I continued firing at the regenerating Great Wolf as the two enemies charged. While it wasn’t doing much now, I knew it had to be draining the Beast’s energy. I could also see the wolf wincing at each hit, showing it at least still felt the pain.

Then I had to dodge backward as the second Beast charged. It came in fast, purple shroud glowing and hit me hard in the chest before I could escape. Only a reflexive use of Skin Hardening stopped me from being disemboweled by its claws.

Instead, they cut shallow furrows through my nano weave armor. It hurt but wasn’t anywhere near enough to put me out of the fight.

I tried to catch it with a trio of shots to center mass, however, they missed as it blurred away in a flash of purple.

Realizing that I wouldn’t be hitting that one until it ran out of energy, I returned my focus to the regenerator just in time to avoid a raking lunge. Like its companion, it was standing upright and using the claws on its front legs to attack.

I had at least a chance of avoiding this one, though two of its three follow-up attacks scoured light scratches through my chest armor. Conversely, it wasn’t fast enough to avoid plasma fire and seconds later it retreated under a rain of shots to its chest and face.

Before I could press my advantage, pain blossomed on my back as the other Beast raked me. With it attacking from my blind spot, I hadn’t been able to activate Skin Hardening, leading to the deepest wounds of the fight so far.

“Fuck,” I screamed in pain as I spun to face it, only for the creature to be gone by the time I turned.

Seconds ticked by as they continued batting me back and forth until all three of us were panting from exhaustion and pain. I was down to less than half of my Psi Energy reserves, however, hope had blossomed during the previous exchange.

The last wound that I’d dealt the regenerating wolf hadn’t fully healed, suggesting that it was finally out of energy. If I put that one down for good, I could turn my full attention to the speedster.

Throwing caution to the wind for a moment, I ignored the speed wolf blurring in and empowered a shot at the exhausted regeneration. It flew true and blew a hole in the Beast’s chest.

It stumbled back with a screech as its companion raked at my chest. I was pretty sure my shirt would be in tatters if it didn’t self heal and I was becoming quite worried about how much blood I was losing.

While I wasn’t feeling lightheaded or anything yet, I could only put that down to my now extremely high toughness. Still, this wasn’t the time to hesitate, so I kept Skin Hardening activated while I fired a second and then a third empowered shot at the regenerator.

It was expensive to keep it on constantly like that, however, those two extra shots allowed me finally finish the drained regenerator. While the entire operation brought me under thirty percent of my energy reserves, it was worth it to make this a one-on-one fight.

I tried to get the drop on the remaining Beast by spinning and firing a normal shot, however, it once again blurred away. This time its shroud flickered as it went, giving me some hope that it was nearly empty as well.

I fucking hate fast enemies, I thought with a groan as it sprinted off to the side. There was no way that I was going to be able to shoot it while it still had energy, so instead, I swapped my gun to my offhand and drew my Psi blade.

I didn’t have a great deal of hope that I would hit it with that either, however, it was at least a much cheaper option in terms of energy. While I could empower the blade to increase its damage, it was still a sharp blade with no extra help.

I was not a proficient knife fighter, however, my counterattacks with it were at least threatening enough to force the Beast to continue burning its energy on dodging. Even when it would probably have been able to dodge anyway, it used its ability, showing a lack of long-term planning that even the smarter Beasts seemed to be afflicted with.

Eventually, its shroud flickered during one of its retreats, causing the Beast to stumble in surprise. Spying my chance, I burned more energy to instantly swap my weapons with Item Attunement before opening fire on the Beast.

Not even pausing to charge an empowered blast, I fired shot after shot into the Beast. As exhausted as it was, the creature had no chance of escape as I continued shooting until it collapsed.

A moment later, a combat report appeared, rewarding me three hundred XP for killing two Great Wolves. “At last,” I gasped as I sank to the ground. With my adrenaline fading, I realized just how shaky I’d become and rushed to administer first aid before I became in danger of passing out.

As I pulled off my nano weave top, I found dozens of cuts crisscrossing my flesh. While only a few of them were deep, I could still barely believe that I was still functioning after taking that much damage.

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Stats really make an insane difference, I mused, to take my mind off the pain. Will I eventually become this tough in real life if I continue changing? It was an intriguing thought until I realized what someone with thirty Brawn or Agility might look like in the real world.

Shuddering at the idea, I finished up with my first aid and gave myself a few minutes to just lay there before moving on to the rift. A few minutes turned into fifteen, and then thirty before I finally felt ready to move.

Finally, I pulled myself up with a groan and extracted the two cores before moving on to the rift. The break had at least given me a chance to consider what kind of power I wanted to guide the rift toward.

Both the super speed and the regeneration I had seen were extremely tempting. The regeneration was an obvious choice to go with my high Toughness, however, it would only help me stay in fights longer, which I was already extremely good at.

The super speed would be a little better as it would help me avoid attacks and land them in return, however, it still wasn’t quite what I wanted. Being outnumbered was my biggest weakness and being faster once again only really help to keep in the fight longer in that case.

What I really needed was a way to isolate enemies so I could focus them down individually. A form of crowd control, if you would. If I had been able to lock down one of the two Great Wolves, the fight wouldn’t have taken nearly as long to finish.

It would have been of great help in the earlier fight against the wolf pack as well, or any fight where I was solo against multiple opponents. Given my desire to do as much as possible on my own, I felt like it was the ideal ability to have.

With my course set, I settled down next to the rift. On a whim I used a cross-legged pose like the wolves had been doing, it had seemed to work for them after all.

For a moment I became worried that they might have depleted the rift already, however, I relaxed as I felt the power pressing down on me. Perhaps the wolves had been preparing to use it as I arrived, it would certainly explain why they had stayed here rather than helping the pack.

Thinking on the matter, there were probably wild rifts all over, with them just being at low power most of the time. Now that I had proof of Beasts using them, I couldn’t imagine them staying around at full power for long.

If they weren’t at full power, I probably wouldn’t even notice unless I was close, while the rifts ready for use were detectable from miles away. I would have to remember this place and come back at some point to see if it had recharged.

Turning my attention to the rift, I focused on opening up to the energies like I had the last time I used one. Once I felt the power surging into me, I turned my attention to directing it.

I had a much better idea of how the process worked now after having gone through a wild rift once before. Beyond even that, I’d paid close attention to how the last ritual chamber I had used worked.

Watching my Item Attunement ability be improved had given me a much better grasp of how abilities were actually formed, as well as an idea of how to do it myself. I might even be able to use that knowledge to upgrade my Skin Hardening ability, however, that would be for another time.

Instead, I focused on the idea of crowd control I had from games, on the ability to stun or trap an enemy for a time. When I thought of stunning, nothing formed, however, the idea of trapping seemed to work.

As the process occurred, the idea gradually shifted to one of binding, of keeping an enemy in place. While I felt like this was as much an effect of the randomness of the rift as it was my planning, it still matched what I wanted.

With the ability designed, all that remained was guiding the power of the rift into making the changes. While it was a slow process, in many ways this was the simple part and after several hours, the change was complete.

Opening my eyes, I found the clearing just as empty as when I had begun. It was only after satisfying my excitement that I now realized just how bad it could have been if I was attacked during the process.

Every other time I’d used a rift or a ritual chamber I’d had somehow there to guard me, I would have to consider what to do when I was solo in the future. Thankfully, nothing had come this time, likely due to it being the wolves' territory.

Putting that aside for now, I pulled up my notifications to see what I had achieved.

Trait Gained

You have gained a new Psionic Ability

Trait Ethereal Roots(Initiate) has been added to your character sheet.

Ethereal Roots(Initiate)

Summon Ghostly roots that bind your target. The bindings can be destroyed by dealing sufficient damage to them.

Warning: As you lack the skill to utilize this Ability, its effects will be greatly decreased.

That sounds pretty good, I thought with a grin. While there was the caveat of being able to break the binding, I felt like it was still a solid ability. I couldn’t expect to have something unbeatable, after all, and this would at least slow the enemy down.

There was also the expected message warning me about not having the correct skill, luckily I was prepared for that. I had actually leveled back during the fight with the wolf pack on the edge of the forest.

I had just been waiting for this exact moment, so I knew which skill to take. With a broad smile, I started the level-up and selected the Ethereal Roots skill.

Ethereal Roots Level 1

Enables the Ethereal Roots trait to work at full capacity. Increases the effect of the trait by five percent.

With my work here complete, I pulled myself up with a groan and began preparing to leave. While it might be safe to stay here overnight, I didn’t want the risk of something realizing the wolves were dead and moving into the power vacuum.

Instead, I moved out, already planning my route for the next couple of days before I returned to the city.