"Ah—Ouch—ay it burnssss." Li screamed as he swam in the beast's stomach acid.
"Hough—gods—Hough—the stench is horrendous." He gagged as some of the acid found its way into his mouth.
"What the hell even happened? I was hunting and… suddenly… it… became…
—RING—
""Wait… what was I saying…? Where… am I?" he muttered to himself, lost in thought.
"What's that smell?"
[You should be more careful than that next time.]
"Careful of what?!" Nothing, [don't think about it.]
[You will only make it harder for yourself.]
"Make what har…de…r"" his words trailed off as he looked at his surroundings, slowly realizing where he was.
"Well, I'll be damned." He whispered as his expression fell alongside his ears.
"How the hell… You know what, never mind." With a sigh, he conjured a sphere of air around his mouth and nose. Relief visible on his face.
He stood and approached the inner wall of the beast's stomach, attempting to cut through it with his nails. Unfortunately, it didn't budge.
"Tsk—I think I need to become a terrorist." He paused for a second, then patted himself on the shoulder for the joke with a stupid grin on his face.
This idiot.
There were a few ways he could get out; one was to obviously blow the beast from within, but from what it seemed, this guy was of the fallen rank. No good.
The second one, though, was a bit gross. Li could fill the beast to the brim with whatever till it eventually has to throw up. He was thinking about what would be appropriate, though.
"Mud? Water? Fire? No, it wouldn't work on this guy… maybe… shit." He grimaced at the thought.
[Yeah, what a nice idea, genius.]
"Well, enlighten me if you've got anything, mister."
[I don't know, punch it. You're strong enough, right?]
From his face, it was evident that Li was losing faith in this mysterious companion.
And then he facepalmed.
Right then, the beast's stomach contracted, and its stomach acid bubbled and boiled. It seemed that it did not appreciate the moving moron inside its stomach. Just like me.
[Wow, thanks btw.]
"woW, tHAnks bTw." Li taunted in turn, using a childish voice, making me pause.
[...]
""...""
[—SIGH—]
[Just punch the damn thing.] I said, Quite done with this conversation.
"Alright."
[...]
"Wait..."
[What?]
"Cut...Blade...wind, spin."
[What are yo-
"Blade, BEYBLADE," He shouted in joy, like a child getting a new toy for Christmas. It seems he got an idea.
[Wait, what are yo-
"Hold on, let me cook." He blurted out, sounding determined.
[...]
[Go ahead.]
With a deep breath, Li summoned his greatsword and produced a whirlwind of water around it. Slowly, it began to harden and cool, forming into ice.
It condensed and broke into itself as it expanded, and condensed again and again. This cycle continued on as it formed a tin coating of incredibly sharp spikes of ice around the blade.
The beast reacted in response, wiggling around and letting out an annoyed growl, but it couldn't do anything really.
"Almost done." As he said that, more ice particles began attaching themselves to the spikes, expanding and making them larger. As large as the beast's stomach.
With a sigh, Li put the sword in front of himself and made it spin.
The—now—spinning ice blade whistled through the air, making acid splash everywhere. Every spin carved shallow grooves into the pulsing stomach wall, leaving trails of frost, cracking flesh.
"—Ouch—Faster." The flapping sound of the beast's innards was almost as disgusting as the smell of the acid, the sword's acceleration making it worse.
"Come on..." He wasn't delusional enough to believe he could hurt the beast in this way; he was going to be as much of a nuisance as possible, either by cutting it or by freezing its flesh.
[It looks like you're making some progress.]
""REALLY?!"" Li exclaimed in surprise, hopeful that his improvised trick was working.
[Nah, just kidding.]
"YOU SON OF A—
Li's words were cut short by the sudden shaking of the beast's stomach. And soon he was thrown to his feet by a powerful shock wave and almost cut his head open by his own sword. Though it only cut the tip of his right ear.
It seems he was a better nuisance than he thought.
The shark-like beast, in response to whatever was happening inside of it, had moaned quite a bit in its frustration, which attracted a lot of attention. As a result, it was now being attacked by a group of similar sharp-like beasts.
[It seems we have company.]
"No shit, Sherlock." Li retorted as he struggled to get up, just to get thrown back again by another shock wave. And another and another more.
He was getting tossed like a ball in its stomach, stomach acid and pieces of bone hitting his face in the process.
"Jeez—
MIND—
—OUCH—
ME—
WOULD YOU—
As the last words left his mouth, he was thrown face-first into the wall of the stomach, but this time, something else welcomed him instead. A large, sharp tooth. Almost as big as his head.
Considering his size, the teeth are really huge.
"Weeh— at the last moment he spun around mid air, avoiding being skewered by a hair's breath. At that moment, another set of teeth sank into the beast, tearing and shredding it apart as they let water in.
"Now," taking advantage of the moment, Li slashed at the damaged flesh with his greatsword. Cutting a narrow way in the torn flesh. He burst through and made his way into the dark sea, exiting his gross hideout.
Because that's what it was. A hideout.
[Now is the fun part.]
Before Li could gather himself, he was smacked by the first beast's tail, knocking him out.
Li saw stars for a few seconds as he drifted deeper into the sea, before a voice reached his ears. Well, not ears really.
"Wake up, LI!!!" The voice belonged to King Night.
Li opened his eyes, clutching his head with one hand, and quickly gazed around to analyze his surroundings. What he saw left him shivering.
"Oh hell n— his thoughts were cut short as a gigantic shark-like beast slammed into him, almost knocking him out again. Gritting his teeth, Li sank his claws in the beast's slimy hide as best as he could and pushed himself off of it.
Looking warily back, he glimpsed the four remaining shark beasts charging towards him. Cursing in his mind, Li summoned the air sphere around his nose again and concentrated on dodging as best as he could.
Dashing through the water, he weaved and ducked their assault, his body and mind tiring with each passing moment.
After what seemed like an eternity, he found an opening to slip away and swim to the surface. He knew he couldn't do much harm to these beasts, so he chose the next best thing. Running away.
Pushing his already tired body against the tug of the water, Li swam with incredible speed, the four beasts following suit.
Finally, his head broke the surface as he followed the momentum with a short burst of wind, launching himself to the sky. But the beasts didn't seem to want to let go of their prey as they followed him into the sky.
But unlike them, Li's movements didn't slow as he went higher and higher still, till he felt comfortable enough to stop.
He stood still in the air, his expression unreadable.
After a long pause, he muttered, "What the fuck just happened…?"
He was still shaken and rattled, his hands visibly shaking. His breaths fast and short.
"First it was morning, then suddenly I'm in the stomach of a fallen beast…"
"And whatever the hell was all that…" his voice fell as though he was pondering something. His breath slowed down, and his body seemed to relax slowly.
What's concerning, though, wasn't the sudden change of mood, but rather his eyes. They lost all their spark and shine, growing dull and lifeless. Like he was falling asleep.
'What… is… h—RING—
"Wake up, sleepy head, rise and shine." Gael gently shook his friend again, worry growing as Li didn't respond.
"Li…? Hey, Li?! Wake up!!" This time, he leaned in and slapped Li across the face.
"Hauhhh—COUGH—WHERE AM— Li gasped and coughed as he jumped to his feet in panic, terror etched in his face.
"Easy, Easy. You're with us, Li." Gael said softly as he went closer and grabbed Li's hand, his frown deepening as he felt him shaking under his grip.
"It's okay, take it easy… It's just me and Iseul."
Li finally seemed to calm down a bit as he looked questioningly at Gael, then he checked his surroundings, frown deepening as he looked.
"My body is… fine? What hap… pen…d"" his words trailed off as his eyes went blank, seeing this only made his friends worry more.
"What happened, Li? Did you have a nightmare?" Iseul asked warily, getting closer to him.
After a short pause, Li answered:
"Yeah—RING—smiling, he continued, it was probably—RING—a nightmare."
[Well, how was that for a bit of Tomfoolery?]