Then the beast's massive jaws lunged straight for me and Ivy… AGAIN.
"MOVE!!" someone screamed— Lila, definitely Lila, appearing out of nowhere and slamming into both of us with everything her small frame had.
We hit the ground hard, all three of us rolling across broken pavement as the monster's claws shredded the exact spot we'd been standing in a heartbeat earlier.
The impact rattled my skull loose from whatever thoughts I'd been having, and then it roared— "RAWR…!!!" a sound that didn't stop at my ears, that went straight into my bones like my own skeleton was being screamed at from the inside.
Damn. I actually feel abused right now.
Beside me, Ivy's voice cracked. "Vesper…! Wait… where is vesper? Where is Vesper, noona?!"
"Damn, you call her noona now?" I muttered, even as she clawed onto my sleeve with both hands, shaking hard enough that it felt like she might disappear if she let go.
Though, yea, didn't she just punch the monster? Now she's gone.
I forced myself upright on wobbling knees, lungs burning, grabbed Lila's wrist with one hand while Ivy clung to my chest like a terrified cat, and finally looked around properly.
The parking lot was completely destroyed— cracked asphalt, smoke curling everywhere, chunks of concrete hanging weightless in the air like gravity had partially given up on the job.
Above it all, the portal above the Convenience store(CU) still hung open, leaking glowing debris that drifted down like melted stars.
And then I saw her.
Far— too far. Vesper stood alone near the sidewalk, not with us, not behind cover, half-kneeling with one hand glowing faint gold and her breath coming in ragged pulls.
"WHAT?!" I screamed. "WHY ARE YOU ALL THE WAY OVER THERE?!!!!!"
She lifted her head slowly, her expression caught somewhere between irritation and something close to shame.
"I attempted teleportation, after the second lunged," she said, still in that calm, formal tone even while clearly struggling for air.
My brain short-circuited. "THEN WHY DIDN'T YOU TAKE US TOO?!"
Her gaze dropped. "I truly tried. However… my mana is insufficient after that first burst hit. The spell dragged only myself." Her fist clenched, the faint golden glow flickering once before dying out completely, like a candle someone had pinched between two fingers. "I failed to bring thee with me."
I wanted to scream.
I wanted to demand why the universe had it out for me specifically.
But the beast roared again and turned its massive head toward Vesper, locking onto her, and every other thought in my skull just evaporated.
Ivy choked on a sob against my chest.
Lila's whisper had gone thin and frayed, barely holding together. "No… no, no, no… this isn't part of the dream… this isn't…"
I wanted to tell her to drop the dream excuse and focus, but the monster took a heavy step toward Vesper before I could get the words out.
THUD.
The ground cracked outward in jagged lines.
Another step.
THUD.
It lowered its body, muscles coiling.
And I— I don't even know.
I think my legs moved before my brain caught up, hauling Ivy tighter against my chest, locking my other hand around Lila's wrist, and running again.
For half a second my dumb instincts tried to send me straight toward Vesper, and then survival instinct slapped some sense back into me and I pivoted hard toward the shattered entrance of the CU store instead, Ivy locked to my chest and Lila stumbling to keep pace.
Glass crunched underfoot. Inside, the shelves had collapsed into a heap and the lights flickered weak and dying overhead.
I set Ivy down gently behind the counter and looked Lila dead in the eyes. "Take care of her for a bit," I said, firm despite my chest tightening around the words, and Lila nodded, small and scared. "O-Okay…"
I turned back toward the parking lot, and Ivy grabbed my hand before I could take a step. "D-Dad! Don't go."
Believe me, I wanted to stay.
But Vesper was about to die out there, and that you know… it pretty much didn't leave me much any choice.
Ivy let out a sob. "Please... you promised you won't leave me alone."
I crouched down and patted her head, keeping my voice as steady as I could fake it. "Yes, yes, I'm not gonna leave you alone. I'm just gonna go save Vesper— don't you want that?"
But before she could answer, a massive impact shook the entire store, rattling the shelves that were still standing, and I was already turning toward the door.
I turned toward Vesper.
Saw the beast crouch low, muscles bunching tight, ready to lunge straight at her.
I gently pushed Ivy's arms off me and stepped back outside into the smoke and the ringing quiet before the next roar.
Vesper stood yards away, alone, breath still shaking. "I attempted to transport all of us," she called out, formal even now, even mid-collapse, "yet my feeble reservoir of mana barely permitted myself."
"Okay!" I yelled back. "Just— don't do anything."
"Okay," she responded, entirely too calm for someone about to get eaten. But the beast didn't care about either of us yelling. It was seconds away from tearing her apart.
Then my eyes caught something on the cracked pavement— the eggs.
The carton Ivy had been holding before all of this started… or was it Lila? Yea, it was just sitting there miraculously intact in the middle of the wreckage like the world's saddest miracle.
My body moved before my brain finished the thought.
I grabbed the carton off the ground and screamed "HEY!!!" hurling an egg straight at the beast.
It didn't even reach halfway before it dropped, and both Vesper and the monster turned to stare at me like they were watching the single dumbest thing either of them had witnessed all week, laughing at me from somewhere behind their eyes.
So I grabbed another one and threw it with everything I had, and thank god— it curved through the smoke and cracked clean across the hybrid wolf-dragon's snout.
It froze.
Then, slowly, way too slowly, its head turned toward me, every single one of those eyes locking onto mine at once, and I felt the full crushing weight of its aggression pivot straight onto me like a spotlight.
Its whole body followed, claws scraping deep gouges into the asphalt as it squared up, and I understood with total clarity that I was now the target.
I tilted my head up at the sky to admire it one last time, and a single tear rolled down my cheek.
Why. What did I do in my past life to deserve this. Was it karma my past body racked up that I'm still paying interest on?
Then the System window flickered into view above my head.
「[Check It?]
Sure, why not, at this point.
[System Noticed.]
New quest: MOVE!!
Objective: MOVE!!
Reward: Tent.
[Are you dumb? Move!] 」
"A tent...? What the FUCK—" I lowered my head and looked at the beast already mid-lunge, and reality snapped back into full speed.
My foot moved without asking permission first.
And for the first time since the System had shown up uninvited into my life, something inside me clicked— not strength, not speed.
Timing.
The world slowed again, not completely, just enough.
Enough to run.
I ran with my lungs screaming and my heart doing something that probably wasn't medically normal, weaving between chunks of floating debris that hung mid-collapse in the air like the world had forgotten how gravity worked.
The beast tore after me, each stride shaking dust loose from what was left of the store's awning, and somewhere behind it I heard Vesper shout something in that ancient formal tone of hers— probably a warning, probably useless, definitely too late to matter.
I ducked behind an overturned delivery truck just as a claw raked through where my head had been a half-second earlier, metal shrieking as it peeled open like a soda can.
"MOVE, MOVE, MOVE—" I chanted to myself, legs burning, and the System window flickered again at the edge of my vision, cheerfully unhelpful as ever.
「Quest Progress: 43%.]
"I don't need a PERCENTAGE, I need to NOT DIE—"
The beast slammed its head against the far side of the truck, denting it inward with a groan of tortured steel, and I used the half-second of confusion to bolt sideways, boots skidding across gravel and broken glass.
Somewhere behind me I heard Ivy's muffled scream from inside the store, heard Lila yelling something that sounded suspiciously like this still isn't in my dream, and up ahead— just past the beast's flank— Vesper had gotten back on her feet, that faint gold light flickering weakly back to life in her palm like she was trying, again, to do something, anything, even running on fumes.
"DON'T," I shouted at her, not even sure what she was about to attempt. "SAVE IT!"
"I MERELY WISHED TO ASSIST—"
"SAVE IT FOR WHEN I'M NOT BEING CHASED BY A WOLF WITH BULLSHIT INBRED BODY!"
The beast roared again, closer now, hot breath washing over the back of my neck, and the System chimed once more, smug and glowing.
「Quest Progress: 78%. Nearly there.」
"OH NOW you're encouraging—"
I didn't get to finish the thought.
My foot caught the edge of a crack in the pavement and I went down hard, rolling twice before momentum finally let go of me, and I came up on one knee just in time to see the beast's shadow swallow the ground in front of me whole.
And then… I froze, looked at the window.