Moon barely got his staff up in time. The grizzly's claws struck the reinforced wood with enough force to tear through metal. Moon's strength held, but he was driven backwards, his feet carving furrows through concrete.

The creature pressed its advantage, attacking relentlessly. Each strike was powerful enough to shatter Moon's hastily constructed earth walls, though not overwhelmingly so—he could still defend, still create space, and most importantly…still survive.

Moon spun his staff, deflecting a claw swipe that would have torn through his ribs. The impact jarred his arms, the force translating through reinforced wood into his bones. His strength held, but he could feel the strain accumulating.

The grizzly didn't relent. It swung its other paw in a devastating backhand that Moon couldn't fully block. He raised an earth barrier—the stone erupted from the ground in a thick wall—but the grizzly's strength shattered it.

Fragments pelted Moon as he dove backward, creating distance. A razor-sharp piece of stone cut across his cheek, drawing blood.

He retaliated with fire—a concentrated stream that washed over the grizzly's face. The creature roared, turning its head to protect its remaining eye, but continued advancing through the flames. Its thick hide and dense muscle mass absorbed punishment that would have killed lesser beasts ten times over.

Seeing its durable body, Moon switched tactics.

Water gathered in his free hand, not as an attack, but as a binding. He threw it forward, the liquid expanding mid-flight into a massive sphere that engulfed the grizzly's head.

The creature thrashed, unable to breathe, clawing at the water prison around its face.

Moon immediately followed with wind.

A compressed blade of air struck the water sphere from the side, flash-freezing it through rapid evaporation and pressure changes. The grizzly's head was now encased in a shell of ice.

It wouldn't hold for long; the creature's body heat was already cracking the ice from within, but it gave Moon precious seconds.

He channelled earth magic into the ground beneath the grizzly's feet. Stone hands erupted from the pavement, gripping the creature's legs, holding it in place.

Then Moon poured everything into the fire.

His staff blazed with power as he channelled his most concentrated attack yet. The fireball that formed at the tip was different from his previous attacks; it was compressed to the point of near-instability, burning blue-white at its core, containing enough thermal energy to melt steel.

The grizzly shattered the ice around its head with a violent shake. It saw the attack coming, tried to break free from the stone restraints, but the earth's hands held just long enough.

Moon released the fireball.

It struck the grizzly center mass, detonating with explosive force that shook every building within a hundred meters. The shockwave blew out windows, set off car alarms, and knocked civilians who'd been watching from balconies back into their apartments.

Fire washed over the grizzly in a tidal wave of heat and force. The creature's roar was drowned out by the explosion, consumed by the sound of its own flesh burning.

When the flames finally dispersed, smoke rising thick into the air, the grizzly was still standing.

But it was finished.

Its fur was gone, burned away entirely. Its flesh was charred black, cracked and weeping. One leg had buckled, no longer able to support its weight. Both eyes were ruined, cooked in their sockets by the intense heat.

The creature swayed, its massive body fighting to remain upright through sheer stubborn will.

Moon didn't give it the chance to recover. He formed one more fireball, smaller this time, his mana reserves dangerously low and sent it into the grizzly's open mouth as the beast tried to roar one final time.

The explosion blew out from inside, ending it instantly.

The massive body crashed to the ground with a thunderous impact that cracked the pavement beneath it.

[You have killed a level 20 Forest Grizzly Bear.]

[You have gained 600 Lives.]

[You have reached level 17!]

Moon stood over the corpse, his breathing stable.

The fight had been intense but not draining; his Epic-rank skill made his spells far more efficient than they should be, and the Staff of Elemental Resonance reduced his consumption further.

The grizzly was dead.

And through the rift behind him, Moon could see more bears beginning to emerge from the swirling portal.

'They're just going to keep pouring in,' Moon thought as he surveyed the area.

He could keep fighting. Each bear represented money when he sold their materials, an experience that pushed him toward his next level, and lives that accumulated through his Grim Reaper talent. The longer he fought, the more he gained.

But standing here, playing defence in a residential street while civilians watched? That was inefficient.

After a moment of consideration, Moon made his decision. He began to walk towards the portal.

The civilians who'd witnessed his victory against the massive grizzly had grown confident in the young awakener's power. With no bears currently in the street, they rushed from their hiding places—emerging from shops, apartments, and alleyways.

"Thank you! You saved our lives!"

"We thought we were dead!"

"That was incredible!"

Their grateful words fell on deaf ears as Moon approached the rift without breaking stride, his staff held ready, and disappeared entirely into the swirling energy.

The crowd fell silent, shock rippling through them.

They'd assumed he was inspecting the portal, checking if it was stable, doing… something reasonable.

But to actually enter it? Alone? Nobody had expected that.

"Wait…" the young woman from the restaurant said, her voice hollow with disbelief. "Did he just enter a rift… alone?!"

♢♢♢♢

Isabelle arrived moments later, her high speed having carried her across the city in record time. She pushed through the gathered crowd without ceremony.

"Move! What are you doing near the rift?! It's dangerous!" Her voice carried authority that sent civilians scattering backwards immediately.

She reached the portal's perimeter, her body tense and ready for combat, scanning for threats.

But there were no bears in the immediate area. Just corpses, dozens of them, scattered across the blood-soaked street.

The massive grizzly's body dominated the scene, its charred remains testament to the battle that had occurred.

Isabelle's eyes fixed on the rift itself. Still active, its energy swirling, but no creatures were emerging.

Someone was inside. The awakener response team must have arrived before her and already entered to clear the rift from the source.

She sighed in relief, some of the tension draining from her shoulders. "Thank god… finally. Took them long enough to arrive."

With the rift now occupied by awakeners, no more beasts could leave.

Isabelle's gaze swept the carnage again, her mind processing the scene. There were surprisingly few civilian deaths, maybe a dozen, given the body parts scattered around.

This should have been worse, much worse.

In her mind, a rift this powerful, spawning level twenty creatures, in a residential district, should have caused the casualties to reach hundreds easily.

The portal was classified as a First Order B-rank portal—the kind of breakage that required full first-order response teams.

She turned to the nearest person—a middle-aged man still clutching a briefcase, his clothes splattered with blood that wasn't his own.

"What happened here?"

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