The earth trembled beneath our feet as the giant wyvern spread its wings, each flap sending a shockwave across the ruined district. People screamed, scattered, fired wildly. Some climbed over rubble; others hid behind broken cars. Most just ran without knowing where they were running.
My vision blurred for a second.
Han grabbed my shoulder.
"Raon! Snap out of it— move!"
The wyvern's shadow swallowed us. We rolled as a massive claw smashed into the pavement where we had been standing a heartbeat ago. The ground cracked open like glass.
We ran—dodging, weaving, sprinting between collapsed walls.
"Attack its legs!" someone shouted, firing a rifle.
"Useless! Its scales are too thick!" another yelled back.
The giant wyvern roared and flames spiraled between its jaws.
Han shot ice bullets at its head and neck. The projectiles shattered uselessly, only leaving faint white marks on its scales.
"It's not working!" Han cursed.
"We keep moving!" I shouted, pulling him behind a half-fallen shop as another flamethrower blast turned the street into a burning river.
We tried entering buildings for cover, but each structure we ran toward was crushed by the beast's tail or claws. A four-story apartment completely disintegrated, raining dust over us.
People with military weapons were doing their best—grenades exploding, rocket launchers firing, machine guns rattling—but nothing stopped the monster's advance.
Then, suddenly—
A truck flew.
Literally flew across the street.
I turned and saw a man, veins bulging, blood running from his nose, eyes glowing faintly purple.
A telekinesis user.
He lifted a second truck.
Then a shattered bus.
Then a thick concrete slab.
"HEY! OVER HERE!" he screamed at the wyvern.
"YOU WANT ME? COME!"
The wyvern turned.
Its wings folded back as it lunged toward him.
He roared, pushing his abilities to the limit.
The collapsed remains of a partially-destroyed building rose into the air—stone, steel, brick, all trembling violently.
"DIE, YOU BASTARD!"
He dropped the entire structure on the wyvern.
The impact shook the ground. Dust exploded outward, coating the sky in brown fog.
People gasped.
"Did he… kill it?"
"Is it dead?"
"Oh my god… he actually—"
The dust began to settle.
My stomach tightened.
"No," I whispered.
A massive shadow moved inside the debris.
The wyvern burst out.
Barely injured.
Only angrier.
It pinned the telekinetic man with a single claw, crushing his legs.
He screamed.
"RAON!" Han shouted.
I looked at the man—at his eyes full of terror—and then at the rising screen in my vision.
[New Skill Copied — Telekinesis rank-D]
My breath caught.
No time to think.
"Han!" I barked. "Make a spear. As big as you can."
"I—I can't throw something that heavy!"
"You don't have to. Just make it."
Han clenched his jaw, frost swirling around his arms as he poured everything into his skill. Ice gathered, merging and stretching into a massive spear longer than a bus.
The ground cracked beneath its weight.
I grabbed it—telekinesis trembling through my nerves like lightning—and lifted it.
My vision darkened.
Blood trickled from my nose.
My ribs felt like they were being crushed from inside.
But the spear rose.
"Go—!" Han screamed.
I hurled it with everything I had.
The air cracked.
The ice spear shot like a meteor and slammed into the wyvern's wing joint, tearing a chunk of flesh.
The wyvern screeched and stumbled.
People around us gasped.
For the first time, they saw hope.
"Keep attacking!"
"We can kill it!"
"Fight! Fight!!"
Han fired more ice bullets—except now they were different.
Bigger. Denser.
They collided with explosions of frost.
His skill had evolved.
A notification popped.
[Copy Limit Reached]
[Replace skill?]
I instantly removed the old ice-skill from my slot.
[New Skill Copied — Frost Burst rank-C]
Now I fired alongside Han—large blue bullets erupting from my left hand, and with my right hand, I unleashed telekinesis.
Metal rods.
Broken concrete.
Pipes and signage.
Everything lying around began to rise.
I threw them all at the wyvern.
Some missed.
Some struck its wings.
A few pierced its belly.
Others killed the smaller wyverns flying over the battlefield.
The crowd roared as more monsters fell.
But power came at a price.
My vision doubled.
My ears rang.
Blood dripped from my eyes, ears, mouth.
Han fell to one knee beside me, vomiting blood.
"Raon… how… long can we… keep this up…" he whispered.
"I don't know."
The wyvern staggered, but it wasn't dying.
It was evolving—turning feral.
Suddenly—
Its wings spread wide.
The air pressure dropped.
Clouds coiled above it.
Dark clouds.
Black clouds.
Lightning crawled inside the sky like veins.
The wyvern inhaled deeply.
"MOVE!" I shouted.
massive fire beam burst from its jaws.
Everything in its path evaporated—buildings, people, streets—gone in a single roar. The heat was enough to melt nearby cars into puddles.
I shielded Han as the shockwave hurled us across the street.
"Raon—"
"What do we do now?" he coughed, barely conscious.
My body was shaking violently.
My lungs screamed.
The wyvern lifted its head again for another breath—
And then—
FLASH—!
Pure white lightning ripped through the clouds and slammed into the smaller wyverns in the sky, vaporizing them instantly.
Every head turned upward.
Han's eyes widened.
And then a thought flashed in the roan mind.
That lightning…
That power…
I've read this before in the novel.
The sky split open.
A jagged bolt of lightning carved through the clouds, tearing down a chain of wyverns as if the heavens themselves had declared judgment. Their bodies burned mid-air, wings folding as they plummeted, smoke trailing behind like dying comets.
The massive wyvern—its scales scorched, its wings trembling—turned its horned head toward the slaughter.
It roared, furious, threatened, challenged.
And then—
A blue flash streaked across the sky.
It moved too fast for the naked eye, zigzagging like living electricity. In the space of a heartbeat, the flash struck the giant wyvern repeatedly—one, two, ten times—before disappearing again.
The wyvern screeched and staggered.
And then the heavens lit up once more.
A colossal spear of lightning pierced downward, and within that blinding light came a second slash—clean, precise.
The monster's leg flew off.
Blood sprayed in an arc. The giant wyvern crashed down with a thunderous impact that shook the entire street.
Raon stared upward, vision still foggy from exhaustion. And that's when he saw her.
A figure stood atop a half-destroyed building, snow drifting around her.
Long silver hair flowed behind, illuminated by the flashes of lightning.
A long white coat, tattered and smeared with streaks of monster blood.
A sword in hand, black scabbard still trembling with residual electricity.
Silent. Unshaken.
Like she had stepped out of another world.
The image seared into his mind.
But the giant wyvern wasn't dead yet.
With a painful roar, it forced itself upright, beating its remaining wing until it lifted into the air again. Blood dripped from the stump of its severed limb—hot, thick, furious.
It inhaled.
Raon's eyes widened.
"Fire—! MOVE!"
A blazing sphere of molten fire erupted from the wyvern's jaws, racing toward the rooftop figure. Everything in its path—cars, walls, bodies—melted. Stone liquified. Steel sagged like wax.
But the figure didn't run.
A flash of lightning appeared behind the wyvern.
A strike.
Another.
Another.
The wyvern's attack veered off course, exploding harmlessly into the clouds.
And then the real battle began.
Lightning clashed against fire.
Thunder swallowed roars.
Shockwaves cracked windows, collapsing what little remained of the surrounding buildings.
The entire city seemed to tremble under the weight of their power.