Chapter 8: The Edge of the Wilds
The sun had long vanished behind the dense canopy of the Verdant Wilds, casting the jungle in an oppressive twilight. Every breath Kai drew was sharp with the scent of blood, sweat, and the earthy musk of damp moss. The trees loomed like silent sentinels, their twisted limbs veiling the battle from the sky above.
Ren lay crumpled against a tree trunk, unconscious. His leg was a mangled mess of torn flesh and shattered bone, crimson soaking into the roots beneath him. His breathing was shallow—alive, but only just.
Kai stood alone in the clearing.
His body screamed in protest. Cuts crisscrossed his arms, one shoulder hung lower than the other, and blood dripped steadily from a gash above his eye. Yet still, he stood. Around him, the horde circled: half a dozen lean, snarling forest raptors, their muscles rippling beneath bark-colored scales. Behind them, a larger threat loomed—an Alpha Razorclaw, twice the size, with a jagged ridge of bone-like armor along its back and eyes glowing with territorial fury.
Kai spat iron from his mouth and shifted his stance. His knuckles cracked. His ki flickered around him, ragged but present.
[Status:
Strength – 88
Speed – 85
Endurance – 91
Intelligence – 93
Perception – 89
Willpower – 102
Ki – 160
Rank: Martial Expert (Low)
Estimated Punching Force: ~4,800 kg]
His legs ached with strain, but his mind was sharp. He couldn't afford a single mistake.
Behind him, Ren groaned.
Kai's grip tightened. No one else is dying. Not here.
The first of the raptors lunged.
Kai stepped forward—not back. His hand moved in a crescent arc, guiding the creature's momentum just off-angle.
🌀 [False Form: Phantom Reversal – Activated]
He redirected the beast's lunge, slamming its weight into a tree. Its bones cracked with a dull thud as it crumpled, twitching.
Five left.
Another pounced from his left. Kai rolled low beneath its claws and came up with a spinning back elbow that crunched against its lower jaw. His ki surged with the strike, sending the creature tumbling backward in a howl.
The Alpha let out a guttural roar. The pack tightened.
His breathing slowed. Kai narrowed his focus. Fractured Reality Drill—sustain mode.
Time felt like it fractured—movements became data, pressure points illuminated like star maps in his mind. He traced the tension in each predator's legs, the twitch of a claw before impact, the rhythm of their joint movement.
Then they rushed him.
Three at once.
He ducked, evaded, spun—a blade-like claw grazed his ribs, but he redirected the force through his stance, rolling with it. A second beast latched onto his shoulder—he snarled and slammed it backward into another, crushing them both under momentum.
Blood now poured freely down his arm. His left leg buckled slightly.
One mistake and it ends.
The Alpha charged—its roar a sonic wave that shook the leaves from the branches above. It barreled forward, maw open wide.
Kai didn't move.
Instead, he lowered his stance, focused his ki—and waited.
At the final instant, just as the Alpha committed its full weight into the pounce, Kai stepped into the charge with surgical precision.
🌀 [False Form: Phantom Reversal – Activated]
His hands moved like silk, guiding the Alpha's momentum just past his centerline and slamming it shoulder-first into the earth with a thunderous crash. Dust and leaves erupted in a shockwave.
The beast staggered, dazed.
Kai's ki pulsed outward. He was out of time.
With a final breath, he gathered every last ounce of strength and channeled it into his right fist. His muscles screamed as he launched himself forward.
His punch collided with the Alpha's exposed jaw.
The impact echoed through the jungle like a cannon blast.
The creature collapsed.
For a moment, silence returned to the clearing—broken only by the heaving of Kai's breath.
Then—
🟦 [Hidden Quest Completed: "Defy the Wild"]
Objective: Survive an Alpha-tier monster ambush while protecting a wounded comrade.
Status: ✅ Success
Rewards: +25 Stat Points
🟦 [Skill Selection]
Choose one skill to unlock:
1️⃣ Offensive Skill: Reality Shatter
A strike that momentarily disrupts the target's connection to their own internal ki flow. The blow itself lands like a precise hammer strike, but the real damage comes from fracturing their ki rhythm, causing delayed muscle spasms and reduced power output for a short time.
Ki Cost: 15
Effect: Physical damage plus causes the opponent's next attack to be 20% weaker for 3 seconds.
2️⃣ Movement Skill: Veilstep
A technique that uses micro-teleportation and instantaneous shifts in balance to move in bursts just short of invisibility to the naked eye. It isn't true teleportation but a rapid succession of precise foot placements and ki pulses that allow the user to 'fade' between positions.
Ki Cost: 10 (per 3-second burst)
Effect: Temporarily boosts movement speed by 300%, allowing near-instantaneous sidesteps or short dashes lasting up to 3 seconds.
3️⃣ Defensive Skill: Iron Mirage
A defensive stance that creates subtle distortions in the user's ki signature, confusing the opponent's senses and causing attacks to 'phase' through empty space at the last moment.
Ki Cost: 12
Effect: Automatically causes 30% of incoming attacks to miss for 5 seconds.
⸻
Kai's body trembled with exhaustion, but his mind was clear as the skill options hovered before him. He flexed his fingers, feeling the raw power surging in his veins.
He tested Veilstep instinctively—a tiny hop, a blink of displacement—and the world seemed to slow as he vanished and reappeared a few meters away, leaving only a brief shimmer in the air.
His eyes narrowed. Mobility was the key to survival.
He reached out and confirmed Veilstep.
The skill integrated instantly, a cool pulse flowing through his limbs.
Kai swallowed hard, steadied his breath, and looked back toward Ren's prone form.