The howl rose above the battlefield.

Not wild.

Not frenzied.

Commanding.

The Alpha Lycan.

The sound rolled across the mountain range, heavy with authority, vibrating through blood and bone alike. The wolves and Lycans that heard it reacted instantly, movements shifting, stances changing, eyes sharpening.

They understood.

Bruce didn't know exactly what the Alpha communicated, but he felt the change immediately.

The air thickened.

Mana surged violently from every direction.

Each beast's aura flared, expanding outward, growing denser, heavier, more oppressive. Power flooded their bodies in visible waves, muscles bulging, eyes burning brighter than before.

Bruce's expression darkened.

"…Damn."

He could feel it clearly now.

"They're all using their cores."

The pressure multiplied instantly.

---

The beasts weren't just stronger. They were burning their very foundations for power.

This wasn't a temporary burst.

This wasn't desperation.

This was a full escalation.

The combined pressure of their Authority and their cores pushed the SS-Ranked beasts beyond what SS-Rank should reasonably allow. They still hadn't touched the realm of the weakest SSS, but among SS-Ranked existences, they had stepped into the absolute peak.

Each movement they made warped the air.

Each breath they took crushed the surroundings.

At this level, a single careless claw swipe could erase an entire mountain.

The sheer tonnage behind that kind of force was absurd, something no sane creature should be capable of wielding.

And yet.

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

Multiple craters detonated across the battlefield simultaneously as the SS-Ranked Lycans and wolves shattered the sound barrier in unison. The ground collapsed inward, stone vaporizing under the shockwaves.

Bruce's eyes widened slightly.

He was hit.

Not by one.

But by several at once.

The impact slammed into him like a moving continent.

<Ding!>

[You have been struck by 300,000 tons of force.]

The force bent space around him.

Bruce was driven backward, boots tearing trenches through solid rock as his body absorbed the blow. Bones creaked. Muscles screamed. His internal organs rattled violently, blood bursting from his lips as the shock rippled through him.

He tanked it.

But not without damage.

Several ribs fractured. His left shoulder dislocated. Micro-fractures spread across his spine, nerves flaring with white-hot pain.

Bruce exhaled sharply.

"Heal."

Golden light flooded his body instantly, reconstructing shattered bone, reknitting muscle, forcing organs back into perfect alignment. This speed of healing was multiple time faster than his speed bask in the Vr. Even in Earth, it would have taken years to recover from such trauma. It's hard to say that one wouldn't die instantly from such damage.

For Bruce.

Less than a second.

But the beasts didn't give him even that.

They were already moving again.

Claws tore through the air where his head had been a fraction of a second earlier. Jaws snapped shut on empty space. Shockwaves followed every miss, ripping chunks out of the terrain.

Bruce's Neural Amplification screamed at full output.

Time slowed.

He twisted sideways, narrowly slipping past a claw that could have crushed him flat. He ducked beneath another strike, leapt over a sweeping tail, rolled mid-air as another Lycan's fist shattered the ground beneath him.

Strike after strike.

Kill angles layered on top of kill angles.

All of it.

Happening in less than a second.

And Bruce dodged them all.

Effortlessly.

The beasts grew more frantic, movements sharper, faster, angrier. Their frustration was palpable, blood-mist aura flaring violently as they pushed themselves harder.

Bruce kited them.

Led them.

Toyed with spacing like a surgeon repositioning tools.

By the time his boots touched the ground again.

His body was fully restored.

<Ding!>

[You have gained Immunity to 300,000 tons of force.]

Bruce's eyes gleamed.

At that moment, a Lycan lunged, claws aimed straight for his throat.

Bruce reached out.

And caught it.

One hand closed around the creature's skull like an iron vice. The impact sent a shockwave through the air, but Bruce didn't budge.

The Lycan thrashed.

Bruce didn't care.

He swung.

The beast became a weapon.

WHAM!

Its body smashed into another SS-Ranked wolf, the impact detonating the air between them.

WHAM!

Another strike, another body sent flying, bones imploding on contact.

WHAM!

WHAM!

WHAM!

The battlefield erupted in concussive explosions as Bruce used the struggling Lycan like a club, slamming it into anything that dared approach him. Each impact shook the air, ground, and sky, sending shockwaves rolling endlessly outward.

The Lycan in his grip convulsed violently, thrashing so hard it began throwing off his aim.

Bruce frowned.

Annoyed.

"Stop moving."

Holy Rupture activated.

BOOM!

The beast went limp instantly, skull collapsing inward as life vanished from its body.

That was when.

The Alpha appeared.

No warning.

No buildup.

It materialized beside Bruce, jaws open wide enough to bite him clean in half.

Bruce reacted instantly.

He leapt backward, shoving the corpse he still held straight into the Alpha's mouth, jamming it between its jaws. At the same time, he seized the Alpha's forelegs and yanked it forward.

His fists moved.

Once.

Twice.

Again.

Each punch landed with catastrophic force, smashing into the Alpha's skull like a battering ram. Bone cracked. Blood exploded outward. The ground beneath them collapsed from the repeated impacts.

Bruce grinned.

"You've finally made the mistake I've been waiting for."

He raised his hand, Heal already forming.

Then.

His expression changed.

The next instant, Bruce vanished.

Not stepped back.

Not dodged.

Vanished.

The speed was so extreme that afterimages lingered in the air, even Bruce himself didn't fully register the movement.

The pack surged in, saving their Alpha at the last moment, forcing Bruce away with sheer numbers and relentless pressure.

Bruce reappeared several dozen meters away, landing lightly.

He exhaled slowly.

"…Damn," he muttered, eyes narrowing.

"They're relentless."

And the battle was far from over.

Bruce's gaze swept across the battlefield, over the snarling beasts tightening their encirclement, over the blood-mist aura clinging to their bodies like a living curse, then settled on the Alpha.

The massive Lycan staggered slightly, chest heaving, its breath ragged. Blood streamed down its face as the crushed bones of its skull shifted and knitted back together, flesh crawling into place with unnatural speed. Even after enduring Bruce's full-force punches, it refused to stay down.

Bruce watched the regeneration closely.

And smiled.

The grin that spread across his face was slow, deliberate, and utterly devoid of warmth.

"So," he said calmly, voice carrying through the chaos, "you really care about your leader that much…"

The surrounding wolves growled louder, bodies tensing instinctively as his gaze locked fully onto the Alpha.

Bruce tilted his head slightly.

"…I wonder how you'll feel when it dies first."

The words hadn't even finished leaving his mouth.

And he was gone.

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