The Scaleknuckle hissed low, claws tapping against the vines as if testing the air for weakness. Across from it, Rei tightened his grip on his sword, the Phantom Twin heavy in his other hand. His body ached from every clash so far cuts lined his arms, his legs screamed from the strain of constant leaps—but his eyes still burned with a golden light.

  Focus. You’ve come this far. No hesitation.

  The beast moved first, bounding from one pillar to the next with a predatory grace that belied its jagged armor. Rei fired the pistol in short bursts, forcing it to weave and dart between the glowing streaks of bullets. Then, when it drew close, Rei abandoned his distance, bringing his sword around in a sharp parry as the bone spike came crashing down.

  Steel rang against bone. Sparks spat in the air. Rei shoved, twisted, and answered with a slash across its ribs before flipping back to gain space. The Scaleknuckle recoiled but didn’t falter. It hissed again, circling, crouching low as if it understood now. This was no longer prey. This was a duel.

  The clash repeated again and again, neither side gaining much ground. Rei shifted between close combat and range, his instincts guiding him: slash, step, fire, roll. The Scaleknuckle responded in kind, lunging forward with spikes, then retreating, only to leap at him again from another angle.

  For long minutes, it was nothing but the sound of impacts, gunfire, and claws raking against vines.

  Then Rei slipped.

  One miscalculation, one mistimed parry. The bone spike slammed into his blade with brutal force, throwing him across the cavern. He skidded along the edge of several vine pillars, barely catching himself before tumbling off completely.

  His chest heaved. Blood filled his mouth.

  “Damn it…” He spat red into the vines and pushed himself up again, wobbling slightly. His sword trembled faintly in his hand.

  The Scaleknuckle screeched, diving for him again. Rei’s eyes flared, and foresight saved him in the final heartbeat. He shifted left, the bone spike slamming into the vine where he’d been. Splinters exploded outward, raining down.

  Rei staggered back, panting.

  I can’t keep this up…

  He was running out of options. No matter how many times he thought it through. Different counters, different attack angles. None of them worked. His mind whirled, throwing him solutions that dissolved the moment he tried to grasp them.

  And then the dread realization came.

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  I can’t beat this thing… not like this.

  The thought lodged in his chest like a dagger. His arms slackened slightly, despair creeping in like a tide. He saw the same loop of failure repeating again, the hours of defeat, the pain, the endless cycle. His throat tightened.

  But then, like a whisper breaking through the noise. He remembered.

  “Widen your vision.”

  Ariel’s words. Her calm voice in the forest.

  Rei blinked hard, forcing himself to steady. He dodged another swing, rolled under a spike that nearly split him in two, and kept thinking.

  Widen your vision. Don’t just look at the beast, look at everything.

  And then it hit him.

  The object of the fight wasn’t victory in the traditional sense. He didn’t have to kill it. He didn’t even need to overpower it.

  He only had to make it fall.

  Rei’s lips parted as the realization clicked. His golden eyes darted around the cavern, not at the beast, but at the world itself. Dozens, hundreds of vine pillars stretched all around them, fragile lifelines that held the battlefield together.

  That’s it…

  His grip tightened on the Phantom Twin. His breathing steadied.

  He snapped his pistol up and fired, not at the Scaleknuckle, but at the vines beneath its feet.

  The first vine shuddered as bullets ripped through it, fibers snapping under the assault. The Scaleknuckle tilted its head in confusion, crouched to leap but Rei was already moving, firing again and again. He tested vines of different thicknesses, counting how many shots each one could withstand before breaking apart.

  Two. Three. Six. Thicker ones took a full burst.

  And then his grin formed, a sharp gleam of teeth under the sweat and blood.

  The Scaleknuckle screeched when it finally understood, bounding toward him in fury. But it was too late. Rei had his plan.

  He fired in controlled bursts, breaking pillars out from under the creature. Each time it leapt, his foresight lit up, showing him where it would land. He redirected fire, bullets sparking and snapping vines to pieces beneath its claws.

  It became a battle of endurance now.

  Every second, Rei’s mana bled away. He needed it to fuel his grace, needed it to keep the Phantom Twins blazing. But if he let up for even a moment, the Scaleknuckle would close the distance and crush him.

  “C’mon…” he hissed through clenched teeth, firing, circling, ducking under a spike.

  The vines fell away one by one, the battlefield shrinking. The cavern’s endless pillars were reduced to dozens, then less than half that. Each step became tighter, each leap riskier.

  Rei’s heart pounded. He could feel it the endgame.

  But his mana gauge was thinning, a hollowness spreading in his chest. The Twins flickered faintly, their glow dimming. His foresight sputtered, the golden shimmer of the future twitching at the edges.

  No… not yet. I’m so close.

  The Scaleknuckle screeched, pressing harder, its bone spike carving through the vines as it leapt. Rei kept his fire going until at last—his guns clicked empty. The mana reserves were gone.

  His grace winked out.

  Only his blade and instincts remained.

  Rei’s lungs burned. Sweat slicked his hair into his eyes. But he lifted the sword again, defiant even in exhaustion.

  The Scaleknuckle sensed it. A shift. A weakness.

  It crouched low, muscles coiling, before springing forward with everything it had. A final, savage leap, bone spike aimed to impale.

  Rei’s boots shuffled back until there was nowhere left. Only one thin vine pillar remained beneath him, barely wide enough for his feet. Beyond it, nothing but air.

  Trapped.

  This is it.

  But Rei didn’t block. Didn’t swing. Didn’t fire.

  He stepped forward.

  And fell.

  The air roared past him. For a heartbeat, he was weightless, the Scaleknuckle soaring above where he had been.

  But Rei wasn’t finished. His blade lashed out, cutting through the vine pillar as he dropped. He twisted midair, planting his foot against the collapsing trunk, and kicked off. His sword plunged into a thicker vine nearby, the steel burying deep into its fibers. The impact jolted his arm nearly out of socket, but it stopped his fall.

  Above him, the sound echoed.

  The Scaleknuckle shrieked as it missed its prey, its momentum too great to stop. The vine beneath it snapped where Rei had weakened it earlier. The beast tumbled, claws raking uselessly at the empty air, before vanishing into the abyss below.

  Silence followed. Then the distant, heavy crash of something massive hitting the unseen ground.

  Rei hung there for a long moment, panting, every muscle trembling. Then he pulled himself up onto the vine, chest heaving with ragged breaths.

  A slow, tired smirk curled on his lips.

  “Checkmate.”

  [End of Chapter]