Bringing down the hammer with all his might, Bill involuntarily let out a scream that could be heard for miles around.
And then... when the singularity reappeared... the hammer crumbled to dust.
- WHAT?!
At that very moment, when Bill was stunned by what happened before his eyes, his opponent was not.
The creature made of floating wheels spun around, but its eyes remained focused on the Marine.
The storm giant's arm became a drilling rig of dense air. Spinning faster than Bill could comprehend, he watched as the tornado-drill rig struck him square in the chest.
While the power was diminishing from the impact with his blackened stone skin, the power was simultaneously restored by the creature with motionless eyes.
Bill's body and mind were working at their peak, but he was caught off guard. First he felt the drill penetrate an inch into his body. Then he lost the ability to stand still and was caught in a whirlwind.
Finally, he heard the storm giant roar in anger and slam him deep into the ground.
Lying at the bottom of a deep crevice, Bill was stunned by the stillness.
He felt his brain being damaged, his skin cracking, his organs being mixed up, his fused ribs and spine breaking again.
As the water poured into the hole, Bill couldn't think about breathing. He lay there like an old man in his hospital bed. Unable to sit up, unable to move.
The only difference between then and now was that he didn't want to leave. But what could he do?
"My heart is beating," he told himself to console himself, although by then the water had completely filled the hole and was increasing the pressure on his head.
Using all his abilities, he tried to restore the damaged brain. First he stopped the bleeding, then he reduced the swelling and healed the bruises.
Towards the end of this process, Bill did not notice how much time he spent healing himself, but he managed to catch the sound of splashing water and thought that perhaps this was the end.
"What was this man's name?" he thought, not knowing why he wanted to know the name of his killer.
Hearing the swimmer approaching quickly, Bill wanted to fight. Who was he? He was a rocky shore and he couldn't break here.
But his body was broken. He didn't blame himself for losing his concentration at the end, he didn't blame himself and didn't think about anything until he felt someone's hand digging through the sediment.
The hand moved quickly but not deeply. Bill felt when his leg was touched.
"Am I upside down?" he thought.
As soon as his leg was touched, the swimmer pulled his body out of the mud. Working quickly but carefully, the swimmer hurried, and Bill felt himself being lifted up a deep tunnel.
His eyes were closed when they emerged from the water, but even though he couldn't breathe, he felt the sun on his skin and it calmed him.
Feeling pressure on his chest, Bill heard screams and shouts from all sides, and he wanted to get up and see what was going on... but his back, brain, and internal organs wouldn't let him do it.
Then, smelling the familiar smell of ozone, he heard a dull "pop."
Instantly his already cracked ribs broke even more, pressing on his lungs so hard they almost collapsed. Pain shot through him, but Bill soon felt something, and turning on his side, he vomited something that resembled a milkshake.
After that, the screams stopped and the smell disappeared. Although he couldn't move, Bill took the most satisfying breath of his life.
"I will survive," he thought as he continued to repair the damage.
Once he was transferred, Bill focused solely on rebuilding his body.
Using fats and proteins from where they could be isolated, he first worked on the swollen brain and then gradually restored the rest.
Bill didn't feel the passage of time, but using his knowledge of the Iron Body technique, he began to strengthen his skull. He made the gray and white matter of his brain more resistant to compression.
While he was working, he managed to completely restore the blood-brain barrier, and then he moved on to the cerebral hemispheres, the cerebellum, and finally the brainstem.
During this process, Bill prioritized restoring flesh and bone, avoiding interfering with the millions of neural connections that were working at their limits. It was this frantic activity that led him to abandon the intervention.
When his head was finally restored, Bill was forced to stop and think. He had used up almost all the nutritional reserves his body could safely release. There was no fat left in his body, and he had even lost a small percentage of his muscle mass.
He felt like he was lying on a bed, but he didn't want to wake up because he had almost completely shut down all of his body functions. His heart was still beating, albeit slowly, but his digestive system and pain receptors were completely frozen.