Bruce and Ash enjoyed the meal.

They kept eating. Kept grilling.

They laughed softly, adjusted seasoning, let the fire crackle. Anyone watching would have assumed they were insane, treating a lethal dungeon like a roadside restaurant.

Bruce's awareness, however, never wavered.

And then,

It happened.

His eyes widened just slightly.

Not one.

Not two.

But ten distinct mana distortions rippled through the forest shadows at once.

They were subtle. Layered. Overlapping. The Dark Variants weren't approaching from one direction.

They were surrounding them.

Bruce didn't hesitate.

BOOM!

Red snapped into his hand in a flash of crimson light. Mana flooded into the blade instantly, humming with lethal intent as Bruce slashed outward in a clean, horizontal arc. An arc of blood-red mana with the shape of a crescent moon tore through the air, ripping toward the shadows surrounding them.

At the same instant,

He gave the signal.

Ash reacted without a shred of hesitation.

Before the beasts could fully emerge from the darkness, Ash unleashed the orbs it had been holding in reserve. Multiple spheres of Soul Flame shot outward like silent meteors, tearing through the surrounding shadows with terrifying speed, targeting every fluctuation Bruce had detected.

The forest darkened.

The shadows twisted.

And the ambush collapsed into chaos.

Bruce's crimson arc tore through the darkness, slicing cleanly into something hidden within. A wet, guttural snarl exploded from the shadows as dark blood sprayed outward, splattering across tree bark and leaves in violent bursts. A severed paw thudded onto the forest floor, twitching once before going still. The beast Bruce attacked slipped back into shadow very fast after suffering that message.

But Ash's attack was far worse.

The instant the Soul Flame orbs struck the shadows, the forest erupted in sound.

AWUUUUUUUUU!!!

The howl wasn't just loud.

It was wrong.

It clawed its way through the air, layered, distorted, overlapping itself as if multiple throats were screaming at once. The sound vibrated through bone and marrow, carrying agony so raw it made the leaves tremble and the ground shudder. It wasn't the howl of flesh being burned.

It was the howl of souls being torn apart.

Bruce's eyes widened in surprise. 'Ash's Soul Flame… it can burn them through the shadows.'

His gaze sharpened instantly, excitement flashing through his calm.

"Nice," he said firmly. "Keep at it, Ash."

Ash responded with visible glee. Its eyes burned brighter as it manifested more Soul Flame orbs, three, five, seven, each one silent, colorless, yet terrifyingly oppressive. With a flick of its will, Ash sent them blasting toward every distorted shadow around them.

The howling intensified.

AWUUU!!!

AAARRRGGHHHH!!!

The screams lost rhythm, broke apart, devolving into hoarse, broken cries that rose and fell erratically. Shadows rippled violently across the forest floor, clawing at themselves, tearing apart as if trying to escape their own existence.

Then suddenly,

An enormous Dark Abyssal Direwolf burst out of the shadows.

It was larger than the rest, its body half-materialized, fur rippling like liquid night. It didn't attack. It ran, desperation driving it away from the Soul Flame, instincts screaming for survival.

Bruce smiled.

BOOM!

He vanished.

In a single step, Bruce overtook the fleeing beast, his palm slamming squarely into its abdomen with bone-shattering force. The wolf convulsed violently, ribs collapsing inward as it was lifted off the ground.

"Go to sleep," Bruce said calmly.

Holy Rupture activated.

Chilling white light exploded from his palm, flooding the wolf's body in an instant. The beast wailed once more, but the sound cut short, its soul already in tatters from the Soul Flame, its awareness too fractured to resist.

The next heartbeat,

Its heart ruptured. Its brain imploded.

The massive body went limp, collapsing lifelessly at Bruce's feet.

After that, none of the remaining wolves dared to emerge.

They stayed hidden.

And they suffered.

The howls continued, muffled, distant, echoing from within the shadows themselves. The forest became a chamber of agony, the cries rising and falling, growing weaker, hoarser, desperate. Some howls broke mid-note. Others degraded into wet, gurgling sounds that no longer resembled living creatures.

Minutes passed.

Then more.

Nearly an hour slipped by as the shadows themselves seemed to writhe in pain.

Finally,

Silence.

The shadows convulsed once, then spat outward nine bodies.

They hit the forest floor heavily, rolling to a stop in unnatural stillness.

Nine Abyssal Direwolves.

Their bodies were pristine. No burns. No wounds. No blood. Anyone looking at them would think they were merely sleeping.

But their souls.

Their souls were gone.

Completely burned away.

Bruce turned toward Ash and smiled. "Good boy, Ash. You did it."

Inside, however, shock rippled through him.

Nine S-Ranked beasts.

Killed by an A-Ranked dragon.

And not through brute force, but through absolute compatibility. Normally, these Shadow Direwolves would have been a nightmare to deal with. Untouchable. Elusive. Lethal. Yet Ash's Soul Flame had been their perfect bane, reducing a deadly encounter into something terrifyingly one-sided.

Bruce's chest tightened.

'Just how powerful will Ash be once it reaches S-Rank…?' The thought sent a chill down his spine. It also filled him with excitement. After all, who wouldn't like a pet like Ash that's both cute and powerful when it wants to be?

But more importantly, this battle opened Bruce's eyes.

His skills were powerful, overwhelmingly so, but they had limits. If he encountered an enemy with a troublesome ability like this, hiding in shadows, slipping between dimensions, existing partially outside reality, how would he deal with them?

What if the next opponent was even worse?

He couldn't allow such a weakness to remain.

Bruce inhaled slowly, mind already racing. "Soul Flame…" he murmured. "A flame that directly affects the soul. Even hiding in another dimension with only a thin connection to the physical world isn't enough to block it."

His eyes narrowed thoughtfully.

"The soul maintains a connection to the physical body," he continued. "Which means… it can be affected by my Heal."

A realization sparked.

"After all," Bruce said quietly, "my Heal can already mend not only physical damage, but damage to mind and soul."

His breathing slowed.

'So what if…'

His mind slipped fully into analytical mode, thoughts accelerating as a dangerous idea took shape.

'What if I stop healing the soul,

And start damaging it instead?!'

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.