I still can’t explain what just happened.
"Haah... haah... haaah,"
I panted, my eyes bleary as I ran through the forest.
"KGREEEEEEEEE!"
I heard that horrible screech behind . I knew it was coming, and it was coming fast.
But I couldn’t stop. Not with how much blood I was losing.
"Shit, SHIT!!!" I cursed.
The ground was all snow, which made running increasingly difficult as I made my way up the terrain, my legs burning and dragging against it with every step. I could feel the biting cold seeping into — especially through the wound I was desperately guarding with my right hand, even after bandaging it with half the fabric of my top, leaving that part exposed to the elents.
"Stem... co on, you busted piece of... crap... talk to !"
There was no denying it anymore. At this point I had to accept the facts — sothing was going on that I didn’t fully understand. Sothing that deed the system irrelevant and took it completely off the table.
At this point I was on my own.
"STATUS!"
I scread, but just instantly —
BAM.
Sothing dug into my back, the force flinging against the nearest tree.
"AHHHHH!"
I cried out in agonizing pain, my back arcing — but I couldn’t stay down for a second more, so I rolled and collapsed flat against the ground.
Na: Leo
Age: 18
Class: Lunar, Year 8
Affinity: Shadow
Skills:
Shadow Manipulation: Allows the user to manipulate darkness at will.
Details: Usage is limited only by the user’s imagination.
Mana Usage: Dependent on the scale of manipulation.
Proficiency: 20%
Strength: 18↑
Endurance: 13 ( 23)↑
Agility: 14↑
Intelligence: 23↑
Mana: 57 / 240
Charm (AFP): 100 (Human Limit)
Affinity Mastery: 10%
Available Points:
SP: 0
AFP: -532 (Negative) / 400 (Positive)
The numbers swam in my vision. Mana still had room, but my body was another story entirely.
"KGREEEEEEEE!"
It was close. Way too close.
I forced myself onto my side just as sothing heavy crashed into the snow beside my head — close enough that I felt the displaced air brush my face. I didn’t look. I just moved, rolling onto my stomach, then pushing off the ground with everything my arms had left, getting my knees under .
Co on. Get up.
I got up.
The creature ca again the mont I did, lunging low, and I threw myself sideways into a tree trunk, using it to brace and kick off, narrowly clearing its reach. I could hear the claws scrape bark where my ribs had been a half second before.
Think. Stop running and think.
I pressed my back flat against the tree, chest heaving, and risked a look.
It had skidded past and was already reorienting — that unnatural way it moved, limbs bending the wrong direction, neck snapping side to side like it was recalibrating. No eyes. Just those two dark indents and that gaping maw lined with fangs the length of my fingers.
Whatever it was, it wasn’t built for hesitation. Neither could I be.
I had one working arm, half my mana, a wound that was still bleeding through the bandage, and no system to tell the smart play.
So I did sothing stupid.
I stepped out from behind the tree.
"Hey."
It locked onto instantly.
I stretched out my good hand and pulled — dragging at the darkness pooling between the trees, the heavy shadows the snow-buried canopy cast across the ground — and shaped it fast, not a spear this ti but a wide sweeping arc, like a blade with no handle, just raw dark mass with a sharp intention behind it.
I swung it.
The creature ducked under it with that horrible staggering speed, closing the distance in an instant, and I barely got a wall of compressed shadow up before its shoulder slamd into it. The impact still threw — I skidded back across the snow, heels carving grooves until a buried root caught and I went down hard on one knee.
Mana: 38 / 240.
I couldn’t afford to keep trading like this.
It charged again.
This ti I didn’t try to block. I waited — every instinct screaming at to move early — and at the last possible mont I dropped flat, letting it sail over , and drove a spike of shadow straight up from below as it passed.
I heard it connect.
"KREEEEEEEEE!"
The screech tore through the forest and sothing warm and grey splattered across the snow near my face. I rolled away from it and forced myself upright, staggering, clutching my side.
The creature had pulled back, one of its limbs hanging wrong now, grey blood seeping dark into the white ground. It was still moving. Still turning toward .
Of course it was.
"I have to kill it," I told no one but myself.
I looked up just in ti to find it diving straight for , maw wide open. I rolled to the side. It crashed into the spot I’d just occupied, but recovered the next instant — neck snapping unnaturally, limbs twisting — and slashed my way. I rolled again.
BAM.
The attack barely missed by a margin. I rolled a second ti and heard the impact knowing it had struck again.
The next instant I forced myself to my feet, still clutching my wound, watching the creature twist and writhe as it tried to properly stand. I didn’t give it the chance. I stretched my hand out and a huge spear of dark material ford and launched forward with a deafening crack, the recoil sending skidding back across the snow until I collapsed onto it.
"KREEEEEEEEEE!"
I heard it shriek, knowing the attack had connected.
I tried to stand but realized I couldn’t. The cold and the blood loss had caught up with all at once.
"Master... anyti now," I said, but there was nothing but silence.
Fuck. Maybe going with Nadia wasn’t a good idea after all.
"Haah... haah... haaah,"
I panted, and tried to rise against my body’s protests, but it was no use. The pain that assaulted from the attempt was blinding and awful. I cursed and collapsed back down.
From there I could at least look — and see the creature pinned against one of the snow-buried trees, the massive spear of darkness driven clean through its head.
"Cold..." I mused, watching the chill air curl into white mist as I breathed out.
"Ugh," I grunted, using everything I had left to crawl back until I was close to a tree of my own. I tried to lean against it but my body had shut down completely.
"Stem..." I said again. Almost desperate this ti. Sa result as before.
"Delete system’s consciousness," I whispered.
An interface appeared.
[Confirm command.]
That told one thing — Stem wasn’t completely gone. It did say suspended, after all.
"Fuck..."
My eyes closed slowly, and eventually I surrendered to the darkness, left vulnerable in the snowy forest.
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