A shorter chapter.
(Alaska, In The Middle Of Nowhere)
(25 minutes of walking)
As the trail to his path was silent, that eerie feeling came closer to Tristan. As he gained closer, he made sure to check if his anomalous energy was fully stacked up, but it looked like it wasn't only fully charged up, but it looked like its energy went higher from the previous limit.
[75/80] This was a crazy benefit to Tristan. Even if the room for its growth was small, the energies quality should be more than enough for what he'll have to go through... Albeit, Ana was probably right, except that at the last second he went left instead of right, making his opponent mildly worse. And finally, when he went to his 'new' new destination, he saw a beautiful scene except for one part.
It was an open field of snow where trees surrounded that opened field within the middle of what looked like a giant slab, and with it was a beast that was seemingly bounded by the said slab.
A blackened creature that gave off a black shimmer in the nightly ambiance, a warbling vibrato hum, a feeling on the skin like fingernails scraped across a blackboard, it gave off a sickening miasma that smelled like a cancerous tumor; the creature, by all accounts, looked like a disgusting insectoid of six feet.
Tristan was looking at this creature with pure disgust; he was supposed to be fighting with a ferocious creature like that Wendigo Ana was talking about were probably his thoughts.
But from Ana's point of view, she truly, and I mean truly, wasn't expecting Tristan to confront this thing that thing, even with its skinny stature, was truly almost any Garou wouldn't want to come across, a literal reality warping being with its very presence being able to corrode and decay all that is around it, servants of the Wyrm that were known to be forces of nature.
Even with all of Ana's worries, she somehow trusts that he'll fend for himself, even without knowing why he would, and even then, if he truly were in trouble, she would have to step in.
(POV: Tristan Devroop Akvash)
"Your one ugly son of a bitch, huh? Now that I got a look at you... I said this before, and I'll say this to you directly: Nah, I'd win." Tristan, who said so with disgust towards this thing, suddenly felt the air around become more decayed. The slab and chains began to melt off as it finally weakened. And really, the worst happened as it started transforming like a Dark Souls boss. Its original humanoid shape became. Something akin to a horror movie bug as this ancient Crawler has finally been set free from the world to cause its corruption.
"Well... Fuck me... I'm completely cooked at this point, aren't I." Zil didn't say anything but {BLOCK!!!}, and Tristan turned the shadows around him into a shield as a blast of concussed decay violently shot into him. With that beam, he flew far away along that painful beam; it just about decayed everything around the direction of the blast alongside Tristan. Tristan, by all accounts, was still alive and kicking. As he slowly got up, he saw what looked like destruction incarnate all around him... and he was still in a daze after that insane attack.
"Honestly... I hate the fact that we turned left again instead of going straight down to see the Wendigo... This is so much fucking worse. I at least am far enough away from whatever the fu-" Before Tristan was trying to create dialogue, Zil interrupted him again. < Armor NOW!!!!> The shadows that were around him quickly turned into his suit of Armor.
Quick moments of notice, just right after he finished the Armor, that large insect that was beyond quick for its size grabbed his face with its human like hands and started rag-dolling poor Tristan all over the place and after what felt like a couple of minutes, this insect threw him in the air and did the dirtiest throwback to Tristan, he did something that Godzilla did during The final wars and spun around and used another of its concussive blast towards Tristan sending him flying away again and destroying an even larger part of the ecosystem.
The longer Tristan fought, the more they caused massive amounts of extinction for plant and animal life and the closer they got to human society, and truly, this Nexus Walker wasn't a normal one of its kind either. And it was beyond pissed off as there was an actual human that had the gall actually to fight.
Tristan wasted quite a bit of his anomalous energy as his own body began to repair itself from being rag-dolled; his body from before was fucked till he forced a regenerative ability. He didn't dare to speak again and started focusing on his opponent as he created his shadow weapons. He was by all accounts much weaker than this monster, and he needed to either leave or... Call for help.
Tristan was beyond pissed off at the fact that he was done dirtied by this wretched bug. He's been styled on like comparing an NBA player to a toddler, and with his regenerative ability and the fact that whatever this thing was using wasn't working on him was a clear advantage that isn't killing Tristan off instantly.
He only has twenty-eight points of anomalous energy, and he was planning to condense all of that energy within one of his weapons. As that was done, not a moment later, the giant insect was speeding towards Tristans with a herculean rage.
At this very moment, if this blade doesn't work, then the Armorless boy will have his head instantly decapitated within milliseconds as it finally stops playing around. The sword slashed through and into the insect's tough exoskeleton. The sword wasn't just extremely sharp, but it held a purifying effect, damaging the creature even further and even weakening it.
The insect slapped the boy away, and the boy was sent hurdling to a decayed tree. Tristan hit head-first into that tree, and the tree broke apart. The insect tried to pull the sword away, but it started melting its hands as it touched the shadow-like hilt. This was a first for everything for the creature. It was a first for it to meet an opponent that didn't run away; this runt he faced wasn't affected by its reality-altering corrosion.
This insect, in its entire life, has never felt this much pain. For the first time felt deep regret when playing around with prey that could even fight directly. The insect deeply wished to start things out differently instead of playing around. It wished to immediately snap that damned runt's head and watched as he choked on his own blood. But now, the insect is slowly dying in pain instead. The insect slowly withered away for the first time feeling something except for enjoying destruction, and this will be its last. Regretful.
(3 hours later)
Tristan hasn't felt this much peace in a long time. He felt that he was lying on something with his head. And he saw that he was on Ana's lap. This time, Ana and he didn't say a word to each other. Ana was the first to talk, and this time, it was normal for once.
{I had to drag your body somewhere else so that the rest of the other tribes wouldn't find who unsealed one of the servants of the Wyrm... Tristan... There were times in that fight when I wanted to release my constraints and help... But I trusted you. Even when you were at impossible odds fighting a creature that could have killed you easily, you fought bravely for your very first time without being afraid, and it was probably the Nexus Crawler's first time facing something that could fight him directly. I would say you were his nemesis when it came to corruption. You're lucky that the Crawler wasn't trying to kill you within the first eight minutes, and it was only then, when it was serious, you actually were able to pull something off within moments of luck!!} Tristan still stared up from the sky, thinking about what happened back then.
He deeply regretted how he acted during that fight. And with that, there was a change within Tristan's psyche. He realized just how utterly weak he was at this point.
The only reason why he won was that he started to act seriously when he was being thrashed around like a damn toy. He really had realized that he was one step away from having his own head lopped off, and it was only because of how much quality his anomalous source had when he was working with it for years, and it was now that he was forced to spark something into reality with how little he had left. If he couldn't do it or if that ability from the sword wasn't strong enough, then Tristan would have been done for.
"*Sigh*... I really don't think I deserved that win at all, Ana... But a win is a win. And all I can do is keep adapting or die... I could also say the same for that insect. Too he shouldn't have been playing around and ended me... But I guess that should be a part of life, huh, Ana?" His familiar leaned back to one of the decayed trees and hummed to herself as she talked to Tristan. This time, she cradled his head into her hands.
{You could also say that no one deserves anything unless they work for it and desire it equally. You may be special, Tristan, but if you don't desire the path you want or just half-ass your work there will be someone out there that will snuff you out without a moment's notice... Just like that insect you fought, I believe it shouldn't have the right to exist, for the very notion that even with its power, it couldn't even adapt when it found a new enemy. It still did the same thing to you as it did to others, and that was its downfall. Weakness can also be a strength, including your case, as it thought that it didn't need to do much to end you.} She finished her speech, and Tristan asked.
"So... Where are we?" Ana barely giggled and said to him.
{*Pft* Oh uh... I moved you quite a bit further down from all of the destruction that you caused... You caused quite the apocalyptic mess for the Garou, too.}
"..... What...."