The shriek of the night walker was an intense sound. Grey’s knees nearly buckled hearing the noise for the first time as his hands reached to cover his ears. Next to him, however, Akasuba reacted instantly and released a large burst of wind energy towards the creature trying to enter the opening of the trunk, pushing both the creature and Grey backwards.

  The shrieking ceased, allowing him a moment to recuperate and focus. He felt the cool sensation of shadow psych settling on his mind, allowing him to reach that absolute degree of focus he was slowly starting to get used to. He also noticed that when using the power of shadow psych, his eyesight in the dark increased dramatically; it was almost as if he had put on a set of night vision goggles.

  After he had released the burst of energy, Akasuba charged out of the opening at the creatures waiting outside. Without hesitating a moment longer, Grey followed him out to help combat the new threat attacking them. Emerging outside, he got a look at the creatures known to him as night walkers for the first time.

  They were obscenely large and grotesque. Standing on four legs, they looked like mutilated wolves of his old world. They were completely black but had no fur, with large snouts and white eyes. Unlike the wolves of his old world, they stood higher than even his six feet and were about three meters long. Seeing the two men standing in front of the tree, the creatures let loose another one of their suffocating shrieks, baring large teeth that looked like they could rip your limb off in one bite.

  “I can only feel the two of them”, Suba said. “Should be a piece of cake. One each?”

  He could only nod his head in assent to his question, but Grey was slightly surprised that Suba thought these enormous creatures were just a piece of cake. He wondered how he would even begin to take down a creature of this size with only his small knives, but as if to answer his question, Ki chimed in, “Now is the time to use the shadows, human. Do not fear what this human sees; he has already seen enough to endanger us. Use your shadow gauntlets.”

  Grey immediately reached into his soul and pulled on the tidal pool of shadows within. Just as they had last time, they began to swirl around his fist, but this time it was both of his fists. Having accessed these shadows before, it felt almost easier dragging them out to surround them. Feeling energised by the new sense of power, he charged towards the night walker in front of him, Suba to his left doing the same.

  The creature was not idle as he charged at it. It immediately launched itself at him, forcing him to dodge right as they passed each other at great speed. To any regular human, their movements would almost be too fast to track at the speed they were moving. Turning to face the night walker once again, Grey closed the distance and punched straight at its torso while ducking a swiping claw, hoping to blow a hole in its side just as he had done to the face of Indub the berserker. But to his immense surprise, his hand covered in shadows only pushed the creature a few metres backwards. This made him realise that this fight was a few levels above what he had previously experienced. This thought caused shadow psych to work in overdrive as it worked to turn Grey’s violent nature into overdrive. He felt as if his blood began to boil, and he was imbued with even further power than his shadow gauntlets had already given him.

  Smiling savagely, Grey pressed on his attack, throwing punches and the odd kick while dodging and slipping under the massive claws of the creature. Their battle proceeded like this for a few moments longer before he felt himself beginning to tire. With a worried expression now on his face, he couldn’t see how he could defeat this creature. All the punches and kicks he had thrown had only resulted in a few broken bones for him and an extremely bloody snout. He, on the other hand, had only received a slight scratch down his left arm, which he could already feel was being healed by shadow healing. But all this use of the shadows with no reward for their hunger was starting to tire him, and he needed a new approach quickly.

  “I thought you said this would be a piece of cake”, Grey shouted over to Akasuba as he dodged the massive jaws attempting to close on his outstretched arm.

  “It should’ve been,” he screamed back while shooting bursts of wind from his palms at his night walker. “Their advantage usually lies in their numbers, but for some reason, these are more powerful than regular night wolves. I think they Alphas.”

  Alphas, he thought with amusement. Of course, his first fight with real-life monsters had to be with some sort of stronger variant than a regular monster. He hadn’t caught a break since he arrived in this world.

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  “I think we need to change our plan of attack”, he once again shouted to Suba as he created some distance between the night wolf he had been fighting. “They are too strong for us to take on our own. My fists aren’t getting through their thick hide. We need to isolate them and take them out when they are alone. I’m going to try to lose it in the forest, hold your one off until I’m back, and then we can take it out together.”

  After he heard Suba’s shout of agreement, Grey took off into the forest. He ran as hard as his new, advanced body would allow. Branches and trees grabbed at him as he dashed past them at speed, all the while using shadow psych to make sure he kept a stable footing through the rugged terrain. Even with his now impressive speed, he could hear the ragged breaths of the creature close on his heels, and he knew he wouldn’t be able to outrun it at this speed. As Ki had done last time, he once again gently reminded him to use the powers of the Umbra, “Human, stop relying on your abilities of old. You have been made anew. Realise your potential now.”

  With that, Grey thought about the feeling he got when encasing his fists with the shadows to form shadow gauntlets. Reaching within himself, Grey pulled hard on the shadows, forcing them to encompass not his fists but his legs this time. Gritting his teeth while running at full speed, even with the use of shadow psych, he felt a sharp explosion of pain before his legs were completely encompassed by the shadows.

  With that, he felt like he had shed a whole layer of skin, and he was even faster than before. His speed increased dramatically, allowing him to leave the creature behind in their chase through the forest. Stopping for only a moment to catch his breath, Grey turned and began sprinting back towards the giant ancient tree, praying the Suba hadn’t fallen to the night wolf yet.

  Bursting out of the trees, he crashed into the night wolf as Suba flung himself backwards with a small gust of wind to dodge an oncoming attack. The night wolf was flung through the air and landed roughly a few metres away.

  “Are you ok?” he asked.

  “Took your time, didn’t you? A couple of scratches, but I'll be alright,”, Suba replied with a cheeky grin.

  He nodded at that. They both turned to face the monster, ready to end its existence with steely faces.

  “How do you want to do this?” Grey asked.

  “Well, after seeing the dark magic around your fists, I think I have an idea”, he replied. “You distract it while I rush in from the side, and I'll give you an opening to inflict the most damage possible.”

  Grey nodded once more, thinking that the man was always so vague in his plans, but in a battle of life and death like this, he trusted him.

  Grey rushed in and began pummelling the night wolf with his fists in its large snout, dodging and weaving around those massive claws. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Suba jump over him to land at the side of the night wolf. Using wind blades shaped like a scimitar to cut the side of the beast. Grey recognised that this was the opening he had been talking about and rushed to land the most powerful strike he could manage into the small cut on the beast’s flank. He pulled at the shadows, the veins in his forehead clearly visible, and gathered as much power as possible before landing the strike. His arm punched cleanly through the beast, causing another explosion of dark energy, basically dissecting the beast in half. They were both showered with blood and gore. Standing there covered head to toe, they took a moment to breathe.

  “Quite the punch you pack their Grey”, Suba said. “Not sure I like the aftermath though. But one down, one to go right.”

  Grey groaned at that; he was in no mood for jokes and had expended an enormous amount of energy at this point. He could feel the shadows baying at him in hunger, and that’s when he remembered the monster corpse sitting right in front of him. He approached it wearily and placed his hand on its head. Drawing forth the dark energy to feed the shadows as he had done before. The same brief moment of rage consumed him again before he felt himself being revitalised.

  Suba could only stare at what had just occurred and looked on with a serious expression as he watched but did not comment on it.

  Just as he had finished feeding the shadows, they heard a howl and turned as the remaining night wolf burst out of the trees and came barrelling at Grey. Now fully energised, he easily dodged the beast. They made quick work of the last beast, working together using the same strategy as before. He proceeded to feed off its dark energy as well before taking stock of the situation.

  “Well, that was intense”, Grey said, still covered in gore.

  “That I agree. Strange though, I haven’t run into an alpha in a long time. Let alone two working together,” Suba replied

  They both stood in silence, wondering at the implications of this before deciding to get cleaned up as best as they could and try to get some rest. They hadn’t been fighting for long, but it was still a tough battle. As they were settling down for bed, Grey was very aware of the monster remains outside, but Suba assured him that Alphas left a scent and no lesser night walkers would make an appearance.

  Settling in for the night, hopefully for real this time. Akasuba couldn’t help but wonder who the man sleeping across from him was and where someone wielding ancient powers only spoken about in texts from a millennium ago had come from. He was sure to find out.