Sparks flew everywhere. His breathing became chaotic again.

"In ..and Out"

"GAH....!"

A claw struck his side. He countered instantly.

SHING!

The blade crowbar sliced across the wolf’s shoulder before it vanished back into shadows.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[Hit Registered]

Enemy mobility disrupted briefly

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Nobody panted heavily. "...Briefly?!...THAT’S THE GOOD NEWS FOR YOU?!"

Another wolf came instantly with no warning. Just it’s predetor eyes appearing from darkness.

Nobody ducked.

The claws skimmed over his hair.

Then another attacked before the first fully disappeared.

Perfect chain attacks.

The system flashed urgently.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[Critical Warning]o(≧口≦)o

User reaction speed falling behind enemy attack frequency

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Nobody gritted his teeth. "...Think...THINK!" He jumped backward onto a collapsed bus.

The wolves disappeared again. Only fog and shadows remain.

Nobody’s eyes moved constantly. "...They’re using darkness itself as movement paths..." He suddenly paused. "...Wait."

A thought clicked. "Every time they attacked they emerged from connected shadows. Not random but connected. Meaning their movement still followed routes."

His eyes sharpened. "...You guys aren’t teleporting....You’re traveling through dark zones."

A wolf lunged instantly from behind him.

Nobody twisted sideways but this time he watched the ground first.

The shadow expanded slightly before the attack.

"...THERE!" He swung immediately before the wolf fully emerged.

SHING!

The blade crowbar slammed directly into its head.

The wolf got blasted sideways before completing the attack.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[Prediction Success]

Counter timing accuracy increased

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Nobody grinned slightly despite sweating heavily. "...Gotcha." Nobody pointed a crowbar dramatically. "...You’re not invisible anymore, doggies."

The shadows shifted again. Multiple wolves moved simultaneously beneath the darkness.

Nobody inhaled deeply. "...In...and...Out..." He calmed himself forcibly. The world slowed slightly. Not literally but mentally. He started focusing only on shadows. Their movement, distortion, tiny reactions.

A shadow near a wall thickened unnaturally.

Nobody moved instantly.

SHING!

The wolf emerged directly into his swing.

Blood-like dark particles exploded outward.

Another shadow moved near the ground.

Nobody kicked rubble toward it.

BOOM!

The wolf burst out early after the shadow got disrupted.

"...OH!...You can interrupt the movement!"

The system reacted instantly.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[Combat Insight Acquired]

Shadow travel destabilizes when environmental interference occurs

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Nobody smirked widely. "...Now THIS is useful."

The wolves became aggressive immediately. All surrounding shadows started moving rapidly at once.

Nobody widened his eyes. "...Oh that’s bad."

Multiple wolves attacked simultaneously. One from left. Two from behind. One from above.

Nobody spun both crowbars rapidly.

SHING! SHING! CLANG!

He blocked one.

Cut another.

Dodged the third barely.

But the fourth wolf slammed into him directly.

BOOM!

Nobody crashed through broken concrete.

"COUGH!"

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[HP Warning] ⚠︎

HP: In Critical State

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

He coughed painfully. "...Bloody hell..."

The wolves slowly emerged from surrounding shadows again, closing in.

Nobody forced himself back up. His legs trembled slightly. "...No...Not losing."

A wolf prepared to attack again.

Nobody suddenly looked around rapidly. Broken streetlights, Cars, metal debris and collapsed walls. Shadows existed because of obstruction. Meaning if he controlled the battlefield, he could control their movement.

His eyes widened slightly. "...Wait." An excitement feeling came over him. "...I have an idea."

The wolves attacked again.

Nobody ran. Not away randomly but to make his strategy into action. He sprinted toward a cluster of broken cars and slashed rapidly with the blade crowbars.

SHING! SHING!

Metal collapsed sideways, streetlights crashed down and the shadows shifted chaotically.

The wolves emerged awkwardly from unstable darkness. One appeared too early. Another too far away. Another directly in front of him unexpectedly.

"...NOW!" Nobody charged forward aggressively for the first time.

Rapid swings exploded outward.

SHING! SHING! SHING!

One wolf got cut across the chest.

Another got smashed aside.

Another failed to enter the shadows properly due to disrupted lighting.

The system flashed repeatedly.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[Combo Chain Active]

Enemy synchronization destabilizing

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Nobody laughed breathlessly. "...YEAH!...COME ON! That’s what I am talking about."

The wolves attacked desperately now. But their coordination was collapsing. The battlefield had become unstable for shadow movement.

Nobody used every second aggressively.

Swing.

Step.

Pivot.

Counter. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

His breathing synchronized with movement now.

SHING!

A wolf tried emerging beneath him.

Nobody stabbed downward instantly.

The wolf crashed back into darkness.

Another lunged from above.

Nobody crossed both crowbars defensively.

CLANG!

Then, counter-slashed upward violently.

SHING!

Dark particles exploded.

The remaining wolves circled uncertainly now. Their movements no longer clean.

Nobody pointed one crowbar toward them while panting heavily. "...What happened?...Thought you guys were gonna make me your lunch a minute ago."

The wolves growled deeply. Then all shadows around the battlefield began moving again. It was their final rush. Every remaining wolf entered shadow travel simultaneously.

The system screamed warnings.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[CRITICAL ALERT]

џ(ºДºџ)

Multiple synchronized attacks incoming

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Nobody inhaled deeply. "...Alright....One final gamble." He started listening and feeling there movement by his senses. Then he said.."FOUND YOU!" He slammed both blade crowbars into the ground.

BOOOOM!

The impact shattered nearby debris and collapsed multiple shadow zones simultaneously. The wolves were forced out early mid-transition.

Nobody moved as fast as he could.

SHING! SHING! SHING! SHING!

Twin blade crowbars flashed wildly across the ruined street.

Counter after counter.

One wolf crashed into rubble.

Another spun sideways.

Another failed to stabilize entirely.

The final wolf lunged desperately straight at him.

Nobody roared loudly and swung both crowbars together. "GET OUTTA HEREEE!"

SHIIIIING!

The impact blasted the wolf backward across the ruined road.

The shadows stopped moving. The remaining wolves slowly dissolved into dark particles one after another.

The final wolf crashed across the ruined street and slammed into a broken wall.

BOOOOM!

Dust exploded everywhere.

Nobody stood there breathing heavily while gripping the twin blade crowbars tightly. His entire body hurt. His arms felt numb from constant impacts. Cuts burned across his skin.

But his eyes still stayed locked forward. "...Did...Did I win?"

The dust slowly cleared.

Then..

GRRRRRRRR

The wolf stood up again. Its body trembled violently now. Dark particles leaked from the wounds across its body. But even then it still lowered itself into an attacking stance.

Nobody stared at it in disbelief. "...Brother...Just rest already."

The wolf growled one final time and charged. It was its desperate final attack.

Nobody inhaled deeply. The world seemed quieter for a moment. He watched the wolf’s movement carefully. Then he moved..

One perfect sidestep.

One clean rotation.

And both blade crowbars slashed across the wolf in a shining cross-shaped strike.

SHIIIIING!

The wolf froze mid-motion. Its glowing eyes flickered. Then its body slowly dissolved into countless black particles that scattered into the air like ashes.

Nobody stood there panting heavily, sweat dripping, arms shaking. The twin blade crowbars lowered slowly.

The system paused for a second.

Then...

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[Stage Segment Cleared]

ヽ(✿ﾟ▽ﾟ)ノ

Shadow Hunt Completed

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Nobody stared blankly. Then suddenly he threw both hands upward and dropped to his knees. "YESSSSSSSSSS!" His voice echoed across the ruined city. "I BEAT THE DAMN SHADOW WOLVES!" He laughed breathlessly while nearly collapsing.

"...Man...That was insane."