Surprised Crowd

Whoever Bradley looked at became intangible. That was his power.

There were a few conditions to his power that he had figured out after testing it over the last 8 years since he had awakened it.

Firstly, his powers only worked on humans and nothing else. He couldn't turn plants, animals, or any other inanimate objects intangible at all.

Secondly, his powers could only work on one person at a time. He had learned to switch it between his targets wasting as little time as possible by now, but he still hadn't managed to make it work on more than a single person.

It was most likely that it would never work on more than a single person.

When he made someone intangible, he also made whatever was touching that person intangible as well, namely his clothes. Confusingly, however, rocks, metals, glass, and a few other things didn't become intangible even if the person was touching them.

But, even if they didn't become intangible, as long as they were in contact with the thing that was, they could move along just fine.

Since those things could cause trouble when being intangible, Bradley usually got rid of his coins and sword before using his powers.

Any person that went intangible could still interact with light as well as hear things, although in a very different way. This way, one could see a person even when even they were intangible.

Air, however, did simply go through one's body, so being intangible for too long was not a good idea.

Just like with everyone else that had some powers, there was an activation ritual that Bradley had to complete before he could use his powers.

These rituals were usually something very simple like closing one's eyes or holding one's breath. In the case of Bradley, he had to hold his own hands with his fingers intertwined.

As long as he did that, Bradley could use his powers.

When he used his powers, he had to look at the person he wanted to use his powers on. It only worked when the person he wanted to use his powers on was in his vision. If he was not, the power deactivated on its own, albeit the effect lingered on the person for a second or two.

When it came to using the power on himself, however, things were a little complicated. His powers didn't work on him if he just looked at his arms, his legs, or even his torso.

To use his powers on himself, Bradley had to see at least part of his own face consciously. He could go cross-eyed to look at his nose, but that took a bit of time.

The easiest way to use his powers on himself was to simply close his eyes.

The moment the Crawler pulled out its limb from the ground and the large chunks of rocks were thrown in Bradley's direction, he closed his eyes. Unlike others, he couldn't see when he was intangible, so he had to rely on the very drowned-out sounds that he heard when he was in that state.

He heard the deep rumbling sounds of the rocks passing through him, the sound of the air rushing through him like a storm. When he was sure that the sound wasn't from somewhere close, he opened his eyes.

There was a piece of rock where his leg was when he became tangible again. Since two objects couldn't be in the same space, when his powers vanished, they repelled each other quickly.

The piece of rock was pushed back while Bradley's foot shot forward.

He quickly stabilized himself and looked at the Crawler that had started fighting again. He was about to get back to help when he noticed that part of the limb where it had been attacked wasn't healing at all.

"It's about to stop regenerating," he shouted at the people who felt rejuvenated when they heard that. "Just a little more and we can win this fight."

* * * * * *

Stanley sat around with his palm in the stream. It had been around 10 minutes since he had come here and surprisingly, his pain had lessened quite a bit.

'She was right,' he thought. The stream water did help his burn not hurt a lot. He was a little worried though that this was all temporary and the moment he pulled it back out, the pain would come back in full force.

"How long do I have to keep it again? 15 minutes?" He thought. "How long more is it until 15 minutes?"

Just as he wondered that he heard a few people gasp in surprise around him. Stanley quickly turned around to look at what was going on.

As he did, he saw the people in the distance, next to the main road making way for someone that was walking through.

It was expected for them to be making a way in the current situation as the Defenders were urgently fighting the Crawlers near the veil, but there was no need to make any noise at all.

When he thought that, he saw a giant man, nearly 2 and a half meters tall. Even while sitting by the creek, he could see the man towering over everyone as he slowly made his way down the street.

The man was named Illan, if he remembered correctly, and was one of the most physically gifted people in the entire town. His strength was massive, coming second maybe only to the Crawlers.

He would have made one hell of a Defender if he had joined. Unfortunately, while he was gifted physically, he wasn't all there mentally.

He had the intelligence of a child and couldn't do much fighting aside from just rushing in blindly. That would not help anyone at all when it came to fighting Crawlers and the man would be the first one to die if he ever did.

Everyone considered him a waste of luck. However, since he was still physically gifted, he was taken away by the Mayor to become his personal helper and guard.

Which meant that the people in the streets weren't gasping for this big man at all.

They were gasping because the Mayor had left his home after a long time.