Luke moved.
Not by running.
Not in any way that followed the rules his body understood. The moment he decided to reach the source of the noise, something inside him bent. The darkness ahead of him didn't part, it folded. Space itself seemed to hesitate, as if unsure of where it should be, and Luke stepped into that hesitation.
The world lurched.
For a split second, distance stopped meaning anything. The cavern stretched and collapsed at the same time, like a surface being pulled taut and then released. Luke's body did not travel through the space between two points, it simply arrived closer to where he wanted to be.
He stumbled when reality snapped back into place.
His foot hit solid ground a dozen meters ahead of where he had been, his balance barely holding as a sharp pressure pulsed through his skull. His vision flickered, the edges of the world warping faintly before stabilizing.
"…Again," he muttered, breath uneven.
He had done this before.
Not knowingly.
Not intentionally.
But instinctively, when something had tried to kill him, when running had not been enough. He had skipped space and now, he tried again. Luke focused, not on movement, but on where he wanted to be. The darkness ahead responded faintly, like it recognized him. Like it answered.
Reality distorted.
This time, he felt it more clearly.
It was not teleportation.
It was… imposition.
His will pressed against the structure of space itself, forcing it to accept a new truth, that he was already there. The world resisted, pushing back, creating that strange, nauseating pressure in his mind. But it gave way just enough.
Luke stepped.
And the distance shattered. He reappeared further ahead, nearly twenty meters this time, his breath catching as his body lagged behind the movement. His heart pounded violently, and a sharp, stabbing pain flared behind his eyes.
"—ghh…"
His knees buckled slightly, but he forced himself upright. The Ability… was not stable.
Every use strained something deeper than muscle. It was not just physical exhaustion, it felt like he was forcing reality to bend around him, and reality hated it.
Still, it worked.
Luke pushed forward again, each step a violent distortion, each leap tearing through space in jagged, unnatural skips. The cave blurred, stretched, and snapped back repeatedly as he closed the distance in seconds instead of minutes.
By the time he reached the source, he stopped completely. Because what he saw—
Did not make sense at all.
#
Blue flames roared through the cavern, casting violent, shifting light across jagged stone walls. The darkness retreated just enough to reveal chaos. movement, shadows, bodies colliding in a brutal dance of survival.
At the center of it...
Something impossible stood. Luke's breath hitched as his eyes locked onto the figure.
A Commonality, he could feel it. The energy. raw, unrefined, unmistakably Tier 5. And yet, the figure did not look like one. It did not look human.
The young man stood surrounded, his body illuminated by flames that burned an unnatural shade of azure blue. He had four arms, two where they should be, and two more extending from his sides, each one moving independently, fluidly, violently.
All of them were on fire.
The flames clung to him like a living thing, wrapping around his limbs, surging with every motion. And yet, they were burning him. Luke saw it clearly. Beneath the fire, his skin was not normal. It shimmered with a smooth, almost glass-like azure hue, glowing faintly under the flames. But it was not intact.
It was breaking.
Burning.
Peeling.
And then, healing. The process repeated over and over again in rapid succession. Flesh burned away in thin layers, only to regenerate instantly, seamless and whole, before being consumed again by the same relentless flames.
"…What the hell…" Luke whispered.
The realization hit him slowly, the stranger was not immune, he was enduring it. Choosing it. Using the flames as a weapon..
At the cost of himself.
#
The creatures surrounding him were nightmares made flesh. On his left lunging at him were the Carrion Hounds, elongated, skeletal beasts with too many joints in their legs, allowing them to move in jerky, unnatural bursts. Their skin hung loose over their frames, torn in places, exposing patches of blackened muscle that pulsed faintly. Their jaws were split too wide, lined with uneven, jagged teeth that snapped violently as they lunged.
One leapt.
The four-armed boy did not step back.
His one arm caught the creature mid-air, gripping its throat with crushing force while his lower left arm drove forward, his flaming hand plunging straight into its ribcage. The sound, wet and sharp.
The hound shrieked as blue fire erupted inside it, bursting through its chest as its body convulsed violently before going limp.
But there was no pause.
From the sides came the Spine Crawlers, low, insect-like creatures with segmented bodies and dozens of thin, blade-like legs that scraped against the stone as they moved. Their backs were lined with protruding bone spikes that twitched and flexed, launching themselves like projectiles.
One fired.
The spike shot through the air, but the boy caught it, bare-handed. The spike pierced his palm cleanly, and the flames flared brighter. His skin burned away around the wound, and then healed over the embedded spike as he crushed it in his grip, snapping it before hurling it back with brutal force. It pierced straight through the crawler's skull, pinning it to the ground.
More came.
Dozens.
Then scores.
The ground itself seemed to shift as Burrow Wretches erupted from beneath, bloated, pale creatures with eyeless faces and mouths that split vertically down their torsos. They lunged blindly, guided by vibration, their massive bodies slamming into anything in their path.
The boy did not retreat, he advanced.
All four arms moved in perfect, violent coordination. One blocked, one struck, one tore, one burned. His movements weren't refined, but they were relentless, brutal, and efficient.
A Carrion Hound lunged from behind. He twisted unnaturally, his lower arm catching its jaw mid-bite while his upper arm slammed down, driving it into the ground hard enough to crack stone. Flames surged, consuming it instantly. Another creature leapt—
He did not dodge, he took it head on. Teeth sank into his shoulder. He grabbed its skull with both right arms and ripped it in half. Blood sprayed. Flames followed. Every second, he was burning.
And every second, he was healing.
The cycle never stopped.
Luke watched, frozen.
Not in fear this time.
But in awe.
"…He's insane," he muttered under his breath.
There was no technique.
No restraint.
Just raw, unyielding will.
The kind that did not care about pain.
Did not care about limits.
Luke's mind worked quickly. 'Transformation Ability. ' It had to be. There were awakened who took on aspects of beasts, of elements, of things far beyond human. But this, this was something else. Because he was not just transformed. He was breaking himself to fight.
Luke took a slow step forward.
And that was enough.
#
The creatures noticed him.
All at once.
Dozens of heads turned.
Eyes, if they had them, locked onto him. The shrieking paused for just a second, then sifted toward a single point.
Him.
"…Shit."
Luke's body reacted instantly, but it was too late. The nearest Carrion Hound lunged first, its elongated limbs propelling it forward with terrifying speed. Behind it, Spine Crawlers skittered, their legs scraping violently against stone, while another Burrow Wretch burst from the ground beneath him.
Luke reached for his ability, and tried to bend space once more... but his mind stuttered. Too slow, and too restrained from earlier use. The distortion did not form, and the world did not shift like before. And then they were onto him.
The hound slammed into him, knocking him off balance as its jaws snapped inches from his throat. He twisted violently, barely avoiding the bite as its claws raked across his side, tearing through fabric and flesh.
"—ghh!"
Pain flared.
Real.
Immediate.
Another hit him from the side. A crawler latched onto his leg, its blade-like limbs digging in as it screeched. Luke slammed his fist down, crushing it against the ground, but more were already closing in.
Too many.
Too fast.
His breath came sharp, his mind racing.
Move.
Move!
But space did not listen this time.
And the creatures did not wait for him to get his shit together.
They all descended on him.