Chapter 76: The Application of New Abilities

Chapter 76: Chapter 76: The Application of New Abilities

Chapter 76: The Application of New Abilities

Axel Vance could feel the ground dropping farther and farther away beneath him as the Creeper carried him through the sky. Wind hammered against his body hard enough to make breathing difficult, and when he forced himself to look down, Seth Brundle and Lionel Cosgrove had already become two tiny black figures scrambling across the sand toward the truck. The Creeper showed no intention of tearing Axel apart immediately and instead kept flying in a straight line as though it had somewhere specific in mind.

"Does this damn thing ever quit?" Axel cursed under his breath. He had no illusions that the monster had suddenly developed mercy after trying to kill him several times. If anything, the fact that it was carrying him away instead of finishing the job made the situation more suspicious.

Every muscle in Axel’s body still ached from the aftermath of absorbing the Color of the Stars. His bones felt bruised from the inside, his Psionic Power reserves were nearly empty, and even with his newly increased Physique 3.6, his body had not recovered enough for another straightforward fight. Trying to overpower the Creeper in midair would be suicide.

Axel forced himself to calm down and search for another option. The alien energy absorbed inside him was already settling into his body, and among the system prompts from earlier, one ability stood out more than anything else. It was the first real opportunity he had to test what the new specialization could actually do.

[Color of the Stars Lv.1 — 50/1000]

[The host may mobilize the mysterious Color through Psionic Power and absorb vitality or energy from organic matter through direct physical contact.]

Axel looked toward the claws gripping his shoulder.

Direct physical contact.

Perfect.

He closed his eyes and tried to sense the unfamiliar power now lodged inside him. The feeling was strange, almost like discovering a new organ that had always existed somewhere beneath his awareness but had only just begun responding to his thoughts. The moment Axel intentionally reached for it, the energy moved without needing any complicated guidance.

An impossible shade appeared across Axel’s shoulder.

The Color was beautiful enough to capture his attention instantly and wrong enough to make every instinct recoil from it. It crawled across his skin and spread directly onto the Creeper’s claws where they remained embedded around his shoulder.

The monster screamed.

Its entire body jerked in the air, and its flight immediately became unstable. The Creeper twisted its head toward Axel with unmistakable panic while its wings beat unevenly, causing both of them to sway through the sky like a damaged aircraft.

The Creeper tried to release him.

It could not.

The strange hue clung to the point of contact like something alive, holding the monster’s claws against Axel even as it struggled to pull away. Almost immediately, a warm current began pouring through Axel’s shoulder and spreading through his body.

Pure vitality.

Axel inhaled sharply.

Damaged muscles that had been burning moments earlier began recovering, while exhausted blood vessels and battered tissue regained strength at a speed far beyond ordinary healing. The crushing soreness left by the cosmic contamination started fading, replaced by a deep sensation of warmth and fullness.

"Damn."

Axel could feel every part of his body responding.

The Color was devouring the Creeper’s vitality, stripping away whatever supernatural reserve powered its body, then passing that energy into Axel in a form he could actually use. What belonged to the monster was becoming his.

The sensation was incredible.

Far too incredible.

Axel’s thoughts slowly became hazy as his attention drifted toward the strange light running across his body. It seemed more beautiful the longer he looked at it, carrying a sense of satisfaction deeper than hunger, sleep, or relief from pain.

For a moment, the sky disappeared.

Axel felt as though his consciousness had slipped into a strange space filled with countless points of light. Each one rushed toward him eagerly, merging into his awareness and producing another wave of intoxicating fulfillment.

He was healing.

Growing stronger again.

Being filled.

The sensation almost made him forget why he had activated the ability in the first place.

A violent shake suddenly snapped Axel back to reality.

The Creeper was struggling beneath him.

Its flight had slowed dramatically.

Axel looked toward the arm gripping his shoulder and realized the flesh was changing. The once-powerful limb had turned gray and dry, with deep cracks spreading across the surface as though decades of age had been forced into it within minutes.

The arm looked ready to break.

Axel’s eyes sharpened.

He had already recovered most of his physical strength, perhaps seventy or eighty percent of what he normally possessed. The balance between predator and prey had completely reversed.

Axel tightened his core and hooked his legs around the Creeper’s body. Then he seized the weakened limb and pulled with the full strength of Physique 3.6. The dried tissue resisted for only an instant.

Snap.

The arm tore away at the shoulder.

The Creeper shrieked in rage and pain.

Normally, Axel would have expected the wound to begin repairing itself almost immediately. Instead, the damaged tissue twitched weakly while the regeneration progressed at a fraction of its former speed.

The reason was obvious.

The Creeper no longer had enough energy.

The Color had drained too much.

Axel discarded the ruined arm and used the monster’s brief confusion to shift his position. He caught the Creeper by the shoulders, pulled himself upward, and climbed onto its back before it could regain control.

The increased contact made the effect dramatically stronger.

More traces of impossible Color spread across Axel’s body, then flowed onto the Creeper beneath him. Vitality poured out of the creature from multiple points at once, like water rushing through a dam after too many cracks had opened.

The monster began weakening even faster.

Its wings struggled to maintain their rhythm.

Altitude dropped.

Axel finally had enough breathing room to look around.

The landscape below had completely changed.

The endless New Mexico desert was gone.

Instead, a vast green forest stretched beneath him, broken by winding rivers and long mountain ridges in the distance. Axel stared at the terrain in disbelief.

"Where the hell did you bring me?"

He tried to orient himself but could not recognize anything.

"Am I even still in New Mexico?"

The Creeper suddenly stopped struggling.

Axel immediately felt the difference.

He looked down and caught something new in the monster’s eyes.

Madness.

The Creeper had realized it could not shake him loose, could not regenerate fast enough, and would eventually be drained dry. If escape was impossible, the monster had apparently decided to make sure Axel died with it.

Its wings folded abruptly.

The Creeper turned downward.

They began dropping straight toward a highway far below.

Axel immediately understood.

"You suicidal bastard."

The descent became almost vertical.

Wind screamed around them as the road expanded rapidly beneath Axel’s vision. Cars moved along the highway like tiny toys while the Creeper accelerated toward the pavement.

It wanted a mutual kill.

Axel refused to give it one.

He compressed his body against the Creeper and waited.

The highway rushed closer.

Closer.

Now.

Axel drove both legs downward with everything he had.

The Creeper hit first.

Boom!

Its already-drained body absorbed the worst of the collision and burst apart against the highway. Axel used the impact and his own last-second push to propel himself forward instead of being driven directly into the pavement.

For one brief instant, it worked.

He was moving away from the crash.

Then something pulled him.

Axel’s expression changed.

A strange force appeared from nowhere and violently altered the direction of his momentum. Instead of continuing forward along the road, his body was dragged sideways through the air.

"What the hell?"

Axel looked toward the new trajectory.

A yellow school bus was driving along the highway.

Directly in his path.

"You’ve got to be kidding me."

The bus grew larger with terrifying speed.

Axel barely had time to cover his head with both arms.

"I’m about to commit insurance fraud."

Crash!

Axel smashed straight through the roof.

Metal tore open around him as he punched through the top of the school bus and slammed heavily into the passenger compartment below. The impact sent students screaming in every direction while pieces of roof paneling, dust, and blood scattered across the seats.

For several seconds, Axel could only lie there.

Pain surged through his body again.

Everything he had just recovered felt as though it had been beaten back out of him.

Axel tried to stand and immediately discovered that his legs were refusing to cooperate. After a careful internal check, he suspected at least one bone had fractured during the crash.

"Great."

The students around him were still screaming.

Nobody seemed capable of deciding whether they should run, help him, or simply stare at the blood-covered man who had fallen through the roof.

At the front of the bus, the driver finally noticed the commotion.

He had been wearing headphones and listening to music loudly enough that the first crash had apparently registered as nothing more than students causing trouble behind him. Irritated, he pulled the headphones off and shouted over his shoulder.

"Can you kids settle down for five minutes?"

Then he saw the roof.

The enormous hole.

And Axel lying underneath it.

The driver froze.

"What happened to my bus?"

His eyes moved toward Axel.

"And who the hell are you?"

Axel opened his mouth.

Then closed it again.

For once, he had absolutely no idea what to say.

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