The red energy kept tearing the road apart. Vehicles kept racing faster and faster in a desperate attempt to get away from the destruction. But unfortunately, the energy proved to be faster. Victor gently placed the boy down in front of the man. "Block A behind the station road. If you move that way, you will be able to reach safety," he said while turning away from them.
The boy opened his eyes and stared at Victor. Even without catching a glimpse of his face, the boy sensed immense rage shivering through Victor's entire body.
"NOW!" Victor said, jumping towards the red energy.
Within moments, he stood right next to a car slowly slipping into the crater. The man inside the car screamed while doing his best to move his vehicle forward. Victor grabbed the car's bumper swiftly, sending a wave of strength through the metallic structure. The man stared at him with a baffled expression on his face. "HMPH." With a sudden burst of strength, the vehicle was lifted off the road. Victor threw the car a distance from the destruction.
"What... is that?" he whispered, doubting his own eyes as he finally got the chance to look at something horrifying:
A huge creature with red skin and strange thorns growing all over its body slowly ascended from the sewers, tearing apart the little road that still remained. This otherworldly being had an incomprehensible appearance, standing meters tall; putting tall skyscrapers to shame. But Victor sensed pure destruction and a lust for death from the creature, solidifying his imminent role in the upcoming struggle.
But suddenly, his eyes noticed a strange symbol on the creature's chest, triggering suppressed memories from the past that began rushing in, sweeping away any thoughts of battle or resistance. Victor froze, unable to move any further as the image of the creature's became clearer. The red creature stood up, revealing its humanoid form with two legs and two hands. Its eyes immediately fixated on Victor.
It appeared that Victor's previous actions weren't unnoticed by the creature. It lunged at him the moment their gazes met, landing a devastating punch on Victor, sending him flying into a building meters behind. The impact forced Victor to cough up blood, while his entire body shivered in immense pain. To his utter misfortune, the creature had no intentions of letting him rest.
"[CRASH!]"
The creature brought both of its palms together, landing a powerful strike on top of the building. The building failed to stand up against the creature's otherworldly strength, reduced to pieces of rubble in a single strike.
"HRAAARGH!!" The creature roared at the destroyed building while its eyes scanned the area. After a few moments of no movement in sight, it turned away and began moving in a particular direction.
The citizens of the city had already gone a significant distance away, but the sheer size of the creature and its rapid movement didn't allow a sense of relief to set in. It began sprinting towards the remaining building while its eyes once again showed a desire to cause utter destruction.
The few people hiding in the buildings around them peered at the massive spawn of destruction rapidly heading their way.
Victor lifted a huge chunk of concrete off himself, causing his bloodied self to finally come into light. His mind was still numb with pain, but he possessed enough consciousness to be thankful for the building being already evacuated. But the rhythmic pulses of the shaking ground made him aware of the creature's intentions.
He forced all of his strength into his legs, standing up with the pain intensifying with even the slightest movement. His tattered clothes revealed countless cuts throughout his body, leaking blood at a fatal rate. He lowered his gaze, noticing his clothes burned off in the shape of the creature's fist.
"It's been 3 minutes since all of this began... considering the average running speed of a human... That thing will catch up to them in exactly 16 seconds." Victor thought as the world around him suddenly began slowing down. His eyes stayed focused on the dust slowly falling off the creature's legs as its movements, too, suddenly appeared to have slowed down.
"My current strength is significantly lower than its. I can at most buy a few more minutes in the best-case scenario." He clenched his fist while the veins on his legs bulged. "Hopefully the military shows up before I fall... and they are enough." He whispered while taking a stance, preparing to run with all of his might.
He sprinted forward with his left hand stretched out, picking up a bike on the ground a small distance away from him. He brought the bike's fuel container in front of him and began opening the lid. "The mere presence of that thing is creating mirages around it... the temperature should be enough to..."
Victor jumped up at the creature, creating a noticeable sound that caught the creature's attention. It swiftly turned back while simultaneously striking at Victor. Before the creature's hands could reach him, Victor threw the bike directly at it.
The fuel leaking from the bike caught on fire the moment a single drop fell on the creature's skin. Just as it realized Victor's intentions...
[BOOM!]
A huge explosion occurred right in its face. It was forced to stumble a few steps back while covering its eyes. Victor was aware that the flames wouldn't do much harm to it due to the incredible temperature around it, but doing it harm wasn't his intention from the beginning.
"RAAARGH!!!" The creature roared while flinging its arms at Victor. A smirk appeared on Victor's face, along with a drop of sweat streaming down his forehead. Victor immediately began running in the opposite direction, followed by an now angered creature, dangerously close.
"You've got brawn, but you're lacking in the brain department," Victor said while placing every iota of strength in his legs. 'The minutes I can buy begin now,' he thought as he saw the creature swiftly closing the gap between them, despite him moving at his absolute best speed.
"Huh?" Victor's brows furrowed as he suddenly noticed a creature appearing in front of him. The strange movements of its arms immediately caught Victor's attention. Before he could even reduce the momentum of his previous movement,
[BLAZE!]
A circular symbol suddenly appeared right under his feet, followed by an immense amount of flames erupting out of the symbol, completely engulfing Victor. "AARGH!!" A scream of agony vibrated through Victor's vocal cords as his body was thrown away from the attack.
Victor landed on the road with dense black smoke rising from his entire body. The excruciating pain from every inch of Victor's body left him helplessly struggling on the ground. The creature, pleased by its successful attack, smirked while moving forward at a slow pace. "HAAAH... HAAAH..." Victor gasped for air, failing to touch his own skin at any part of his body. He felt the rough road slowly piercing into his burned muscles, worsening his already unbearable pain.
His struggle seemed to have come to its end; his movements became less and less frequent, with his lungs failing to expand, draining the little air present in his body. The little consciousness left in his brain made it possible to sense the tremors in the ground as the creature closed in on him.
Victor's eyes had only a small amount of light left; he helplessly stared at the creature smirking. His mind wasn't filled with regret or sadness; instead, he was glad after successfully distracting the creature. The creature stretched its hand and picked Victor off the ground, opening its mouth the next moment.
The heat from inside the creature's mouth caused steam to rise, covering Victor's entire body in a thin layer of moisture. Victor attempted to move his limbs but failed to do so due to the absurd strength the creature possessed. Just as the creature was about to eat him,
[WOOSH]
The clouds above them suddenly turned a piercing red. The creature swiftly raised its head, causing the red light to make its skin shine even brighter. A crackling sound suddenly began reverberating throughout the area as the weather went from sunny and clear to dark within seconds. The changes weren't done yet, as the clouds kept getting denser, with the space around the clouds strangely falling apart while contracting at the same time. Before the creature could even begin to comprehend the situation;
[THRR!]
A red lightning bolt crashed down directly on Victor. The creature was caught off guard and threw Victor away into a nearby building, several meters away. The creature shook its hands while staring at a small amount of red bolts still crawling on its palms. Frustration engulfed its face as it confusingly stared at Victor – now surrounded by a bright red glow.
*------* Victor heard a strange sound in his head. "Huh?" He somehow spoke without speaking, causing his voice to strangely ring inside his head. *---...Successful.* The strange being's language suddenly changed to one he could understand.
*Host's life threatened by a hellspawn…* Victor now could comprehend the words, along with the emotionless tone the unknown entity spoke with.
He suddenly found all of the pain disappearing from his body, with his vision getting clearer. To add to his confusion, he noticed strange lines in his vision that seemed to begin moving throughout the area in front of him. He also saw unknown streams of symbols rapidly moving and morphing into a familiar language.
*Initializing perseverance,* Victor heard the voice speak again with similar words strangely appearing in his vision.
*Stage zero... MODE BERSERK!* The voice suddenly vibrated, "Mode what... AHHH!!!" Suddenly, an immense amount of unknown energy began raging throughout Victor's entire body. All emotions and thoughts immediately left his mind, leaving only pure rage with his eyes turning bright red. Similar to the strange creature, Victor's eyes glowed with immense rage. He felt the red energy moving through every organ, vein, and blood vessel inside his body while causing rapid changes simultaneously. He swiftly moved his head in the direction of the creature, which had already begun sprinting towards him.
"HRAARGH!" The creature roared while striking at Victor with immense force behind its fist. Any and all sense of danger got drained out of Victor's mind, ridding him from any intention of avoiding the attack. Instead, a strange anticipation accompanied his rage to defeat the creature.
[BHUM!]
The creature's fist collided with Victor's open palm, creating a powerful shockwave that threw several chunks of road and all vehicle present around them away. But instead of its previous certainty, the creature had an expression of disbelief. Its hands began shivering while Victor's fingers pierced his fist. The creature's eyes shivered as he saw Victor's entire body rapidly reforming; leaving him fully healed in a matter of seconds. The creature attempted to move his hand away;
[BOOM!]
A powerful shockwave exploded the creature's abdomen along with its stretched hands, while Victor appeared out of the explosion and landed a small distance away from the creature. He turned back, finding small pieces of the previously terrifying foe splattering all over the surrounding. The red energy engulfing Victor suddenly dispersed,
"AHH!!!" Victor screamed, his eyes almost popped out while each and it felt as if every nerve in his body was about to burst. An even worse pain than the burning sensation from the creature's attack quickly began tearing his mind apart.
*Host facing the repercussions of MODE BERSERK.*
*Entering recovery mode* Victor heard the voice speak one last time, before his entire body lost strength; causing him to fall flat on the ground.