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The forest trail was slick with damp soil and littered with jagged rocks.
Luke hopped along on one leg, constantly adjusting his balance with every landing. His heavily enhanced physique let him keep pace with the bug even while limping.
Dense trees blocked his view, and the creature's small size made it hard to close the gap.
"Ah! Help! Sobody help !"
Chris's screams echoed through the woods, giving Luke his only reliable direction.
The tiny bug was pulling an impossible amount of strength, dragging Chris's hundred-plus-pound body at high speed through the trees. It offered zero protection—Chris's body slamd into trunks and rocks, tearing open fresh gashes with every impact.
A trail of blood and broken branches marked their path.
"Haha, this kid's paying for every sin he's ever committed in one go."
Luke chuckled as he followed the destruction, even while his own situation wasn't great. One leg was broken and he had no weapons on him. A single gunshot back on the bus would've ended this instantly.
He had to stop the bug before it fully recovered and beca a real problem.
Luke pushed harder. His speed increased, and the distance between them started shrinking.
The bug sensed him and sped up even more.
Then Luke heard rapid footsteps and rustling leaves behind him.
He glanced back and saw Carrie stumbling after him, her face pale and streaked with tears, eyes wide with terror. She was still following his trail with everything she had.
Luke barked, "What the hell are you doing here? Go back!"
He didn't need extra complications right now. Carrie's unstable power was the last thing he wanted to deal with.
She flinched at his shout but stubbornly shook her head and pointed toward Chris. Her voice ca out small and shaky.
"I just… want to help you."
Luke sighed. Her bravery was touching, but right now she was just another headache.
He gritted his teeth and poured on more speed, determined to cut the bug off before it reached its goal.
Finally, the wet scuttling sound stopped in a small clearing.
Chris lay on the ground like a broken doll. The beetle-like monster still clung to the back of his head.
It realized it couldn't outrun the one-legged man while dragging dead weight.
The bug gave up on fleeing.
Its tail stinger shot out again and drove deep into Chris's spine.
"Urrraaaagh!"
Chris arched backward in agony, his body twisting violently. His skin turned pitch-black in seconds, veins bulging and writhing beneath the surface.
The tiny creature began reshaping him from the inside out.
Bones cracked and popped as his limbs stretched unnaturally. His fingers and toes sharpened into claws. His school uniform ripped apart, revealing skin that was already shifting and hardening.
Two fleshy lumps pushed out from his back, ready to burst open. His mouth gaped wide, teeth falling out as longer fangs pushed through his gums.
A new monster was being born, using Chris's body as raw material.
Luke's eyes narrowed. This was exactly like the creature he'd fought before. The bug was the real body.
He couldn't let it finish.
Luke launched forward on his good leg.
But just as he reached for Chris, a massive psychic wave exploded from behind him.
Carrie.
She stood a few yards away, eyes bloodshot and blazing. Chris's horrifying transformation had finally snapped the last thread of control inside her.
"No!"
Her scream tore through the clearing. An invisible storm of power burst outward from her body.
Trees shook violently. Leaves swirled into small whirlwinds.
In Luke's vision, that raw psychic force beca a massive, unseen hand that clamped onto the transforming Chris.
"Gaaah!"
The bug let out a piercing shriek. It felt the lethal threat and dug its claws deeper into Chris's face while flooding his body with more energy, desperately trying to complete the conversion.
Carrie's power fought back, trying to rip the two apart.
The two forces battled inside Chris's body. His transformation stalled. He was yanked into the air, thrashing and coughing up mouthfuls of blood.
"Enough!"
Luke growled and slamd his hand onto Chris's forehead.
The Color of the Stars activated instantly.
A bizarre, indescribable hue blood across his palm—beautiful and wrong. It swirled like a vortex, swallowing both the bug's transforming energy and Carrie's raging psychic power without discrimination.
"Shhhrrk!"
With its energy cut off, the black beetle was torn free from Chris's neck by the leftover force of Carrie's power. It flew backward and smashed into a tree.
Carrie collapsed, gasping for air, completely drained.
Luke felt a rush of mixed energy flood into him—one raw and aggressive, the other wild and full of negative emotion. The Color of the Stars quickly purified and absorbed both, turning them into clean fuel that began repairing his body.
A pleasant itch spread through his broken leg as bone and muscle knitted back together at high speed.
His psionic reserves got a small boost too.
He let go of Chris and glanced down at the unconscious kid. Bruised, bloodied, and half-dead, but still alive. No monster transformation.
Luke tested his left leg. It still hurt, but it could support his weight now.
He turned toward the bug.
It was cracked and broken from the impact, but sohow still alive, trying to crawl away.
Luke moved fast and snatched it up in one hand.
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