I used Switch for the first time with almost no backlash. Not even a whisper of the usual strain. The boon I'd received after killing the Corruptor king had done this for me, Switch no longer drained me the way it once had. No headache. No nosebleeds. Just the impossible reality of holding a monster's severed head while standing in the middle of the wasteland.
The head was heavy. And disgusting. And I was absolutely, completely terrified by how easy that had been.
I dropped it.
The head hit the ground with a wet thud and rolled to a stop against a small rock, coming to rest facing me, its maw somehow accusatory.
The remaining two Corruptors had stopped dead in their tracks.
For a long, terrible moment, we all froze, me trying to feel no emotions, them standing motionless, but close. Then, at the same time, their heads turned toward me.
They'd felt it. The emotions I exuded after killing my second Corruptor.
And now they knew exactly where I was.
