David tumbled through the air, twisting helplessly before slamming into a massive electrical transformer jutting out of the lab’s reactor housing. Sparks exploded on impact as arcs of raw current licked across his body. From the corner of his eye he caught chunks of rooftop—sliced away by his earlier Overcharge—crashing down, shedding monster-cores and crystals as they tumbled. None of it mattered. Not when the world had dissolved into a blinding storm of agony.

  “AaaaAAHHHhh—!”

  His scream tore out, panic and pain mingling. If his brain weren’t busy short-circuiting, he might have laughed at how much the scene resembled one of those grim Chinese factory accident videos that flooded the internet. But there was nothing funny about this. The pain was unbearable—except… was it? A strange numbness settled in after the initial shock, like the electricity was flowing through him instead of against him.

  Wait. Of course. [Major Law of Electricity].

  The realization cut through the haze. He forced himself to focus. Above, the panther lingered on the roofline, its protective shield already shattered. The beast paced, muscles bunching as it prepared to spring.

  David’s hand snapped out, snatching one of the falling monster crystals from midair. He crushed it instantly, shattering it into motes of raw energy. The mana it released was pitiful compared to what he’d spent on Overcharge, but it was enough. Enough to spark one last strike.

  He pulled the electricity coursing through the transformer, redirecting it with the Law, bending the violent current to his will. Lightning flared from his outstretched palm, a jagged spear of incandescent power that met the panther mid-leap.

  The blast hit it square. The creature’s body convulsed as the bolt threaded through flesh and bone, frying it midair. The system’s cold chime rang in his head—[Level Up].

  Momentum carried the beast’s twitching frame forward, and the panther’s massive body crashed onto the transformer. Thrashing in spasms as the same current that had powered David now tore through its body. Sparks showered them both, the smell of ozone and scorched fur filling the air.

  For a brief, blinding moment the entire structure spat sparks even harder, lightning lashing across metal and stone. Then—silence. The lights of the laboratory winked out one by one until the building was swallowed in black. Only the harsh rhythm of robotic gunfire echoed through the grounds, punctuated by the faint, sinister hiss of charred flesh as the beast cooked from the inside out.

  [Rage 1 → 2]

  David was not visible under the huge carcass of the monster, but then the corpse twitched.

  [Rage 2 → 3]

  [Ability Unlocked]

  The panther’s body was suddenly hurled backward, slammed into the side of the nearest structure with such force it nearly punched through the wall. Dust rained from above, and David staggered free, chest heaving, skin still tingling from the raw current.

  [Pain Resistance 1 → 2]

  “Aaah, damn it!” His cry tore out of him, half agony, half disbelief. The haze of [Rage] which he used on an instinctive level to survive, left his body with last droplets of mana.

  Shaking, he pulled up his status screen, searching for the answer to what the hell had just happened. There it was:

  [Physical Enchantment Lv. 1]

  David stared, chest still heaving. “So… I can trade mana for raw strength now,” he muttered, wiping blood and soot from his mouth.

  David dragged himself out of the wreckage of the transformer, smoke rising from his burned clothes. Most of his outfit was in tatters, blackened and charred, and his right shoulder hung uselessly at his side. The jolt of being thrown with the panther must have wrenched it out of place.

  He grimaced. No time to waste. Gritting his teeth, he braced himself against the metal casing, gripped his arm, and shoved.

  Crack.

  “AAAHHH—!”

  [Pain Resistance 2 → 3]

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  The joint slid back into place, but the pain was blinding. David dropped to his knees, breath shuddering, hot tears stinging his eyes. For a few seconds he just knelt there, gasping, his mind blank with the aftershock.

  But there was no time to wallow. Crystal-cores were still raining down from the roof, and already a small mound had formed nearby. He staggered over, scooped up a handful, and crushed them one after another. Energy flooded into him—thirty cores, maybe a bit more, that’s how much he needed for a full refill.

  Still, the situation was grim. The complex was dark now, the reactor silent. No more newly found endless lightning trick—not this run. He clenched his jaw. Fine. Doesn’t matter. I’ll get through this. I’ll make this the last iteration.

  His gaze flicked to the perimeter. The robots still fought, but he knew their batteries were running down. They’d last six hours on a full charge, and that meant in three hours half of them would already be cold metal husks. The math wasn’t in his favor.

  David swallowed hard, throat dry. “Please,” he muttered to the empty night. “Let this stream of monsters end soon… and I hope there is no final boss waiting at the end.”

  With uneasy thoughts gnawing at the back of his mind, David sprinted to the lobby, to get to the stair leading toward the only true bastion left to him—the rooftop, where the lion’s share of his crystal-cores waited to be consumed for mana. With these new panthers—beasts that refused to die without Overcharge—the rooftop had become the only viable point of defense.

  He burst into the lobby, already angling for the stairwell, when a hulking shadow darted in behind him. A massive panther-monster slipped through the main entrance with predatory grace.

  “Shit, another one,” David muttered under his breath, vaulting over the security desk—the one where receptionists once handed out visitor passes in calmer times. The beast’s barrier shimmered as it pressed through the lobby, the translucent bubble brushing walls and furniture alike. The field bent around some object, others were shoved violently aside. David frowned in confusion. The shield clearly filtered threats selectively—but then why had the desk chair just been hurled across the room? He hadn’t exactly thrown it with murderous intent.

  Pinned against the far side of the counter, he realized there was nowhere left to run. With no time to puzzle out the mechanics of the shield, David crushed a crystal-core in his palm. Power flooded him. He raised his hand and unleashed Overcharged lightning.

  The front desk melted instantly, a sizzling cascade of molten plastic and steel. The blast smashed into the panther’s shield with a shriek of cracking energy, tearing it apart. In a flash, half the lobby floor evaporated (with a bunch of crystal-cores still left on the floor, damn it), and the monster disintegrated with it.

  “Shit,” David panted, his voice shaky, only to look up and see fresh trouble—two more panthers leaping the outer fence in unison, sprinting toward the gaping lobby doors.

  Shit. Shit. Shit. David bolted up the stairwell, the darkness pressing in from every side. With the power out and night draped over the city, the only light came from the faint glow of cores rattling in his pocket. His breath echoed against bare walls as his boots pounded upward.

  Reaching the second floor landing, a sound froze him mid-step—the crash of stone and metal tearing apart. He glanced down. One of the panthers had already clawed its way into the stairwell, shoving aside the doorframe and a good portion of the wall as if it were paper. Its glowing shield shimmered faintly, pushing debris.

  David cursed again, fumbling in his pocket. Two monster cores. He crushed them in his palm, mana flooding his veins. A moment later, orbs of darkness snapped into being and flew from his hands toward the beast. They splattered against its shield, hissing and spreading like tar, but the monster barely slowed. Worse—another panther barreled in right behind it, both of them cramming onto the same staircase like predators lining up for their meal.

  The old concrete steps groaned under their combined weight. Then—crack. The entire section collapsed. For a heartbeat, David thought it was over. But the monsters landed with feline grace, already preparing to leap up to the next flight.

  No time. His blasts weren’t enough. David turned and sprinted higher, heart hammering, lungs burning. Two more flights. Just two. He pushed himself up the final turn, and then—a roar behind him. The grinding shriek of concrete giving way. The panther was on him.

  Desperation flared. David triggered [Physical Enchantment]. Mana surged, muscles igniting with unnatural power. But he’d leapt with only one leg instead of both. A sharp crack. White-hot pain exploded in his shin.

  [Pain Resistance 3 → 4]

  “FUUUCK!” he screamed, even as the enchantment hurled him forward like a cannonball. He slammed shoulder-first into the final door, smashing it clean off its hinges, and tumbled onto the roof in a roll that ended in a heap—right on top of a mountain of monster cores.

  Upside down, gasping through clenched teeth, David watched the stairwell shudder and crumble behind him. The panthers were already clawing through, ripping apart what remained of the doorway, their glowing barriers grinding against walls and stone. One muzzle shoved through, teeth snapping.

  “Not… today,” David hissed. Gritting his teeth against the broken leg, he grabbed cores by the handful, draining them as fast as his mana channels would allow. It wasn’t fast enough. Not nearly. The wall burst inward as the first panther forced itself halfway onto the roof.

  But his core blazed. Power filled him again, violent and unsteady. Overcharge. He didn’t hesitate.

  The storm erupted from his hands, a lance of plasma-lightning that roared straight into the panther. The beast’s shield shattered in an instant. Its body crumbled to ash. The backlash from the spell that David used while lying on his back started pushing him across the rooftop.

  The second panther lunged right after the first. Its shield flared as it tried to force its way up from the stairwell—but the Overcharge was still firing. The beam swept across, locked onto the beast, and tore its barrier apart in a thunderclap. Flesh and bone followed.

  Still firing the spell, David let out a ragged laugh that spiraled into a scream. “YES! Take that, you bastards! HAHAHA!”

  And then—time froze.