Time slowed to a crawl as Mike lunged for the manual release lever. Every detail burned into his consciousness with preternatural clarity—the cold stone beneath his palm as he pushed off, the weight of the hammer at his belt slapping against his thigh, the whistling sound of air displaced by the Void Ripper's multiple limbs as they extended toward him with impossible speed.
His fingers closed around the lever just as the creature's leading edge entered striking distance. With a desperate heave, Mike pulled the mechanism downward, feeling resistance followed by the distinctive *click* of the tension system releasing.
The trap activated with devastating force. Massive jaws lined with obsidian teeth snapped closed, catching the Void Ripper's rear portion in their inexorable grip. The sound was sickening—not the clean snap of metal or wood, but a wet, dimensional tearing, as if reality itself were being shredded along with the creature's strange physiology.
A roar unlike any Mike had heard before—higher pitched, containing notes of surprise and agony—erupted from the Void Ripper. The crystals in the trap blazed with intense blue-white energy, pulsing rapidly as they made contact with the creature's essence. Where obsidian teeth penetrated the monster's form, a peculiar reaction began—the tears in its body that had shown absolute darkness began to widen, spreading outward from each puncture point with a sizzling, hissing sound like water on hot metal.
But Mike had no time to celebrate this partial victory. The trap had captured only half of the Void Ripper, leaving its forward section—including one primary limb and its head-like structure with multiple blinking eyes—free and clearly enraged.
With a sound like tearing universe, the creature began to drag itself toward Mike, pulling the entire trap along with it. The eight-foot mechanism, weighing several hundred pounds, scraped across the stone plaza as if it weighed nothing, the wooden frame creaking under the strain but holding. The obsidian teeth continued their work, the dissolution process accelerating wherever they made contact, but not quickly enough to neutralize the immediate threat.
"Oh shit," Mike gasped, backpedaling away from the advancing horror.
The Void Ripper's jaws—if the shifting opening in its front section could be called that—snapped repeatedly, a hungry void surrounded by razor-like protrusions. Its remaining limb reached for Mike with terrible purpose, the appendage extending beyond any natural proportion as if distance meant nothing to its anatomy.
Left with no alternatives, Mike grabbed one of the sap bombs from his belt and hurled it directly into the creature's face. The detonation was immediate and violent, engulfing the Void Ripper's front section in blue-white flame. Any normal organism would have been devastated by such a point-blank explosion, but the Ripper merely paused momentarily, limb retracting slightly before continuing its advance.
"Not good enough," Mike realized, throwing another bomb while continuing to retreat.
This second explosion produced similar results—temporary disorientation but no lasting damage. Whatever the Void Ripper was, conventional explosives seemed to affect it only superficially. It recovered more quickly this time, dragging itself and the attached trap forward with renewed determination, leaving a trail of dissolving darkness where the obsidian teeth continued their inexorable work.
Mike found himself backing toward one of the ruined buildings, options diminishing with each step. His foot struck a fallen column, nearly sending him sprawling before he caught his balance. The momentary stumble allowed the Void Ripper to close more distance, its remaining limb now close enough that Mike could see the unnatural articulation of its joints, the way it seemed to phase partially in and out of reality as it moved.
Another bomb, another explosion, another brief pause in the creature's advance. Mike was running out of both explosives and space. Behind him loomed a solid wall—one of the few intact structures in Crafter's Haven, now serving as the endpoint of his retreat. The Void Ripper sensed its advantage, its eyes blinking in what might have been anticipation as it cornered its prey.
What had started as a massive entity was now significantly reduced. The trap had consumed nearly two-thirds of its body mass, the dissolution process accelerating as the obsidian and crystal energies worked deeper into its strange physiology. But the remaining portion—still larger than a man—contained enough of its essential nature to maintain both coherence and lethal intent.
Mike threw his second-to-last bomb, bought another few seconds, and found himself with his back literally against the wall. One explosive remained in his hand, the stone face of the building cool against his shoulder blades. The Void Ripper was mere feet away now, dragging the glowing trap that was systematically erasing it from existence. Its remaining limb extended toward Mike's throat, the appendage now little more than a skeletal framework surrounding a core of absolute darkness.
"Come on," Mike whispered, watching the trap's progress through the creature's mass. "Just a little more..."
The limb was inches from his face when Mike hurled his final bomb directly into the void at the creature's center. The explosion occurred inside the Void Ripper itself, producing a strange implosion effect rather than the expected outward blast. The creature's form distorted, warping inward around the detonation point.
It was enough—just enough. The momentary disruption allowed the trap to complete its work, the dissolution process reaching the creature's forward edge just as it would have seized Mike. The limb crumbled into particles of darkness that dissipated like smoke, leaving nothing but a fading outline where the appendage had been.
The remaining mass of the Void Ripper—now reduced to little more than a head-like structure with fewer blinking eyes—collapsed to the ground. It made one final attempt to reach Mike, dragging itself forward with extraordinary determination despite its nearly complete dissolution. The movement carried it perhaps six inches before the last of its cohesion failed.
With a sound like a distant sigh, the Void Ripper dissolved completely, darkness streaming away from its form like water evaporating in reverse, flowing upward into nothing. The trap's teeth, having completed their purpose, continued to glow for several moments before gradually dimming to a steady, pulsing state.
Mike remained pressed against the wall, breathing hard, unable to fully process what had just occurred. The entire encounter had lasted perhaps two minutes from the moment he'd pulled the release to the creature's final dissolution, yet it felt like hours had passed.
"Is it... dead?" he whispered to the empty plaza, not entirely trusting the evidence of his own eyes.
No response came except the gentle pulsing of the trap's crystals, now significantly dimmer than before. Whatever energy had powered their intense reaction to the Void Ripper seemed partially depleted, though not entirely exhausted.
Cautiously, Mike approached the trap, which now lay still on the stone floor of the plaza. The massive mechanism showed signs of strain—wooden components cracked in places, several obsidian teeth shattered or missing entirely, crystals dulled from brilliant blue-white to a softer azure. It had worked exactly as designed, but the effort had clearly pushed the device to its structural limits.
Where the Void Ripper had been, nothing remained—no physical residue, no trace of its passage except the gouges in the stone floor created by the trap's teeth as the creature had dragged it forward. The predator that had terrorized this region, that had haunted Mike's nightmares since his first day in this world, had been completely erased from existence.
"It worked," Mike said, the realization finally settling into his consciousness. "It actually worked."
"Aye lad, it did. Now how the hell did you manage that albeh yer self?"
a gruff voice responded from behind him.
Mike spun around, hammer instinctively raised. Standing at the edge of the plaza where three figures—a stocky dwarf with an intricately braided beard, a tall, slender elf with silver-blond hair, and between them, a figure in a dark hooded cloak. The same trio he'd seen on his very first day in this world.
The same trio he'd watched die at the hands of the Void Ripper.
"Wait, what?" Mike stammered, his exhausted mind struggling to process this impossible sight.
The dwarf stepped forward, arms crossed over a chest covered in elaborate metal armor. The elf remained slightly behind, a look of curious assessment on their angular features. The hooded figure didn't move at all, their face still concealed in shadow.
"I said—" the dwarf began.
But Mike didn't hear the rest as the world spun around him, fatigue and shock finally overwhelming his system. The last thing he saw before consciousness faded was the dwarf rushing forward, arms outstretched to catch him as he fell.
END OF BOOK ONE