Remedy fled through the forest, branches lashing his face as the Boss — a monstrous three-meter-tall werewolf — tore through the landscape in pursuit.
SWOOSH!
The Boss launched a ranged attack. Three claw-shaped energy blades sliced through the air with a shrill whistle, aiming straight for his back.
A warning shiver ran down Remedy's spine. He spun on himself and dove to the left, one hand braced against the ground, the blades passing mere centimeters from his flank before carving into the trees behind him.
Without fully rising, he rebounded, changing direction and charging straight at the monster. A few meters away, he slid on his feet, gripping his hammer with both hands for a devastating uppercut.
The monster vanished from his trajectory. A simple blur — and it reappeared at Remedy's side, its massive paw already in motion.
BAM!
The blow slammed directly into the hammer's side, which Remedy had raised in desperation. The metallic shock rang out.
[HAMMER — DURABILITY: 850 ➔ 800/900]
The force hurled Remedy backward. Barely had he regained his balance when the Boss let out a primal howl, explosive shockwaves of sound crashing into him head-on.
Stun.
His world wavered, his ears rang. Through the sensory haze, he saw the massive paw coming.
CRUNCH.
A perfect kick to the abdomen. The air burst from his lungs in a strangled gasp. (Health: 59% ➔ 48%). He was sent flying, rolling across the ground before coming to a stop.
Gasping in pain, he had barely begun to rise when the creature's shadow was already falling over him, a paw raised to crush him. He jumped back just in time.
BOOM!
The impact carved a small crater where he had stood a second earlier. The violence of the blow launched him again, his back slamming hard into a tree that bounced him forward, off-balance.
And in front of him, the three energy claw-blades returned — enclosing, unavoidable.
CLANG—SHIIING!
He raised his hammer as a barrier. One blade struck the metal, leaving a deep gash. The other two flew past him, cleanly severing the trunks behind him with a crack of dead wood.
[HAMMER — DURABILITY: 800 ➔ 700/900]
(Health: 48% ➔ 44%)
Remedy straightened, panting. He raised a trembling hand and wiped the thin line of blood running from his lips.
Damn… So brutal. He's broken a few ribs.
A new roar of intimidation — guttural and triumphant — tore through the forest.
And then it happened. No fear. No despair.
A smile. Wide, unrestrained, lit with a near-mad excitement, spread across Remedy's blood-smeared face.
Yes. This is it. This is EXACTLY the kind of fight I wanted.
He tightened his grip on the hammer's handle, feeling the familiar vibration of the weapon through the pain. His eyes, burning with a new flame, locked onto the werewolf.
— Let's go again… he murmured, before charging forward once more.
The Boss pushed off with its hind legs and rushed him as well, closing the distance in two titanic bounds.
As they entered striking range, Remedy hurled his hammer in a straight throw, aimed directly at the monster's snout. A simple tilt of the head — almost disdainful — was enough for the werewolf to avoid it.
A bestial glint of triumph shone in its yellow eyes.
The human is disarmed!
It ignored the weapon flying past it, already beginning to disintegrate into pixelated fragments.
Its front paw swept through the air, claws extended to tear Remedy from top to bottom.
But Remedy didn't retreat. He simply opened his hand, as if to grasp something, and threw his own punch.
Thump—CRACK!
The hammer rematerialized instantly in his open palm at the exact moment his punch was launched. The weapon appeared already in full acceleration, smashing directly into the Boss's extended arm.
The impact was monstrous. The sound of bone and cartilage cracking tore through the air. The Boss's arm was violently bent backward into an unnatural angle. The hammer vibrated so violently in Remedy's hand that the skin of his palm split open, soaking the handle with blood.
Boss — (Health: 100% ➔ 80%)
The monster howled in pain and shock, its momentum shattered. Remedy didn't give it time to recover.
Using the initial rotation of his strike, he pivoted, drawing a full arc, and brought the hammer down with all the accumulated force, slamming it into the Boss's taut abdomen.
BOOOOM!
The blow rang out like a gong.
The werewolf — (Health: 80% ➔ 58%).
An eye for an eye. A tooth for a tooth.
But the creature, anchored to the ground by its mass, wasn't torn away. It endured, bent its knees, and its gaze became that of a killer who had finally met resistance.
The smile of victory had barely begun to form on Remedy's lips when the counterattack came.
The Boss's uninjured paw, in a lightning-fast backhand motion, slammed into his chest.
SHHRRRT—CRUNCH!
The claws shredded fabric and flesh, leaving three deep, bleeding gashes. (Health: 44% ➔ 32%).
Blood burst from Remedy's mouth. He clenched his teeth, swallowing the scream, and his smile returned — wider, more deranged, stained red.
Hehehe!!!
This was it. A fight. A REAL fight.
Then an upward kick, launched from the ground like a spring, struck him beneath the sternum. (Health: 32% ➔ 21%). The air was blasted from his lungs, and he lifted off the ground, hurled straight into the sky.
Below him, the monster leapt — even higher. It surged into the air, claws pointing skyward, ready to crash down onto Remedy's back and impale him as he fell.
As he drifted there, helpless, the world spinning around him, a single word — burning and exalted — raced through Remedy's mind:
MAGNIFICENT!!!
As Remedy fell, limp, and the monster rose, its razor claws pointed like spears toward the young man's exposed back, the impossible happened.
The Boss's yellow eyes widened in raw astonishment.
Remedy was no longer falling.
He was seated — one leg casually crossed over the other — atop the flat head of his massive hammer, like an improvised celestial throne. He floated in the air, perfectly still, defying gravity. His gaze lowered toward the monster, filled with a cold detachment and superiority that no longer belonged to a wounded fighter, but to a judge — to a god observing an insect from the heavens.
The hammer itself floated as well, unbound by the laws of weight.
The Boss's confusion was total. Then it felt it — a strange lightness. An absence.
Its upward momentum stopped dead. Instead of continuing to rise, it began to descend. But not in free fall. Slowly. Erratically. Like a massive, grotesque feather carried by an invisible current of air. It flailed, trying to swim through the sky, to regain control — but its powerful movements no longer had any grip on the world.
It was at the mercy of the wind.
And in the air, an invasive, cold, and absolute notification imposed itself:
[DING! CONCEPT INJECTION SUCCESSFUL.]
Chapter 15 — End.