The sound came again: a faint jangle, followed by the scrape of bare feet on old cobbles. Too light for a man, and too deliberate for a rat.

  I eased back into the shadow of a colpsed buttress and peered down the alley. The creature tried to shield itself from view, but the glittering metal on its neck gave it away.

  [PER Check: 27 > 20 → Creature Detected!]A thing with long arms, too many joints, and ash-grey skin stretched tight over lean muscle was hunched atop a rain barrel like a gargoyle that had lost its dignity. Rings looped through ridges where its ears should’ve been, a cracked torque biting into its throat, a chain of coins knotted around its waist. Every movement made the metal whisper.

  A Ferroskulk. That was what it was.

  [Target Identified]

  Lv. 7 — Gutterbound Ferroskulk – Urban Menace

  HP: 75/75

  AP: 25/25

  STR: 20

  DEX: 22

  PER: 16

  RES: 9

  END: 18

  Skills Detected:

  Metal Fixation (Passive): Gain +2 END for each stolen metal worn (up to 5) (You have successfully detected this skill with PER ≥ 10)

  Pick & Bleed (Active): The Ferroskulk hooks jewelry or chain around weapon or limb for a ssh or bite that deals an extra 10 ~ 15 blunt damage. AP: 5 – Cooldown: 15 seconds (PER ≥ 20)

  [Further details obscured (Gain Skill: Appraisal or upgrade your PER to at least 30 to unlock)]

  With seventy-five health and that passive, I wouldn’t even be able to deal damage for each strike without Static Surge. Every strike would be answered with another cng of stolen metal, another shriek, another chance for the city to notice us. This wasn’t a duel I could end cleanly through force alone, not without drawing far more attention than I wanted. Attention, I had learned, did not favor men who looked like me. A lone figure in full pte, face hidden, bde drawn in a narrow alley—no matter the truth of the matter, I would be the monster in that telling.

  Yet, I could see two visible pieces of jewelry on it. The torque at its throat. The coin-chain at its waist. Both worn not as ornament, but as trophies—proof of theft, of scavenged victories pried from the inattentive.

  A Ferroskulk did not steal to adorn itself. It stole because metal meant something to it. And as a Knight of Saint Merin, I could not simply let that stand.

  That which is taken unjustly must be returned.

  That which is hoarded without honor must be stripped bare.

  I drew out my sword, ready to engage in battle.

  Before I moved, I considered the simplest solution.

  Step out, let the full weight of my presence roll over it, and crush its will before steel ever had to speak. The Intimidation Aura would do the rest—freeze it in pce, force submission, end the matter in seconds. But that would be no duel.

  Saint Merin taught that victory taken without risk was little better than theft, and that a knight did not win by stealing courage from a weaker foe. Intimidation was a tool for breaking sieges and routing monsters, not for settling a contest of arms in an alley where only one of us had chosen to fight. There was also the matter of my Huskweave. I needed to know if I could channel AP properly from it.

  The alley narrowing ahead of it was a dead end choked with broken crates and old timbers. This favored me.

  It hadn’t seen me yet. But a knight did not strike an enemy unaware. Ambush was the nguage of cutpurses and beasts, not sworn steel.

  “Foul creature, feel the wrath of Saint Merin!” So I bellowed.

  The Ferroskulk’s head snapped up at the sound. The battle had now become fair.

  [Heroic Entrance Activated] – Creature Stunned for 10 secondsNever mind… Saint Merin forbade me from fighting on equal grounds.

  The creature had all the time in the world to react, but it didn’t, for simply my entrance was too heroic, too overwhelming to parse in that first instant.

  The moment my foot struck true, I triggered the surge.

  [Static Surge — Activated]

  AP: 5 → 0

  Auxiliary Aether Point Reservoir → 1 AP stored

  Cobalt-blue light cracked along my bde. The Ferroskulk shrieked and twisted, reflexively reaching for its chains—

  I struck first.

  [ATK: 9 (STR) + 11 (Weapon’s ATK) + 21 (Static Surge) - 18 (Creature’s END) - 4 (Metal Fixation)] → [-19 HP]Only 19 damage was dealt. For all the cobalt brilliance, all the righteous momentum, the blow nded true—and still the creature remained standing. This was bad.

  I tried to go for the chain. Strip the metal, colpse the passive, and turn the fight arithmetic in my favor. But I had missed. Now I had only 9 AP left, 7 from my Huskweave and 1 from the Reservoir. Another strike would bring it to exactly 10—two more strikes.

  Aether-Leeching Huskweave: 8 APThat would not be enough to sy it. Just a taste of power, and I’d let my stupid sense of heroism cloud my judgment.

  The Ferroskulk recoiled. It did not counterattack immediately. I seized the moment and cut for the torque, angling my bde to hook rather than cleave.

  [ATK: 10 (STR) + 12 (Weapon’s ATK) + - 18 (Creature’s END) - 4 (Metal Fixation)] → -1 HPThe technique was sound in theory—catch the metal, twist, rip it free—but I had underestimated how the creature wore its trophies. The torque wasn’t resting on flesh. It was half-grown into hardened scar tissue, anchored by callused ridges and muscle memory born of obsession. My bde slid, rang, and bit nothing of consequence.

  A longsword really wasn’t suitable for hooking.

  [Heroic Entrance Ceased]The creature immediately swiped the air the moment the effect waned off.

  I slowed my breathing and lowered my center of gravity, sword held just off-line. I was too clunky and the alleyway was too narrow for a dodge, so the only choice was to parry.

  The creature finally lunged.

  [Pick & Bleed – Activated]I stepped into the attack and parried.

  [Parry Successful]

  [ATK: 20 (Creature’s END) + 14 (Pick & Bleed) - 19 (Your END) - 4 (Basic Parry)] → - 11 HP

  [HP: 49/60]

  Steel met metal with a muted cng as I caught the chain with my sword. The creature immediately tried a side hook, but it was too telegraphed, and I immediately struck it on the chest and pushed it back.

  [- 1 HP]The blow rang like a hammer on an anvil and slid off the torque’s reinforcement. The Ferroskulk hissed in triumph and scuttled sideways. Its cws scraped the wall. Not good. The creature’s confidence seemed to be returning now that it knew my strength had limits.

  Its stance told me more than it realized. The creature guarded its throat instinctively, chin tucked, shoulders hunched to protect the torque.

  I advanced. Broken crates hemmed it in, forcing its movements tighter, uglier. It shed out again.

  If I couldn’t hook, maybe I could yank.

  The chain caught my fauld with a shriek of metal-on-metal, yanking hard enough to twist my bance a fraction. Metal burned against my gauntlet as I wrapped it once, twice, around my fist and wrenched.

  “Mine,” it snarled. The sound it made was surprisingly human.

  [Torque Removed]

  [Metal Fixation – Stacks Reduced: 2 → 1]

  The cracked band tore loose, hitting the ground with a cnk.

  No. Not yours anymore.

  The Ferroskulk lunged for the torque with a desperate snarl, but I stepped forward and cut across its reach.

  [ATK: 20 (Creature’s END) - 19 (Your END) - 4 (Basic Parry)] → - 1 HPI counter-attacked with an efficient cut, rotating my hips and letting the bde travel on a tight diagonal from high right to low left.

  [ATK: 9 (STR) + 11 (Weapon’s ATK) + - 18 (Creature’s END) - 2 (Metal Fixation)] → -1 HPThis fight was going to take forever.

  The creature countered with an uppercut swipe, smashing into my gorget.

  [ATK: 20 (Creature’s END) + 15 (Pick & Bleed) - 19 (Your END)] → - 16 HPOr maybe not. It still had 15 APs left and its skill cooldown was only 15 seconds. I would lose if this kept up.

  The Ferroskulk pressed the advantage, shrieking as it came in low and fast—but desperation had robbed it of subtlety. Its shoulders rolled back, cws lifting too high, hips coiling in a way that broadcast the strike a heartbeat too early. It stood barely to my chest, so I pivoted on my lead foot and let the swipe pass under my guard by inches.

  Then I answered with a tight descending cut, aiming for its head.

  [ATK: 9 (STR) + 11 (Weapon’s ATK)] x 150% (Saint’s Precision) - 20 → -6 HP Hold on. I’d got an opening now.

  [Static Surge – Avaible]I forced the pain down and shut everything else out. This was what my training had been for—not the glorious charge, not the sermon before the strike, but the moment after all of that failed. What little Sir Rond had taught me, I must use them now.

  The Ferroskulk circled. It had tasted blood, and it was fearful now. It was guarding high, keeping its head low, expecting another cut.

  So I didn’t give it one.

  I shifted my grip up the hilt, shortening the sword, turning it from a cleaver into a lever. My stance narrowed, weight settling into my heels as I invited the lunge. Knights learned this early: sometimes the surest way to strike was to let the enemy think they already had.

  It took the bait.

  The creature sprang, cws arcing for my chest again—too eager, too straight. At the st instant I stepped inside the attack, shoulder brushing past its arm, my left hand punching the crossguard forward. The bde came up in a compact motion.

  I triggered the surge.

  [Static Surge — Activated]Then came the hammerblow.

  [ATK: 9 (STR) + 10 (Weapon’s ATK) + 25 (Static Surge)] x 150% (Saint’s Precision) - 20 → [-44 HP]

  Gutterbound Ferroskulk’s HP: 7/65

  Aha! With a few more precise strikes and I’d surely—

  [Creature’s HP is below 30%]

  [Hidden Skill Activated]

  The change was immediate. The Ferroskulk’s shriek morphed into a throttled rasp as its pupils blew wide and red bled through the whites of its eyes. Veins stood out along its neck and temples. The remaining chains rattled as if its own muscles were vibrating.

  Oh no. It’s coming. I must—

  One moment it was crouched before me, the next it was inside my reach, moving with a speed that ignored caution, ignored form, ignored everything except me. My sword came up on instinct—but too te. Too slow.

  The Ferroskulk smmed into me shoulder-first, cws raking down and in, slipping past the edge of my cuirass and punching hard into the gap between breastpte and fauld, right at the pckart’s lower seam.

  [-7 HP]I bit back the pain.

  [Your HP: 32/60]It hadn’t been able to hurt me like that before. Our DEX had been equal, and it had only been able to deal 1 HP with its normal attack. Whatever had taken hold of it now had stripped away restraint and repced it with force.

  The creature stepped back, loading itself again, limbs coiling for another impossible lunge. My Static Surge still needed 20 seconds of cooldown.

  It had changed. Its lunges grew wilder, faster, obviously to overwhelm rather than outthink. If it kept that pace, I wouldn’t have time to parry.

  I saw the crates and barrels underneath my feet. So I kicked.

  My greave smmed into the nearest rain barrel, sending it rolling across the cobbles. Iron hoops screamed as it bounced and clipped the Ferroskulk’s shin, knocking its footing just enough to spoil the charge.

  The Ferroskulk immediately sprang to its feet, swinging its chains like hooked tongues.

  There it was. The pattern.

  Every reckless rush ended the same way—full commitment, chains extended, no room to recover.

  I dropped.

  I let myself fall backward just as the chain scythed through the space where my chest had been.

  [Pick & Bleed – Missed]The Ferroskulk overextended, skidding forward in a tangle of limbs and metal.

  Before it could recover, I tackled it. We crashed into the stacked crates. It nded on its back, and I immediately came up behind it and nded an extremely ferocious cut across the back of the skull.

  [-1 HP]The Ferroskulk shrieked and bucked, arcing its spine to shake me off. One elbow clipped my cuirass hard enough to rattle my teeth.

  I nearly lost my footing.

  It twisted, rolling onto its side with feral strength, trying to bring its face around toward me. There was no time for form. I just needed a headshot.

  I dragged my bde up and across. The edge found bone.

  [-3 HP]

  [Ferroskulk’s HP: 0/75]

  The strike split the side of its skull. The creature spasmed once, chains cttering against the cobbles, then went sck beneath me.

  +55 EXP

  EXP: 2559/2750

  Blood spattered across my visor in a red starburst. I froze there for a breath, waiting for another trick.

  None came.

  The Ferroskulk y still.

  Dead.

  At exactly 0 HP! I felt personally fulfilled.

  Only then did I lower my sword, chest heaving, the echo of steel and shrieking metal finally giving way to silence.

  I gathered the fallen jewelry from the stones, wiping them once against my gauntlet before turning.

  At the far end of the alley, a woman stood frozen, hands clutched to her chest, eyes wide and gssy. She had seen everything.

  I walked toward her, each step measured, metal boots ringing softly against the cobbles.

  “Is this yours?” I asked, holding the jewelry out.

  She nodded, too fast, breath hitching as if afraid the sound itself might draw my attention.

  Good. Witnesses mattered. She would know I fought for her jewellery.

  I pced the metal into her trembling hands. It was still warm. “Forgive the blood,” I said. “Do not lose it again, or learn the consequences.”

  [Intimidation Aura Activated]

  [Intimidation Successful!]

  She didn’t answer. She didn’t even look at me again.

  The woman turned and fled down the alley, clutching the jewelry like a talisman, footsteps breaking into a panicked run as soon as she cleared the corner.

  Fine. Not like I would ever have a need to see her again.