Cale needed to move fast
'I could just somehow position a teacher close to the door and trick the living armor into breaking the rules, but there were problems with that'
Time
Too much time would be wasted trying to get a teacher positioned where he would ideally want them, not only that but the monster would also have to be found without being too far away from the building which would be even more time consuming
In other words, both needed to be done at the same time without wasting any precious time.
'I don't even know If I can survive that long, that monster Is incredibly fast after all.'
Step!
Step!
Cale kept speed-walking, checking every place he could In order to find the living armor, pacing himself carefully to make sure he doesn't get tired
"No luck huh"
But just like two months ago, the living armor couldn't be found immediately
Cale leaned against a tree
'Let's not make ourselves exhausted before even meeting the guy'
This needed to finish this quickly, but obviously Cale couldn't make himself exhausted.
He glanced at his trembling hand
"..."
His vision overlapped with another, a vision with his hand smeared in blood and body crawling on the hard stone.
Cale shook his head and steadied the breaths his lungs furnished and expanded themselves with
'Let's just stay focused'
The search resumed, every stone left unturned
***
Meanwhile, in the outskirts of the forest ->^◟♯ . / n/me . !^
A headless body laid on the ground, blood flowed and seeped on the cobblestone, trees stained with bright red paint as if a child painted them themselves.
On the road, bodies of different shapes and colors laid, sprawled all over the floor.
And the only one who could struggle wiggled helplessly on the ground and pleaded with all their dignity on the dirt
"W-Wait! please sp-!"
Crush!
Crushed and mangled like a stress ball being stepped on by a falling anvil, fragments of skull scrambled themselves on the floor like a weekly puzzle waiting to solved
In the middle of the carnage stood a man in armor, it wouldn't be far fetched to say that the skin itself fused with the black-opaque armor
The metal on the helmet started to shift, producing a sound that even experts find hard to replicate and it transformed Into something that resembled a mouth.
It smiled, the metal screeched like it were laughing at what it had done.
It then, slowly and delicately plucked one of the eyes that littered the floor, the head of the owner of these eyes was half destroyed. However the eyes were vibrant with life. As if it were still alive and feeling everything.
It then took the other eye out of its socket, taking both of the pairs that came in two like those 'BUY ONE GET TWO' deals in markets
[It's so squishy]
A metallic grating voice rang out
The sensation felt when caressing the eyes was ecstatic, the softness of the eyes resembled that of a stress ball.
[Just holding them fills me with joy...Huff]
The eyes were viciously gripped in it's hands, threatening to be crushed by them, Its breathing also turned ragged the longer it gripped the two small spheres
Drip!
Liquid metal started flowing from the metal mouth and hit the blood stained ground.
[Ah...Ha, I crushed them]
It looked disappointed at how eyes were so fragile when in its hands.
[Who else should I break?]
Questions on what to do next surfaced, and another memory surfaced
[Ah wait, wasn't there....]
It remembered someone, someone who didn't scream and was completely resilient to everything, even when their bones, arms and stomach were torn off, the certain someone did not feel it whatsoever and remained stoic
[Yeah, I remember now]
This was finally a one in a thousand opportunity to get a durable instrument that could sing a beautiful melody
[I want something that authentic to bless my ears again~]
It sung a tune as it was passing the hordes of corpses, expecting to find its stress ball that it had once lost two months ago.
[I can't wait till I]
The sight of Cale on the ground bleeding out filled its vision.
[Break and crush that spirit you delusion yourself into having]
The metal screeched and stretched once again, this time reaching its temples, a ridiculous smile full of sadistic desire became prominent on its helmet that resembled much like a human face
***
Sitting on a rock. The black lines pulsed faintly, the hottest place closest to the humanoid monster was there, inside the forest
"..."
'It finally found me huh, or well I guess I found it, to be fair'
Cale raised a head, for reference he sat on the rock after giving up on trying to find the humanoid monster
'It came to me only after I gave up trying to find it, seriously why did I even bother trying to find it myself, if it was just going to show up by itself'
Fate had a cruel way of wasting everyone's time
But deep down. Cale was happy it found him late, in case he got absolutely annihilated
The pitch black lines got thicker, so thick that it resembled a black mass instead of just lines.
The seated body Involuntarily started shivering and trembling out of fear of what that thing had done to it in the past.
"Past this point is the forest..."
Cale had reached the forest, faster than he had once anticipated 2 months ago.
'So it was in the forest...'
It didn't matter to him why it wanted to go to and stay at the forest, he couldn't care less about its reasons. Because well he couldn't find out if Carlos kept rejecting his questions like he was rejecting a girl in love flushing out all her innocent love just to be rejected again and again
"Let's see If I now have at least a chance of surviving a confrontation with that thing"
The rock that cushioned and rested Cale's buttocks was left behind, and his body tensed as he stared at the marching black mass that foretold death was approaching.
Clank
Clank
Clank
A creaking metal clank Invaded his ears, along with it he heard whispers pincering him from the side
Drip
Something dripped. Cale thought it was water at first but there was any close water source that could produce such a sound
"..."
Eyes were peeled open like a banana, instincts sharp and knees buckled.
[Ahhh~ I can't believe it~]
A distorted voice echoed and a metallic smell wafted in the air, the figure remained elusive to the naked eye
[How can I be so loved by a stress ball? so much so that it would willingly come back to me to get more of my love?]
'The first words I hear it say since it almost killed me is this?'
Finally, as the seconds dragged out, a figure emerged from the shadows the trees provided it, a metallic scent wafted in the air.
'It seems it enjoyed itself quite a lot, not that I want to know what it did that it liked so much to start saying nonsense the moment it saw me'
From head to toe its body was smeared in blood, armor that looked to be forged for the sole purpose of mobility became visible in full gratitude
It was here, and it stood in front of Cale approximately 38 meters away, a sadistic smile greeted him and such a smile was answered with a blank expression on my face.
Cale's heart was anything but calm, it beat louder and louder, every single inch in his body trembled.
'I'm going to face things even worse than this?'
If he was determined to survive, he would have to go through things way harder than this, this was certain to be correct.
[Well then, let's not drag this out and enjoy ourselves]
Crack!
It cracked its metallic fingers together.
'It really is humanlike, Even the sound resembles that of a human's'
It wasn't humanlike, the sound resembled that of a chalk being scraped against the board in the most torturing way
"Hoooo"
A deep breath stole the oxygen from the atmosphere and packaged it luxuriously to the lungs. In turn, vocal cords strung out one cohesive loud sentence and that was.
"Do it now! use it while he hasn't noticed you!!"
A setup
[!!!]
The monster turned around lightning fast and he was met with an unbelievable sight.
[...?]
Nothing was there, it was deadly calm even.
It turned around to face the stress ball that came to him voluntarily.
[....]
The stress ball was speeding through the courtyard, It was running so fast that it was surprising that he was just here a few moments ago
[Kuk]
It covered its mouth. Chuckles drifting off in the wind
[You think you can play with me using just this?]
A pulse reverberated Inside its body. Then almost immediately after, Its body started to flare up.
The hollow eye sockets that only held the dark started to flash and gave out a low hum.
Uuuung
Then, eyes started to form in its once empty sockets, bright blue retinas locked directly at the retreating figure of Cale.
Particles started to swirl around its retinas.
Swoosh~
Then it was gone? as if it had never even been there in the first place.
Swoosh~
Swoosh~
The action was repeated multiple times, covering an incredible distance each time, until it was inches away from Cale.
[Too easy~]
A lightning-fast jab was thrown at the nape of Cale.
"!!!"
[Huh?]
Its newly formed eyes widened at what just happened.
Cale had moved out of the way, narrowly dodging the jab.
Blood trickled slowly from the stricken right cheek.
'How did he?'
It thought back at what happened, and soon reached a conclusion
[A sensory type of #%^#&%#?]
"..?"
'What did it say?'
For the slightest of few moments, both for different reasons took a dazed stance
Swoosh~
That neutrality didn't last long before the speeding figure disappeared once again from all sight, when it did that. Cale had felt something pulse and swirl around his body, it was the black mass.
It concentrated itself on Cale's shoulder and nape.
Cale saw this, and his body acted out of survival instinct before his mind could even process as to why the black mass concentrated itself on his left shoulder and nape.
"Ngh!"
Feet retreated backwards
"?!"
[!?]
Both Cale and the monster were astonished.
'H-How did I do that?!'
Blood trickled from the scratched shoulder, but it wasn't like it couldn't have gotten worse
The living black plated armor stared at Cale, Its smile nowhere to be seen and wiped away like makeup
[...]
Cale felt his mouth dry up, sweat trickling with blood mixing alongside it.
Swoosh~
It disappeared from Cale's sight and the moment it did.
A swirling black mass predicted where it would hit and narrowly allowed Cale to get out of the way.
"Kugh!"
But his balance was lost and plummeted to the ground, however he quickly recovered.
The living armor had already disappeared from his sight. The black mass had already predicted where it would hit but-
"?!"
It had already lodged Its hand at the side of Cale's body.
"Arg!"
Pain, scorching pain that instantly made the vocals in his throat want to scream out desperately, but Cale bit his lip and just barely held his scream in.
The living armor wouldn't allow Cale to recover even a bit.
It was mad, mad by the fact it had given a sliver of hope for this filth to hold onto.
[You shouldn't have something like that....]
It pressed its foot onto the back of Cale and then retracted his hand, kicking Cale in the process
Thud!
Cale fell limply to the ground, The living armor didn't give him any room to breath and grabbed him by the hair.
"Ah..Ha..kugh! Cough!"
Cale coughed up blood, The living armor had no reaction.
[...]
It looked at him for a while, savoring his pained expression, while doing so It gripped Cale's head, and the stress ball winced in pain and struggled weakly trying to escape its grasp
"Ugh!"
The stress ball groaned, strength leaving his body
[Not...enough]
It muttered under its breath. Cale's screams and wailings of pain were what It wanted to hear but none of that seemed to be presented here
It raised its arm and then-
Woosh~
It threw Cale, body slicing through the air, his vision already hazy
Thud!
He finally hit the ground and rolled through the ground.
"Huff...Huff"
He was weakly breathing, his life about to be snuffed out.
He raised his trembling blood soaked hand, reaching out for help.
Crash!
"AHHHHHH!"
A piercing scream so loud it strained Cale's voice, he screamed In pain while the figure that had crushed his body with his foot on top of him, relishing in the pure agony Cale's scream had blessed Its ears with.
[This was...what it was missing]
The living armor heard Cale's screams a little while longer, until Cale stopped.
"Hu-Cough!"
Cale felt so much pain course through his body, his vision so hazy he couldn't make out anything anymore, even the shape of his blood soaked hand.
But he knew where he was
'You want to my screams?'
His eyelids felt heavy, as if someone had put small weights on it
'Take it. I wanted to scream everything out at some point anyway'
[Ah~ that felt good~]
'But if you want something, you need to give me something back right? Isn't that what equal exchange is?'
A metal liquid flowed from its ridiculous smile, salivating at the scene before him.
It raised its head, and it saw it.
'And what I want to take from you?'
Before passing out, he wrung out his last thoughts
'No matter how short the time I take from you is. I want to take your freedom at least once, you will at least remember that way, that you don't mess with me without expecting a cage to trap your wings in'
An invisible humanoid like monster, wearing a navy blue suit, its hands donning black gloves with gold patterns on it, its square glasses were perched up on its face.
It was Carlos Ashen
The living armor then realized where he was, It was the cafeteria, the door was open as if someone had prepared for this beforehand.
Its face paled at the realization of what it had just done.
[S-shit]
That's all it could say in this situation
[Do you mind if you tell me what you are doing right now?]
The air in the room grew colder as Carlos spoke
[Gravel Stone]