For a moment, a calm washes over the room as everyone freezes and catches their breath.
Eyes wash over Luke as if he were a piece of meat surrounded by a pack of wolves… hungry wolves. He barely takes any notice of it, though, and continues urging his heart to pump mana through him and regenerate his reserves to full.
This process wouldn't take as long as it would have if he was still Corvo, granted he had all the time to allow it to fill back up. Though this wasn't an advantage he had over that body with some speedy mana regen, though that is partly the case. Instead, it was more of a disability.
It was already known to Luke that his OG body has significantly less mana than Corvo did, and that was for a combination of reasons.
Mainly luck. Corvo had a body deeply attuned to the supernatural energies that permeate both the physical world, the Void and all that is between. That unfortunately did not carry over.
The amount of mana Luke can store at once isn't even a quarter of what Corvo could possess.
Instead, what he lacks in the quantity of storage, he makes up for in the quality of regeneration.
If we were to quantify mana into units of measurement, what Corvo could regen was 100 points of mana (MP) an hour, hence the reason for the constant consumption of Elixir that put him on the brink of organ failure by the end of the run.
Luke can regenerate that much mana in five minutes, on the condition he actively pours his concentration into drawing that energy out of his heart. And in his short time using this phenomenon, he wisely dubbed it the 'MANA HEART'.
(Yes, I know, very original.)
BANG BANG BANG
And just like that, time is up.
Three gunshots rang out in quick succession, but Luke was ready. The instant the gunman's trigger finger twitched, he was already moving.
But as if there was a hive mind between the four of them, they were already synched up, not allowing Luke to have any more breathing room than that already given.
Two were on him quickly, while the other, with the now uselessly hanging arm, dropped back to guard the gunman instead.
The smaller, less dangerous one of the two was on him first, his rusty knuckle dusters aiming straight for Luke's temple.
So Luke looked to the left, predicting the trajectory of the coming blow… all the while keeping his good eye on the gunman.
"Ugh! What the fuck?!"
He heard one of them whisper at his creepy eye, but that is the least of his worries.
Luke dodges the blow easily, redirecting the momentum of the punch to shove the attacker away and onto his back foot.
Before he can capitalise on the created opening, without any prompt, not a single change in movement.
Just one second existing in one place… then existing in another.
And when he appears in front of Luke, he finally gets a good look at the man's appearance from under the dark hood.
Ugly, bulging veins covering every portion of visible skin. Unfathomably dark sclera and inhuman irises, a power that reflects one of his own.
Along with the power is something more familiar buzzing under the man's skin. A dangerous energy. Chaos incarnate.
Void.
'What the fuck?'
Absolutely baffled, he takes the obviously telegraphed hit right in the chest, getting sent metres back down the hallway.
Without the reinforcement of mana, the blow does more damage to Luke, but he recovers even quicker than the last. Constantly being pushed further and further to near death, working to bolster and re-assimilate all he learned in Dunwall into something physical, something he could use to keep himself alive.
The teleporter is on Luke in an instant, something like a switch being flipped inside the man as his combat becomes more aggressive.
He pulls his arm back in another move that telegraphs his attack. Though as he releases the blow, pure force in the shape of wind-like swirls dangerously around his arm, enhancing the power behind it as well as the speed… many fold.
Luke manages, only just, to tilt his head out of the way in time to dodge the powerful punch. Only a knuckle managing to touch him, though even then part of the blow bites into the cheek of his skin. Going past the mask in one clean slice, as well as showing his teeth.
Within the flow of concentration, the pain of tearing skin escaped Luke's mind. In its stead was an increasing bloodlust and the will to make it out of the rundown building, to save and protect his family… what's left of it.
His mind churned as he weaved in and out of the fast punches that came one after the other and literally kept an eye out for the shooter.
Luke had a way out of this situation, he knew it.
He had obtained a near-godlike power at the end of his time in Dunwall. And although the power was completely unrefined and weak compared to what it could be, the strength of that single power alone made him arrogant enough to mess around, to let his guard down.
The time he awakened a power, a power unique to Luke himself, not Corvo or anyone else, showed him that the new ability was one that couldn't be taken away like the Outsider's Mark could.
This power was a part of his very soul.
The only question was how to fully embrace this power once again. Not in a way that maims his flesh and corrupts him further and further every time the ability is activated.
Even now, when used in its original way to replace lost body parts, Luke could feel the Void slowly creep up from his mangled arm and a new strain of corruption start from his empty eye socket. And every second of it stung on a level his physical body didn't understand.
But nevertheless, even with its danger, Luke managed to uncover one of his former abilities, and it had been transformed into something new.
Luke could do this. He could feel it in his core.
So he did what he did best…
Let.. go…
——