Alpha Instinct

"Kaleb, you spineless son of a bitch! Now!" Leonard roared again, his voice strained with desperation. But not even a whisper of sound came from the hilltop.

The Gnolls were upon him. Leonard activated Temporal Cognition and Elemental Sword Dance, a desperate attempt to buy himself time. He wasn't attacking; he was surviving.

The world slowed. Not to a crawl but to a manageable blur. He saw the Gnolls' movements, the arcs of their crude weapons, the spittle flying from their snarling mouths. He could react, but even reacting was an almost impossible task against so many.

He focused solely on deflecting. Elemental Sword Dance became a whirlwind of parries, a symphony of ringing steel. Each movement was precise, economical, designed to redirect the incoming blows, not to counterattack.

Six seconds. That's all his calculations gave him. Six seconds of this desperate defense before the sheer number of attacks overwhelmed him. "Six seconds, and then... imminent death... Damn it, Kaleb..."

Six seconds. A Gnoll's club was deflected, the force of the blow jarring Leonard's arm even through the parry.

Five... He ducked under a wild swing, the rusty blade of an axe whistling past his ear. He deflected an upward thrust from a spear, the point scraping against Absolution's blade.

Four seconds... Two Gnolls attacked simultaneously, one from the front, one from the side. Leonard spun, a blur of motion, Smiling and Absolution deflecting both blows, the impact sending shivers up his arms.

Three... He felt a sharp pain in his leg as a gnoll's claws grazed his thigh, tearing through his trousers. He gritted his teeth, ignoring the pain, focusing on the next parry, the next deflection. "Too many..."

Two... He was starting to tire. His movements, though still incredibly fast, were losing their precision. He could feel the strain in his muscles, the burning in his lungs. He deflected two more but felt a rib crack as a third attack, a desperate lunge from the side, hit.

One... He knew he couldn't hold them off any longer. He saw the opening, the Gnoll behind him raising its weapon for the killing blow.

Leonard closed his eyes, bracing for the inevitable.

Then, he heard Kaleb's voice, distorted but recognizable, shouting: "EX...PLO...SION!"

Leonard instantly activated Ghost Steps, propelling himself forward with every ounce of his remaining strength. He saw it: a small sphere, no bigger than a fist, incredibly bright, arcing over his head, falling a few meters behind him.

A brief, high-pitched whine. A blinding flash. Leonard threw himself forward, diving headfirst, trying to put as much distance as possible between himself and the sphere.

Then...

A sound like raw energy unraveling, a natural siren's call, briefly sucking in everything around it for the briefest of moments. And then, the explosion.

KABOOM!

An explosion so loud, so overwhelming, that the ground shook. The air burned. A shockwave threw Leonard forward, slamming him violently against a tree.

The swamps lit up like a beautiful sunny day, for the space of a single, held breath.

As the dust settled and a vast mushroom cloud billowed into the swamp's sky, the scale of the destruction became horrifyingly clear. Everything within a fifty-meter radius had been annihilated, completely wiped from existence.

Leonard staggered to his feet, wiping blood from his mouth. His left leg, injured during the desperate fight with the Gnolls, throbbed with a deep, burning pain, and felt unstable beneath him.

"What the fuck was that, Kaleb?" he whispered, his mouth agape, utterly perplexed by the sheer devastation.

Kaleb slowly descended the hill, moving cautiously towards Leonard, carefully checking to see if anything, or anyone, had survived.

While Leo drank a regenerative potion he watched Kaleb "He seems... off?"

Kaleb's legs were unsteady, his gait awkward and stumbling. When he finally reached Leonard, he collapsed forward, face-planting violently into the ground. Kaleb mumbled a few words: "Now it's up to you..."

"You idiot!" Leonard scolded. "You should have told me it was this insanely strong, and, most importantly, that you'd suffer mana depletion!" He wanted to kick Kaleb, but he knew it wouldn't do any good.

Leonard looked again at Kaleb, but got no reply. He nudged Kaleb's leg twice with his foot, but there was no movement. "Damn it, he's out cold..." Leonard sighed deeply.

Leonard gritted his teeth against the pain in his leg. He had to get Kaleb to safety. Bending down, a sharp stab of pain shooting up his thigh, he carefully scooped Kaleb up into his arms.

He staggered slightly under the unexpected weight, but steadied himself. Kaleb, despite his slender frame, was surprisingly heavy in his unconscious state.

Leonard adjusted his grip, making sure his friend was secure, and began the slow, arduous climb back up the hill they had descended from earlier.

Each step sent a jolt of fiery pain through his injured leg, but he clenched his jaw and pushed on, his determination fueled by a fierce loyalty to his friend.

Reaching the top, Leonard scanned the area, selecting a spot slightly concealed by a cluster of withered trees. He gently laid Kaleb down, his own leg throbbing relentlessly.

He knew he couldn't rest yet.

With a sigh, and ignoring the pain, he began to construct a makeshift shelter. He gathered fallen branches, their wood brittle and dry, and arranged them into a rough lean-to. He then collected handfuls of dead leaves and scattered them over the branches, creating a crude but effective camouflage, blending the shelter with the surrounding desolation.

It wasn't much, but it would offer some protection from the elements and conceal Kaleb from any prying eyes while he recovered.

He sat down heavily beside his friend, keeping watch, his own exhaustion threatening to overwhelm him.

Leonard, seated beside Kaleb, began rummaging through Kaleb's belongings, searching for anything that could help restore mana.

After a few moments of searching, he pulled out a small vial. "Found it!" he exclaimed, a note of relief in his voice.

He carefully uncapped the vial, revealing a vibrant blue potion that seemed to shimmer with contained energy, and gently poured the liquid down Kaleb's throat.

Kaleb sputtered and coughed as he swallowed the potent concoction.

Leonard then murmured, more to himself than to Kaleb, "Good thing you carry mana regeneration potions..."

Finally, Leonard allowed himself to relax, leaning back against a withered tree, feeling the healing magic spreading from his earlier wound, the throbbing in his leg slowly subsiding. A wave of exhaustion washed over him, the adrenaline fading.

Then, it happened.

A sound, guttural and macabre, ripped through the silence of the swamp. It was close. Too close. Close enough to make the blood in Leonard's veins run cold, his heart leaping into his throat.