Impact! Whips! Restraints! Piercing! Binding!
After a relentless barrage of attacks, Jason was practically immobilized.
He could only twitch slightly, unable to make any big moves.
But his mouth stayed tough as nails. No matter how much his body got wrecked, Jason wouldn't talk—dude was a straight-up ironclad badass!
The roaring chaos of the fight slowly died down.
Out of nowhere, the jungle rustled with faint, creepy noises.
Aylan poked her head out, sneaky as hell, peering toward the center of the battle.
Limping on her busted leg, she inched closer, clutching a machete she'd scavenged off the ground.
Under the dim moonlight, Aylan crept along the path carved out by the fight, keeping her steps as quiet as possible to avoid drawing attention.
As the dust from the brawl settled, the faint light let her get a clear view of the scene.
A long, straw-like monster—Barry—had Jason, the unkillable king, locked tight in its grip, like a python ruthlessly crushing its prey.
Did we win?
Aylan tested the waters, calling out, "Barry? You good?"
Spikes sprouted from Barry's straw body, stabbing into Jason's flesh, especially the tendrils piercing through his eye sockets, rooting deep into his brain.
Barry's form was like a pump now, sucking dark red plasma from Jason's body, channeling it through specialized straw tubes into itself.
The dry, yellow straw tubes turned blackish-red as Barry's body pulsed rhythmically, matching its breathing. The dark red tubes throbbed like veins.
A steady stream of regenerative energy flowed out of Jason, and Barry's straw body kept siphoning his life force.
It was all so damn eerie and terrifying!
Despite her chattering teeth, Aylan mustered the guts to get closer—just a few yards away—and called out again:
"…Barry? You there? Give me a sign or something."
Aylan's voice shook as she edged forward, still shouting.
Gulp! She swallowed hard, staring at Barry's closed-eyed face.
Then, boom—Barry's eyes snapped open, locking onto her. Aylan yelped, stumbling back a few steps, nearly eating dirt.
"You're still here?"
Barry's eyes, hazy like he was drunk, scanned Aylan up and down, his head-tendrils swaying lazily.
"I-I came to help."
Aylan, spooked by Barry's inhuman form, was already dreading the nightmares she'd have—if she could even sleep tonight.
She waved the machete, showing she wasn't useless, ready to at least land a finishing blow.
"Actually, there's something only you can pull off," Barry said, shaking his head to clear the euphoric haze of draining Jason's life force.
"Name it! Need me to stick him? I'm ready to jam this blade right in!" Aylan's eyes lit up, hyped at the chance to do something epic—something Mariah could never handle. Aylan was the one for this job!
"Whoa, whoa, hold up—not that." Barry quickly shut down her idea. Jason wasn't some chump; wasting his regenerative juice by stabbing him? Who'd cover that loss?
Jason was like a top-tier power bank—Barry would give him five stars, no question.
If ripping off Jason's mask before was like jacking a big chunk of battery, this slow drain was more like charging up bit by bit.
Not as fast, but it got the job done.
"Then what do you need?" Aylan asked.
"See those broken arms? Pick 'em up and hand 'em back to me."
Barry tilted his head, gesturing with his eyes.
Aylan didn't waste time. She scoured the ground and scooped up two of Barry's severed limbs and a couple of straw ropes.
They felt cold, no warmth at all, but not rough—kinda smooth, actually.
Holding them gave her the heebie-jeebies.
That's how Aylan sized it up in her head.
"Uh… I mean, where do I put these?"
Staring at Barry's bizarre, twisted form, Aylan was at a loss for what to do next.
"Get closer. Just touch 'em to my body, right near Jason's chest."
"Jason?"
"Y'know, the mask-wearing freak."
"Oh, got it."
Aylan followed orders, carefully pressing Barry's severed limbs against the straw coil wrapped around Jason's chest.
Like they were slathered in superglue, the limbs stuck tight on contact.
Then, they melted back into straw, fusing into Barry's body.
Moments later—squelch!
A few wet, piercing sounds rang out as long spikes stabbed through Jason's chest. His body started visibly withering.
Barry's form, on the other hand, began to bulk up, like he'd just chugged a tub of protein powder—major gains, fast.
Poor Jason twitched a few times, his eyes dimming, eyelids drooping.
Crack, crack, crack!
His bones snapped like a string of firecrackers.
Jason, weaker by the second, was sucked dry into a skeletal husk.
Barry cranked up the pressure, his beefed-up body writhing and squeezing Jason even tighter.
Grind you to dust!
Jason's bones started crumbling bit by bit.
Aylan watched the brutal corpse-whipping, feeling queasy. Her hair stood on end, and despite the winter chill, cold sweat trickled down her face.
Yikes! That's horrifying. Thank God I'm not his enemy—otherwise, I'd be toast!
Aylan swore to herself she'd double down on respecting Barry—no way she'd end up like that.
The strangling went on for a full ten minutes, Barry pouring every ounce of strength into it.
In the end, Jason was ground down to boneless chicken strips, but his head? That damn skull wouldn't break completely—way too tough. And that oversized heart? Freaky resilient.
Barry had been draining for ages, shriveling it like a plastic bag, but couldn't fully crush it. Talk about durability.
Another ten minutes passed.
Barry went HAM, sucking until Jason was completely out of gas, no response at all.
A long pause.
Still no movement from Jason.
Barry couldn't sense any life left in him.
"Dead? Or did he check back into hell?"
Barry stared at Jason's motionless skull, trying to wake the guy up.
Suddenly, Jason's eyes flared bright. Barry's heart skipped a beat, but before he could react, Jason just… vanished.
Poof. Gone.
Like he'd never been there at all.
Barry thudded onto the grass, craning his neck, scanning every direction, pushing his senses to the max—nothing.
Just… gone?
Back to hell? Or did he pull a one-time-only teleport?
Barry was stumped. You had that trick up your sleeve and didn't use it earlier?
"He's gone! He just disappeared!" Aylan blurted, shocked.
"I can see that," Barry replied.
"So he's…"
"Probably his mom called him home for dinner or something," Barry said, dropping a lame joke.