TBTP: A Helpless Mortal [Closed/Nao]

by **Charlie Carter** Thu Jul 30, 2020 12:58 pm

Spring
April 2005
Camden Town - North-West London
------------------------------------------------------------
He was living it large! It had been around thirteen years of constant victories across Karate and Mixed Martial Arts contests for the man and he’d yet to be defeated. The Champ they called him and for damn good reason. The last five years of those wins had been on the global scale. Anyone who was anyone in either of those competition circles knew his name. He was a fucking star! At nearly 32 years old he was getting up there in years but he seemed to just get stronger and faster defying all expectations.

His performance was so phenomenal that there had been allegations of performance enhancing drug usage but the tests always came back clean because he never touched the stuff. He didn’t need to. Because in truth he did have a secret. His Chi. Or Ki. Perhaps everyone had it to some degree but Charlie’s was out of this world. His flaming fists were proof of that, not that he actually used his powers at all anymore. He’d practiced with it a bit when younger but he’d purposely avoided using it as he grew older. Partially because they were dangerous but also because he wasn’t about to magically punch his opponents out of the ring or some shit. Despite that however he still cultivated the energy within him without using the powers and his natural strength, agility and endurance had skyrocketed. He was physically more powerful than even the fittest fighters he had faced in the ring. His career could last another decade undefeated, maybe more! Perhaps he’d be the old dude kicking all the young bucks straight in the face as he reigned undefeated for decades!

So caught up in his own self-adulation he didn’t sense the beast until it was almost too late.

He had just entered Regents Park and had begun his early morning jog. Although he was in London for a break he didn’t stop training. He had only started his run, Gorillaz blasting through his earphones, on his ipod when the creature struck. He threw himself out of the way as the creature’s claws raked across the air as he hit the ground and rolled to one side. Turning to face it he felt his stomach twist and turn at the sight.

The white mask glared at him with hateful glowing red eyes. The creature was roughly humanoid but covered in a thick, tangled fur, and a putrid smell leaked off it as the patches where the fur didn’t cover properly revealed what appeared to be corpse-like rotten skin. It’s arms almost reached the ground, each ending with blade like claws. In total the monster was about ten feet tall.

Snarling it leapt at Charlie as he raised his fists and took up a fighting stance. He dodged to one side and then quickly sidestepped another as he threw a fist straight at it’s chest. His hand smashed into it sending a painful shudder up his arm as he skipped away. The hit had done nothing, it had been like punching a fucking steel wall.

‘Shit.’

It had been over a year since he’d summoned the energy around his hands but he was desperately wishing he could do now. He tried to will the power to appear but nothing happened.

The creature took another swipe at him again, too fast for him to duck, and Charlie could only throw up his arm in an attempt to absorb the blow. For a moment he thought his guard would hold but instead he was hurled through the air to slam into a tree trunk. Groaning in pain he looked at his bleeding bicep. At least he’d absorbed some of the damage, otherwise he imagined the claws would have ripped right through him.

‘Fuck!’ he’d never felt so weak before.

The monster threw itself at him as Charlie pushed himself to his feet and roared angrily as he threw a counter punch. Leaping into it’s range, moving past it’s outreaching arms, and slammed a fist straight into its mask. A flicker of green energy danced around his hand in tune with his rage and the Demon stumbled back, a small crack on it’s mask, but it didn’t flee.

Charlie felt suddenly exhausted as the energy flickered out. His hand pulsed and he was fairly certain something had broken on contact. Shit.

‘What the fuck do I do?’

Spoiler: