As he scanned the treeline, torch held steady, his mind was already working through it.
Woods with no animals. A voice mimicking human distress.
There was only one thing that hunted like this.
Wendigo.
He knew the history. They weren't born monsters—they were people once. Survivors, most of them. Someone stranded in the dead of winter with nothing left and a choice that couldn't be taken back.
Eating human flesh to stay alive, and then eating it again, and again, until whatever was human about them burned away completely and something else took its place.
The price for that survival was steep. Immortality, strength that had no business existing in anything that walked on two legs, speed that made them nearly impossible to outrun. Powers stacked on top of powers, all of it paid for by what they'd given up.
He turned slowly, keeping his back away from the dark.
Then something moved above him.
Not on the ground—in the trees. A crawling sound, wet and deliberate, shifting through the branches overhead. Henry looked up a half second too late.
A wooden spear came down fast and drove straight through his hand, pinning it mid-air.
"AHHH—FUCK—" He ripped it out through gritted teeth, hand pouring blood, and spun—
The Wendigo had already landed behind him.
Henry drove the spear straight into it without thinking. The Wendigo caught it bare handed, all that inhuman strength wrapping around the wood and stopping it dead like it was nothing.
It screamed straight into his face—SKREEEEE—hot rancid breath, rows of ruined teeth inches away—then shoved him hard enough to send him crashing into a tree trunk.
Henry hit the bark, bounced off, and barely kept his feet.
The Wendigo ran.
"Oh no you don't—" Henry pushed off the tree and went after it, crashing through the undergrowth, blood dripping from his hand. He reached into his coat mid-sprint and ripped out the angel's blade.
The Wendigo ahead suddenly stopped.
Turned.
Screamed again—SKREE—but different this time. It could see the blade. Whatever passed for instinct in that thing was telling it something.
Henry kept moving toward it anyway.
"Yeah," he said, breathing hard, blade up. "Run."
Then something shifted in him.
His hair began to glow, pale light bleeding through it like current running through wire. Markings spread across his face and down his neck, circuit-like patterns branching across his skin, every line burning bright.
The Wendigo faltered.
Phase Step
Henry disappeared gone in a single instant, reappearing directly in front of the Wendigo with a knee already driving up for its throat.
The Wendigo dropped into a crouch at the last second, the strike grazing its jaw instead of crushing its windpipe, but Henry was already moving—
His leg swung hard, catching the Wendigo in the ribs with enough force to lift it off the ground.
It hit a tree trunk with a crack that echoed through the dead forest, bark splintering on impact, and dropped.
Henry stood over it, markings still burning, angel blade in his bleeding hand.
The Wendigo looked up at him.
For the first time since this started, it didn't scream.
The Wendigo scrambled upright and launched a cluster of needle-like quills straight at him.
They hit.
Every single one of them.
And dropped straight to the floor.
Henry looked down at them, then back up, the circuit markings still burning across his skin. "You know," he said, almost conversational, "in this state it's pretty hard to pierce my skin with normal means."
The glow around his fist deepened.
Ether Burst.
He launched himself forward, crossing the distance in an instant, fist driving straight into the Wendigo's gut with everything behind it—
[Revenant Impact Triggered]
The impact detonated.
Blinding white light exploded outward from the point of contact, a shockwave of force and heat that tore through the surrounding trees, stripping bark, splitting trunks, the sheer pressure of it flattening the undergrowth in every direction. The forest lit up like daylight for a full three seconds.
The Wendigo caught it all at point blank range.
It came apart in that light. Not torn, not burned—dissolved, the force eating through it from the inside out, centuries of twisted survival unraveling in an instant until there was nothing left but dust catching the fading glow.
Silence rushed back in.
Henry stood in the wreckage of the treeline, breathing steady, markings dimming slowly across his skin.
"Revenant impact is something else," Henry muttered, flexing his hand. "Ten percent trigger chance but hits harder than Ether Burst. Worth it every time."
[Wendigo Eliminated — 10 Supernatural Points Gained]
[Rare Gacha Obtained]
Henry blinked.
"Rare Gacha." A slow smile. "Finally."
Lately the wheel had been insulting him personally. Consumables, equipment, more consumables. Not a single ability that actually built on his power. He'd been starting to wonder if the system had a grudge.
The wheel spun.
Slowed.
Stopped.
[Energy Manifestation Unlocked — Solidify personal energy into physical form. Note: Requires unique energy source to function.]
"Wow," Henry said flatly. "This would be completely useless if I didn't have Ether Energy."
He held out his left arm anyway and focused, imagining weight, imagining form. The Ether responded immediately—blue and red energy flared up his forearm, coiling tight, compressing layer by layer until solid armour began materializing out of nothing, piece by piece, real enough to feel the weight of.
He turned his arm slowly, looking it over.
"Okay," he said. "That's actually good."
*****
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