The Riverbound Shade did not rush him.
It rose with glacial patience, water sliding from its form without splash or ripple, as if gravity itself hesitated to claim it. Its lower half never fully left the pool, shadow dissolving into darkened depths, while its upper body stretched into a mockery of human posture.
This was not an enemy meant to be chased down.
It was meant to be endured.
WARNING
Environmental Entity
Damage Type: Corrosive / Chill
Recommended Tactic: AVOIDANCE
Evan's jaw tightened.
"Too late for that."
The shade lifted one elongated arm. The water beneath it darkened, spiraling inward.
Evan moved first.
He sprinted sideways, boots skidding on wet stone as a lance of blackened water erupted where he'd been standing a heartbeat earlier. The impact hissed, stone pitting and steaming as if kissed by acid frost.
Stamina: 62 → 54
He didn't stop running. He circled the pool, keeping distance, forcing the shade to turn. Each movement it made was slow, but deliberate, water obeying it like a loyal limb.
Analyze pulsed again, unbidden.
Riverbound Shade
HP: ???
Resistances: Physical (High), Cold (Immune)
Weakness: Disruption, Flow Interference
"Disruption," Evan echoed. "Right."
He scanned the terrain as he ran. The ruined waypoint. Fallen stone blocks half-swallowed by moss. Tree roots breaking the bank and biting into the pool's edge.
Flow.
Water only ruled where it could move.
He darted toward the ruin, vaulted a low slab, and slammed his shoulder into a leaning column. Stone groaned. The Shade reacted instantly, water surging forward in a wide, sweeping arc.
Too slow.
The column tipped.
It struck the pool with a thunderous crack, sending a shockwave through the water. Ripples exploded outward, violent and chaotic, breaking the pool's unnatural stillness.
DISRUPTION SUCCESSFUL
Riverbound Shade Stability: −30%
The Shade shrieked.
The sound scraped across Evan's nerves, bypassing his ears and clawing directly at thought. His vision blurred. Pain flared behind his eyes.
HP: 64 → 58
Mental Strain Detected
"Not today," he growled, biting down and forcing himself upright.
The Shade convulsed, its form tearing and reknitting as the water refused to settle. It retaliated blindly, spikes of shadowed liquid lashing outward.
One caught Evan's leg.
Cold burned deep, biting through muscle and bone in an instant.
HP: 58 → 41
Movement Speed: −20% (Chill)
He stumbled, nearly fell, caught himself against a tree trunk slick with moss.
This was the moment heroes died.
Charging in. Overcommitting. Trusting drama to bend reality.
Evan didn't do that.
He dragged himself higher up the bank, every step agony, and tore the cracked Essence Core from his inventory. The item pulsed weakly, unstable energy flickering within.
ITEM WARNING
Cracked Essence Core
Status: UNSTABLE
Use Effect: UNKNOWN
"Figures," he muttered.
The Shade surged again, re-forming, dragging the pool with it as if the water itself wanted him dead.
Evan hurled the core.
It struck the pool just as the Shade reached for him.
The explosion was not fire.
It was absence.
Water vanished in a hollow thump, collapsing inward as energy devoured cohesion. The Shade screamed again, its form unraveling, shadow tearing loose from liquid as the pool's surface shattered into chaos.
CRITICAL DISRUPTION
Riverbound Shade Stability: 0%
The entity spasmed, half-solid, half-dissolved, then imploded into a vortex of dark mist that scattered into the air and sank lifelessly into the ground.
Silence followed.
Not the whispering kind.
The honest kind.
Evan collapsed to one knee, gasping, hands shaking violently.
HP: 41 / 100
Status Effects: Chill (Fading), Mental Strain (Minor)
The chime rang late, subdued, as if even the system respected the cost.
ENTITY DEFEATED
Riverbound Shade – Level 4
EXP Gained: 260
BONUS: Environmental Kill Modifier
LEVEL UP!
Level: 2 → 3
Stat Points Gained: 5
Skill Unlock Available: 1
Evan didn't smile.
He stared at the ruined pool, now nothing more than churned mud and broken stone, and felt something harden behind his ribs.
This fight had not rewarded bravery.
It had rewarded understanding.
He pushed himself upright and limped back to the waypoint ruins, blood seeping through his boot, breath steady despite the pain. He allocated his points without ceremony.
+2 Endurance
+2 Willpower
+1 Strength
Endurance: 15
Willpower: 12
Strength: 12
The warmth this time was deeper, slower. His leg stopped trembling. The chill icon faded entirely.
He selected his new skill with the same cold clarity.
SKILL LEARNED
Predator's Focus (Rank I)
Effect: Increased threat awareness and targeting efficiency when outnumbered or wounded.
The system had finally acknowledged what he was becoming.
As dusk crept into Whispering Vale, shadows stretching long and deliberate, Evan cleaned his blade in the dirt and sheathed it across his back.
The water had tried to claim him.
It had failed.
He turned away from the ruined crossing and headed deeper into the vale, not toward safety, but toward resources, toward levels, toward whatever waited next.
The mark pulsed once more, faint but watchful.
Let it watch.
Evan Cole was done being a variable.
He was becoming a problem.