In the distance, the battle raged on—the clash of titans echoing like thunder.
The scent of burning plastic and concrete dust thickened the air. Darian's chest rose and fell in ragged rhythm. Sweat mixed with blood on his brow. He pressed his back to the cracked wall of a collapsing parking tower, gripping his iron rod with both hands—knuckles white, fingers cramping.
The Draco-lizard stalked the ruins, its claws grinding over steel and stone. It dragged its titanic bone blade behind it, leaving sparks and deep scars across the ground. The monster's breath steamed in the air—hot, toxic, and rancid—like rust and fire. Two glowing red eyes scanned for movement with cold calculation.
Darian glanced at his shattered phone. The broken screen still displayed a faint image of his family—Talia, Rio, Sera, and Sam. His eyes stung. Not from the dust. From the knowledge that this might be his final hour.
"I wanted one more dinner at home... just one more."
His ribs ached. His legs were like stone. He had used every technique he knew—feints, terrain control, guerrilla striking—and now he was running on instinct alone. Every breath was effort. Every movement hurt.
The Draco-lizard's tail smashed through a nearby wall. Concrete dust exploded outward.
"No more hiding," Darian whispered, straightening his back.
He stepped forward and lowered his stance—one knee slightly bent, shoulders relaxed, grip firm. It was an old stance from martial arts training; one he hadn't used since his younger days. The Flowing Root—designed not to stop power, but to divert it.
"One more clash. I'll take an eye, no matter what happens."
The monster screeched, a violent, deafening roar that made the very air shake.
It leapt forward—massive blade raised high.
Darian didn't flinch. He narrowed his eyes. His lips parted slightly. Just enough to whisper—
"I'm not afraid of you."
BRUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMMMMM
The roar of an engine tore through the chaos.
Both warrior and beast froze.
A glint of silver. The smell of hot rubber. The explosive growl of a modified turbo core engine. From the far end of the ruined avenue, a sleek black motorcycle tore through the rising smoke, its headlights piercing the dust like twin blades.
The Draco-lizard twisted its head, confused by the sudden sound.
The building's shattered glass doors reflected the streak of speed surging toward them.
Then came KIRA's voice , crisp with sarcasm:
"Warning: Satellite hijacking is a federal crime. Your son is currently committing three."
A beat of silence.
"…but I must admit, the execution was flawless."
The lizard shifted uneasily. Something had changed in the air.
Sam knew he had little time.
Two minutes—just two—to get back.
In those two minutes, he needed a miracle.
He wasn't aiming to kill the Draco-lizard. That was beyond reckless. No—he had to do the impossible: snatch his father from death's jaws and escape alive.
The broken skyline of Osaka smoldered under a blood-orange haze. Screams echoed faintly. Sirens wailed. Concrete dust clouded the roads like fog.
Sam's eyes locked on a half-collapsed building where sounds of destruction thundered like a war drum.
"That has to be it," he muttered.
Then he saw it—through a jagged window: a towering black-scaled monster poised over a man with trembling legs and bloodied arms.
His father.
And in the next breath, that monstrous blade was about to fall.
Sam's heart stopped—but his hands did not.
He gritted his teeth, surged forward, and aimed his bike straight at the glass entrance of the building.
BRRAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!
The front wheel burst through the glass like a bullet through water.
KIRA's voice buzzed in his ear with deadpan irony.
"You are currently exceeding both safe speed limits and rational decision-making protocols, Sam."
Sam didn't blink. His grip tightened.
'As expected, that damn lizard is agile.'
The Draco-lizard snapped its head toward him, its inhuman reflexes firing. In a blink, it leapt—12 meters straight up, clearing the incoming bike like a trained predator avoiding a trap.
Sam didn't flinch. That was exactly what he gambled on.
He had never intended to crash the bike into it.
Instead, he leaned forward, slicing through the path under the monster's airborne shadow, using the momentum to launch straight toward Darian.
"Father! Get on the bike—NOW!"
Darian's world froze for a second. Blood and grit caked his skin. He was moments from death. And then his son came bursting through glass like an angel with a death wish.
In Darian's eyes flashed a sequence of raw emotions—shock, fury, disbelief, love... and finally, fear.
He hadn't feared the Draco-lizard, not even when he knew death was seconds away. But this? Seeing Sam here, risking everything?
This terrified him.
With the last surge of strength, Darian lunged onto the bike, his battered arms wrapping around Sam's waist.
"Sam!" he barked over the roaring engine. "Even if you got here—if you don't have a follow-up plan, we both die here!"
Sam didn't speak.
His focus narrowed to a tunnel. The road ahead, the weight of his father behind him, the breath of a monster at his back. He gritted his teeth, pushed the throttle to max.
"We don't die. Not today."
But the Draco-lizard wasn't done.
With terrifying speed, it descended and leapt ahead, landing directly in their path. The entire building trembled under its landing.
Then came the blow.
CRAAAACK!
Its tail or leg—neither of them saw which—slammed into the side of the bike. Metal groaned. Tires screeched. The world turned sideways.
Sam hit the pavement hard, rolling.
But Darian—
Darian had wrapped around his son mid-air, shielding him with everything he had left.
They tumbled across the ground like ragdolls. When they stopped, Sam blinked and pushed himself up, coughing blood.
"F-Father...!"
Darian grunted. His left arm hung limp. His right knee was bent in a way no human knee should bend.
But he was breathing.
"Don't… waste this," Darian rasped. "Think. Move. Survive."
Darian's voice was hoarse, his lungs burned. "Run away. I'll make a chance. Yes—I'll definitely make it… Just run and live."
But Sam kept moving forward. Unshaken.
"No… I'll save you, Dad. Wait…"
His eyes darted. His hand trembled over the vial in his belt. "I have a serum… Yes… No… I can't… Yes. I will. I have to. I'll save you at any cost."
Darian's cries blurred behind him.
Ahead, the beast stood still.
Draco.
It loomed like a living monolith, scales glinting with oil-slick blackness, bone blade gripped in its massive claw. It could've crushed both of them long ago. But it didn't. It watched. Enjoyed. Amused by the struggle of weaker lifeforms.
Sam stopped five meters away. Wind blew debris between them. The city's hollow silence buzzed like static.
His breathing was calm now. But his brain was firing at full capacity.
You have one shot. No strength. No power. Just speed. Mind over matter.
Sam clenched a sharp chunk of broken glass in his left hand. In his right—three smooth, heavy stones.
He wasn't planning to fight. He was planning to blind.
The only weak point... is the eyes. That's all I need.
And then, before Draco even moved—Sam moved first.
But the movement didn't begin with his limbs. It began in his mind.
He issued a mental command to his nervous system—simultaneously telling both arms to throw. One would release the glass. The other, the stones. But not at the same time.
Slight delay. Just enough to create a blind spot. The illusion of a single threat hiding a second.
Throw with left. Then right. 0.07 second lag.
His brain relayed the instructions through the motor cortex. That electrical signal raced down the spinal cord into the peripheral nerves of both arms.
His body understood. His muscles primed. His arms began to move.
He threw.
The shard of glass shot first—like a glinting spear straight toward Draco's face.
Then, almost instantly—but not quite—the stones followed.
A 0.07 second delay. Invisible to the eye. But not to a killer.
Draco reacted.
It moved.
Not to attack. To dodge.
Because the glass, while useless against its armored hide, could still pose a threat if it struck the eye. Even Draco knew that.
So, it instinctively tilted its head sideways—not far, just enough—to avoid the incoming shard.
Exactly as predicted…
But as that glass shard skimmed past its cheek—it saw something else.
The stones. Hidden behind. Hurtling with more speed. More weight. More force.
That was the true threat.
Draco's pupils contracted. It saw it. It knew.
But seeing wasn't the same as reacting.
It had already committed to the first movement. Already lifted its massive arm for a vertical swing.
That swing was already in motion—guided by its earlier brain command.
And biological law remained true for even the most evolved predator:
One neural command at a time. 0.3–0.5 seconds. No more. No less.
Draco's brain had issued two orders:
Tilt head.
Swing blade.
To overwrite that, it needed another half second.
But that window had passed.
The stones collided with the glass midair.
A shattering burst—a calculated explosion.
Glass fragments scattered in all directions. Not large shards. Not jagged spears.
Micro-particles. Razor-fine dust, near invisible.
Against Draco's skin—they were meaningless. Harmless.
Its scales reflected every shard.
But its eyes—exposed, glistening, vulnerable—absorbed the damage.
One eye took the brunt.
It shrieked. Recoiled. A stream of viscous green-black fluid leaked from its iris. The other eye blinked rapidly, assaulted by a haze of micro-blades.
And then—the sword came down.
Sam had already begun to move—to dodge, to roll, to escape the inevitable arc of that bone blade.
He knew the blade would come. He knew the timing. He had calculated everything down to the millisecond.
But his body was too slow.
He was a genius. A cyber-mech engineer. A master of timing and motion.
But he wasn't a warrior. He wasn't built for raw speed.
His agility couldn't match the velocity of that monstrous swing.
The blade tore through his left arm—from the shoulder down.
Blood exploded outward. A scream—raw and primal—ripped from Sam's lungs.
His body slammed onto the ground. His vision spun.
He had lost an arm.
But he had gained a chance.
Draco reeled backward. Vision clouded. Body heaving. It swung its arms wildly—blinded.
No ears. No nose. No light in its world anymore.
It was now a beast of pure muscle… with no direction.
Sam coughed blood, gripping his torn side. Breathing was fire. But his mind was still awake.
This was it. The best I could do. I never planned to kill it.
Only blind it. Only survive.
"Now… run…" he whispered to himself, trying to stand. "Even if I never get another chance like this… even if I can't reach its heart… we can live."
"Dad, let's go home."
Darian watched his son with a veteran's sharp eye. To a man forged in countless battles, this was no ordinary fight—it was a masterpiece of strategy, timing, and unyielding spirit.
My son... he's more of a force of nature than any monster I've faced.
Sam's back was turned toward Darian, muscles taut and ready. Then, the Draco lizard, its eyes now dull black, unleashed a furious roar, leaping into the air with the intent to crush Sam beneath its monstrous weight.
"Sam! Move—dodge!" Darian's voice cut through the chaos.
Sam's body reacted on pure instinct, twisting sideways as the lizard crashed down. The aftershock threw him harshly, pain exploding through his already battered frame. Blood poured freely now, the adrenaline that had once numbed the agony fading rapidly.
KIRA's calm, mechanical voice buzzed softly in his ear:
"Warning: Blood loss critical. Adrenaline levels dropping. Stabilize or risk syncope."
But before the Draco could strike the killing blow, time seemed to slow—the air thickened, as if the world itself held its breath.
Beneath the distant roar of destruction, an immense force stirred—Mother Earth awakening from a deep slumber.
No words, no fanfare—just a silent surge of power that rippled through the very ground beneath their feet. The energy radiated outward, vast and ancient, infused with something no human had ever witnessed before: the raw power of nuclear weapons, repurposed by Earth itself as a shield against the tearing rifts from the cosmos.
With a sound like thunder rolling through the skies, the air vibrated. The massive, invincible Draco lizard suddenly halted mid-air, pinned and crushed by the invisible, unstoppable force of Earth's awakening. Its strength—once a nightmare made flesh—was rendered powerless.
And then, as if speaking directly into the minds of every living being, a voice echoed inside Sam's head and Darian's alike:
"I am Earth. I slumbered while my children struggled, but the rifts—those tears in the fabric of reality—have awakened me. The energies of nuclear fire, once forged to destroy, are now mine to wield. They scorch the rifts, hold back the alien darkness creeping through space."
"Yet, this is but the beginning. I am not enough. My children, you must grow stronger. Close these rifts. Fight with all your might. I grant you the chance to rise."
Sam gasped, blood still hot on his skin, the raw power settling in his bones.
"Dad... did you hear that?"
Darian pressed his hand hard against the bleeding wound, eyes fierce and unwavering despite the pain.
"Yes, son. I heard. And I know—we've been given a chance. Now it's on us."
DING....
----------------- SYSTEM INTEGRATION COMPLETE -----------------
--- UNIVERSAL SURVIVAL SYSTEM ONLINE ---
>> INITIALIZING...
>> PROGRESS: 1% ▓▓▓▓ 25% ▓▓▓▓▓▓ 36% ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓ 89% ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓ 100%
──────────────────── STATUS REPORT ──────────────────────
NAME : DARIAN COER
AGE : 44 (M)
BLOODLINE : HUMAN
────────────────────── CORE STATS ────────────────────────
STRENGTH : 22
VITALITY : 28
AGILITY : 36
─────────────────────── SKILL REGISTER ─────────────────────
HARSH MENTALITY ...... [ S ]
CLOSE RANGE FIGHTER ..... [ S ]
RANGED WEAPON MASTERY ... [ S ]
PAIN TOLERANCE ....... [ S ]
THOUGHT ACCELERATION .... [ S ]
MAPPING ............[ A ]
POISON RESISTANCE ....... [ C ]
ADAPTABILITY ......... [ S ]
SURVIVAL INSTINCT ....... [ S ]
QUIET MOVEMENT ....... [ S ]
HAWK EYE ...........[ A ]
──────────────────── SYSTEM FUNCTIONS ────────────────────
▸ IDENTIFY
▸ PROTECT MODE
▸ CHAT SYSTEM
▸ SHOP
(Note: Only SYSTEM SKILLS are compatible with word-command activation.)
"Dad, there's… a serum… in my back pocket… Please take it out and use Identify skill… and tell me what you see."
Darian's hands moved swiftly. His fingers found the cold metal vial tucked deep in Sam's back pocket.
"IDENTIFY."
DING...
╔═══════════════════════════════════╗
║ --- IDENTIFICATION --- ║
╟───────────────────────────────────╢
║ NAME : REGENERATION TRAIT SERUM ║
║ RANK : A ║
║ TYPE : TRAIT-UNLOCKER ║
╟───────────────────────────────────╢
║ DESCRIPTION : ║
║ A high-tier experimental serum engineered by genius ║
║ researcher "Sam Coer." When injected, it unlocks the ║
║ regeneration trait, drastically accelerating cellular ║
║ healing, tissue recovery, and overall survivability. ║
╚════════════════════════════════════╝
Darian's eyes met Sam's. "It says it unlocks regeneration. And your name's on it… Did you make this? Is it safe?"
Sam nodded weakly, struggling to speak, "If it's that… then… please… use it on me."
Without hesitation, Darian found a vein on Sam's neck and pushed the injector. The entire vial emptied in one steady shot.
"Sam, your skin's turning red. Your veins… they're darkening. Is this normal?"
"I'm fi— AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!"
Sam's scream tore through the air, sharp and filled with agony.
"Sam! What's happening? Help! Someone helps!" Darian's voice cracked as he shouted, though no one was left to hear him. It was foolish, but he couldn't bear to watch his son suffer alone.
In Sam's vision, the system interface flashed:
╔══════════════════════════════════╗
║ --- UNIVERSAL SURVIVAL SYSTEM --- ║
╟──────────────────────────────────╢
║ NAME : SAM COER ║
║ AGE : 24 (M) ║
║ BLOODLINE : HUMAN ║
║ TRAITS : REGENERATION (UNLOCKED) ║
╟──────────────────────────────────╢
║ CORE STATS ║
║ STRENGTH : 11 ║
║ VITALITY : 17 ║
║ AGILITY : 10 ║
╟─────────────────────────────────╢
║ SKILL REGISTER ║
║ • INSIGHT ............. [ SSS ] ║
║ • CODE TYRANT ............ [ S ] ║
║ • GENETIC MASTERY ........... [ S ] ║
║ • MIND MATRIX ............ [ A ] ║
║ • THOUGHT ACCELERATION ...... [ B ] ║
║ • SHARP MEMORY ........... [ SS ] ║
╟────────────────────────────────────╢
║ SYSTEM FUNCTIONS ║
║ ▸ IDENTIFY ║
║ ▸ PROTECT MODE ║
║ ▸ CHAT SYSTEM ║
║ ▸ SHOP ║
║ ║
║ (Only SYSTEM SKILLS are compatible with word-commands) ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════════╝
What the heck—this pain is worse than when I lost my arm…
Five agonizing minutes passed. Sam's body drenched in sweat; his face contorted with strain. Slowly, the raging fire inside him began to ebb. His skin returned to its normal colour. Veins shrank back beneath the surface.
"Son, are you alright? You scared me."
"I think… I almost died. But I have pain tolerance skill… E-rank, barely saved me."
Darian's hand pressed firmly against the bleeding wound on Sam's arm. "Your bleeding's stopped. Your colour's back… But why isn't your arm regrowing?"
Sam tapped his wrist. "Let me check. Identify Trait—Regeneration."
╔════════════════════════════════════╗
║ --- IDENTIFIED --- ║
╟────────────────────────────────────╢
║ TRAIT : REGENERATION ║
╟───────────────────────────────────╢
║ DESCRIPTION: ║
║ This trait increases healing rate over a thousandfold, ║
║ but requires an equally massive intake of nutrients. ║
║ Limbs can regrow if enough nutrients are available. ║
║ Fatal brain injuries are non-recoverable. ║
╚═════════════════════════════════════╝
"It's fine. As long as I eat well, the arm will grow back someday."
"Let's get home. I've hidden the kid in a safe spot."
"Wait, Dad. Here—another serum. I made many, but only brought three."
Darian took the new vial, injected it, and immediately broke into a sweat. No sound escaped him—his pain tolerance of S-rank numbed the agony.
In moments, the serum worked its magic. His wounds began healing rapidly.
"Dad, what are your stats? Did you have regeneration skill before?"
"No, I don't have that. My stats are strength 22, vitality 28, agility 36."
"No wonder you healed so fast. Looks like vitality directly boosts healing speed."
"Let's head home."
"Yes… let's go home."