Becoming the Strongest as a Game Dev

Sam pushed the prisoners toward the hallway. "Go! Don't look back!" Their panicked footsteps echoed behind him as crimson-armored Revenants flooded the corridor. He fired the stolen pistol—three guards collapsed—then hurled the empty weapon at an advancing soldier. The man staggered, clutching his broken nose.

He grabbed a smoke pellet from his belt. The canister exploded with a sharp hiss, filling the air with gray fog. Shadows slithered up his arms like living ropes. A Revenant lunged blindly through the haze—Sam snapped a shadow-whip around the man's boot and jerked. The guard crashed face-first into concrete, teeth scattering across the floor.

"Had enough?" Sam barked, flinging batarangs into the smoke. Metal clanged against armor. A bullet skimmed his shoulder—blue energy flared around him, deflecting the shot. He ducked behind a pillar, shadows coiling into jagged blades.

Two Revenants charged with buzzing vibro-swords. Sam sidestepped the first strike, his shadow-blade slicing through a kneecap. The second blade swung for his throat—he caught it mid-air with a shadow tendril, slamming the weapon into the wall. Chunks of cement rained down. Sam elbowed the guard's windpipe, then slapped a flash grenade against his chest. Light erupted, painting afterimages across the corridor.

Four more guards emerged from the smoke. Sam tossed his last explosive. The blast flung bodies against walls like broken dolls. A surviving Revenant tackled him—they crashed to the ground. The man's knife screeched against Sam's flickering shield, spraying blue sparks. Sam headbutted him, then drove a shadow-spike through his ribs.

Gunfire erupted down the hall. Sam rolled behind shattered concrete as bullets chewed the air. His shield dimmed under the barrage. Shadows wavered around his hands. One sonic disruptor remained on his belt—he activated it and slid the device across the floor.

The sonic disruptor let out an ear-splitting wail. Revenant soldiers staggered backward, clutching their helmets as crimson streaks dripped from beneath their ear guards. Sam leaped over broken concrete, dark tendrils swirling into a jagged weapon. Three armored figures crumpled mid-charge before the noise abruptly ceased.

Heavy footsteps echoed through the settling dust. Alaric Voss emerged like a stormcloud made flesh, his scarred face twisting into a humorless grin. "Clever toy," he remarked, crushing the broken device beneath his boot.

Sam swung a blade of pure darkness. The Revenant leader caught it with a glowing gauntlet, golden energy flaring across his knuckles. The weapon dissolved into wisps of smoke.

"Nowhere left to run, boy."

Sam hurls the smoke bomb at Alaric's feet. The canister erupts in a sulfurous cloud, blinding the corridor. He sprints through a blast door into a cavernous warehouse stacked with shipping containers. Shadows pool like oil beneath flickering ceiling lights.

He fires batarangs at the fixtures—glass shatters, plunging the space into darkness. Alaric's boots thunder behind him. Sam dives behind a steel crate, breath ragged.

"Pathetic," Alaric growls. Energy hums as his gauntlets ignite, casting a sickly gold glow. "Hiding won't save you."

Sam stays low, shadows clotting around his hands. Crates creak as Alaric methodically kicks them aside, each impact reverberating through the floor.

"Come out," the Revenant leader snarls, "and I'll make it quick."

A shadow tendril snakes toward a forklift. Sam yanks the lever—the machine lurches forward, toppling a tower of crates. Alaric pivots, gauntlet raised, and punches the avalanche of debris. Wood splinters. Sam bolts deeper into the maze of containers.

Alaric's laughter follows him. "You'll tire. I won't."

Sam slides beneath a conveyor belt, heart hammering. The gauntlets' light glints off a nearby fuel drum. He flings a batarang—it strikes the valve. Propane hisses into the dark.

"Enough games," Alaric barks.

The blast rips through the warehouse, flames licking at stacks of crates marked with Thornfield shipping codes. Sam's shield flickers blue as scorched metal shrapnel pings against it.

Alaric rises from the inferno, golden gauntlets glowing through the smoke. His coat smolders, revealing blackened body armor beneath. "You incinerated six months' worth of contraband," he snarls, kicking aside a molten data drive. "Luxury sim gems. Black-market mana cores. All ash now."

Sam edges toward an exit, shield sparking. A flaming support beam crashes between them.

"You're going to pay!" Alaric smashes through the burning timber, gauntlets sizzling. "Do you know how long I had planned for those?" He gestures at blazing crates of glowing purple ore—raw shadowgem crystals now cracking in the heat. "That shipment alone cost thirty million."

Sam throws a shadow-blade. Alaric catches it, the dark energy dissolving against his gauntlet's glow.

"I'll carve that sum from your bones."

Sam Briar found himself in a dangerous confrontation with Alaric Voss, the leader of the Revenants. The warehouse around them was an inferno of destruction, with flames consuming everything in sight. Sam's movements were quick and calculated as he dodged Alaric's powerful gauntlet-powered attacks.

Concrete exploded near Sam's head as he rolled behind a collapsing shelf of burning shadowgem ore. Purple crystals crackled and popped, sending jagged shards flying through the air. The heat was intense, licking at his neck and making every movement a battle for survival.

"Still running?" Alaric's voice was a menacing growl as he kicked the burning shelf. Sam dove sideways, narrowly avoiding a rain of molten metal. With practiced skill, he summoned a shadow-whip that latched onto a half-melted I-beam overhead. A quick yank sent the beam screeching downward, forcing Alaric to brace against its unexpected weight.

Sam's last pistol clip emptied into the Revenant leader's exposed side. The bullets sparked harmlessly against golden body armor—a futile attempt that only seemed to amuse his opponent. Alaric responded by hurling the massive beam like a javelin, which Sam's energy shield barely deflected.

The impact slammed Sam into a shipping container. Metal groaned under the force, and his vision blurred momentarily. Alaric approached through the wall of flames, his gauntlets glowing with an ominous light. "You're not leaving this warehouse breathing," he declared.

A flash grenade momentarily blinded Alaric, giving Sam a chance to vault onto a smoldering conveyor belt. Shadows pooled beneath his palms, forming a crude grappling hook. He launched it toward a high window, only to watch it shatter against reinforced glass.

Alaric's laughter cut through the crackling inferno. With superhuman strength, he ripped a flaming support pillar from its moorings and swung it like a bat. Sam ducked just in time, watching as the pillar obliterated a Thornfield-branded crate and scattered counterfeit simulation gems.

Smoke filled Sam's lungs, and his shadow-blades began to flicker as his mana reserves depleted. He was running out of options, out of tricks. The warehouse was becoming a tomb, with flames consuming everything around him.

Just as Alaric raised a crackling fist for a final blow, an explosion rocked the far wall. Daylight burst through the smoke, revealing a silhouette holding a rocket launcher. The figure fired, sending Alaric flying into a pile of crates.

Ruby stood in the opening, her vibrant orange-red hair framing her determined face. She reached out to Sam, a characteristic grin spreading across her face.

"Need a hand?" she called out, her streamer's bravado cutting through the tension of the moment.

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Advance chapters in my P@|r$0n/Najicablitz