
Keon barely raised his arms before—
BOOM!
A clawed fist slammed into his Rift Barrier, but instead of breaking through—
It blinked out of existence.
Then BAM!
The claw reappeared from behind, smashing into Keon's barrier from another angle.
VWOOM! Gone again.
CRASH! It returned from the side, striking with blinding speed.
The beast wasn't stopping.
BAM! SMASH! BOOM!
The Howler's attacks teleported around Keon's Rift Barrier like a glitching boss fight.
Keon's brain could barely keep up, but his body? His body was having the time of its life.
"Oi—! HAHA, THIS IS ACTUALLY KINDA FUN!" Keon laughed, dodging between the disappearing and reappearing strikes.
The woman, still gripping her plasma gun, stared in pure horror. "How the hell are you smiling?!"
Keon smirked, ducking another vanishing claw strike. "Because I just figured out—"
The beast's attack blinked in from above.
Keon grinned.
"—how to use this."
CRACK!
Instead of dodging, Keon slammed his fist forward, using his Rift Barrier as a makeshift counterattack.
The Howler's own displaced claw was forced back into its face.
BOOM!
The beast headbutted itself.
It stumbled, letting out a confused snarl—like it couldn't process how it had just punched its own face.
Keon wiggled his fingers. "Yeah, I'm gonna enjoy this."
The Obsidian Howler shook off the impact, its crimson eyes narrowing.
This human… was annoying.
But he couldn't always predict its attacks, right?
The beast suddenly vanished.
WHOOSH! A blur of black launched into the air, rebounding off ruined structures.
It reappeared for half a second—then blinked away again.
Left. Right. Above. Behind.
The wolf danced through the battlefield, its movements erratic—impossible to follow.
Even the woman could barely track it. "H-Holy shit…!"
Keon, however?
He grinned.
"Nice trick. But—"
FWOOOOSH!
His Rift Barrier expanded—not just in front, but to all sides at once.
A spherical dome.
The moment the Howler reappeared—
BZZT! It slammed into the Rift Barrier mid-attack.
The force of its own speed whiplashed it backward.
BANG! The beast crashed into a wall, stunned.
Keon dusted off his sleeves.
"—you're not the only one who can think ahead."
The Howler snarled, shaking its head, but its amber eyes flickered—just for a second.
Doubt.
For the first time… it realized.
This prey wasn't normal.
The Obsidian Howler shook off the impact, its crimson eyes burning with rage.
It roared—not in frustration, but in revelation.
If it couldn't hurt this human with its body…
Then it would break him with sound.
The beast threw its head back.
And then—
RRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGHHH!!!
The air trembled. The ground shook.
Keon's body froze as an unbearable pressure slammed into his skull.
His Rift Barrier blocked physical attacks—
But sound wasn't physical.
"Tch—!" Keon staggered, clutching his ears. The howl tore through him, like someone was driving knives into his brain.
His vision blurred.
His balance faltered.
The Howler saw its chance.
It vanished.
Keon barely reacted—his instincts screaming.
But was he fast enough?
Keon's ears were still ringing from the wolf's deafening roar, his body shuddering from the sheer force of it. He wasn't a superhuman—just a guy with a broken ability and some quick thinking. His legs wobbled for a second, but he gritted his teeth and focused.
"Enough." His voice cut through the chaos, firm and sharp.
Keon expanded his Rift Barrier, its invisible boundary pulsing outward like an expanding dome. The moment it touched the wolf, something clicked. Unlike before, when his barrier simply nullified attacks, this time, it pulled.
The world seemed to shift—no, bend—as if space itself had been rewritten. The charging wolf, mid-leap, was yanked into the barrier like a fish caught in a net.
Keon exhaled sharply. It worked.
Only the wolf had been pulled in—nothing else. No stray rubble, no air disturbances. Just the hostile target.
And he could feel it.
His instincts flared as he sensed the wolf struggling within the barrier, its massive frame thrashing in confusion. Keon didn't give it time to adapt.
With a thought, he launched the wolf outward at extreme speed.
The air cracked as the beast was ejected like a bullet, its body twisting mid-flight before it crashed into a crumbling building in the distance. The impact sent debris flying, dust clouding the area where it landed.
Keon didn't wait to see the aftermath—his body was still shaking from the aftereffects of that roar.
He immediately allocated 20 SP into Endurance.
[Endurance: 20 → 40]
A surge of stability washed over him. His muscles no longer trembled, his mind cleared, and the residual effects of the wolf's roar dulled to an annoying buzz instead of a debilitating shock.
His body was adapting, growing stronger.
But the fight wasn't over yet.