The Riftborn Hunter

The valley erupted into chaos.

Jenna barely had time to shout "Move!" before the first obsidian colossus charged.

The ground shuddered beneath its weight, cracks splintering outward with every thunderous step. The rookies froze they were too inexperienced.

Aiden was already moving.

A flicker of golden lightning snapped through the air—his irises glowing, charged with energy, crackling faintly like a storm barely contained.

The obsidian colossi came like walking disasters, monstrous towers of black-plated muscle, their sheer weight crushing the earth beneath them.

The scaled predators flickered in and out of sight, their limbs blurring as they phased through reality, striking from impossible angles.

And they were all coming for them.

A colossus lunged a ten-foot nightmare of obsidian plating and raw power, swinging its plated limb in a crushing arc.

Aiden saw it before it happened.

Golden futures unraveled before his eyes.

One path—he dodges too late, ribs crushed.

Another—he rolls right, but a predator phases into his blind spot.

The right move—

Aiden twisted aside before thought, the air itself splitting as the impact cratered the ground. Debris exploded outward, shards of stone tearing through the battlefield like shrapnel.

Another beast surged in from his left.

Too fast—

Aiden rolled beneath its stamping legs, the quake of its movement thundering through his bones.

A scaled predator materialized right beside him—its serrated fangs gleaming, claws igniting with that same unnatural blue Rift energy.

Aiden saw the strike coming.

He kicked off the ground, grabbing a loose shard of rock mid-motion, and hurled it.

The projectile hit the predator square in the face.

It recoiled—just long enough for Aiden to slam his knife into its throat.

A flash of golden lightning tore through its body, veins igniting like molten fissures.

The predator convulsed violently—

Then—it began to blur.

Aiden barely had time to process it before—

BOOM—

A colossus's massive limb swung from behind, a wall of destruction.

No time to dodge.

Aiden wrenched his knife free and used the dying predator's collapsing body as a springboard.

He vaulted over the strike, and just as he touched down—

The predator vanished.

The Rift had erased it.

Gunfire erupted.

A high-caliber round slammed into the colossus's skull, the force of the impact rocking the creature backward.

Jenna.

She reloaded mid-motion, firing another round directly into the beast's exposed joint.

"Move, Kain!"

Aiden lunged sideways, dodging the sweeping claws of another scaled predator, and in the same motion, drove his knife into its exposed flank.

Golden energy detonated from the strike.

The predator let out a warped shriek—then, like the others, it was gone.

Jenna reloaded. "You almost got crushed, you idiot!"

Aiden didn't get the chance to respond.

Because Marko—one of the rookies—was about to die.

The rookie brawler had been holding his own.

Marko's reinforced gauntlets had already shattered a predator's skull, his sheer power keeping most enemies at bay.

But brute strength meant nothing against creatures that fought like ghosts.

Aiden saw it before it happened.

A scaled predator flickered into existence right behind Marko.

Aiden moved before he thought.

His golden irises ignited—

Lightning snapped outward from his gaze, raw voltage crackling along his skin.

His entire body surged forward.

Surge Sight Activated.

His vision sharpened

The predator's claws slashed downward

Aiden's blade met them mid-strike.

Sparks detonated outward.

Aiden twisted the knife, driving his knee into the creature's gut, flipping it off Marko.

The beast screeched, trying to phase out—

But Aiden wasn't letting it go.

His free hand snapped out, seizing it by the throat before it could disappear.

And with a final, crackling arc of golden lightning—

He crushed its windpipe.

The predator convulsed violently—then collapsed into a warping blur.

And then—it was gone.

Marko stumbled back, gasping for breath.

"Holy shit—" he wheezed. "I—"

Aiden didn't let him finish.

"Move!" he barked, shoving him toward Jenna.

No time.

The battle wasn't over.

They were still surrounded.

Silas loosed a bolt, his crossbow thrumming as it found a weak point in a colossus's shoulder.

Jenna unloaded two rounds into a predator's skull, forcing it to phase out for a brief second before Vance took its head off with a clean shot.

Marko slammed a fist into a charging beast, sending it skidding backward—but they weren't stopping.

The obsidian colossi pushed forward, a wall of armored bodies, their massive limbs obliterating anything in their path.

The scaled predators flickered like shadows, darting between their own enemies, attacking with precision and speed.

Aiden was being pulled in too many directions.

His pulse hammered.

His vision burned.

Even with his lightning-fast reflexes, even with his golden foresight—

They were losing.

"Fall back!" Jenna shouted.

Nobody argued.

They broke formation, retreating toward higher ground, hoping, praying to get out before the Rift decided to erase them next.

Aiden moved to cover the rear, his knife crackling with golden energy.

A colossus swung—he twisted away.

A predator lunged—he carved through its throat.

They kept running.

But as they moved, as the battle blurred behind them—Aiden felt it.

Aiden felt it. That same presence.

It had been there when they first arrived. Lingering on the edges of his vision.

It had been there when the battlefield flickered. Watching.

And now—it was closer.

Waiting.