@"King"
He'd felt more than heard the thing behind him, but even as he turned something smashed him to the ground followed by the uncomfortably familiar feeling of his arm breaking. He unleashed a series of expletives which were immediately drowned by an ear splitting roar as the beat bare down upon him, only to be matched by the only sound he could have feared more... that of an angry Milk.
Murphy would later reflect on what he saw, if he lived. But in the moment something that he assumed to be Milk intervened, thankfully on his behalf. She screamed like a demonic monstrosity and erupted into pale, deadly spikes that seemed to be made out of... oh... oh god so that was her power. After she'd tackled the hell-bear away from him and into the treeline he lay there for a moment, trying to work up the nerve to try to move. Regardless of his adjustment to pain, this was going to really really suck.
With great difficulty he rose to sitting, and with the help of a tree, to standing and searched for them. They weren't hard to find, broken trees and torn earth lay in their wake. It was difficult to make out, but there was a lot of blood covering them both, and he prayed that it was only the bear's. Even through the haze of adrenaline he realized that he had a choice to make, she would PROBABLY be okay on her own... but was he willing to just run away like always? She had always been there in the situations he'd needed her, and never once had she even flinched when stepping into danger. If he bolted now, he doubted he'd be able to face her again.
He looked around for a weapon of some sort. There were plenty of rocks he could hurl if he had use of both of his arms. There were sticks, but he doubted that a sharp stick would do much to anything that was going toe to toe with Milk. He doubted he could even find a big enough stick around with all of the trees torn up and ready to... collapse...
He double checked the area, in their frenzied fighting the pair had damaged many of the giant trees that made up the forest's majority. Ancient pines that were several tons could cause a lot of damage when they fell. "Fuck it, you only live once yeah?" he hissed to himself, and then he closed his eyes and focused.
Somewhere inside of him, deep within the recesses of his memory he could feel the source of entropy lurking, waiting and growing in power to cause some sort of grief in his life. Every day he'd woken up with the fear that his power was going to surge out of control, and he'd learned to identify and repress it as long as he remained calm. It had done it's job well enough, with only minor setbacks occurring rather than full blown catastrophes.
He focused on that energy, and began to feed into it. All of the fear, all of the anger and annoyance, all of the confusion and terror he locked up away behind a wall of logic came surging forward, and he felt the power grow as an ominous creaking echoed through the forest. What if I die here? was the first thought What if my arm never heals? What if I fail my classes and I have to leave? What if I can never control my powers? Every fear he'd ever encountered flew through his mind unchecked and he gave himself into that panic. But it wasn't until one final terror hit him that his power fully manifested itself. What if Milk dies because of me?
With the fortress walls of his mind finally breached, all hell broke loose.
