CHAPTER 58: 58: LESSONS IN GRAVITY XII

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"...Oh," Fizz said. "Great. A Void Howler. E-rank beast. Immune to fear. Fast. Bites through bones like twigs. Likes to hunt humans with unique and similar based mana signatures."

John blinked. "Wait, what?"

Fizz pointed at him. "Guess who reeks of void magic?"

The Howler let out a guttural snarl and bolted forward.

John stepped up. He had no hesitation. He summoned his Black Hole Palm and threw it.

The Howler juked. Effortlessly.

John clenched his jaw and summoned another, curving it upward, but the beast leapt over it, landing with impossible speed only a few feet away. Its claws tore at the earth, raking deep gouges through the moss covered soil as it skidded, using momentum like a weapon.

Fizz shot upward. "Okay, this thing isn’t just resisting... it’s void dancing! Try grounding it!"

John raised both hands. This time, instead of summoning a projectile, he dropped both palms to the ground.

A localized vacuum pulled and burst exploded outward like a dome, slamming the Howler’s body into the grass for a second. The air around them distorted from the pressure, birds scattered from nearby trees, and the Howler’s bones audibly strained under the weight. But then it adapted. It dug in, tail anchoring it like a spring.

It lunged again.

John barely rolled aside, brushing with death as claws slashed through the air he’d just occupied. His cloak shredded behind him as the beast’s claws clipped the edge. He threw a palm strike from the ground, his Black Hole Palm flared, but missed as the Howler twisted again, impossible to pin down.

Fizz growled. "It’s reading your rhythm! You’re too clean and predictable — too slow. Fight dirty like an unpredictable guy!"

John exhaled slowly. The world narrowed. His heartbeat slowed. The black hole within him stirred.

"Adapt John!" He advised himself.

He summoned an orb. Small just like always, the coin size.

The Howler moved to dodge.

John didn’t aim at it. He aimed behind it.

The moment the Howler shifted, expecting the attack, he activated the delayed pull of the earlier orb. It yanked the beast backward, just enough—

—so his second palm caught it directly in the ribs.

Woomph!

The compressed gravity didn’t destroy the beast, but it crushed the ribs in with a horrible crack. The Howler screamed and staggered.

Fizz yelled, "THAT’S IT! GET HIM!"

The Howler surged again, desperate now. Bleeding. Still fast.

But John was faster.

Three black hole orbs danced from his hands like juggling fireballs. They hovered, then snapped inward with his will. His attack pinballing the creature from one point to another as it tried to escape with its life.

Whoosh! Crack! Slam!

It finally collapsed, unconscious or worse, its flank heaving.

John stood still, breath rising slow and calm. The earth around him was cratered from gravitational ruptures. Bits of dirt still floated midair, warping gently toward the fading remnants of his void orbs. A strange hush had fallen over the forest, as if even the wildlife knew something dangerous had passed.

Fizz floated above it. "Now that’s how you fight like a void god!"

John staggered slightly. "I... need pancakes."

Fizz saluted him. "I hereby grant you partial rights to the pancake treasury of Flufftopia."

The beast’s breath came in ragged gasps, its ribs sunken and bruised, body half-buried in the torn earth. Blood matted the fur around its sides, but its eyes —glassy and wild— were still open. Still alive.

John knelt beside it, his cloak dragging through the dirt, his mana dimming as the adrenaline faded. One hand hovered, ready to summon another void pulse... but he didn’t. The monster had attacked, yes... but it wasn’t evil. It was instinctual. Wild.

Desperate.

Fizz hovered overhead, squinting. "Not gonna finish it?"

John shook his head. "I’ve taken its strength. I don’t need to take its life!"

Fizz tilted his head. "Mercy, huh? That’s new."

"It’s not mercy," John muttered. "It’s practicality. Why kill something that’s already broken? Besides..."

He looked into the beast’s eyes, what once feral, now dimmed with confusion and pain.

"...it fought with everything it had. Doesn’t feel right to end it like this. My instincts are telling me to leave it."

Fizz rubbed his chin thoughtfully, then gave a sage nod. "Alright. I respect that. Kinda. Maybe."

The little elemental zipped down, perched dramatically on a broken tree branch beside the fallen Howler, and raised both his tiny arms wide.

"Then let the official celebration of your first solo glorious victory against the E-rank beast be sung!"

John blinked. "No, Fizz, don’t—"

Fizz cleared his throat with theatrical flair.

"Oh mighty doom of the forest floor,

You growled, you charged, but roared no more!

With teeth so sharp and fur so black,

You tried to pounce but got slapped back!"

He twirled midair and pointed a dramatic paw at John.

"With swirling orbs and doom flavored might,

Our Master Forgetful brought the fight!

He bent the void with flair and grace–,

And dropped your snout right on your face!"

John sighed and stood up, brushing dirt off his knees. "You’re really doing this."

Fizz kept going, undeterred and completely offbeat.

"You zigged, you zagged, you danced around,

But now you’re eating forest ground!

And though you tried to shred and bite–

You lost to a pancake-powered knight!"

He struck a heroic pose on John’s shoulder, tail flicking behind him like a banner.

"So fear the one who walks with void,

Whose hands bring gravity deployed!

And next time you try to hunt at night—

Remember this bruising bedtime fight!"

Fizz paused dramatically, then threw both paws in the air and bellowed the final line like a bard atop a burning stagecoach:

"Fluff and doom, we bring the BOOM!

Void Mage and Ball, your forest’s GLOOM!"

John stared at him in silence.

Fizz floated down slowly, completely straight faced. "...You’re welcome."

"I didn’t ask." John replied.

"You didn’t have to."

The silence that followed was broken only by the faint snoring of the injured Howler, unconscious now from exhaustion and pain. John looked at it once more, then turned.

"Come on. Let’s move."

(End of Chapter 04)