Bradley's fingers tightened around the cold hilt of his katana. Taking a breath that stung his damaged lungs, he muttered a single word into the oppressive silence: "Aufladen."
He didn't know if that was the proper way to trigger an ability, but from every cartoon and movie he'd ever seen, speaking the name felt right.
A warm, tingling sensation blossomed from the blade in his hand, spreading up his arm and washing through his entire broken body like a gentle tide.
"It worked!"
He realized the katana had already stolen a sliver of energy when he first stabbed the wendigo, even without the command. Now, with the ability awakened, that trickle became a flood.
He could feel it happening. The ragged, bleeding gashes across his chest began to knit themselves together, flesh weaving over exposed bone. His limbs, twisted and shattered in grotesque angles, slowly straightened with a series of sickening, wet pops and cracks. Fractured ribs ground back into alignment. His pierced lung sealed, allowing him to draw a full, shuddering breath for the first time since the fight began.
As miraculous as it was, the healing was pure agony. It felt like his body was being torn apart and violently reassembled all at once. Bradley gritted his teeth so hard he thought they might shatter, a scream building in his throat that he refused to set free.
Fuck! Since when is healing so painful?! he screamed inwardly, tears of pure strain leaking from his sightless eyes.
After several minutes of silent torment, the process was complete. He was whole again—or at least, his body was. The physical wounds had vanished, leaving only pale, new skin. But the profound darkness remained. His black eyes were still empty, lifeless windows.
Here I was hoping the blindness would heal, Bradley thought, a wave of bitter disappointment washing over him. I guess that bastard did some kind of permanent blinding magic. Even this can't fix it.
Yet, alongside the healing came something else. A new strength hummed in his veins, a vibrant, electric power that made his muscles feel coiled and ready. It was as if he'd been injected with a super-soldier serum.
This ability is really handy.
He pushed himself up from the bloody ground, his movements now smooth and sure. His gaze, directed through Noir, locked onto the wendigo. The creature was still reeling, its massive grey hands clamped over the grievous wound in its throat, black blood oozing between its fingers.
"That's what you get for trying to eat me," Bradley said, a cold smirk touching his lips.
He didn't wait. He shot forward, a blur of pale skin and dark clothing. He couldn't give the beast time to recover. He needed to press the advantage, to deal as much damage as possible while his newfound strength lasted.
Enhanced by the stolen energy, he crossed the distance in a heartbeat, his silent katana aiming to finish what it started at the creature's neck.
Startled, the wendigo swung its free arm in a desperate, clumsy parry. Clang! Sparks erupted as claw met obsidian blade.
Bradley pressed the attack, a relentless storm of slashes and thrusts. He knew a cornered beast was at its most dangerous, but hesitation was a luxury he couldn't afford. He had to injure it badly enough to create an escape—or kill it.
The creature lashed out with a powerful kick. Bradley leapt, using the monster's own thick leg as a stepping stone to launch himself into the air. He brought his blade down in a deadly arc aimed at its skull.
At the last possible second, the wendigo jerked its head aside. The katana whistled past, missing by inches. But Bradley was already adapting. He twisted his wrist, changing the slash into a slicing motion that carved a deep, weeping gouge across the beast's unguarded shoulder.
A furious snarl ripped from the wendigo's throat. It swatted at him with its good hand. Bradley, anticipating the move, spun his body in mid-air. The massive claws passed harmlessly by his chest. As he fell, he drove a powerful kick into the creature's sternum, the impact sending it stumbling back several heavy steps.
"Ow!" Bradley groaned as he landed, shaking his stinging leg. "Is your skin made of steel or what?!"
He didn't let up. He charged again, a straight, silent thrust aimed for the wendigo's heart. The beast moved to block with its clawed hand, but in that instant, Bradley's katana simply vanished from his grip, returning to his personal inventory.
The wendigo's sunken eyes widened in confusion, its parry meeting empty air.
Bradley dropped low, his hand shooting out towards the monster's thigh. With a thought, he recalled the sword. It materialized back into his grasp just as his hand touched the grey flesh.
Splurt!
The obsidian blade punched clean through the wendigo's leg. Foul, black blood sprayed across the ground.
An ear-splitting shriek of agony tore from the monster. Enraged, it forgot its throat wound, bringing both massive, clasped hands high above its head to slam down on Bradley.
Sensing the imminent danger, Bradley pushed off with all his enhanced strength, performing a swift side-flip to the left.
BAM!
The spot where he'd just crouched exploded into a deep crater, dust and debris flying.
"That's not happening again," Bradley spat, irritation cutting through his focus. "I'm not getting slammed by those things a second time."
Now, the wendigo charged in a blind, furious frenzy. Its singular desire was to crush this annoying, resilient prey.
Bradley channelled more of the stolen energy, feeling his muscles burn with even greater power. He didn't retreat. He met the charge head-on.
They collided in the center of the foggy plain with a shockwave that shook the barren earth. The force of the impact sent Bradley skidding backward. He twisted in the air, landing on his feet and sliding several meters before coming to a stop.
"Tsk. A strong monster is still a strong monster," he conceded, catching his breath.
The battle became a brutal exchange. Wounds—deep slashes and punctures—began to accumulate on the wendigo's grey hide. Bradley collected a few of his own: a shallow cut across his arm, a graze on his ribs. But with each successful strike from his katana, a fresh wave of stolen energy surged into him, sealing his injuries almost as fast as they appeared. Not only was he healing, but he was adapting. His movements, once clumsy in this new body with this borrowed sight, were growing fluid and precise.
Clang! Clang!
Sparks flew with each parry, brief stars in the perpetual grey gloom. Their duel looked like something from an ancient myth—the hero against the monster. But Bradley, with his obsidian hair, deathly pale skin, and hollow black eyes, looked less like a hero and more like a villain risen from the shadows.
The wendigo aimed a decapitating slash at his neck. Bradley was a fraction faster, bringing his blade up to intercept. The impact drove his feet inches into the hard soil.
With a subtle shift of his weight, he twisted his katana, entangling it with the beast's massive claw. A sharp pull, a flash of dark metal, and one of the wendigo's taloned fingers spun through the air, severed. A spray of foul, black blood splattered across Bradley's face. He clamped his mouth shut, tasting the metallic stench on his lips.
Fucking disgusting! Bradley cursed.
"GROWWWLLLL!" The wendigo's roar was pure, unadulterated fury. It swung its maimed arm in a wide, backhanded blow that caught Bradley squarely on the side.
CRACK.
A sharp, sickening sound came from his torso. Fuck, my ribs!
The force lifted him off his feet and sent him hurtling through the air. He tumbled end over end for what felt like an eternity before driving his katana into the earth, using it as an anchor to drag himself to a grinding, painful halt.
Gasping, he raised his head. What he saw through Noir's eyes made his blood run cold.
The wendigo had thrown its head back. Between its jagged teeth, a sphere of condensed, violent black energy was forming. It hummed with a malevolent power so intense it warped the air around it, bending the light and causing the very fog to recoil.
"What the fuck, is it going to throw a bea—"
He never finished the sentence.
The wendigo unleashed its attack. A thick, annihilating beam of pure black light tore across the distance, swallowing sound and light, aimed directly at him.
Pure, instinctual dread seized Bradley's heart.
BOOM!
The world exploded. The ground beneath him vanished in a cataclysm of force and darkness.