'What the hell am I supposed to do right now?'
With each passing minute, his legs trembled, his whole body drenched in sweat from the Dreadspawn's heavy breathing.
In the end, he only had one choice from the start; Copy its ability, and get the hell out of here. Easier said than done, though.
As Malte was still looking for the right moment, half an hour passed by, and something changed. The monster twitched and gradually turned away, showing its huge back.
Having a bit of room to properly breathe, he knew that running away was futile, and he only had one shot at it.
Malte started a countdown from 3, and in the end, using every ounce of his strengh, sprinted towards the Dreadspawn from behind.
Closing a bit of distance, the monster uncannily rotated its head back at the boy and slashed horizontally with its massive claws at an insane speed. Malte's instincts kicked in, narrowly avoiding instant death.
As he came out of the roll, he used the momentum to propel himself forward, and leaped at the Dreadspawn, slamming into its side.
The Dreadspawn roared in fury, thrashing to shake him off, but Raymond clung to it with grim determination. Getting quite a bit of cuts and bruises here and there, with an especially intense slash mark on his body, he didn't waste a second and activated his ability.
Touching the Dreadspawn's shoulder, he used Copy, with some white sparks coming out of it.
Quickly opening his status screen, he noticed that he had 1 copied ability.
[Abilities Copied: 1/7 ↑
Ability 0: Teleport (CD: 15 s.)
Allows the user to instantaneously...
Not bothering to finish reading, he tried to use Teleport. He was snapped out of his thoughts, though, as the monster viciously grabbed Malte and slammed him on the wooden floor and kicked him in the stomach, sending him flying outside of the house.
Malte vomitted blood and tried to stay conscious.
'I definitely have got some bones broken with that..'
Hearing the Dreadspawn coming closer, his eyes locked on a random path. Malte thought of using Teleport and after a moment, he somehow felt it being activated.
Taking a last glanced behind, he saw the creature's face look directly at his, its shut eyes staring right into his soul.
After 2 seconds, he opened his eyes. Malte hoped that he was now anywhere outside, and reopened his eyes.
He was in the middle of a street. Malte took a moment to catch his breath and ran towards the woods nearby with all his might, holding his hip, where it hurt the most and used Teleport as soon as the cooldown was finished, over and over again.
It seemed that continuously using the ability wasn't the great idea, as he felt sickly after using it for around 35 times. That didn't stop him from teleporting and teleporting, though.
After running continuously for 15 minutes straight, Malte glanced behind. Not seeing anything chasing him, he stopped and exhaled strongly. A sense of relief washed over him. He had successfully escaped the clutches of the Dreadspawn.
'Man, I swear, after I get back there, I'll kick your stupid ass, you son of a b.. huh?'
Appearently, relief wasn't the only thing to wash over him, as Malte felt an overwhelming amount of pain, and blood flowed on his right side of the torso.
As he looked at himself, he tried to calm himself down by clutching his head with... 1 hand.
Looking horrified at the right arm, or rather, where it should've been, he painfully screamed. Malte gasped for breath and tried his best to pull himself together.
'Breathe, breathe, just keep breathing.. Damn that damned piece of shit!'
Panicking, he tried to remember his improvised first aid training, which he had learned to take care of his mother, always full of injuries by her abusive husband.
He started by tearing a relatively clean piece of cloth from his shirt with his other hand, drops of tears dropping on it, and firmly pressed on his shoulder, where the right arm had been.
The pain was excruciating. Feeling lightheaded, he forced himself to keep a steady pressure. Blood started to soak through the fabric, so he added another one. In the end, he tore another strip from his shirt and wrapped it tightly around the wound.
Looking half naked in the middle of the road and feeling overwhelming hunger as he hasn't eaten in days were the last of his worries. After all, just because he was outside, didn't mean that he was safe and sound.
After carefully moving to one of the trees, Malte leaned back against it. His whole body was in pain, and he was on the brink of completely falling unconscious. Malte knew he couldn't stay there for too long, but he couldn't think straight anymore, so he slowly closed his eyes.
***
Under a large, large tree sat a young boy with tousled black hair and dark, intense eyes. He looked quite peculiar, his right arm seemed absent, the sleeve of his torn shirt hanging limp and empty. His torso was bare, revealing a battered frame marked with bruises. He appeared incredibly exhausted, with dark circles under his eyes, as if he hadn't slept in days. His expression was a mix of weariness and determination, the hardships he had endured and the resilience that kept him going. Despite the injuries and the fatigue, his face showed unwavering determination to never give up.
Waking up, the first thing Malte felt was an overwhelming exhaustion, both physical and mental. His entire body ached, and his mind was clouded with fatigue.
Taking a deep breath, he decided to check out his profile screen.
'...Right. Man, having your arm bitten off sure is uncomfortable. I'm lucky to atleast not be dead after being unconscious for so long. How long have I been asleep, anyways?'
Raising his hand up to his face, he touched it with his nose.
The screen appeared in front of him and Malte saw how it hadn't changed much, with only 2 sections a bit different.
Shaft's Stats and Abilities Copied.