The creature lunged violently at Victor, striking him in the head with its left arm, whose long, twisted fingers—tipped with razor-sharp nails—scraped against the armor, trying to pierce it.
It roared. It roared like a demon. Its cries were macabre, just like its body—crooked and grotesque—equipped with those thin, gaunt arms whose impact strength was comparable to a high-speed car crash.
Victor was shoved back by the beast's brutal force before managing to gain a slight advantage, trying to wrench its hand away from his head, gripping its arm as tightly as he could. Useless. The Ijo pressed harder, driving forward with even more force. This time it tried to bite his head. Victor blocked its face with his hand, struggling to keep it from sinking its teeth into him.
Its head was aberrant. It didn't seem to have eyes. The skin was wrinkled. It didn't feel like flesh at all, because it grated against the metal of the armored palm. The forehead was slightly elongated upward, crusted and dark gray like the rest of its body. Despite its immense strength, it looked malnourished and gaunt.
Victor perceived all these details. He didn't know how. He just did.
He could also feel the monster's crooked, sharpened teeth getting closer and closer. He could smell it—not only nauseating, but hot, burning hot, like flames or gasoline set ablaze.
Tombface finally bit him. Not in the head, but at the clavicle, lunging like a starving predator. Those seemingly fragile fangs sank in, nearly piercing through Victor's body.
The boy fell to the ground. He struggled wildly, pushing back its arms, its jaws. He began kicking. The beast seemed indestructible. It felt like the end.
"Why won't it activate…?"
Tombface kept biting and tearing at the metal. After numerous fast, targeted strikes, its claws managed to pierce the chest plate. It kept raking at it. With every scrape through the grinding metal, more of Victor's flesh became exposed.
"Activate… come on!"
Visibly furious and exhausted, the monster drove its claws in one last time. This time it decided to force the chest open, pressing down on Victor's stomach with its right leg—made of only four toes, thin in appearance and razor-sharp. It pushed with all its strength, bracing its foot as leverage while prying apart the heavy metal.
All the while it grunted, emitting horrifying guttural sounds. "Hem… eh…" It sounded like laughter. Its mouth twisted into a distorted, malicious grin, as if saying, I've won—looming arrogantly over the helpless boy.
Then Victor delivered one final kick. "Uom…"
The monster was hurled backward. The blow was powerful and sharp. He had aimed at its stomach, and even after the violent crash among the rubble, it weakened the creature for a moment. Still trembling, confused, and furious, it tried to rise immediately.
Victor rose as well.
Victor… but it wasn't him.
Despite the armor's damage—small electric sparks snapping and sharp bursts of static crackling, metal grinding—Victor was preparing for the next clash. He, too, growled. But his sounds were metallic.
His body convulsed, spasms moving against the rigid structure of the armor. Again, that wet, disturbing sound of flesh and bone realigning.
"Victor" let out roars. They were not random.
Tombface felt threatened. Even offended. It answered with roars of its own.
They were face to face again, in the darkness.
Monster… against monster.
Victor roared powerfully, a harsh robotic tone that could have ruptured any eardrum. His helmet split open around the filtration tube. It wasn't broken—two slits formed, opening laterally to the right and left. From within, an electric blue glow burst out, mixed with smoke and crackling energy. Along with the nearly exposed sharpened teeth, it transformed what had once been a normal boy into something worse than the monster before him.
From his back and shoulders, sharp plates emerged, like the ones forming along the fingers of the armor. They were veined—luminous and pulsing. Electric blue. They emitted the same crackling discharges.
Tombface roared back.
It didn't matter how powerful or horrific its tone was.
There was no comparison.
They charged each other head-on.
Victor gained the upper hand, slashing and striking at Tombface's chest and face. At last, the creature was wounded. Its blood—boiling, almost fizzing—spilled over Victor. He felt the pain.
He continued.
Tombface tried again, clawing at Victor's head to break through. It gained only a brief advantage before being pierced by razor-sharp blades that formed instantly from Victor's arms. They drove through its armpits, ripping deep gashes of searing pain that even the monster couldn't endure, preventing it from using its arms.
Tombface staggered back.
LESS THAN 30 SECONDS…
Victor counterattacked. He hurled himself at the beast, which no longer roared in defiance. Its voice had become a cry—a pleading whimper.
Victor didn't care.
He began by tearing off its arms. The pain was atrocious. At first it was difficult, partly because Tombface's agonized screams distracted him. Then he continued, slicing straight down the creature's abdomen, splitting it open and slowly emptying it, prolonging the suffering as its entrails spilled out.
Blood and flesh sprayed everywhere.
Tombface began to tremble. Its roars were no longer strong. The horrifying sound had dwindled to faint, suffocated whimpers. It was dying, gurgling as blood poured from its mouth. It convulsed.
Victor wasn't tired at all.
…10 SECONDS…
He slowly approached Tombface's face, from whose mouth rivers of blood were flowing. With a single, decisive stomp, he crushed its head.
It died.
Flesh splattered everywhere. The body went still. Permanently.
…4 SECONDS…
Victor let out one last powerful, terrifying roar—distorted and metallic—a kind of triumph over Tombface's mangled corpse. The shriek, sharp and feral, echoed throughout the entire area. It was loud enough for anyone to hear.
…0 SECONDS. INITIATE INHIBITOR INJECTIONS.
Victor stopped roaring instantly as syringes inside the suit drove into him in multiple places—forcefully—especially at the base of his skull, along his spine, and between his ribs.
There were no screams.
Only a few low, broken grunts. "Orh… okh."
Victor collapsed to the ground, unconscious.
One final metallic thud echoed for a few brief moments.