First Blood

The wind had changed.

It was drier now, heavy with a metallic scent, almost suffocating. Haruka could feel it instantly. This wasn’t about the weather—it was instinct. This breeze carried the unmistakable presence of a predator.

“It’s coming,” he said, his voice steady but his senses on high alert.

Keiji nodded, gripping his makeshift weapon—a slightly twisted iron bar he had scavenged from a ruined building. Since they had formed their alliance, they had encountered only emptiness, desolate landscapes, and the occasional fleeting shadow. But this time… it felt different.

“What is it?” Keiji whispered.

Haruka crouched and touched the ground. It was warm, vibrating slightly beneath his fingers.

“A creature. Medium-sized, fast… and close.”

He straightened up, not wasting a second, and raised his hand to the sky.

The sky was overcast, menacing. A distant rumble echoed, like a faint response to what he unknowingly called. His power. The lightning was answering him, but it was slow, reluctant—as if the beast within it didn’t want to obey.

A rustle of leaves. Cracked branches. Something was moving through the dry underbrush.

Then, it emerged.

A creature, a feline the size of two normal tigers, its black fur streaked with glowing red lines. Its eyes were nothing but slits of bright light, and massive claws like blades extended from its paws. It lunged without warning.

“Left!” Keiji shouted.

Haruka rolled to the side, narrowly dodging the beast’s assault. The creature crashed to the ground in a cloud of dust, quickly righting itself. It was fast. Too fast for Keiji. But not too fast for the lightning.

Haruka focused, his hand extended toward the creature. His fingers tingled, already crackling with pale blue sparks.

“Come,” he whispered.

The creature pounced again.

A thunderous crack.

A bolt of lightning shot from Haruka’s hands, striking the beast squarely in the flank. It let out a harsh, guttural scream, tumbling through the air, and crashed into a dead tree trunk. It collapsed in a cloud of dust and ash.

📢 [SYSTEM: TARGET NEUTRALIZED – EXP GAINED: +1,200]
📢 [LEVEL UP – Haruka is now level 2]

Haruka staggered back, his arms trembling. The discharge had been powerful—too powerful. He felt a burn deep in his arm, as if the energy still refused to flow properly, lingering inside him.

Keiji rushed to his side, eyes wide in awe.

“You... you got it? In one shot?”

“Not dead,” Haruka replied. “Just knocked out. We need to finish it for the experience to count.”

Keiji paled.

“It’s you who has that power… it’s you who needs to finish it.”

Haruka hesitated.

The creature let out a low moan, its fur still smoking. It tried to rise, dragging its claws across the ground in a slow, desperate motion.

He approached it. He could do it again. A quick strike of lightning. Efficient. Fast.

But in that moment, he realized something—he was going to kill a living being. For the first time.

His heart clenched. Yet, he knew if he didn’t reach level 5 by the end of the week, it would be him who died. And his powers—his life—would be given to someone else.

He stretched his hand out. A bluish light gathered in his palm.

The lightning struck, clean and precise, right to the creature’s head. It stopped moving.

Silence.

📢 [EXP GAINED: +800]
📢 [LEVEL UP – Haruka is now level 3]
📢 [New passive ability: Electric Resistance I]

He slowly lowered his hand, his arms shaking. No fatigue. No pain. Just a strange, empty feeling, as if he had lost something.

Keiji said nothing. He stared at the smoking carcass, his throat tight.

“Do you think… it gets easier?”

Haruka answered without looking at him.

“No. But you get used to it.”

He turned away from the corpse. The sky was clearing slightly, letting a reddish light filter through. A false dawn. Or perhaps a false dusk. In this world, even the sun seemed like a lie.

Keiji checked his own panel.

“Level 4... just one more. I’m almost there.”

“Good,” Haruka replied. “Stay focused. We can’t afford to weaken now.”

He glanced at his own screen. The countdown ticked slowly.

Time Remaining: 6 days, 4 hours
Objective: Level 5
Status: Progressing…

He closed his eyes for a moment. His hand tightened around the scarf around his neck, which fluttered lightly in a breeze that no one else seemed to feel.

“This is just the first blood,” he murmured.

But not the last.