Another attack came which Silver narrowly avoided. Then another followed right after.

The squirrel appeared again, perched comfortably atop a rock. Watching him as though he were part of a circus.

Silver suddenly laughed. A short breathless sound.

The squirrel blinked in confusion.

"So that’s it."

The beast tilted its head.

Silver finally understood what had felt wrong during the one-sided attack. The creature wasn’t confident it was extremely cautious. Just like a normal squirrel. It seems not to have shed its nature before mutations.

Every attack came from a distance and every teleport placed obstacles between them. It never committed fully to the fight. Most of the time it was always, attack then teleport. Rinse and repeat.

Which meant one thing its body wasn’t strong only the power was. The squirrel itself wasn’t.

That changed everything. With its ability to teleport, getting a direct hit would probably instantly kill it but the challenging part was landing one. The beast vanished every time he tried to counter.

It vanished again. Silver sprinted immediately, not toward where it appeared but toward where it wanted him looking. It had started to form a pattern.

The squirrel reappeared behind him, exactly as he had expected. Space visibly distorted and Silver spun at the exact moment, gun already raised.

[Phantom Draw LV2 Activated.]

Bang!

The shot crossed the distance instantly. But the squirrel disappeared immediately after. The bullet shattered the rock behind it.

Missed but barely.

For the first time, the beast looked surprised and slightly confused at his accuracy.

Silver smiled slightly.

Now they were getting somewhere in this whole debacle. The squirrel teleported again then another attack followed.

Silver watched carefully.

He wasn’t watching the beast. But the distortions of space. He noticed that the teleport wasn’t instantaneous. A tiny fold appeared beforehand like a wrinkle in the air itself as though reality was bending, then the beast emerged.

Silver fired immediately.

Bang!

The squirrel vanished again. But Silver had at least managed to get it, a tuft of grey fur drifted through the air. He smiled to himself.

The squirrel’s expression changed. The playful curiosity disappeared and now it looked annoyed. Silver had managed to piss it off.

The next several minutes became brutal. The squirrel attacked relentlessly.

Invisible slashes carved through stone. The ravine’s rock formations collapsed and entire sections of the ravine floor split apart.

Silver accumulated more cuts despite his efforts to predict its movements and attacks. His shoulder, arm, and leg, still, nothing was a critical hit. But the wounds were painful.

Thankfully the beast wasn’t escaping unscathed either. Several bullets grazed it. One had clipped its hind leg and another had removed part of its ear. Neither side gained a decisive advantage.

Gradually Silver’s breathing grew heavier. His earlier injuries returned. The medicine had helped but his body wasn’t fully healed. Every movement strained damaged muscles.

The squirrel noticed.

Of course it did, predators always noticed weakness. It became more aggressive immediately. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

Silver ducked beneath another invisible attack but he was still too late. A second slash struck his thigh.

Pain shot upward instantly. He nearly fell just from the sheer intensity of it.

The squirrel appeared on a nearby ledge, watching him patiently.

Silver’s thoughts raced.

He needed something different; something unexpected. Then his gaze landed on the sword. Not the blade itself but the reflection. Moonlight glimmered across polished steel and at that moment, memory surfaced. A training and observation regime that they had gone through while he was in the military. One of the core lessons.

Sometimes the easiest way to track something invisible wasn’t directly, it was indirectly.

Silver slowly shifted position. He angled the sword slightly in a way that moonlight reflected outward.

The squirrel vanished again.

Silver watched the reflection, as expected, a tiny distortion appeared behind him.

The squirrel emerged but not fully, just a small part and that was enough.

Silver moved instantly toward it.

The beast clearly hadn’t expected that since most prey retreated.

Silver attacked.

The sword flashed upward to the distortions. The squirrel teleported again but it was too late. The blade sliced across its side distracting it. Blood splattered against the rocks.

The creature shrieked a high-pitched sound unlike anything he’d heard before.

Silver pressed immediately without giving it any breathing room.

The squirrel vanished then reappeared and vanished again. Its movements grew erratic now, even more desperate. Fear had finally entered the equation which increased his advantage in the fight.

Desperation made making mistakes easier.

Silver chased.

Every appearance triggered another attack.

A slash.

A shot.

Anything that could either hurt or distract it long enough. Gradually the distance shrank.

Ten meters.

Seven.

Five.

The squirrel was running, actually running, the smug look gone. Its teleportation became shorter and less precise as each second passed.

Silver finally understood why. It was undergoing soul exhaustion. Just like humans beasts had limits too.

One final teleport and the squirrel appeared atop a narrow stone column, breathing heavily.

Silver’s chest rose and fell just as hard.

Both of them were exhausted. The creature’s silver eyes locked onto him, then the space around its body began twisting violently, far more than before.

Silver’s instincts screamed instantly that this was real danger.

The squirrel was preparing something, probably a final attack. It was everything it had left since Silver had pushed it to the corner.

The air distorted throughout the ravine. Small stones floated upward and cracks spread across nearby surfaces. Space itself seemed unstable as though angry on the squirrel’s behalf.

Silver’s grip tightened around the sword.

The squirrel’s body trembled then the attack began. And for the first time since the fight started Silver felt genuinely afraid.

The squirrel’s final attack never fully formed because Silver moved first. He wasn’t about to wait for that.

Perhaps because he had already spent an entire lifetime fighting things that wanted him dead or the beast was exhausted or maybe because luck finally decided to stop kicking him.

Whatever the reason, the moment the space around the squirrel began twisting violently, Silver charged forward.

The creature’s silver eyes widened.

The sword flashed, moonlight reflecting on the blade.

The squirrel tried to teleport. A ripple distorted the air beside it but then failed. Its exhausted soul power couldn’t sustain another perfect jump.

His sword crossed flesh effortlessly. A sharp shriek echoed through the ravine then silence.

Silver stumbled two more steps before stopping. The sword remained extended towards the fallen beast while blood dripped slowly from the blade.

Behind him, the squirrel’s small body slid from the stone pillar and struck the ground with a soft thud. For several moments, Silver simply stood there breathing heavily.

The fight had not been flashy or glorious, it had been exhausting. Every muscle in his body hurt, his wounds ached and his soul felt strangely drained.

Only after confirming the beast wasn’t moving did he lower the sword.

"...Please tell me that thing is actually dead."