"Yummy... Delicious... Want more..."
Beneath Ivy's screams, I could hear the human head that protruded from the side of the fish's body speaking.
Its speech was broken, but it wasn't difficult to make out what it said. It wanted more food.
Ivy fell onto her bottom, staring at her skeletal hand and continuing to scream. In a few moments, she would pass out from the shock.
The fish approached her, which made my legs move against my will.
I sprinted as fast as I could. I was probably roaring with rage too.
What was my plan? I had no idea. All I knew was that I had to punish this demon for what it had done.
Eventually, the fish turned its face towards me. At that moment it seemed to have found a more interesting meal.
It started running towards me, leaving a trail of goo behind it as it dashed across the sand.
Only then did I realise that I had no plan. I might have been physically gifted, but I wasn't trained in combat.
When I stepped into range, my first instinct was to throw a punch. It was a hooked punch; fast and powerful.
To my surprise, it clobbered the beast in its human head, forcing it to cry and stumble backwards, eventually falling off balance due to its misshapen legs.
If I were calmer, I could have taken advantage of the situation and used that opportunity to pounce on the demon.
Unfortunately, I was far from calm.
I swung again, and before I could land, the beast turned its head and opened its mouth.
My arm entered its jaw, all the way up the elbow. I felt my arm become enveloped in a wet, sticky substance. Then, a hundred sharp teeth pierced my skin.
I felt my arm burning. The demon's saliva was like acid. At the same time, it used its teeth to scrape off my flesh.
I screamed from the pain.
Stumbling backwards and falling onto my back, I felt my arm slide out of the demon's mouth. When I looked down at it, there was nothing there except a skeleton.
I expected to meet the same fate as Ivy. Left on the sand, screaming at the sight of my missing arm. Instead, I wasn't even given time to process the pain.
The fish was already on me again, and I was unable to defend myself. It walked over to stand over my head, oozing goo onto my face.
I tried to push myself away, but it was no use.
The fish opened its mouth and wrapped its lips around my head. I felt its teeth and acidic saliva going to work on my skull, as it bit a chunk out of the bone and began to suck my brain through the crack.
Dead again. Perhaps the most gruesome death yet.
This time, I expected to be completely unable to process anything.
Unlike both times when I had been stabbed through the eye, my brain was now no longer intact. It had been turned into a liquid meal for the demon.
I no longer possessed one of my most major organs. Yet still, I was able to process these events.
I could still feel the rage, and pain that came with my own death.
I could still feel the sadness for my friend, Ivy Graceful.
Ivy Graceful... She was still alive.
That wouldn't last long. The demons were known for having hunger that could not be satisfied.
What would it do after it was finished devouring each and every one of my organs?
It would turn to her.
I couldn't let that happen. I had to do something!
I prayed despite my lack of speech. As long as my consciousness still floated somewhere in the realm of existence, I could formulate words within my brain!
I asked the Allfather for one thing. The strength to protect before it was too late.
After offering the prayer, it felt as though I heard a voice echo through my consciousness. A voice that for some reason, I seemed to recognise.
It told me that 'today, I would be reborn.'
My body started to remake itself. This time it was faster than ever before.
My body had been devoured so brutally that I was unable to know which part of my body was remade first. But by the time I felt my consciousness inside my physical body again, I was completely reformed.
My skull and brain were intact, as well as my arm, and any other body part that the demon had feasted on whilst I was away.
I looked up and saw that the demon was now crawling back towards Ivy, who was unconscious. It was ready for its second meal.
It wouldn't reach her.
I reached out my arm and called upon something. At that moment I didn't know what it was.
When I clenched my fist, I felt a weight enter my hands, despite nothing being in there. When I pulled my hands backwards with all my might, I saw a giant wave being created in the Black Sea.
It was as tall as a small house, and appeared from out of nowhere. As I unclenched my fist, it toppled over towards the shore with tremendous speed.
The demon fish looked up at the wave. It had no reaction.
The wave crashed onto the shore, sweeping up the fish and Ivy, and then not long afterwards, the water collected me too.
I felt myself drowning in freezing water. Yet I knew that if I allowed myself to become overwhelmed, things could get bad.
I focused on my swimming. I needed to find Ivy.
After pushing myself hard, I managed to overcome the weave. My head peered above the water, and I gasped for air before looking around.
In the distance, I saw Ivy's body floating above the surface of the black sea. It took all my strength to swim towards her, powering through the waves that I had created.
Eventually, I reached her body. I slapped her in the face, attempting to wake her up, but it didn't work.
"Shit," I swore. I had to carry her.
I took Ivy onto my shoulders and started to swim towards the black sandy shore, which was further away than it was before.
Eventually, we arrived, and I collapsed onto the beach.
After laying her body on the sand, I tried my best to bring her back to life. I pushed down on her chest until her ribs cracked, and I blew air into her mouth.
For a moment, I thought I had failed. I thought I had lost her.
But then.
*Cough*
Ivy's eyes shot open as a bunch of water choked up in her mouth.
At that moment, I sighed the greatest sigh of relief a boy possibly could. My head rested on her chest, as I thanked the Allfather.
Ivy regained her consciousness. Her first words were completely unrelated to her missing arm, or the fact that the apocalypse had begun.
"Leox. I told you that you would awaken."