The wasteland stretched forever in every direction.
Gray cracked earth. Jagged black rocks like broken teeth. A sky the color of dried blood, no sun, no stars—just an endless, suffocating twilight.
Haruto hit the ground hard enough to knock the breath from his lungs. Pain exploded across his back where the chains had torn into him. He rolled onto his side, coughing blood onto the dirt.
Still alive.
Somehow.
He pushed himself up on trembling arms. His ninja headband was gone. His flak jacket shredded. The poisoned wound on his shoulder still throbbed, but the burning had dulled to a cold ache. Maybe the poison couldn't follow him here.
Or maybe the poison was the least of his problems now.
A low growl rolled across the plain.
Haruto's head snapped up.
Three shapes emerged from the haze—hulking, hunched figures that looked like wolves stitched together from shadow and bone. Their eyes glowed dull crimson. Black mist leaked from cracks in their hides. Each one was easily the size of an Inuzuka ninken on steroids.
They weren't natural.
They weren't even chakra beasts.
They were something else.
The mechanical voice returned, colder and clearer this time.
[Trial: First Wave – Activated]
[Objective: Survive until the wave ends or eliminate all threats]
[Reward: Level Up + Basic Skill Unlock]
[Failure: Permanent Death]
Haruto laughed once—a short, bitter sound that echoed strangely in the empty air.
"Permanent death? After what just happened… that almost sounds like mercy."
The first wolf-thing lunged.
Instinct took over.
Haruto rolled left, the creature's claws raking furrows in the ground where his head had been. He came up in a crouch, hands already forming seals out of habit.
Ram → Snake → Tiger
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
Nothing.
No chakra flare. No duplicate. Just a pathetic sputter of smoke.
His reserves felt… empty. Not depleted—gone. Like someone had hollowed out his coils and left only echoes.
The second beast charged from the side.
Haruto dove, scraping his elbows raw on sharp stone. He came up running, heart hammering.
Think. Think like a shinobi.
No chakra. No jutsu. No tools.
Just him, a fifteen-year-old body that still hurt everywhere, and three monsters that wanted to eat him.
The third wolf circled, cutting off his retreat.
They were herding him.
Haruto skidded to a stop, back against a tall obsidian spire. No way out.
The first beast leaped again.
Time slowed.
Something inside Haruto snapped—not fear, not rage, but pure, animal refusal.
No.
I refuse to die here after they already killed me once.
A pulse of cold energy surged from his chest, foreign and hungry.
The blue screen flashed again.
[Necro-Shadow Affinity Detected]
[Passive Skill Unlocked: Shadow Sense (Lv.1)]
[You can now faintly perceive shadows and necrotic energy within 10 meters]
The world shifted.
Haruto didn't see the shadows—he felt them. Thin black threads leaking from the cracks in the ground, from the beasts themselves, from his own blood still dripping onto the dirt.
The charging wolf was mid-air when Haruto thrust his hand forward on pure instinct.
"Get… back!"
A thin tendril of shadow snapped up from the ground like a whip.
It struck the beast across the snout.
The creature yelped—a wet, gurgling sound—and crashed sideways, tumbling across the stone.
Haruto stared at his hand.
The shadow tendril retracted, coiling around his wrist like a living bracelet before sinking back into his skin.
[Active Skill Unlocked: Shadow Lash (Lv.1)]
[Cost: 5 Necrotic Energy]
[Deals minor necrotic damage and slows target]
[Necrotic Energy: 15/50]
The screen updated itself without him asking.
The other two beasts snarled and advanced together.
Haruto grinned—small, feral, nothing like the boy who'd once smiled at Hana during academy sparring.
"Alright then," he muttered. "Let's see what else you've got."
He didn't wait for them to come to him.
He charged.
The first beast swiped. Haruto ducked under the claws and drove his elbow into its ribs. Bone cracked. The creature staggered.
Shadow Lash lashed out again—this time from his other hand—wrapping around the beast's foreleg and yanking.
It toppled.
Haruto didn't hesitate.
He stomped down on its throat, then drove his knee into its skull once, twice, until the red glow in its eyes flickered out.
[Enemy Defeated: Shadow Warg (Lv.3)]
[Necrotic Energy +8]
[Experience +30]
The body didn't dissolve like in stories.
It lay there, leaking black mist.
Haruto stared at it.
Then—without knowing why—he reached out.
His palm hovered over the corpse.
[Shadow Extraction Available]
[Would you like to raise this creature as a Shadow Minion? Cost: 10 Necrotic Energy]
[Y / N]
Haruto's breath caught.
He thought of Hana turning away.
Of Elder Toru's thin smile.
Of the chains that had bound him using his own bloodline.
His finger trembled.
Then he pressed forward.
[Y]
Black mist surged from the corpse, spiraling upward before collapsing inward.
What remained was smaller—more compact. A wolf made entirely of writhing shadow, eyes burning the same purple as Haruto's new rage.
It lowered its head to him.
[Shadow Minion Created: Shadow Warg (Lv.1)]
[Loyalty: Absolute]
[Minion Limit: 1/3]
The remaining two wargs hesitated.
Haruto stepped forward, the new shadow wolf at his heel.
"Now," he said softly, "it's your turn."
The beasts roared and charged as one.
Haruto met them with open arms.
And for the first time since the betrayal,
he didn't feel like prey.
He felt like the beginning of something much, much worse.
[First Wave – 2/3 Eliminated]
[Time Remaining: 4:47]