Another attack ca which Silver narrowly avoided. Then another followed right after.
The squirrel appeared again, perched comfortably atop a rock. Watching him as though he were part of a circus.
Silver suddenly laughed. A short breathless sound.
The squirrel blinked in confusion.
"So that’s it."
The beast tilted its head.
Silver finally understood what had felt wrong during the one-sided attack. The creature wasn’t confident it was extrely cautious. Just like a normal squirrel. It seems not to have shed its nature before mutations.
Every attack ca from a distance and every teleport placed obstacles between them. It never committed fully to the fight. Most of the ti it was always, attack then teleport. Rinse and repeat.
Which ant one thing its body wasn’t strong only the power was. The squirrel itself wasn’t.
That changed everything. With its ability to teleport, getting a direct hit would probably instantly kill it but the challenging part was landing one. The beast vanished every ti he tried to counter.
It vanished again. Silver sprinted imdiately, not toward where it appeared but toward where it wanted him looking. It had started to form a pattern.
The squirrel reappeared behind him, exactly as he had expected. Space visibly distorted and Silver spun at the exact mont, gun already raised.
[Phantom Draw LV2 Activated.]
Bang!
The shot crossed the distance instantly. But the squirrel disappeared imdiately after. The bullet shattered the rock behind it.
Missed but barely.
For the first ti, the beast looked surprised and slightly confused at his accuracy.
Silver smiled slightly.
Now they were getting sowhere in this whole debacle. The squirrel teleported again then another attack followed.
Silver watched carefully.
He wasn’t watching the beast. But the distortions of space. He noticed that the teleport wasn’t instantaneous. A tiny fold appeared beforehand like a wrinkle in the air itself as though reality was bending, then the beast erged.
Silver fired imdiately.
Bang!
The squirrel vanished again. But Silver had at least managed to get it, a tuft of grey fur drifted through the air. He smiled to himself.
The squirrel’s expression changed. The playful curiosity disappeared and now it looked annoyed. Silver had managed to piss it off.
The next several minutes beca brutal. The squirrel attacked relentlessly.
Invisible slashes carved through stone. The ravine’s rock formations collapsed and entire sections of the ravine floor split apart.
Silver accumulated more cuts despite his efforts to predict its movents and attacks. His shoulder, arm, and leg, still, nothing was a critical hit. But the wounds were painful.
Thankfully the beast wasn’t escaping unscathed either. Several bullets grazed it. One had clipped its hind leg and another had removed part of its ear. Neither side gained a decisive advantage.
Gradually Silver’s breathing grew heavier. His earlier injuries returned. The dicine had helped but his body wasn’t fully healed. Every movent strained damaged muscles.
The squirrel noticed.
Of course it did, predators always noticed weakness. It beca more aggressive imdiately.
Silver ducked beneath another invisible attack but he was still too late. A second slash struck his thigh.
Pain shot upward instantly. He nearly fell just from the sheer intensity of it.
The squirrel appeared on a nearby ledge, watching him patiently.
Silver’s thoughts raced.
He needed sothing different; sothing unexpected. Then his gaze landed on the sword. Not the blade itself but the reflection. Moonlight glimred across polished steel and at that mont, mory surfaced. A training and observation regi that they had gone through while he was in the military. One of the core lessons.
Sotis the easiest way to track sothing invisible wasn’t directly, it was indirectly.
Silver slowly shifted position. He angled the sword slightly in a way that moonlight reflected outward.
The squirrel vanished again.
Silver watched the reflection, as expected, a tiny distortion appeared behind him.
The squirrel erged but not fully, just a small part and that was enough.
Silver moved instantly toward it.
The beast clearly hadn’t expected that since most prey retreated.
Silver attacked.
The sword flashed upward to the distortions. The squirrel teleported again but it was too late. The blade sliced across its side distracting it. Blood splattered against the rocks.
The creature shrieked a high-pitched sound unlike anything he’d heard before.
Silver pressed imdiately without giving it any breathing room.
The squirrel vanished then reappeared and vanished again. Its movents grew erratic now, even more desperate. Fear had finally entered the equation which increased his advantage in the fight.
Desperation made making mistakes easier.
Silver chased.
Every appearance triggered another attack.
A slash.
A shot.
Anything that could either hurt or distract it long enough. Gradually the distance shrank.
Ten ters.
Seven.
Five.
The squirrel was running, actually running, the smug look gone. Its teleportation beca shorter and less precise as each second passed.
Silver finally understood why. It was undergoing soul exhaustion. Just like humans beasts had limits too.
One final teleport and the squirrel appeared atop a narrow stone column, breathing heavily.
Silver’s chest rose and fell just as hard.
Both of them were exhausted. The creature’s silver eyes locked onto him, then the space around its body began twisting violently, far more than before.
Silver’s instincts scread instantly that this was real danger.
The squirrel was preparing sothing, probably a final attack. It was everything it had left since Silver had pushed it to the corner.
The air distorted throughout the ravine. Small stones floated upward and cracks spread across nearby surfaces. Space itself seed unstable as though angry on the squirrel’s behalf.
Silver’s grip tightened around the sword.
The squirrel’s body trembled then the attack began. And for the first ti since the fight started Silver felt genuinely afraid.
The squirrel’s final attack never fully ford because Silver moved first. He wasn’t about to wait for that.
Perhaps because he had already spent an entire lifeti fighting things that wanted him dead or the beast was exhausted or maybe because luck finally decided to stop kicking him.
Whatever the reason, the mont the space around the squirrel began twisting violently, Silver charged forward.
The creature’s silver eyes widened.
The sword flashed, moonlight reflecting on the blade.
The squirrel tried to teleport. A ripple distorted the air beside it but then failed. Its exhausted soul power couldn’t sustain another perfect jump.
His sword crossed flesh effortlessly. A sharp shriek echoed through the ravine then silence.
Silver stumbled two more steps before stopping. The sword remained extended towards the fallen beast while blood dripped slowly from the blade.
Behind him, the squirrel’s small body slid from the stone pillar and struck the ground with a soft thud. For several monts, Silver simply stood there breathing heavily.
The fight had not been flashy or glorious, it had been exhausting. Every muscle in his body hurt, his wounds ached and his soul felt strangely drained.
Only after confirming the beast wasn’t moving did he lower the sword.
"...Please tell that thing is actually dead."
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