The rubble didn’t hold.
John knew it the mont the ground began to scream.
Not crack—*scream*. Stone grinding against stone, mana tearing through the earth like a wound being forced open. The weight he’d dropped on the monster shifted, then buckled outward as sothing vast and furious moved beneath it.
John forced himself upright despite the protest from every muscle in his body. His wings twitched uselessly, still refusing to fully steady themselves. Blood trickled down his flank, warm and sticky, soaking into the shattered rock beneath him.
"...Of course," he muttered hoarsely. "That would’ve been too easy."
The rubble exploded.
Boulders the size of houses were hurled aside as the monster surged free, dragging half the earth with it. Its roar this ti wasn’t just anger—it was pain layered with sothing worse.
Loss of control.
Mana erupted from its body in violent pulses, green and black energy tearing through the air in chaotic waves. Trees that had sohow remained standing disintegrated where the aura touched them. The ground warped, sagging and cracking as if reality itself was struggling to stay intact around the creature.
John staggered back as the pressure slamd into him.
His vision blurred.
His scales scread.
This wasn’t targeted anymore. This wasn’t an attack ant to kill a specific enemy.
This was a monster *breaking*.
"Damn it," John hissed, digging his claws into the rock to keep from being pushed back. "You’re going berserk."
The monster’s eyes burned brighter, unfocused now, mana leaking from its mouth and wounds in thick, shimring streams. Its breathing was erratic, chest heaving unevenly as it took one unstable step forward... then another.
Each step cracked the land.
Each step pushed the battlefield closer to total collapse.
John’s instincts were screaming at him to leave. To fly—no, *run*—as far and as fast as possible. Whatever territory he’d claid, whatever pride he carried, none of it would matter if he stayed here too long.
But his eyes stayed locked on the monster.
Because if it fully lost control...
It wouldn’t stop at his domain.
It would keep moving.
Destroying everything in its path.
John exhaled slowly, forcing his racing thoughts into sothing usable.
"...If I leave," he said quietly, "you don’t stop."
The monster roared again and slamd both claws into the ground.
A shockwave ripped outward.
John was thrown back hard, slamming into a jagged cliff face. Pain exploded through his ribs as stone gave way beneath him. He slid down the rock, coughing, breath tearing in and out of his chest.
For a mont, the world tilted.
*Get up.*
He clenched his jaw and forced his limbs to move.
"Can’t—" he coughed, then spat blood onto the stone. "Can’t let you roam."
The monster turned its head slowly toward him, eyes locking on his battered form.
Then it charged.
Not carefully. Not efficiently.
It ca like an avalanche.
John didn’t try to match it. He pushed off the cliff and *ran*, wings half-spread as he sprinted across broken ground. The monster followed, plowing straight through debris instead of going around it.
The difference in size was absurd.
The difference in power was worse.
A claw slamd down just behind him, throwing him forward. He tumbled, rolled, and barely managed to regain his footing before another strike ca down.
John leapt upward, wings snapping open at the last second.
The claw missed him by a breath.
But the pressure didn’t.
His left wing buckled mid-flight, a sharp, tearing pain ripping through the mbrane. He scread—short, sharp, uncontrolled—as he spiraled and crashed back to the ground.
The impact knocked the air out of him.
He lay there for half a second too long.
The monster lood over him, shadow swallowing what little light remained. Mana pooled in its throat—not focused, not controlled, but *vast*.
John’s pupils shrank.
"...No," he whispered.
He rolled as the breath attack fired.
The beam tore past him, gouging a molten trench through the ground where he’d been. The heat was unbearable, searing across his back and wing. He scread again, scales blackening as the outer layer burned away.
He didn’t stop moving.
Didn’t stop thinking.
*Four seconds,* he reminded himself desperately. *It still needs four seconds.*
John dragged himself behind a broken stone spire, chest heaving. His wing hung at an awkward angle, pain flaring every ti he tried to move it.
"...You’re not precise anymore," he muttered between breaths. "You’re just throwing power."
The monster roared again, voice cracking with instability. It turned, breath building once more—but slower this ti. Less clean.
Mana backlash rippled across its body.
John felt it.
"You’re killing yourself," he said quietly.
The monster didn’t care.
It fired again.
John launched himself sideways, using his tail to shove off the ground. The beam clipped his hind leg, pain exploding like lightning. He hit the ground hard, skidding across shattered stone.
He didn’t stop.
Didn’t scream.
Didn’t think.
He *moved*.
By the ti the monster realized where he was, John was already climbing—claws digging into its wounded flank, tearing open the sa gashes he’d made earlier.
The monster scread, thrashing violently.
John held on.
"Stay—still!" he snarled, driving his claws deeper, ignoring the pain as mana surged through his arms.
The monster slamd itself into the ground, trying to crush him.
John let go at the last mont and threw himself clear, rolling as the impact shattered more of the battlefield.
Both of them lay still for a heartbeat.
Then another.
John dragged himself upright first.
He stood unsteadily, blood dripping freely now, breath coming in ragged pulls. His wing hung limp. His leg burned with every movent.
The monster pushed itself up more slowly.
Its movents were sluggish now.
Uncoordinated.
Mana still leaked from it—but the pulses were uneven, jagged.
John watched it carefully.
"...You’re at your limit," he said softly. "You just don’t know it yet."
The monster reared back and roared one final ti—a deafening, world-shaking cry that sent cracks racing across the ground in every direction.
The pressure surged.
John felt sothing *snap* inside his core.
Not break.
Shift.
A deep, resonant pulse rippled through his body, darker and heavier than anything he’d felt before. His Dark Mana Core flared violently, stabilizing under stress rather than collapsing.
The system’s presence flickered.
[Warning.]
[Critical stress detected.]
[Adaptive response initiated.]
John sucked in a sharp breath as power surged through him—not clean, not controlled, but *there*. Enough.
"...Finally," he whispered.
The monster charged again.
John didn’t retreat.
He planted his claws into the earth and t its gaze head-on.
"Co on," he growled. "One more ti."
The collision that followed shook the world.
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