The giant snake locked its yellow eyes on them for a brief moment.

Ken recoiled in terror since he was scared stiff of snakes. Not long ago, they threw snakes on him while he slept, reveling in his fear.

They did it just to have fun.

So seeing that giant snake made his skin crawl, grin vanishing.

The snake’s gaze shifted left, towards rustling trees. Ken glimpsed something flickering spectral in and out of sight. Red eyes drew nearer, resolving into a hulking white wolf with crimson irises. It emerged, many times bulkier than a rhino into the glade. Its fur was ordained with strange red veins and ruby-like circles.

“That there is a SpiritShifter,” Azrael explained. “It shifts its body on command between spectral and physical realms.” Due to its metamaterial composition. “Incorporeal as spirits, they glide unhindered through solid objects in the physical realm, yet are vulnerable to metaphysical forces and still can feel what goes through them. So, basically, they can feel pain even though it won’t affect them in any way. Tangible as flesh, it can be harmed only by tangible means. This grants them preternatural mobility and stealth, allowing them to stalk prey undetected across both dimensions.”

“Fascinating!” Ken yelped, bewildered by the standoff.

“Just watch,” Azrael said calmly.

The SpiritShifter’s crimson eyes bored into the Camouphage, the red veins covering half its face glowed as its white fur was rippling when it moved. Paces away, the Camouphage held its serpentine form low to the ground, translucent wings folded at its sides.

Tension hung thick in the air as SpiritShifter and Camouphage circled each other on the glade’s edge, two predators poised on the brink of battle. A growl rumbled deep in the wolf’s throat, hungry for the taste of its foe’s blood. The Camouphage tensed.

The moment the two predators locked eyes upon each other in the dimly lighted glade, the forest erupted into violence.

With a bone-chilling roar that shook the ancient trees, the hulking SpiritShifter wolf charged, crossing the distance in blurring seconds. With an earsplitting shriek, the Camouphage rolled out of the way, just avoiding the charge by a hair’s breadth. The evasion turned into a diving lunge as the serpent plunged, venom dripping and fangs bared, toward its foe. At the last instant, the wolf flickered immaterial, and the Camouphage’s deadly strike met only dirt.

Wheeling around, the serpent’s diamond-hard tail lashed out. It clipped the SpiritShifter’s spectral form, eliciting a pained yelp though no physical damage was done. In answer, the wolf sprung up and closed suddenly tangible jaws around the tail’s midsection with the force of a steel trap. Bones crunched audibly between the fangs wrought from an alloy stronger than steel.

Writhing in maddened agony, the Camouphage attempted to slip free, but the SpiritShifter’s grip would not be broken. Instead, the serpent reconfigured its shattered vertebrae on the cellular level, morphing them into razor-edged spikes that impaled the wolf’s mouth from within. Howling, the SpiritShifter was forced to release its hold, black blood dripping from its maw as it retreated.

Pressing its momentary advantage, the serpent struck again, movements blindingly fast despite its enormous size, striking its fanged maw seeking physical flesh and bone. But the SpiritShifter was swifter, dissipating into mist to avoid the snapping jaws, and gliding back out of reach. Solidifying behind the Camouphage’s winged form, the wolf savaged the thin membranous skin, shredding holes in the wings with its terrible claws.

Enraged, the Camouphage whirled, morphing and lashing out with spiked tails, writhing tendrils, and wickedly curved horns emerging from its armored scales. But the SpiritShifter flickered between states maddeningly out of reach each time, dancing just outside the blurring attacks. From every angle the assaults came, yet none could touch the vexingly elusive wolf.

Meanwhile, each spectral counterattack brought fresh waves of rippling agony to the serpent’s body. It was obvious that the Camouphage had never faced a SpiritShifter that was seemingly vulnerable yet untouchable. But it was far from defeated.

Fang and claw collided repeatedly as the shapeshifting snake and flickering wolf crashed together at the glade’s center. A thunderous dissonance of snarls and hisses echoed through the trees as the titans grappled.

The glade became a swirling vortex of tooth, claw, and ever-shifting flesh as Camouphage and SpiritShifter clashed again and again beneath the cold light of Sawad.

As blood poured from a hundred wounds, the Camouphage changed strategies. When the wolf materialized for another bite as it sprinted towards its prey, the Camouphage reacted instantly. Its flesh rippled, reshaping into a giant spiked urchin-like form to meet the assault head-on. The spikes shot outward, spearing through the air like living javelins.

Azrael was unfazed though Ken reacted intuitively by covering his head with crossed arms, the spikes bounced off the invisible shield that protected the three.

Whilst the SpiritShifter was a fraction faster, flickering out of the physical realm scant moments before being impaled. The spikes passed harmlessly through its ghostly form. Focused on its target, the SpiritShifter instantly pounced back to physicality, all four sets of claws finding purchase on the Camouphage’s dense, spike-studded shell. Steel claws fractured the hardened shell, fissures spreading rapidly across the surface.

Sensing the breaking point approaching, the Camouphage violently reshaped itself once more. The Camouphage bellowed in pain and fury, its flesh undulating as it reconfigured into its scaled reptilian form. Lashing like a serpent, its powerful tail battered the wolf’s body. The SpiritShifter released its hold, shifting immaterial to avoid the brutal impacts.

Pressing its counterattack, the spectral wolf darted back in, scything through the Camouphage’s newest morph with its razor claws. Each strike brought fresh waves of agony.

Writhing in retaliation, the Camouphage sprouted dozens of tentacles from its amorphous body, swatting at its tormentor. But the SpiritShifter was always one flickering step ahead, effortlessly evading the flood of beatings. The wolf’s razor fangs sheared off any tentacle that got too close during its brief tangible phases.

Back and forth the shapeshifting frenzy raged. The Camouphage cycled rapidly through forms - armored, spiked, and clawed - desperately trying to land a decisive blow. Meanwhile, the SpiritShifter darted around the glade shifting between mist and flesh, an ever-changing blur of fur and fangs.

Slowly but surely, the Camouphage weakened under the relentless assault. The SpiritShifter could smell its foe tiring and sense victory approaching at last. With a howl that shook the trees, the wolf renewed its attack, phasing through the Camouphage’s latest misshapen form again and again, persistently deepening the creature’s agony.

Reeling in pain, the Camouphage made one final desperate gambit. Its flesh melted down into a writhing puddle, oozing between mud and roots to hide amidst the undergrowth. Shielded by the earth, perhaps it could regenerate just enough to escape.

“What a boring display,” Azrael said. “This Camouphage is still young.” Hinting at the Camouphage’s inexperience in using its powers during the fight.

Is this boring! Ken thought as he watched bewildered, grinning in that moment.

However, the SpiritShifter’s prize would not be denied. Following the lingering scent, it stalked to where the Camouphage hid and became tangible. Massive claws shredded through dirt and vegetation, exposing its cowering foe with callous efficiency.

Too exhausted to morph again, the Camouphage could only squirm helplessly as the SpiritShifter’s jaws closed around it. Bones crunched between merciless fangs forged from an alloy stronger than steel. The Camouphage shuddered once...then moved no more. With a sickening wrench, the SpiritShifter severed its head. Tossing the limp body aside contemptuously, the wolf threw back its head in a chilling victory howl.

“Now that you get the SpiritShifter’s ability,” Azrael glimpsed at Ken. “Go take its power.”