Chapter 34: Multiplying Threats (part-1)
RECAP: Day 101 marked the beginning of Phase 2: Dimensional Stabilization. After surviving Integration Complete, Earth faces a new crisis, 100 dimensional rifts must be sealed in 30 days or face permanent reality collapse. Ethan discovered powerful new System features but theory becomes reality when the downtown Seattle rift suddenly expands, and something dangerous begins emerging...
Day 101 - November 25th - 9:30 AM
By the time I arrived at the downtown rift site, the situation had already deteriorated significantly.
The rift hung in the air like a wound in reality, a jagged tear about fifteen feet across, pulsing with sickly purple light that made my eyes hurt to look at directly. The edges flickered and sparked, reality itself straining against the intrusion like skin trying to close around a foreign object.
And something was definitely coming through.
I could see movement in the depths of the rift, shadows writhing in the purple void. Hear sounds that shouldn't exist, scraping, clicking, a high-pitched keen that set my teeth on edge and made my survival instincts scream danger.
I activated Battlefield Awareness, taking in the tactical situation. Maya's team had already arrived, eight fighters in defensive formation around the rift, weapons ready. Captain Reyes's team was approaching from the south, still two minutes out. A crowd of civilian spectators had gathered at what they thought was a safe distance, curiosity overriding common sense despite three months of apocalypse training.
"Status!" I called, joining Maya's position behind an overturned car that provided minimal cover.
"The rift opened fifteen minutes ago," she reported, not taking her eyes off the tear in reality. Her voice was calm, professional, but I could feel her tension through our proximity. "Dr. Chen said it was stable when we left the compound, but it started expanding the moment we got here. Growing about six inches every minute. And about two minutes ago, we started hearing sounds from the other side."
As if on cue, a shriek echoed from the rift. Not human. Not anything from Earth. A sound that existed in frequencies that shouldn't reach human ears, carrying harmonics that made reality itself vibrate uncomfortably.
"Defensive positions!" I ordered, activating Tactical Link to connect with both Maya's and Reyes's teams. Sixteen minds suddenly connected to mine, a rush of sensations, emotions, tactical assessments all flowing together. "Whatever comes through, we hit it hard and fast. Don't let it establish a foothold. Don't let it understand our capabilities before we understand its."
The rift pulsed, expanding another foot. The purple light intensified, casting everything in sickly hues that made the abandoned street look like an alien landscape.
Then something emerged.
It looked like a wolf, if wolves were made of crystalline darkness and had six legs. The creature was massive, easily the size of a horse, with a body that seemed to be constructed from living shadow given physical form through jagged crystal structures. Its edges weren't just sharp, they literally cut the air itself, leaving trails of distortion where reality struggled to reassert itself around the creature's impossible existence.
Its eyes glowed the same purple as the rift, three of them arranged in a triangle formation on its angular head. When it opened its mouth, I saw teeth made of what looked like solidified void, darkness so absolute it seemed to absorb light, creating the visual paradox of black teeth that were somehow visible against the creature's dark body.
[ANALYZING TARGET...]
The System helpfully provided information that made my stomach drop:
[RIFTSPAWN HUNTER - TIER 5]
[LEVEL 18]
[HP: 2,400/2,400]
[ABILITIES: DIMENSIONAL PHASING, VOID BITE, REALITY TEAR]
[WEAKNESS: CONCENTRATED MANA ATTACKS]
[WARNING: TIER 5 THREAT - REGIONAL DANGER LEVEL]
"Tier Five," I said through Tactical Link, keeping my voice calm despite the spike of adrenaline. My Strategic Mind was already processing threat levels, comparing to previous encounters. "Same threat class as the Chimera we fought at the chemical plant. Different abilities though. This one can teleport, Dimensional Phasing. Spread out, don't bunch up. We can't let it catch multiple people with area attacks."
The Riftspawn Hunter landed on the cracked pavement, its six legs clicking against concrete with sounds that carried too much weight, as if each footfall was impacting multiple dimensions simultaneously. It swiveled its triangular head, surveying us with alien intelligence.
Through Combat Awareness, a passive ability from my Tactical Overlord class, I could see its targeting patterns, the way its attention shifted between potential threats. It was evaluating us, trying to determine which target was most dangerous, most vulnerable, most valuable to eliminate first.
Then it made its decision and charged.
Directly at Maya.
"MAYA, EVADE!" I shouted through both Tactical Link and vocally.
She was already moving, her enhanced reflexes from Level 8 letting her dive left as the creature's claws raked through the space where she'd been standing. The air itself tore where those claws passed, leaving reality-distortion trails that took seconds to heal.
"NOW!" I commanded through Tactical Link, coordinating the response. "All ranged attacks, converging fire pattern delta-3!"
Eight different attacks launched simultaneously from four different directions. Arrows from two archers, bullets from three fighters with scavenged rifles, a fire spell from our one mage (a Tier 3 survivor named Carlos who'd developed pyromancy), and Maya's throwing knives, all converging on the Hunter from angles it couldn't dodge simultaneously.
My own Lightning Bolt struck its flank, leaving a scorched mark across the crystalline darkness. The electricity arced through its body, making the crystals glow from within. Maya's knives found gaps in its structure, embedding between crystal plates. Carlos's flames washed over it, superheating its surface.
The Hunter barely slowed.
It phased, literally phased through reality, and suddenly appeared behind our formation, having teleported twenty feet in an instant. Its Void Bite caught a Tier 3 fighter named Rodriguez before anyone could react.
The man screamed as his arm dissolved into nothingness where the teeth touched. Not cut. Not burned. Simply ceased to exist, reality itself erased by the void energy. Blood spurted from the sudden termination point of his arm, now ending at the elbow.
"HEALER!" I commanded through the link, already repositioning. We had a Tier 2 healer named Sandra on Maya's team. "Rodriguez, fall back! Sandra, stabilize him!"
The Hunter tried to follow up its attack, going for a killing blow on the wounded fighter, but Maya intercepted. Her Whirlwind Strike, a skill she'd mastered over weeks of practice, became a blur of motion as she spun between the creature and Rodriguez, her blade forcing the Hunter back with sheer speed and ferocity.
"Good!" I called. "Maya, you're primary bait. It sees you as the biggest threat. Use that. Lead it where I call positions."
Through Tactical Link, I shared my Probability Analysis with the team, predictions of where the Hunter would move, when it would phase, optimal intercept positions. My Intelligence of 78 processed combat variables at superhuman speed, building probability trees dozens of branches deep.
"It phases every fifteen seconds," I announced, having watched its pattern through three teleports now. "After three physical attacks. Next phase in... eight seconds. Southeast vector, seventy degrees, twelve feet. Position intercept ,Reyes, Martinez, Chen...move NOW!"
The three fighters I'd named moved before I finished speaking, trusting my analysis completely after months of successful predictions. They were in position when the Hunter phased, appearing exactly where I'd calculated.
Three blades struck simultaneously as it materialized, catching it mid-teleport. The combined attack carved deep gouges in the creature's crystalline shoulder, shattering several of the shadow-crystal structures that made up its body.
It shrieked, that reality-bending sound again, and purple ichor, some kind of interdimensional blood that looked wrong in normal space, sprayed from the wounds.
"It's working!" Maya called through the link, her mental voice excited. "Keep predicting!"
For the next three minutes, we danced. I called out phase locations based on pattern analysis. Team members intercepted at exactly the right moments. The Hunter's hit-and-run tactics, which should have been devastating, became predictable once I'd mapped its behavioral algorithm.
Damage accumulated. Crystal structures shattered. Purple ichor flowed. Its health bar, visible only to me through Combat Awareness, dropped steadily:
2,400... 2,100... 1,850... 1,600...
But the creature was learning too.
Its phase timing started varying. The fifteen-second pattern broke down, now fourteen seconds, now seventeen, now twelve. My predictions became less accurate as it adapted its behavior based on our responses.
"It's adapting," I warned through Tactical Link. "Pattern recognition compromised. Fifteen-second intervals breaking down. New pattern emerging but I need more data..."
The Hunter made its move. Instead of phasing away defensively, it charged straight forward. Straight at me.
It had identified the strategic weak point. Kill the coordinator, break the perfect team synchronization.
"Ethan!" Maya's warning came through the link, but she was too far away. Thirty feet, maybe more. The Hunter was closing at terrifying speed, twenty feet, fifteen, ten....
Its Void Bite descended toward my head, close enough that I could feel the wrongness of it, the way the void energy pulled at reality itself like a black hole pulls at light. Close enough to see the absolute darkness of those impossible teeth. Close enough to know that if they touched me, whatever they touched would simply cease to exist.
Time seemed to slow. My enhanced Intelligence processing the moment in excruciating detail:
The Hunter's teeth, six inches from my face and closing.
Maya sprinting toward me, too far, her face showing terror I'd never seen before.
Reyes trying to intercept, not going to make it.
My own hand moving, reaching for Stormbreaker on my back, knowing I wouldn't draw it in time.
I was going to die.
Then instinct took over. Pure survival reflex honed by three months of apocalypse combat. My hand wasn't reaching for Stormbreaker, it was channeling mana.
Lightning Bolt, zero-range cast, no aiming, just raw power.
The electricity erupted from my palm directly into the Hunter's open mouth. Point-blank range. All 150 mana cost channeled into a single target.
The creature's head exploded from the inside, crystalline structures shattering under the electrical overload. Its Void Bite dissipated, the teeth dissolving into harmless shadow.
The massive body crashed forward, momentum carrying it past me. I dove sideways, rolling badly, feeling something in my shoulder pop, nothing serious, just a dislocation from poor form.
The Riftspawn Hunter's corpse slid another ten feet before stopping, already dissolving into purple mist.
[RIFTSPAWN HUNTER DEFEATED]
[EXPERIENCE GAINED: 1,200]
[LEVEL UP! 15 → 16]
[ALL STATS INCREASED BY 3]
[NEW ABILITY UNLOCKED: STRATEGIC FORESIGHT]
[HP: 750 → 795]
[STAMINA: 675 → 720]
[MANA: 825 → 870]
Power flooded through me as the level-up took effect. The dislocated shoulder popped back into place painlessly, System-enhanced healing accelerating my recovery. Mana reserves refilled instantly.
I stood, breathing hard but alive, and looked at the rift. The purple glow was fading, the tear shrinking slightly now that its spawn had died.
"How do we seal it?" Captain Reyes asked, approaching cautiously with his weapon still raised.
Good question. The System quest required closing rifts, but hadn't explained methodology.
I approached the tear carefully, extending my hand toward the flickering purple energy. It felt... wrong. Not hostile exactly, but incompatible. Like trying to mix oil and water. Like two realities that weren't meant to touch trying to occupy the same space.
Then I noticed something through my enhanced Intelligence. My mana was reacting to the rift. The energy in my body reaching toward the dimensional instability, as if recognizing something familiar. Like calling to like.
Following instinct more than logic, I channeled mana into my palm and pressed it against the rift's edge.
The tear shuddered. The purple light flickered. And slowly, like a wound healing in fast-forward, the rift began to close.
I poured more mana into it, feeling the resistance. It was like pushing two magnetic poles together, the rift wanted to stay open, and closing it required constant pressure. My mana drained rapidly: 870... 750... 600... 450...
The rift shrank. Fifteen feet to twelve. Twelve to nine. Nine to six.
My mana hit 200 and I felt exhaustion creeping in. But I couldn't stop. Had to finish this.
Three feet. Two feet. One foot.
The rift finally collapsed with a sound like reality sighing in relief.
[DIMENSIONAL RIFT SEALED: 1/100]
[QUEST PROGRESS: 1%]
[REWARD: 500 POINTS, RIFT ESSENCE CRYSTAL x1]
A small crystal materialized in my hand, about the size of a marble, glowing with contained purple energy. It felt warm, heavy with compressed dimensional energy.
[RIFT ESSENCE CRYSTAL]
[CURRENCY: MULTIVERSAL COMMERCE]
[VALUE: 100 GALACTIC CREDITS]
[USES: DIMENSIONAL CRAFTING, ADVANCED PURCHASES]
I stared at it, processing what this meant. A new currency system. New economy. New possibilities.
"That's how you close them," I said, turning to face the teams. My voice was tired but satisfied. "Channel mana into the rift. Force reality to heal itself. The System handles the mechanics, but it requires active intervention."
"And we need to do that ninety-nine more times in thirty days," Maya observed, walking up beside me. She was looking at me with an expression I couldn't quite read, relief, respect, and something else.
"While fighting whatever comes through them," I added, looking at where the Hunter had dissolved. "Tier-5 threats at minimum. Maybe worse."
We stood in silence for a moment, the weight of what we faced settling over everyone.
Then Captain Reyes grinned, breaking the tension. "Well, at least it won't be boring."
Despite everything, the danger, the exhaustion, the near-death experience, I laughed. He was right. After three months of apocalypse, we'd learned to find humor in the impossible.
"Let's head back," I said, checking my mana reserves. Still only 200 out of 870. Closing the rift had drained me significantly. "Dr. Chen needs to know how the sealing works. And we need to prepare for the next one. Because if they're opening at the rate she predicted..."
As if the universe had heard me and decided to be cruel, my System interface lit up with new notifications:
[RIFT ALERT]
[3 NEW RIFTS DETECTED]
[LOCATION 1: GREEN LAKE PARK]
[LOCATION 2: UNIVERSITY DISTRICT]
[LOCATION 3: WATERFRONT]
[ESTIMATED SPAWN TIME: 15-20 MINUTES]
Maya read her own notification and swore. "Three more. Already."
"And this is only Day 101," Reyes said grimly. "We've got twenty-nine more days of this."
Through Tactical Link, I connected to the command center. "Dr. Chen, Lucas, Cross, we have three more rifts forming. We need all teams mobilized immediately. And I need to teach people how to seal rifts before we run out of mana-users."
Lucas's mental voice came back, tight with stress: "Already mobilizing. But Ethan, we have a bigger problem."
"What could be bigger than three simultaneous rifts?"
"I just received communications from six other Seattle factions. They're all experiencing the same thing, multiple rifts opening faster than they can close them. And several are requesting alliance assistance in exchange for resources."
My Strategic Mind immediately saw the implications. This wasn't just our problem. This was a regional crisis. Maybe global.
"We need to coordinate with other factions," I said, already planning. "Share sealing techniques, pool resources, establish a mutual defense network. This is too big for any single group."
"Agreed," Cross's voice joined the link. "I'll contact Portland and Vancouver. We need a Pacific Northwest coalition, minimum."
As we headed back to the compound, I examined the Rift Essence Crystal in my hand. One down, ninety-nine to go.
The tutorial was over.
The real test was just beginning.
[To be Continued]
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If you enjoy this chapter, please vote with your Power Stones! It helps a lot! 💎
Hey everyone! Just a quick update: My semester exams are coming up, so updates might slow down for the next few weeks. I'll do my best to upload chapters when I can, but my studies have to come first right now.
Don't worry, I'm not dropping this story! I'm as excited as you are to see where Ethan's journey goes, especially with that mysterious stranger showing up. 😉
Thanks for your patience and support! I'll be back to regular updates after exams.