The Riftborn Hunter

The land shifted.

Not in a way that could be measured—not by tremors or fault lines—but in something unseen. Aiden could feel it like a ripple just beneath the surface, an unease threading through the world itself.

The sky remained an endless twilight, the fractured moon casting its cold, pale glow over the valley below. The silver rivers flowed smoothly, their surfaces unnaturally undisturbed despite the occasional gust of wind.

But Aiden's attention wasn't on the landscape.

The shadow was still watching.

He forced himself to keep moving. To not acknowledge it.

It wasn't something he could chase. Not something he could face.

So he walked.

And the moment his gaze swept past where it had been—

It was gone.

"Hold up," Jenna murmured, raising a hand.

The Black Summit team halted on instinct, their hands inching toward weapons, scanning their surroundings for movement. Aiden slowed alongside them, his gaze tracing the ridge ahead.

Then—a low, guttural roar.

Another answered it.

Then another.

Aiden's shoulders tensed.

Distant thuds reverberated through the valley below, the sound of bodies clashing—brutal, violent.

Jenna motioned for the group to move carefully, cresting the next rise. The moment they reached the edge, Aiden took in the battlefield.

And what he saw made him stop.

At least twenty beasts tore into each other below, locked in a savage war.

On one side—obsidian-armored colossi. Massive creatures, standing nearly ten feet tall at the shoulder, their hides layered in thick, overlapping plates of black stone. Each step they took sent tremors rippling across the terrain, their bulk alone enough to crush anything in their path. Their heads were elongated, wolf-like, but their jaws split open in unnatural ways—rows of jagged teeth glinting under the Rift's eerie glow.

On the other—sleek, scaled predators. Smaller, but faster. They darted between the larger creatures like shadows, bodies shifting and blurring as if they weren't entirely bound by this world. Their limbs were long, flexible, built for sudden bursts of movement. Serrated claws extended and retracted as they struck, moving in coordinated packs, attacking from angles that normal creatures wouldn't anticipate.

The two species shouldn't have existed in the same Rift.

And yet, here they were—ripping each other apart.

Jenna let out a slow, shaky breath. "That's… a whole different level of fucked."

Silas gripped his crossbow tighter. "Monsters don't fight wars. Not like this."

Aiden didn't speak. He watched.

Because this wasn't random.

The obsidian beasts fought like an unstoppable force, using sheer power to crush anything in their path. Unyielding. Relentless. When one of the smaller predators leapt toward them, an obsidian brute met it mid-air—swatting it down like an insect. The impact shattered rock. The predator convulsed, trying to rise—

A massive claw slammed down onto its chest.

Crack.

It stopped moving.

But the smaller creatures weren't mindless either.

One of them lunged from the flank, using the brute's momentary distraction to its advantage—its claws igniting with a faint blue shimmer. It sliced across the thick plating, carving a deep, molten gash into the creature's side.

The obsidian beast shuddered.

Then, without hesitation, it threw itself backward—onto its attacker.

The sheer weight alone was enough to crush the smaller predator beneath its body.

Aiden's stomach twisted.

"This isn't just for territory," he murmured. "They're trying to wipe each other out."

Jenna shot him a glance but didn't argue.

Because it was true.

They kept watching

One of the smaller predators lunged forward, its serrated claws glowing faintly with that strange blue shimmer as it slashed at the nearest obsidian beast.

The strike landed—cutting through one of the thick black plates, splitting it open like molten glass.

The obsidian beast shuddered—but it didn't stagger.

Instead, it moved.

It twisted its massive body, using its own wound as a lure—dragging the smaller creature in closer. Then, with brutal precision, it swung its plated tail.

Crack.

The predator was sent flying—colliding with the jagged rock below.

Aiden expected it to recover.

Expected it to push up from the ground, its wounds already mending.

But—

The Rift resisted it.

The predator convulsed violently, its body shuddering, distorting. Its edges frayed, warping as if something was pulling at it from the inside. The sleek black of its scales bled into the air, its form twisting and flickering between solid and translucent.

Then—

It began to sink.

It was as if the very space around it had swallowed it whole, dragging it inward, collapsing it into nothingness.

The predator let out a warbled shriek, its limbs flailing—but the sound was already fading.

Aiden watched, unable to look away, as its form flickered one last time—

And then—

It was gone.

No body. No blood.

Nothing.

Jenna exhaled. "That's new."

Silas took a step back, his crossbow still raised. "Did it… just phase out?"

"No," Aiden muttered. His hands had clenched at his sides, nails pressing into his palms. "It was erased."

Jenna glanced at him. "What?"

"The Rift didn't just kill it." Aiden's voice was low, controlled. "It removed it."

The words hung in the air.

Because that wasn't normal.

Rift creatures didn't just disappear. Even when they died, their bodies remained.

But here?

The Rift had refused it.

Which meant—one of these species wasn't supposed to be here.

And the Rift itself was correcting the mistake.

Aiden's jaw clenched.

Something was breaking.

And they were standing in the middle of it.

Then—the shift.

Aiden heard it before he saw it.

The battlefield, once alive with carnage, stilled.

One second, the war raged.

The next—

Silence.

Every creature turned.

Aiden felt it—the weight of their collective attention slamming onto them like a crashing tide.

Jenna inhaled sharply beside him. "Shit."

Marko let out a slow breath. "Oh, fantastic."

Silas muttered, "Well, that's a problem."

The obsidian beasts rumbled forward, their massive limbs crushing stone beneath them.

The scaled predators vanished, slipping into the terrain, reforming in unpredictable, shifting patterns.

Two sides.

One war.

And now—they were in the middle of it.

Aiden didn't hesitate.

Electricity snapped across his skin, power surging through his limbs.

The beasts had seen them

And they weren't going to let them leave.