The rain began in earnest, no longer a tentative spatter but a steady, whispering downpour. Tiny, cold droplets pattered against Tyler's face and slithered down the gleaming white scales covering his arms. A gust of wind, sharp and chill, swept across the field, whipping the rain into a stinging mist.

High above, Anna floated, an unmoving silhouette against the bruised purple of the clouds. The rain soaked into her white coat, making the fabric cling heavily to her shoulders, but her gaze remained locked on Tyler, analytical and unyielding. Each drop that hit her skin was a cold, sharp pinprick of focus.

Her class wasn't Swordsmanship; she was an Archer, a fact she carried with a private resentment. Yet, her skill with the blade was more than sufficient for this, crossing swords with Tyler was merely a test, a way to measure the limits of the man she was sent to hunt.

And to her simmering irritation, he was matching her speed. She couldn't discern his level, but to move with that kind of lightning-crackle urgency, he had to be an S-rank or higher.

Yet, for all his speed, every parry sent a jarring shock up his arms; he was desperately lacking in raw strength. Of course, she thought, the memory of the report crystalizing in her mind.

The report classified him as an assassin type. Speed, not power. This is all he has.

*Why did she stop?* Tyler's thought was a silent snarl in his mind, his gaze locked on her as his hand tightened on the hilt of his sword. His eyes shifted slightly, just for a fraction of a second, to where Joy stood far off. It was a mistake.

In that instant, Anna swooped.

Tyler gritted his teeth, muscles coiling to react. But something was terribly wrong. A hollow emptiness echoed where a surge of power should have been. His eyes widened in dawning horror as he realized his body felt heavy, leaden. The electric hum of his Lightning Agility was gone, the skill had vanished.

Anna noticed the sudden, jarring decrease in his speed. In the space of a breath, she closed the distance. Her hand shot out, clamping around his neck like a vice of cold iron. The air died in his throat.

Tyler's world narrowed to the crushing pressure on his windpipe. *Can't breathe...!* his mind screamed, a frantic and dizzying panic taking hold. *She's taking me higher!* He clawed at her arm with his scaled left hand, the white plates scraping uselessly against her grip, while his right desperately tried to bring his sword to bear.

Suddenly, she rotated in mid-air, a fluid and brutal motion, and hurled him forward.

The world became a nauseating blur of gray sky and green ground. Tyler tumbled uncontrollably, the wind roaring in his ears, his heart hammering against his ribs like a trapped bird. The ground spun far below, a dizzying mosaic of field and forest.

On the ground, Joy's heart seized. A terrified gasp escaped her as she saw Tyler's body flung through the air like a discarded toy. Without a second thought, her feet were moving, pounding against the wet earth as she sprinted desperately in the direction he was falling.

*Shit, I'm too high up!* The thought was a raw, silent scream in Tyler's mind as he tumbled end over end, the world a dizzying carousel of stormy sky and distant, rain-blurred ground. The wind ripped the breath from his lips, howling in his ears. *If I hit the ground from here, it's over. My Bones will shatter. C'mon, think, Tyler, think!*

Anna watched, suspended in the air with the rain sheeting around her. Her expression was unreadable, a mask of calm over simmering frustration. *Why isn't he using any of the skills from the report?* The question echoed in her mind, cold and sharp. *It looks like he genuinely can't fly. Or teleport.* Her entire engagement had been a test, a methodical probing to confirm the terrifying abilities attributed to the Shadow Hunter. Yet, all she had found was a powerful S-rank, remarkable in speed and resilience, but nothing more.

A bitter disappointment curdled within her. She was waiting, giving him the ultimate incentive to reveal his true power. Would he save himself from a fatal fall, or would he stubbornly cling to this charade of weakness and die for it? She wanted to clash with the monster from the stories, to fight the Shadow Hunter at his finest.

And here he was, the infamous being who plunged an entire town into primordial shadow, now screaming mid-air, a helpless, flailing ragdoll she had tossed aside with contemptuous ease. The dissonance was maddening.

As Tyler fell, the wind screaming past his ears, a flash of green movement caught his eye. *Wait, that's Joy!* His stomach lurched, a sickening twist that had nothing to do with the fall. *What is she doing? Is she... trying to catch me?*

On the ground, Joy ran, her eyes locked on his falling form. Her heart hammered against her ribs, a frantic drumbeat of terror. The rational part of her knew it was impossible, catching him from this height would only shatter them both. But the fear of seeing him hit the ground was a more powerful force, propelling her forward.

Tyler tore his gaze from her and looked back at Anna, who hung in the air, impassive as a statue, just watching. *She's not pursuing. Not using this as an opening. What is she thinking? Does she just want me to splatter on the ground?* A colder, more calculated thought cut through the panic. *No... this is another test. That's what this whole fight has been. She's been holding back, probing. But why?*

He shook his head, the motion jerky in his tumbling descent. The ground was rushing up to meet him. He had to act now.

And then it struck him. *The scales!*

The inventory of scales he'd absorbed from the Room ability flashed in his mind. If he could conjure the scales to shield his body.

Focusing every ounce of his will, he summoned the them. They erupted from his chest, exploding outwards in a silent, shocking cascade. Thousands upon thousands of the gleaming white plates materialized in a whirlwind around him, interlocking, layering, and folding over one another with impossible speed. In the blink of an eye, they sealed him inside a massive, perfect orb, a monolithic pearl of armor that blotted out the sky just moments before he would have struck the earth.

Joy skidded to a complete stop, her feet digging into the soft, wet earth. Her jaw went slack, all the air leaving her lungs in a stunned gasp. The fear in her chest was momentarily eclipsed by pure, unadulterated awe as she stared at the colossal, shimmering sphere that now contained Tyler.

The huge ball of white scales struck the earth. The impact was a deep, jarring boom that vibrated through the wet ground. The force sent a shockwave through the air, throwing a curtain of rainwater outwards in a shimmering ring. For a moment, the very rain seemed to retreat.

High above, Anna's eyes narrowed, her thoughts cutting through the residual rumble. *So, that was his solution.* The scales that had scattered into the air now dissolved like mist. A cold curiosity cut through her frustration. *Where are they even coming from? I've never seen an ability like this... well, not on a human, at least.*

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"Tyler...!"

The name was a breathless gasp, torn from Joy's lips as she found her feet again and sprinted toward the impact site. Her heart, a moment frozen in awe, now hammered with renewed fear.

The massive orb crumbled, the scales peeling away like the petals of a dying flower. They fell aside, revealing Tyler standing at the center, his body still encased in the ghostly white armor. He was unharmed. But as the last scales fell away, a new dread took root.

Tyler's eyes were no longer blue. They were a solid, depthless black, a void that swallowed the light. They mirrored Joy's own eyes from before her evolution, but these held a colder, more ancient darkness, the same as the eyes of the White Fang.

He stared directly at Anna and she noticed the change instantly. His irises had shifted, becoming a solid, obsidian black. *His eyes… they've changed color,* she thought, slowly descending to the ground.* Is this another skill? Is he finally accessing his true power?

Meanwhile, Tyler's senses had heightened, as if a veil had been lifted. The world sharpened. He could feel the rain, its presence amplified. The sound was no longer a dull roar; each individual droplet hitting the earth resonated. He could distinguish each one, almost count them if he wished. He had a clear view of Anna, standing meters away. *She could have ended this at any moment. She could have used her flight for advantage. She's just testing me. The frustrating part is, I know she could have finished me off at any point during this fight. But she isn't.*

He muttered aloud, the words barely audible over the growing rain, "Hey, why are you holding back? You could've… I can tell that you Could've ended this fight in a moment, if you wanted to. So why?"

As her feet met the ground, Anna replied, her voice calm, yet laced with a subtle challenge, "Oh, so you've noticed I've been holding back. I have a similar question for you, Shadow Hunter. Why haven't you unleashed your abilities? All those skills… the ones rumored to be yours. You haven't used any of them. Why are you pretending to be weak?"

*Pretending to be weak?* Tyler's eyes widened as the realization hit him. The cold rain pattered against his scaled armor. *She thinks this is an act. The skills she wants to see... she means the Void Armor.* A cold knot tightened in his stomach. He could not afford to use it.

"Are you still trying to convince me that you are not the Shadow Hunter?"

Tyler didn't answer. He just held her gaze, his new, black eyes unreadable. In the space of a heartbeat, his sword shimmered into existence in his left hand, the blade materializing from nothing with a faint, electric blue glow that quickly faded to a dull gleam.

Anna's eyes widened a fraction. *What was that? Subspace magic?* The pieces refused to fit together. *He's supposed to be an assassin, yet he wields a swordsman's weapon, commands unpredictable scales, and now this? A subspace inventory?* Her gaze, sharp with revulsion, then shifted to Joy. *And then there's this... this humanoid monster.*

"Why did you take it as your pet? What even is this thing?" The word "thing" was laced with pure disgust.

Tyler's own gaze moved to Joy, his voice low but cutting through the rain. "What, or who, I choose as my companion is none of your concern."

Joy understood every word. It was a gift of her evolution, the meanings unlocked in her mind as soon as the sounds reached her ears. She heard the woman's disgust and Tyler's fierce defense. The word echoed in her mind. "Companion..." she whispered under her breath, her green eyes, wide with concern, fixed on Tyler. A fragile warmth bloomed in her chest, a stark contrast to the chilling rain.

Anna's lips curved into a smile, a chilling expression devoid of any humor. It was somehow more unnerving than her usual stoic face. "Yeah, right. A companion. Now you're really starting to piss me off. It seems you truly care about this creature. You didn't want to show your true power before, didn't even want to fight. But the moment I attacked it…"

Joy stared at Anna, her teeth clenched. A low growl rumbled from her chest, a torrent of rage building within her. She loathed this woman. Loathed her words and, more than anything, loathed what she was doing to Tyler. She knew Anna was disgusted by her very presence, but Joy felt an even deeper revulsion towards Anna's actions. A cold smirk now spread across Anna's face, one that Joy desperately wanted to erase.

Anna's eyes began to glow, a faint white light, and the air itself seemed to shift. It grew colder, not just from the rain or wind, but as if the very atmosphere was being manipulated, chilled to an unnatural degree. In a flash, Anna blurred forward, her sword drawn. Tyler reacted instantly, activating his skill, his movements becoming lightning-fast for thirty seconds. Mid-run, he gritted his teeth, his thoughts racing, *Shit, shit, shit. She's going after Joy. I knew where this was going. She wants me to use the Void Armor to stop her, I can't… but she's about to kill Joy.*

Joy's heartbeat quickened, her angry expression melting into pure fear as Anna materialized just a few feet in front of her. The woman's sword was already in motion, a silver arc descending through the rain toward her.

Tyler activated Lightning Thrust. He thrust his sword forward, channeling the stored force from his bracers. An invisible wave, shimmering like heat haze and distorting the air like water, surged from the bracers, traveled up the blade, and merged with the lightning. The sword blazed with a searing blue light, sparks dancing along its edges. A colossal lightning bolt, amplified and propelled by the concussive force, erupted from the tip.

It became a tunnel of devastation, a cylindrical shockwave of invisible energy, with a core of crackling lightning snaking through its center like a live wire. It tore across the short distance toward Anna.

Anna had wanted to kill Joy with the sword. She wanted to feel the blade tear through the creature's flesh, to physically enact the disgust she felt. It was a personal, visceral desire, and it was a fatal miscalculation. Her pupils flicked to the side. She saw it. There was no time to react.

The lightning struck her directly in the rib cage. The concussive force that surrounded it slammed into both her and Joy, but the raw electrical energy hit Anna alone.

The world vanished in a blast of pressure and light. Both figures were hurled into the air. Joy's eyes squeezed shut as a vibration of pure agony wracked her body, a sensation of being crushed in an invisible fist. A high-pitched ringing filled her ears, drowning out all other sound as a moan of pain was torn from her lips.

Anna felt the same crushing force, tumbling through the air helplessly. The lightning seared through her nerves, its violent current making her muscles seize. Sparks danced and snapped across her body.

Joy crashed into the ground first, the air driven from her lungs. Anna slammed down a moment later, her body skidding and tumbling across the torn earth, the impact forcing her sword from her numb grip.

The aftermath was a scar on the field. A deep, rounded tunnel was carved into the earth, the grass and soil ripped upward. The air smelled of ozone and wet, churned dirt. Lightning still flickered over Anna's form where she lay.

Tyler's eyes were wide. He stared at the destruction, the stunned forms of Joy and Anna. He hadn't expected to cause that much damage.

He immediately sprinted forward. In a split second, he reached Joy where she lay. Without breaking stride, he scooped her into his arms and blitzed away from the scarred battlefield. The world dissolved into a streaking blur of wet green and storm-grey. Raindrops hammered against his scaled armor and face with the force of tiny stones, stinging his skin where it was exposed. Cradling Joy against his chest, he covered what felt like kilometers in a handful of heartbeats.

His mind raced faster than his feet. *Damn it, I can't run away with her, she'll track me. I'm sure she didn't die from that.* The image of Anna, sparks still dancing over her body, was burned into his mind. *I have to get Joy away. I can't let this happen again.* The memory of Rebecca, of his failure to save her, lashed at him, sharp and cold. It couldn't happen again.

A colder, pragmatic thought whispered from the back of his mind: *You could have finished her. You should have ended it.* But he shut it down. He wasn't sure. Anna was a Pale Reaper. That lightning strike hadn't knocked her unconscious; he was certain of it. She had been holding back the entire time.

His eyes, still trickling with faint sparks of lightning, caught on a cluster of scattered trees in the distance. He veered toward them. As he slowed, his gaze dropped to Joy in his arms. His breath hitched.

A trickle of crimson blood seeped from the corner of her mouth.

It was red. A stark, vivid red, so similar to human blood, not the green ichor that had flowed through her before.

He laid her gently at the base of the largest tree, making sure the area was secluded, far from any road or village. Without even a pause, he turned.

The air cracked as he rushed back the way he came, his speed causing the wind to explode outward in his wake, making the silver strands of Joy's hair flutter against her unconscious face

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