Strongest Nova: Path of Vengeance

"Residual Healing…" the girl thought for a moment. "Not sure if healing powers work that way, but who knows? Maybe the Mayor's healing can have a residual effect."

Stanley nodded. "That must be it," he said.

"Still, there is a chance that it is your power. You need to check and see if that is the case," the girl said.

"I would doubt that's my powers," Stanley said. "I wouldn't have to have been helped by the Mayor if that was the case. Besides, I'm pretty sure I'm a Dull, just like my mother was."

The girl looked at him for a bit. "How old are you, kid?" she asked.

"17," Stanley said softly.

"Oh, you're only a year younger than me, huh?" the girl spoke to herself. "Don't consider yourself a Dull when you're just 17. I've known people who have awakened powers way into their 20s. You might also awaken it soon, don't give up."

Stanley smiled a bit. He wasn't sure if the girl was being genuine, or if she was only saying what she thought he would like to hear. Either way, those words made Stanley feel quite good. No one aside from his brother ever told him that he had a chance to awaken his powers.

Funnily enough, he got a little hopeful too. 'Maybe brother is right, and those feelings I get are my activation ritual for my powers,' he thought.

The crowd dissipated once the mayor was gone far away and everyone started going back to their own things.

"Young lady, are you the owner of this shop?" someone called out to the girl next to Stanley.

"Oh shit! My shop," the girl quickly remembered. She was about to go back when Stanley called out for her.

The girl turned around. "What?" she asked.

"Your bowl," he handed over the bowl that she had given him to rest his burned hand in.

"Oh, right," the girl remembered.

"Also, may I know your name, sister," Stanley asked.

"My name? Why?" the girl asked.

"Just because," Stanley said. "You've been quite helpful to me today, so I wanted to know your name."

The girl looked at Stanley for a bit. "You're not trying to hit on me, are you?" she asked.

"Hit on you? I would never hit you," Stanley quickly shook his head.

"No, not that," the girl said. "I meant… never mind, it's Sheila."

"I see. My name is Stanley. Thank you for helping me today, Sheila," Stanley said.

The girl stared at him for a second for so easily using her name, but she shook her head in the end and turned around to leave.

"I'll return the favor sometime in the future if I can," Stanley shouted toward Sheila who waved her hands as she returned to her shop. 𝑏𝘦𝘥𝑛𝘰𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝑐𝘰𝑚

Stanley then stared at his hand and wondered, 'Could I really have healing powers? I'll have to ask brother to help test me or something.'

That reminded him. "Right, should I go check on brother?"

Stanley wasn't sure if that was the right thing to do, but since he was already so close and his brother was fighting for his life, he needed to go there.

He pushed back any negative thoughts that were about to affect him and walked down the street in the direction of the veil.

* * * * * *

Bradley looked at the young man far away from him and the Crawler's limb phased through him without hurting him at all.

The sword on the young man's arm was knocked aside from the attack, but the young man himself was fine as he was intangible for the time being.

Someone shot a ball of fire from the side, hitting the side of the Ink Crawler that was standing on two limbs. When the ball of fire hit the surface, a few people that were looking intently realized that the crawler had stopped regenerating.

"It stopped regenerating. It's time," someone shouted and immediately everyone was ready to fight it for the last and final time.

The other Crawler had already died, so this one was the only one they had to defeat before everything was over.

The group brought out everything they had to attack the monster from every direction until the crawler slowly buckled under the onslaught of attacks. With no more regenerative capability, it whittled down until the scars from the attacks were so heavy that it could no longer sustain itself.

The crawler suddenly lost all movement and fell to the ground with all 5 of its limbs spread wide. Then, the inky black vines on its body slowly melted the entire monster was nothing but a puddle of inky goop.

Finally, that inky goop turned into some sort of black fog and dissipated into the air. After all of this, the Defenders around the veil were finally certain that the Crawler had truly died.

Everyone slumped to the ground, taking long and deep breaths as they fought the fatigue that came after the fight. A few of the injured ones started crying out in pain while the ones that weren't fatigued or in pain went to help.

Bradley closed his eyes and stayed there for a few minutes, almost wanting to sleep right then and there. He hadn't done much physically, but still using his power so much left him quite drained.

He felt listless and wanted nothing more than to lie here forever. However, his eyes opened when he heard a bit of commotion from around him.

He quickly got up in fear that another Crawler had made its way inside. However, seeing no black creature, he was relieved that was not the case.

He then looked around to see the cause of the commotion and saw the giant Illan making his way down the small pathway.

Behind him was the old Damian, mayor of the Last Hope.

"Mayor?" he quickly got up and ran until he and the rest arrived by the mayor who had just arrived.

The mayor looked around the battlefield and smiled. "Good job on killing the crawlers."