CHAPTER 106: MIRAGES

I pursued.

"Don’t run, little fox," I called after her, my voice calm, almost mocking.

"I promise not to hurt you...too much."

She clicked her teeth, frustration cutting through the air.

The arrogance she’d worn so proudly at the start was gone, burned away by the reality of the gap between us.

She knew now.

She couldn’t win.

I closed in, only for her form to flare again.

Once more, Ariel split into a dozen blazing copies, her mirages scattering in every direction, tails flicking, flames trailing in their wake. Each one sprinted off along a different path, their movements so convincing that it was almost impossible to tell the real one apart.

But I wasn’t about to play her game.

Not this time.

I drew Gravefang in one smooth motion, the blade humming faintly as I raised it high.

My grip tightened, and then I slashed upward, channeling power into one of my newly awakened class abilities.

[Event Collapse]

The air above split with a shriek, reality itself tearing open into a spiraling rift.

The void yawned wide, black and endless, and immediately the pull began.

The pressure was immense, dragging at everything around me. Trees bent, leaves ripped free, even the dirt itself began to shift beneath my feet. For a moment, my stomach lurched as the suction tugged at me as well.

But then a faint shimmer rippled across my body.

A strange aura—part of the skill’s own design—flared to life, shielding me from the rift’s pull.

I exhaled slowly, a hint of relief slipping out.

"Good... it’d be a real pain if my own skill tried to eat me alive."

The mirages of Ariel weren’t so lucky though.

The clones closest to the rift were dragged upward, their flaming bodies twisting as the void pulled at them.

But it wasn’t enough. They still clawed forward, inching through the pull with stubborn resistance, crawling across the ground in slow, jerking motions.

So I poured more mana into the tear.

The rift screamed louder, its spiral tightening as its pull intensified. The forest itself began to bow toward it. Loose stones, shattered branches, and scorched leaves lifted from the ground, swirling upward like debris caught in a storm.

Even the trees groaned, their roots straining, one of them ripping halfway from the soil under the sheer force of the collapse.

The mirages struggled, flames lashing wildly as they fought against the suction. But it was useless. One by one, they lost their footing, yanked off the earth and dragged screaming into the spiraling void.

Some flickered and dispersed the moment they touched the distortion—illusions torn apart by raw reality. Others were swallowed whole, ripped into the rift and gone in an instant.

I couldn’t help but grin as I watched them unravel, the forest illuminated by the chaos I had unleashed.

Then, without hesitation, I dashed after the stragglers, hunting them down mercilessly, Gravefang flashing as each illusion fell apart into embers, until, only one remained.

The original.

She may have thought she had me fooled—that I wouldn’t be able to tell which of her was real. But it wasn’t even a challenge.

My perception had risen far beyond what it used to be, bolstered by the recent +20 surge across all my attributes.

My senses cut through her tricks like a blade through cloth.

Her flame was different. Heavier. More alive.

Which made her easy to detect.

I tracked her with ease as she darted through the forest, her paws digging into the dirt. She wasn’t fleeing aimlessly, her path was direct, purposeful.

She was heading towards the cave.

Toward my goblin.

And I could read her intention like a book.

She wanted to use my goblins as hostages.

But... once again, she didn’t realize just how stupid and futile her actions were.

Her chances would’ve been better if she had just swallowed her pride and pleaded.

I warped.

Space folded in an instant, and I reappeared directly in front of her path.

She screeched to a halt, claws digging into the dirt as her molten eyes widened in shock. A sharp hiss escaped her throat, and instead of charging, she spun on her heels, veering sharply to the side.

Predictable.

My hand shot out, seizing one of her thrashing tails, and the momentum yanked her off-balance, her body jerking violently backward.

She tried to drag me along with her, but my grip held firm, my stance unshakable.

Her recovery was fast.

She twisted, lashing out with claws in a frenzy, swiping and slashing like a cornered beast. Desperate, wild, almost feral.

But it didn’t matter.

Her claws scraped uselessly against the invisible barrier [Fractured Existence] provided, each strike bending away as if reality itself refused to let her touch me.

Then...I drew back my fist.

Her eyes widened, a shudder running through her small frame as she braced herself instinctively.

I drove my fist into her gut.

BOOOOM!

The impact cracked through the clearing, the blow slamming her body to the ground with brutal force. She gagged, coughing out blood as the earth split beneath her. Her body convulsed, flames sputtering weakly around her form.

But even then, the cursed resilience of her kind flared. Blue fire licked across her wounds, knitting them back together, dragging her back from the edge.

I didn’t hesitate.

My foot shifted, grounding me, and I raised my fist again, ready to hammer her deeper into the dirt.

"Wait!"

She gasped, the word tearing out of her throat in desperation.

But...

I didn’t wait.

My fist came down like a hammer. The blow struck so hard it felt like I’d driven my knuckles straight through her body into the ground beneath, the shock rattling through my arm.

The forest shook with the impact.

Ariel’s cry broke into a ragged choke, her body folding in on itself as another mouthful of blood spilled across her muzzle, soaking into the once-pristine white of her fur and staining it a dark, ugly red.

Her flames guttered and flared, no longer controlled, just the body’s desperate instinct to cling to life. The fire crawled unevenly across her frame, patching shallow cuts even as the deeper damage tore wider, a futile attempt to mend what was breaking faster than it could repair.

I remained standing over her, my...