Blood sprayed from the neck as if it were a fountain.
It did not fall, though. It floated.
Countless black shining circles orbited the nightmare.
In mere seconds, the speed of the orbiting increased significantly, making the shining circles appear like a glowing ring whose diameter and size kept increasing and increasing until it hit the trio, sending them flying and eventually falling to the ground.
Unable to fathom what was happening, they stared aghast.
The nightmare slowly rose from the waters and floated 17 ft in the air. Soon, another ring, this one vertical, appeared.
The rings orbited the nightmare at considerable speeds, with the four points where they met forming circles that shot out black energy to the unsightly nightmare.
It, the veiny arm, and head glowed in purple as it took the appearance of an enormous black pupa.
Crack!
A wave of black smoke erupted from the pupa, bringing about a hazy atmosphere, making it hard for the trio to breathe and see…well, they needed not to see to tell that whatever was in the pupa was now coming out.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Each sound resulted in an increase in worry within Idel. He had never encountered such a sight.
This was getting scary!
He wanted to move, but for some reason he could not move a single muscle except for his eyes. He discreetly looked at Snappy, who was a couple of meters away, and noticed that he too was rendered immobile, and so was the Hitter on the other side of the shallow swamp.
He cursed silently and turned his eyes to the eerie scene once more, finding the same veiny arm crawling out of a crack and violently ripping and hitting the pupa in an attempt to come out.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Idel could only stare and wait for the inevitable. The Hitter, on the other hand, had other ideas. Knowing that he could not summon any lightning, for his hands were immobile, he took a deep breath and focused on unleashing a bolt of lightning from his emotional core.
He needed it to be as small as it could possibly be, for he would end up dying if the opposite were to occur, and this, plus the imminent nightmare that hung above them, made it ever more difficult.
He calmed himself as he erased all sense of worry and focused on his core.
The blue circular core floated in complete utter darkness, soundlessly spinning in a clockwise manner.
He focused and focused until the core came to a stop. Then he focused again, this time more intensively, and the core, with great difficulty, began to spin counterclockwise, causing a spark to come about.
It was small and fragile, and exactly what he needed. He focused on it, nurturing it until it was strong enough to cause a nasty shock through his entire body.
He grimaced slightly as his knees hit the ground. Mobility was restored, and in the next second, with a simple gesture, he directed two small bolts of lightning to both Idel and Snappy.
Both grimaced in pain as they fell on their knees.
"Let's end this before it starts!"
Without any response or complaints about why the old man used such methods to restore their mobility, the duo rose and ran towards the cracking pupa.
With the Hitter fluidly moving his hands in preparation for a massive surge of lightning, Snappy bending the fire into a massive ball, and Idel shifting all his weight to his fists, the trio maintained the triangular formation.
Idel and Snappy were to act as the decoy, giving time and room for the Hitter to land the decisive blow, and so they were approaching it faster.
For all that, they were late. The pupa burst open, sending the covers flying. An enormous black creature with irregular-sized arms fell down with a loud thud into the water.
And with this came a suffocating energy that caused the trio to slow down unconsciously…but this only lasted for a mere second. They had to kill this thing before it could move.
'We end this now!' Idel increased his speed as he looked at the massive creature that was slowly finding its footing. He saw its eye open, revealing a glowing red pupil.
Poom! Poom! Poom!
Idel's feet, hip, and parts of his arms burst into pieces. His body fell in a pool of blood.
Snappy gasped, and in the next second gathered all his might as he prepared to thrust the ball of fire at the massive creature. Alas, his hand developed a mind of its own. It directed the ball away from the creature and aimed it at the Hitter.
The old man, unprepared for the attack, was engulfed by the raging flames, crushing him to the ground and burning him.
His screams echoed throughout the area.
"…"Snappy had barely moved an inch when the massive creature, with speed rather abnormal for its size, inched closer to him and landed a massive punch to his abdomen, making him fly like a rag doll, and before his body could even hit the ground, the creature moved and grabbed him midair by the head and violently slammed him to the ground three times as it roared like a beast. Blood spewed everywhere as his vision and intelligence levels lowered.
As the next slam was seconds away, and possibly his death, a figure moved in the smoke and landed a kick on the inside of the creature's knee, making it fall on one knee.
It roared and turned its bald head to spot the figure.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Three more strikes to the body were landed, and though it did not seem to get physically harmed in any way whatsoever, it was getting irritated.
It turned and turned but could not find the offender, only to be met by blows to the body.
'Freak,' Snappy, coming to terms with who was behind the attack, gritted his teeth and focused on his emotional core.
His body ignited, burning the creature's hand in the process.
It grunted and released its grip.
Idel moved and caught Snappy's body on the shoulder and blitzed deep into the forest.
Tap! Tap! Tap!
"What are you doing?"
"We need to think. We can't beat that thing in a fight." Idel had already come to this realization.
But Snappy was not going to allow this. He released fire once more from his core.
Idel dropped him to the ground at the occurrence.
"What's wrong with you? This is no time to play hero!" Idel was visibly annoyed. "We need to think."
Snappy sluggishly rose, his body all battered and burnt.
"Think. By the time we do, that thing will have at least killed half of the village. We act now. I know this is not your home. If you want to run, leave me be. I will not abandon my people."
"Sigh. It won't go after them."
"Huh? What makes you say that?"
A moment passed before Idel spoke. "Because it's after me."
Snappy became confused.
"It won't go for the likes of your kind. It only wants me. If I run, it will inevitably follow me. Believe me. So I would suggest you, inconspicuously, take another route and go back. And with the help of the mustached officer, cross the mine plains with the villagers and request help from the Mazi officials." Idel took a second before he added, "And please make sure Tintless does not get to endure whatever you said happens to freaks like me."
Despite the situation, his voice was so calm, as if he had accepted what was going to come—his death In the given situation
'Run...Run where? Outside this forest is a freaking sea habited by monsters.'
Snappy gritted his teeth and clenched his fists as he watched Idel begin to walk away.
"Have had it with you, thinking everyone around you is downright dumb. You think I don't know what this is. A perfect story. An unknown traveller gets imprisoned and ends up sacrificing himself for his captors, and at the end of it all, myself and whosoever survives get to be badged into describing how you looked.
'What are you, a novelist?'
But guess what, I am going to be no side character. Am not going to stand aloof. So screw you."
Idel was about to open his mouth when a body came flying between the duo.
It was the Hitter.
His back hit the tree with thunderous impact. He was all beaten up. Following this were thunderous footsteps and sounds of trees snapping and eventually falling…the nightmare had only begun.