Blake crouched at the edge of the scrap heap, his boots finding purchase on twisted metal as he studied the vast depression below. The crater stretched out to the horizon like a wound in the planet, its edges ragged with fallen debris that had collected over what must have been centuries. At its center, barely visible through layers of accumulated wreckage, lay something massive—a dark shape that had driven itself deep into the planet's surface.
He activated [Warden's Insight], letting his perception expand outward. The familiar rush of information flooded his awareness as details crystallized with supernatural clarity. But before he could process what he was seeing, Chimera's presence in his mind sparked with shock.
"That's... that's a Leviathan," she said, her usual composure faltering. "The outer shell is… But it's unmistakable. Why would..." She trailed off, clearly disturbed. "What could have driven one to do this to itself?"
Blake shifted his weight, metal creaking beneath him as he studied the scene. "I assumed this was just another wormhole dump site. You know, like everything else that ends up here."
"No," Chimera said firmly. "Look at this impact pattern, the way the ground buckled and sprayed outward. It must be over 3 kilometers wide. This wasn't a drop from a wormhole. This was a high-velocity impact—deliberate and devastating."
Blake took in the impact crater and couldn't help but agree that she was right. He hadn't thought that one through.
"Besides," she continued, tone thoughtful. "You don't catch Leviathans with wormholes. We're creatures born to the void itself. Spatial manipulation, gravity control—it's woven into our very nature."
She paused a moment before speaking again with absolute certainty.
"No, this Leviathan chose its fate. It drove itself into this planet with purpose."
"Okay," Blake said. "Let's go see if we can figure out why."
----------------------------------------
Blake activated [Unfettered Stride], letting the power flow through him as he began his descent into the crater. The ability heightened his grace and balance, but he stumbled on his first few steps as golden text blazed across his vision:
[ Quest Received: The Hunt Beckons ]
[ Faction: Wild Hunt of Herne ]
[ Objective: Investigate the source of mutated Ferroghest specimens in the local den. ]
[ Reward: Performance-based ]
[ Accept? Y/N ]
He caught himself with one hand against cool steel, steadying his stance.
"Perfect timing," Chimera said, her tone lighter than before. "We were heading to hunt them anyway. Though 'mutated' is... interesting."
Blake's jaw tightened at that word. The Ferroghest he'd encountered before had been deadly enough—a nightmare fusion of flesh and crude machinery. The thought of an even more twisted version made his stomach clench.
"Mutated how?" he asked, picking his path carefully down the slope.
"I'm not sure how you expect me to know," Chimera replied.
Blake shrugged and accepted the quest. If he were going to play the part of some video game protagonist, he would commit to the entire bit.
”We’re going to have to discuss how strange the cultural overlap here is,” Blake added, noting the familiarity of Herne and The Wild Hunt.
”I’d love to tell you it’s all down to the nanites giving you familiar analogues while translating—and there is definitely some of that, but be ready for another long and confusing lecture if you want to understand more,” Chimera replied, chuckling. Blake just sighed and set off down the incline.
He moved with fluid grace down the crater's slope, each step precise despite the treacherous footing. His [Unfettered Stride] transformed the hazardous descent into something approaching a dance. Where normal movement would demand careful planning, the skill let him flow across the debris field like water over stones.
The raw physical freedom of it hit him hard. His body responded with perfect coordination, muscles and reflexes operating at peak efficiency. He vaulted a twisted girder, caught the edge of a fallen hull plate, and swung underneath it in one smooth motion. The rush of endorphins lit up his nervous system—this was better than any drug he'd ever encountered.
But that thought brought an edge of unease. The high came from the System, from abilities granted by an entity he didn't fully understand or trust. Each enhancement felt like another string that could be pulled, another way control could be exerted over him. He'd spent his entire life honing his natural abilities through sweat and dedication. Now he was accepting shortcuts, trading away his autonomy bit by bit for power that felt too good to refuse.
Blake caught himself on a vertical beam, muscles coiling as he prepared to leap to the next position. He knew he was being paranoid, but paranoia had kept him alive through years of covert operations. The System might be benevolent, might truly exist just to help people grow stronger, but—
A deep growl cut through his thoughts. Metal screeched against metal as something massive erupted from beneath a pile of scrap, lunging straight for his throat.
Blake's body reacted before his mind could process the threat. He twisted in mid-leap, narrowly avoiding the Ferroghest's initial lunge. His new knife cleared its sheath in a fluid motion—nine inches of matte black carbon steel with a full tang and textured grip. No unnecessary ornamentation, just clean, lethal lines designed for a single purpose.
The Ferroghest's momentum carried it past him, giving Blake a split-second glimpse of its horrific form. Unlike the one he'd encountered before, this beast's cybernetics seemed to pulse with an unnatural blue glow. Steam hissed from joints where metal met diseased flesh, and its jaws—already unnaturally large—had been augmented further with serrated metal plates.
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Blake landed in a crouch on a twisted sheet of hull plating, his Agility combined with [Unfettered Stride] allowing him to maintain perfect balance despite the unstable surface. The creature whirled with impossible speed, its augmented limbs whining with hydraulic pressure as it prepared for another attack.
Blake flared his mana, throwing it into [Warden's Insight].
"Left side's exposed," Chimera's voice was tight as she parsed the feedback from his ability. "Seam between the chest plate and shoulder mount."
Blake didn't waste breath responding. The Ferroghest charged again, but this time Blake was ready. He pushed off the plating, channeling power through his legs. [Unfettered Stride] turned what should have been an awkward dodge into a fluid roll that carried him beneath the creature's snapping jaws.
Metal screamed against metal as the beast's claws carved furrows in the debris where Blake had been standing. He completed his roll and sprang upward, knife leading. The blade found the gap Chimera had identified, slipping between poorly-integrated panels to strike corrupted flesh beneath.
The Ferroghest's agonized shriek was a mixture of animal pain and mechanical feedback. It twisted violently, trying to shake Blake loose, but he maintained his grip on the knife. His Strength let him drive the blade deeper, angling up toward what he hoped were vital organs.
Hot fluid sprayed across his arm—some combination of blood and hydraulic fluid that likely would have burned exposed skin. Good thing he had gloves. The creature's movements became more erratic, its augmented strength threatening to tear Blake's shoulder from its socket as he held on.
"Second set of cybernetics activating," Chimera warned. "Backup systems—"
The beast's shoulder mount suddenly rotated a full 180 degrees with a grinding of gears. Blake barely managed to release his grip on the knife and throw himself backward before steel-reinforced jaws could close on his face. He hit the ground hard, rolling with the impact as his HUD flashed warnings about the strain on his suit's integrity.
The Ferroghest advanced, movements jerky but determined. Blake's knife still protruded from its shoulder, the wound leaking a steady stream of fluids that sizzled when they hit the ground. Its eyes blazed with that unnatural blue light, tracking him with predatory focus.
Blake steadied himself, hands empty but stance ready. His heart hammered in his chest, not from fear but from the pure adrenaline surge of facing down something that could tear him apart in seconds. Part of him—the part that had spent decades surviving impossible situations—screamed that he should retreat, find better ground, better weapons.
But another part of him, the part that seemed to resonate with this new reality he'd found himself in, saw the creature's labored movements. Saw the way its secondary systems struggled to compensate for the damage he'd already inflicted. Saw the opportunity.
The Ferroghest gathered itself for another charge. Blake let his consciousness expand, feeling the subtle Resonance through the debris field beneath his feet. [Unfettered Stride] hummed at the edge of his awareness, ready to transform the battlefield into his personal dance floor.
His [Warden's Insight] was burning, trying to feed him every scrap of information his senses could interpret. Pressure mounted in Blake's skull and on instinct he turned inwards, his Intent seizing hold of the skill. He felt his Willpower flare as well as he flexed his Intent and pointed the damned ability at the Ferroghest. FOCUS.
The world sharpened. Colors bled away, replaced by stark contrasts that highlighted every minute detail of the Ferroghest's form. He could see the creature's internals outlined in ghostly blue—a grotesque roadmap of metal and meat working in horrific synchronicity.
Patterns emerged from the chaos. Each servo and hydraulic line blazed like a circuit diagram, showing him exactly how power flowed through the beast's augmented frame. The damaged shoulder mount flickered with faltering energy, secondary systems straining to compensate. Blake watched microscopic tremors ripple through its musculature, seeing how each twitch telegraphed its next move before the creature itself could act.
His awareness expanded outward in concentric rings. The debris field beneath their feet revealed itself as an intricate web of pressure points and unstable sections. He could trace the exact path the Ferroghest would need to take to reach him, factoring in its weight distribution and the structural integrity of every piece of scrap metal in its way.
[ Mastery Increa—
FUCKING. FOCUS.
Time seemed to slow. Blake's amplified perception caught the precise moment the creature's weight shifted, the exact angle its claws would take as they carved through the air. He saw not just where the Ferroghest was, but where it would be—its movement projected in his mind like a series of overlapping afterimages.
The strain of maintaining such intense focus made his temples throb. He felt the strain on his adaptability as the attribute tried to compensate for the flood of information. Blood vessels in his eyes felt ready to burst. His resilience, on the other hand, practically sang with purpose as it fought to sustain the ability.
Through all the pain came perfect understanding—every weakness, every vulnerability, every flaw in the monster's crude cybernetic integration laid bare before his sight.
When the creature lunged, Blake was already moving. He slipped sideways at the last possible moment, letting the beast's own momentum work against it. As it passed, he grabbed the handle of his embedded knife. The motion translated smoothly into a pivot that brought him around behind the Ferroghest, using its charge to wrench the blade free in a spray of corrupted fluids.
The creature stumbled, its coordinated movement disrupted by the sudden trauma. Blake pressed his advantage, staying close to minimize the effectiveness of its augmented limbs. Each strike of his knife found another seam, another gap, another vulnerable point where flesh met machine.
The Ferroghest tried to compensate, its hydraulics whining as it attempted to bring its full strength to bear. But Blake flowed around its attacks like water, each movement precise and purposeful. His Agility combined with [Unfettered Stride] kept him perpetually half a step ahead of the beast's increasingly desperate attacks.
A particularly violent swipe of its claws caught the edge of Blake's suit, shredding the outer layer. He turned the glancing hit into momentum, spinning inside the creature's guard. The knife found purchase again, this time sliding up under what passed for the Ferroghest's jaw.
The blade punched through flesh and metal, angling up into the brain case. Blake's drove it home with enough force to shear through whatever cybernetic reinforcement protected the creature's central nervous system.
The Ferroghest went rigid. Its augmented limbs locked up as backup systems tried to compensate for catastrophic damage. The blue glow in its eyes flickered, dimmed, and finally died.
Blake held his position for a long moment, knife still buried to the hilt in the creature's skull. His breathing was controlled but heavy, his muscles trembling slightly from the sustained exertion. Sweat dripped down his face, mixing with spattered blood and hydraulic fluid.
Only when he was absolutely certain the beast was dead did he wrench his knife free. The blade came away slick with a mixture of organic and mechanical fluids, but the edge was unmarked. Whatever Chimera had done to enhance the weapon, it had held up beautifully against both flesh and metal.
"Multiple lacerations," Chimera's voice broke through his focus. "Suit integrity at 82%. We should—"
The crunch of metal on metal interrupted her warning. Blake spun toward the sound, knife already rising to guard position.
Three more sets of glowing blue eyes stared back at him from the shadows of the debris field.
Without a shred of hesitation, Blake passed his knife into his left hand and drew his pistol.
This dance wasn't over.