Noah cracked his neck, the sound audible even over the ambient forest noise. He took a deep breath, filling his lungs with the dense alien air, and watched the three-horn begin its charge.

The creature moved fast, faster than the bulkier three-horns he'd fought before. Its lean build translated to explosive acceleration, legs eating up the distance between them in massive strides. Ten meters. Eight. Six.

Its fist drew back, coiling like a spring, preparing to unleash force that would turn Noah's torso into paste.

'Three meters. Two. Now.'

[NULL STRIKE ACTIVATED]

Purple-black energy erupted around Noah's fist as he cocked his arm back, matching the Harbinger's motion. For one microsecond, he saw the creature's expression shift. Feral aggression became immediate regret. It had overcommitted to this punch, had closed distance expecting to land first, and now Noah was going to make it pay.

BOOM.

The impact point between their fists became ground zero for a shockwave that rewrote the local environment. The ground beneath them created a perfect circular depression, spider-web cracks radiating outward from the epicenter. Vegetation within a ten-meter radius didn't bend or break, it simply ceased to exist, pulverized into particles so fine they became mist.

Noah felt himself being launched backward by force he couldn't explain. His body ragdolled through the air, tumbling, completely unable to control his trajectory. Trees blurred past. Sky and ground swapped positions. His shoulder hit something solid, spinning him sideways. His back slammed into a trunk thick enough to stop his momentum, and pain exploded through his spine.

[-65 HP]

[Health Points: 3,405/3,520]

The Harbinger was tumbling the opposite direction, its massive form trying desperately to find purchase. Its claws dug into alien soil, carving furrows, but the momentum was too much. It skidded backward thirty meters before finally arresting its flight, ending up in a crouch with all four limbs planted.

Noah pushed himself upright, spitting blood. 'That should have worked. Null Strike is designed to finish anything. Direct contact with void energy, erasure on impact. So why—'

Then he understood. He'd seen it, but it had happened too fast to process in the moment. At the last possible microsecond, right when the creature's eyes had widened in recognition of what was coming, its tail had snapped. Not like a whip, but like fingers creating a sonic boom, except with force magnified by Harbinger strength and mass. The resulting concussive wave had detonated between them before their fists actually connected, creating separation that prevented Noah's void energy from touching the creature's flesh.

'The Widow did something similar on Sirius Prime,' Noah thought, watching the three-horn rise to its full height. 'She sacrificed her tail when I went for her neck with Excaliburn. Snapped it clean off her body rather than let the void blade touch her. This one learned the same trick, used its tail as a buffer to create force that prevented direct contact.'

It was intelligent adaptation. Recognizing the threat void energy posed and developing counters that prioritized survival over landing attacks. The problem was that this level of awareness existed across all three-horns Noah had encountered. Each one brought something different to combat, showed creativity and problem-solving that most humans never developed.

'They're built for this,' Noah thought bitterly. 'Genetically optimized for war and conquest. Superior to humans in every measurable way except one—we're more stubborn about dying.'

The Harbinger charged again, but this time it came in low, using its arms in addition to its legs, moving like a predator that had abandoned pretense of humanity. Its speed was terrifying, covering ground in bounds that blurred the space between them.

Noah activated Void Blink, reality folding as he displaced himself ten meters to the left. The creature's trajectory adjusted mid-leap, its intelligence allowing it to track the dimensional shift and compensate. It landed where Noah had been, spun on one leg, and its tail came around in a horizontal sweep aimed at his midsection.

Noah dropped flat. The tail passed overhead, close enough that he felt wind displacement, close enough that the tip caught his hair. He rolled, came up already moving, put a tree between himself and the Harbinger.

The tree exploded. The creature punched through it like it was paper, wooden splinters becoming shrapnel, and kept coming without slowing. Noah blinked again, appeared behind the Harbinger, and drove his knee into its mid section.

The impact landed solid. The Harbinger grunted, stumbled forward two steps, and then its tail snapped again. The concussive force caught Noah in the chest, lifting him off his feet, sending him tumbling through undergrowth that tore at his clothes and skin.

[-40 HP]

[Health Points: 3,365/3,520]

He came out of the roll into a sprint, putting distance between them. The Harbinger pursued, closing the gap with very quickly. Noah's mind was working through options, calculating odds, trying to find an angle that didn't end with him being paste.

'Void Blink gives me positioning but it's not solving the fundamental problem. This thing has learned to counter direct contact with void energy. Every time I get close enough to land a finishing blow, it creates separation through that tail technique. I need to remove the tail or force it into a position where it can't use the counter.'

Noah stopped running. Turned to face the pursuing Harbinger. Extended both hands forward, fingers spread.

[VOID BARRAGE ACTIVATED]

Purple projectiles erupted from his fingertips, dozens of them, filling the space between him and the creature with erasure energy. The Harbinger dove sideways, its lean body contorting, moving through the barrage with precision that suggested it could see the individual projectiles. Most missed. Three hit, carving holes through its left shoulder and removing a chunk of its thigh.

The creature's regeneration kicked in immediately, new flesh growing, but slower than normal. The void energy was interfering, creating damage that resisted healing.

It roared, frustration evident, and then it started grabbing trees. Not breaking them, grabbing them at the base and ripping them from the ground with roots still attached. It threw the first one like a javelin. Noah blinked, appeared five meters right. The tree hit where he'd been and shattered, becoming a cloud of splinters.

The second tree came faster. Noah blinked again, but the Harbinger had predicted it. The tree's trajectory intercepted his new position. He got his arms up, blocking, and the impact drove him backward through the air. His feet left the ground. He hit dirt hard, rolled, kept rolling as the third tree came down where his head had been.

[-35 HP]

[Health Points: 3,330/3,520]

'It's learning my blink patterns. Tracking where I appear, calculating based on previous movements. I need to be less predictable.'

Noah stood, wiped blood from his mouth, and ran directly at the Harbinger. The creature's eyes widened slightly, surprise at the direct approach, and it wound up for another devastating punch.

[PHASE STEP ACTIVATED]

Noah's body became incorporeal, his molecules falling out of sync with normal matter. The Harbinger's fist passed through him like he was smoke. He phased back into solidity behind the creature, already pivoting, and drove both fists into its spine with enhanced strength amplified by momentum.

The creature arched backward, vertebrae cracking audibly, and Noah followed up immediately with an uppercut aimed at the base of its skull. His fist was wreathed in void energy, the purple-black light promising erasure on contact.

The tail snapped. The concussive wave detonated between Noah's fist and the creature's head, creating separation measured in millimeters but sufficient to prevent contact. Noah was launched straight up, his body becoming airborne, completely vulnerable.

The Harbinger spun, jumped, and caught him mid-air. Its hand closed around Noah's leg, and then it swung him like a club into the ground.

CRACK.

[-70 HP]

[Health Points: 3,260/3,520]

Pain exploded through Noah's left arm. Something was definitely broken. He activated Void Blink reflexively, appearing twenty meters away, and immediately clutched his arm. His enhanced regeneration was already working, knitting bone and tissue, but it hurt like nothing else.

The Harbinger landed where he'd been, creating a crater with the force of its impact. It looked at him across the distance, and pure, unadulterated hatred burned in its eyes. It was bleeding from multiple wounds. Its regeneration was compromised by lingering void energy. But it was still standing, still capable, and it had just broken Noah's arm.

'This isn't working. Every direct approach gets countered. Every void-enhanced attack gets blocked by that tail technique. I need a different angle, something it can't predict or counter through pure reflex.'

Noah's eyes went to the ground beneath them. The alien soil, the root systems, the network of vegetation.

[ENTROPY TOUCH ACTIVATED]

He pressed both hands against the ground. Decay energy spread from the contact point, flowing through root systems, turning living matter into dead matter, creating a spreading zone of corruption that moved faster than the Harbinger could track.

The creature noticed too late. The ground beneath its feet collapsed, roots that had been supporting the soil turning to dust. It dropped into the sinkhole Noah had created, only a meter deep but enough to throw off its balance.

Noah was already moving. He blinked directly above the creature, falling toward it with both fists raised, void energy coating his hands like gloves.

The Harbinger looked up. Its tail came around, but Noah had anticipated this. He activated Phase Step mid-fall, phasing through the tail's sweep, becoming solid again inside the creature's guard.

His fists came down, aimed at the Harbinger's head.

The creature's legs coiled and exploded downward with force that cracked the ground beneath it. Its body dropped into the earth like a stone through water, disappearing into a crater of its own creation. Noah's void-enhanced fists hit empty air where the Harbinger's head had been a microsecond before.

He landed hard in the crater, off-balance, and the Harbinger erupted from the side. Its fist caught Noah's ribs, driving him backward through vegetation.

[-70 HP]

[Health Points: 3,190/3,520]

Noah rolled through undergrowth, came up on one knee, and immediately had to blink away as the Harbinger's follow-up attack carved through the space where his head had been. He appeared fifteen meters out, breathing hard, his broken arm screaming protest with every movement.

'Counter, counter to counter. This thing is reading my patterns as fast as I can develop new ones.'

The Harbinger didn't give him time to think. It charged again, but this time it stopped just outside Noah's range. Its hands came together.

BOOM!!!

The clap created a shockwave that tore through the forest. Trees bent, the ground rippled, and Noah dove sideways, the concussive force passing through where he'd been standing. The air itself became a weapon, distorting everything in its path.

Noah came out of the roll, extended both hands.

[VOID BARRAGE ACTIVATED]

Purple projectiles erupted from his fingertips, filling the space between them. The Harbinger moved, its lean body weaving through the barrage, but several hit. Holes opened in its shoulder, its side, its leg. Black blood sprayed.

It retaliated immediately. Its tail whipped forward, not to strike but to create another sonic boom. The resulting shockwave caught Noah mid-dodge, lifting him off his feet.

[-45 HP]

[Health Points: 3,145/3,520]

He blinked before he hit the ground, appeared behind the creature, and called down destruction from above.

[STORM CALL ACTIVATED]

Purple-black energy tore through the sky, a column of erasure that came down like judgment. The Harbinger saw it, dove sideways, but the lightning clipped its shoulder. Flesh simply ceased to exist where the energy touched, creating a wound that went down to bone.

The creature roared, spun, and its hands came together again.

BOOM!!!

BOOM!!!

BOOM!!!

Three claps in rapid succession, each creating shockwaves that overlapped, covering every angle. Noah phased through the first, blinked away from the second, but the third caught him. The force drove him backward, his body tumbling through undergrowth.

[-40 HP]

[Health Points: 3,105/3,520]

He came up with both hands extended, refusing to give ground.

[VOID BARRAGE ACTIVATED]

More projectiles, dozens of them, saturating the space. The Harbinger was forced to move, to dodge, its previous position becoming untenable as erasure energy carved through everything.

Its tail snapped once, twice, three times. Sonic booms detonated around it, creating a defensive perimeter that intercepted some of Noah's projectiles. But not all. Holes opened across its torso, its arms, its legs. Its regeneration was struggling, the accumulated void damage overwhelming its ability to heal.

Noah called down another lightning strike. The Harbinger saw it coming, tried to dodge, but Noah had anticipated the movement. He blinked, appeared in the creature's escape path, and drove a void-enhanced fist toward its chest.

The tail came around. The sonic boom created separation before Noah could make contact. He was launched backward, but he'd expected this. He twisted mid-flight, landed on his feet, and immediately fired another Void Barrage.

Purple projectiles filled the air. The Harbinger clapped, creating shockwaves to intercept, but there were too many. Several hit, carving new wounds, deepening existing ones. Black blood was pouring now, the creature's movements becoming slower, less precise.

But it wasn't done. It planted its feet, its back arched, and Noah heard something that sounded like bones breaking and reforming. The creature's back bulged, skin stretching, something pushing outward from beneath.

Wings.

Two massive appendages erupted from the Harbinger's back, tearing through flesh, unfolding like organic origami. They were maybe three meters across each, membranous and veined.

Noah stared as his mind was trying to process what he was seeing even as his body automatically shifted into a defensive stance.

'When the hell did they start doing this?' The thought came fast, laced with genuine disbelief. He'd fought Harbingers, probably racked up more kills than most veterans already. In the academy, he'd studied their biology, their capabilities, their evolution. Never once had he seen or heard of wings. Not in any report, not in any classified briefing, not in any of the horror stories survivors told.

'Real-time adaptation is one thing. Growing entirely new appendages in the middle of combat?' His eyes tracked the membrane stretching, the way muscle and bone were knitting together in ways that shouldn't be possible. 'This isn't just evolution anymore. This is something else. Something new.'

The Harbinger flexed its wings experimentally, and Noah felt his stomach drop. Air combat. Three-dimensional warfare. Every tactical advantage he'd been building, every pattern he'd been exploiting, all of it became useless the moment this thing left the ground.

'Has anyone in human history ever seen one with wings?' Noah thought, his mind racing through databases he'd read, through every encounter recorded in the archives. 'No. This can't be standard. This has to be unique to this individual, or maybe to three-horns on this specific planet, or—'

The creature's wings caught moonlight from the three celestial bodies overhead, preparing for flight that would change everything.

'—or they've been evolving faster than we thought, developing capabilities we haven't cataloged yet, and if that's true then everything we know about Harbingers is already obsolete.'

He was sitting with his back against a tree, breathing hard, his broken arm cradled against his chest. The Harbinger stood at the opposite end of the clearing, wings spreading wider, testing their range of motion. Black blood dripped from its damaged throat and the holes in its shoulder and thigh.

'I went into this fight trying to be efficient. Conserve resources. End it quickly without exhausting all my options because I'm trapped on an alien world with no backup coming and possibly more enemy arrivals. But that approach isn't working.'

Noah's void energy reserves were sitting around sixty percent. Not critical yet, but enough that continued fighting would drop them into dangerous territory. His physical injuries were healing but slowly, his enhanced regeneration taxed by the sheer volume of damage accumulated over the past ten minutes.

'I can't summon my dragons. That thing is still calling to them and chasing them down if they decided to fly off isn't on my cards. What this means is I don't have their buffs. Ivy's Regenerative Bloom that would give me three percent health per second. Storm's Eye of the Storm amplifying my movement by seventy percent. Nyx's Brothers in Arms giving me thirty-five percent damage amplification and twenty-five percent damage resistance. I'm fighting at maybe seventy percent of my maximum capability.'

The Harbinger's wings spread wider, muscles bunching as it prepared to launch itself into the air. The membrane stretched, caught wind, lifted the creature's feet off the ground for a moment before it settled back down, adjusting to the new appendages.

'This thing is getting stronger the longer we fight. Adapting, evolving, developing new capabilities in response to threats. My void energy won't last forever, especially without Ivy's Root Curse providing four percent regeneration per second. If this becomes a war of attrition, I lose.'

He watched the creature test its wings again, watched it rise a meter off the ground before settling back. Once it figured out flight, once it mastered three-dimensional combat, Noah's options narrowed to almost nothing.

'No more half measures. I end this now or it ends me.'

"System," Noah said quietly, his voice carrying across the clearing despite the blood in his mouth and the pain in his ribs. "Equip Knight's Grace and Void Striders."

[KNIGHT'S GRACE... EQUIPPED]

[VOID STRIDERS... EQUIPPED]

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