The Rift opened with a sound like tearing skin.
Kael didn't flinch. He'd seen enough of them now — the glimmering wounds in space, pulsing like open nerves against the sky. This one wasn't marked. No System prompt. No world notification. Just the flicker of unnatural wind and the subtle drag on his skin as he stepped closer.
He tilted his head. Listened.
No heartbeat hum. No dungeon gate flare. Just static.
Kureha was already drawn before he stepped in.
---
The Rift swallowed him.
Light bent. Gravity stuttered. His boots struck solid stone — too smooth, too uniform to be natural. Kael took a single breath and froze.
No enemies. No boss. No map.
Just darkness.
Then the whisper started.
It didn't sound. Not really. More like the scrape of legs on bone.
Kael's HUD flickered once.
> [You have entered a Rift: Hive of the Hungering Wind]
[Solo Instanced – Adaptive Spawn: Wave Format]
[Warning: Swarm Mechanics Detected]
[Objective: Survive until Terminal Echo Collapse (∞ Waves)]
No exit. No timeline. Just survive.
Kael's grip tightened.
"Fine."
---
They came without warning.
A ripple in the dark. Then hundreds of red eyes opened like fireflies caught in smoke.
Kael moved.
He didn't think — didn't analyze. The first two leapt, all jagged limbs and bone-slick wings. His blade rose in a horizontal arc, carving through their spines before the others hit the ground.
Blood hit the air like iron mist.
Then the swarm followed.
---
The battle wasn't clean.
Kael ducked, rolled, cut — not in perfect form, not yet. The Hive creatures weren't strong individually, but they were fast. Uncoordinated, but endless. Every time he turned to finish one, three more hissed into the gap.
Claws scraped across his ribs. A shoulder spike tore part of his cloak.
He kept moving. If he stopped, he died.
> [HP: 72%]
[CP: 41%]
[Draw Cut Sync: 78%]
[Critical Counter Timing: +12%]
His breathing steadied. The chaos didn't shrink — but he found its rhythm.
---
The key wasn't in overpowering them.
It was spacing.
Kael adjusted his footwork — tighter arcs, shorter pivots. He stopped chasing damage and started controlling flow. He dragged the swarm through choke points. He lured them under broken arches and into dead ends, forcing them into funnels.
His strikes are shortened. Efficiency over flash.
The System responded.
> [Draw Cut Sync: 84%]
[Passive Progression: Blade Memory +1]
[CP Regeneration Bonus: +5/sec (Momentum Active)]
He didn't smile. But he didn't bleed as much, either.
---
Minutes blurred into one long, grinding rhythm of death.
Kael didn't know how many he'd killed. A hundred? Two? The swarm thinned, then surged, then changed. He noticed the evolution first in their claws — sharper. Then their eyes — smarter.
They were learning.
The Hive adapted.
So Kael changed again.
He sheathed Kureha mid-sprint.
Let the swarm chase him down the curved slope of a cracked bridge. Let them think he was retreating.
He counted his steps.
One.
Two.
Three.
Then turned.
> [Draw Cut: Sheathed State – Charged x2.5]
[Wind Thread Arc Enabled]
[Target Lock: 8]
The sword whispered out of its scabbard.
Kael moved through them in a single, clean step. Not even a breath wasted. The first eight Hivelings fell in perfect silence. Only their blood announced the kill.
He kept running.
---
The floor trembled.
Kael skidded to a stop.
Ahead, the swarm parted — not in fear, but in reverence. Something else stepped through them.
No. Crawled.
A creature twice his height, armored in bone plate and draped in the hanging skin of its dead kin. Its eyes were multifaceted obsidian. Its blade was not forged — it was grown.
> [Adaptive Elite Detected – Hivecaller Matron]
[HP: ???]
[Threat Level: High | Burst Field: Active]
[Note: System scan disrupted. Visibility limited.]
Kael didn't wait.
He sprinted.
---
The Hive Matron shrieked — not with voice, but with air. Pressure bent around her. Kael's ears popped. His HUD flickered again.
Then she lunged.
Kael dodged the first strike by feel — not speed. His blade turned the second with a shallow deflection, and he buried Kureha into her side with all the momentum of his dash.
She didn't flinch.
Instead, she grabbed him.
Her claws sank into his shoulder. He felt his tendons tear.
> [HP: 48%]
[Status: Bleed (Tier II)]
[Movement: -15%]
Kael didn't scream.
He stabbed.
A single short thrust, right through the base of her jaw — deep enough to sever something important. She shrieked. Flung him like a doll.
He landed in a roll and kept moving.
---
The fight dragged on.
Kael burned CP like firewood in a storm.
He gave up defense. Focused on openings. The Hive Matron was fast, but she wasn't a fighter — she was instinct. Once he found her timing, he exploited it.
But he was running out of time.
And blood.
> [HP: 21%]
[CP: 12%]
[Draw Cut Sync: 92%]
He stumbled. Dropped to a knee.
The Matron surged forward — scenting weakness.
Kael closed his eyes.
Let her come.
Waited.
Waited—
> [Counter Triggered – Parry Frame: 0.1s]
[Execution Arc Enabled]
[Overload: x3 CP Remaining]
Kureha flashed up from below, a perfect reverse sweep.
The Matron's head hit the ground before her momentum stopped.
---
Silence.
The swarm stopped moving.
Then, as one, they screamed — and disintegrated.
Kael didn't move. Just knelt there, blood dripping from his arm, his lips, his sword.
> [Rift Complete]
[Wave Cycle: 7 Cleared]
[System Reward Granted: Experience Boost x1.2 Applied]
[Level Up: 27 ➤ 28 ➤ 29]
[Bonus Stat Gained: Resolve +1]
He stood up slowly.
Not victorious.
Just... standing.
---
Outside the Rift, the world felt too light.
The ground is too normal. The air is too still.
Kael didn't look back at the rift seal closing behind him.
He just checked the blade. Cleaned it. Re-sheathed.
Then walked.
His steps were slower now. Not from injury — from calculation.
He'd learned something in there.
He wasn't the fastest.
Wasn't the strongest.
But he was still here.
> [Draw Cut Sync: 92%]
[Blade Memory: +3 (Progression Unlocked)]
[Class Evolution Possibility: 1/3 Confirmed]
Kael didn't know what the System was planning.
He didn't care.
He'd bleed through it like everything else.