The battlefield hadn't cooled. It hadn't quieted. It hadn't even stabilized.
It simply… paused.
Both sides stood on opposite edges of the Outer Rifts, steam rising from scorched stone, broken drone parts littering the ground, mutated wolves snarling behind their Alpha King.
Jimmy's armor chimed with diagnostic warnings. His health readouts blinked red. The gauntlets smoked from the inside.
He looked across the field toward the Wolf King.
The monster was laughing.
Not loud.
Not mocking.
Just… enjoying himself.
And Jimmy knew what that meant.
They were screwed.
But he raised his visor and shouted anyway:
"All units! Reposition! Recalibrate your weapons to thermal-alpha! We're not done!"
A chorus of "YES SIR!" echoed behind him.
He nodded to himself, though his stomach twisted in knots.
Then one of his officers whispered, "Chief… I have to ask. Why aren't we freezing time?"
Multiple troopers turned toward Jimmy.
"Yeah—your chrono-stop field!"
"Why not lock them in stasis?"
"Sir, it would let us evac!"
Jimmy closed his eyes.
He hated this part.
Why Jimmy Doesn't Freeze TimeHe lifted his wrist, projecting a hologram in front of the lieutenants: a ripple of red distortion across the entire Outer Rift.
"This dimension," Jimmy said, tapping the ripple, "is unstable. The Rift is filled with naturally fractured timelines, micro-loops, and half-dead seconds."
The officers stiffened.
Jimmy continued.
"If I freeze time in the Outer Rifts—just listen—there's a sixty percent chance the entire battlefield de-syncs."
He drew a line in the hologram—it cracked like glass.
"That means time stops… but never starts again."
The soldiers paled.
Jimmy's voice dropped to a harsh whisper.
"We'd trap ourselves here. Forever. In a dead second."
Another officer swallowed. "Sir… what's the other forty percent?"
Jimmy sighed.
"The other forty percent is worse."
He drew another line.
This one fractured into needles of kaleidoscopic light.
"If I freeze time here, there's a forty percent chance the freeze doesn't stay localized."
He pointed at the hologram.
"It could spread."
"Spread where, sir?" someone asked.
Jimmy's eyes darkened.
"To the central arena."
Silence.
Jimmy spoke again, voice firm:
"A time-freeze spreading into tournament space would collapse every timeline attached to the event. That includes the dragons. The arena. The spectators. Every universe watching."
He swallowed.
"And Bones."
The troops froze in terror.
Jimmy nodded grimly.
"Yeah. We freeze time here, Bones might break free from the freeze first. If that happens, we lose everything."
He shut off the projection.
"That's why we don't freeze time."
No one argued.
No one breathed.
Then Jimmy turned back toward the Wolf King and raised a shaking gauntlet.
"Alright… let's get back to not dying."
The Wolf King Moves FirstThe Wolf King didn't need to hear Jimmy's explanation.
He only sensed hesitation.
Which, to him, meant weakness.
He raised his arm and roared—a brutal, spine-cracking sound that shook entire floating islands loose from their anchors. They drifted upward like shards of continents breaking free.
The hybrids howled in return, their bodies bursting with new fire. Their claws gleamed molten-white.
The Wolf King slammed his fist into the ground.
A shockwave blasted outward.
The earth didn't crack—
It fell.
An entire section of battlefield dropped into the abyss, leaving a jagged canyon where several Buddy divisions had been stationed.
"SQUADS SIX THROUGH TEN—RETREAT TO THE CLIFF!" Jimmy yelled.
But the hybrids jumped into the collapsing trench like predators diving into a feeding frenzy.
Shapes moved in the dust.
Ripping.
Clawing.
Screaming.
Fire igniting.
Jimmy bit his lip hard enough to taste blood.
"Deploy grappler drones! NOW!"
Dozens of fist-sized drones darted down the canyon, firing graviton-thread lines that magnetized around fallen operatives. One by one, soldiers were yanked upward toward stabilizer platforms.
Some hybrids leaped up after them—
—and met rail-slugs to the face.
Buddy snipers on elevated platforms fired nonstop, punching holes through wolf skulls.
But for every hybrid bloodied… two more emerged.
This enemy was endless.
Heavy Tech DeploymentJimmy slammed his fist onto his wristband.
"HEAVY ARMOR UNIT! NOW!"
A boom echoed across the ridge.
Five enormous armored pods fell out of a small rift overhead, smashing into the ground and unfolding into towering exosuits—each three times the size of a human, shaped like angular war mechs.
Titan-class Tech Walkers.
Each stomping step made the ground quake.
Their arm-mounted plasma accelerators glowed white-hot, capable of punching through battleship armor.
The Wolf King narrowed his eyes.
Finally… something interesting.
Jimmy pointed at the incoming hybrids.
"TITANS—FIRE AT WILL!"
Blinding beams of plasma cut across the battlefield.
Three dozen hybrids were vaporized instantly.
Another wave lost limbs.
Another group melted into pools of charred biomass.
The Wolf King snarled.
He launched himself forward—running on all fours, flames erupting behind him with each leap.
But the Titans continued their bombardment.
Their cannons thundered.
Their wrist-rockets streaked through the air.
Their hydraulic punches crushed hybrids like paper.
For the first time—
The Wolf King bent his knees.
The Wolf King Unleashes a New TechniqueThe Wolf King sank low, palms touching the scorched stone.
His flames dimmed.
His muscles tensed.
His eyes glowed like dying stars.
Jimmy watched from the ridge.
"Oh crap. He's charging something BIG—"
The Wolf King inhaled.
The battlefield bent toward him.
Air collapsed inward.
Black fire spiraled like a vortex.
Then—
"HRAAAAAAAAAAGHH!"
He unleashed it.
A blast of pure, focused black fire shot forward—like a flamethrower made of condensed destruction.
It hit the nearest Titan.
The Titan's armor glowed red.
Then orange.
Then white.
Metal dripped.
Plating dissolved.
Exoservos screeched.
Inside, the pilot screamed:
"MY SHIELDS ARE MELTING—ABORT—ABO—"
The black fire engulfed the cockpit.
The light inside went out.
The Titan collapsed, its metal skeleton glowing molten red.
The Wolf King straightened.
"More.
Give me MORE."
The Battle Fractures Across DimensionsThe Wolf King's attack cracked the stabilizer pylons.
The Rift floor split open.
Entire chunks of battlefield ripped free from gravity.
Floating islands drifted upward.
Towers of stone spiraled sideways.
The battlefield became three-dimensional chaos.
Buddies scrambled across rising chunks of terrain and fired grappling lines to stay connected. Drones fought to stabilize pockets of gravity while troopers leapt across drifting platforms.
Hybrids followed—leaping impossible distances, clinging to floating pillars, ripping drones out of the air.
A soldier shouted, "THE BATTLEFIELD'S GOING MULTI-LAYERED!"
Jimmy barked, "ADAPT! USE THE HEIGHT! FORM VERTICAL PLATFORMS!"
Buddy tech-troops deployed stabilization anchors that clamped onto floating slabs, forming makeshift elevated firing positions.
The battlefield now had four vertical layers of fighting:
Ground tier — chaos, fire, hybrids charging
Mid-tier floating islands — skirmishes, grappler lines, drones
High-tier platforms — snipers and rail cannons
Upper airspace — gunships vs. flame-beasts leaping into the sky
A hybrid jumped twenty meters straight up and pulled a sniper off his perch.
Another hybrid ripped a gunship engine midair and dragged the craft down with him.
Jimmy watched it all, overwhelmed.
"Okay…" he muttered. "Chapter 40 officially sucks."
A Temporary CounterattackOne Titan remained.
Two more activated rear thrusters and jumped onto floating platforms.
Buddy heavy troopers braced their rifles.
Jimmy raised his gauntlet, focusing hard.
"ALL FORCES—FIRE WITH EVERYTHING YOU HAVE!"
And for a moment…
They turned the tide.
Rockets streaked through the air.
Rail cannons hammered the hybrid ranks.
Snipers took down mutated elites.
The Titan's plasma beam carved a smoking line through the battlefield.
Even the Wolf King was pushed back half a step.
It wasn't victory.
But it was breathing room.
Jimmy coughed hard, clutching his ribs beneath the armor.
"That's it… hold it… HOLD IT—"
But the Wolf King Wasn't DoneHe inhaled again.
Not as long.
Not as deep.
But enough.
His flames flared metallic-black.
And through gritted fangs, he whispered:
"Round two."
Jimmy shivered.
"Of course there's a round two."
The Wolf King raised his arms.
His army howled.
And the Rifts rumbled again.
The War ContinuesThe Buddies' line prepared.
The Wolf King advanced.
Floating islands spun.
Drones gathered.
Claws glowed.
Weapons charged.
The Howling War surged into its second act—brutal, chaotic, and far from finished.
And high above the battlefield…
A faint golden glow flickered in the far distance.
The Wolf King smelled it.
And smiled.
"Soon… dragon."