Confronting the Adversary

‘He doesn’t know yet that I have caught on.’
Erel looked at Ren, who stared at the struggling figure of Lyra in the distance with a devious smile.
‘Fucking bastard.’
Unsheathing his sword as quietly as possible, Erel tried to walk closer to him, the tip of his blade aimed at Ren’s neck.
Ren appeared barely ten years old, barely reaching Erel’s waist, but Erel knew, especially after Bluebeard, how these planes twisted and played with the very ideals humans tended to follow.
Erel walked slowly, calmly, each step measured and quiet. But before he could get close, Ren’s head snapped toward him. His face was twisted, as if it belonged more to a beast than a child. His eyes were wide, growing redder by the second, and a wicked grin stretched across his face as drool slipped from the corner of his mouth.
“Yo-you caught on…” Ren mumbled incoherently, his voice raspy and cracking under some unknown strain.
‘Fuck!’
“Wh-what gave it away?” Ren asked, his voice now only terrifying Erel further.
“Just a guess,” Erel muttered, gripping his sword tighter, his feet shifting, waiting for Ren to make the first move.
Ren’s face twisted even further, anger clear in his snarl as his lips quivered with fury. “Yo-you both messed up everything. That bitch even killed my pets.” He frantically yelled, turning to look at Lyra, who seemed to have noticed the commotion. Her eyes met Erel's, and looking at his sword pointed at Ren, she finally understood what they had missed. However, instead of anger or confusion, Erel only received a calm nod, signaling him to do what was needed.
“I had to live in that fu-fucking village for two years, two wh-whole years. I-I planned everything… And then you two come by and try to mess it all up!”
Ren screamed, his arms clutching his head, clawing at his own scalp. He screamed in agony as the sound of bones snapping and flesh tearing echoed through the cave, his body transforming into the abomination he truly was.
The flesh in his legs split open, bone cracking and stretching as his back bent further. His screams grew guttural as the change continued, his pale skin turning dark and menacing. His hair fell away completely, and the skin on his face peeled back, revealing the horrifying anatomy underneath. He kept growing, now towering over Erel, his arms twice as long, his fingers sharpening into something bloodier and more deadly.
‘Well, fuck me. Here I thought there would just be a normal guy with a flute.’
‘There never was no flute to begin with. That explains how the music seemed to come from everywhere at once; there was no one playing anything, it was just him all along and whatever strange ability he had.’
Erel was finally able to put the pieces together. But it didn’t make sense. Why did Ren plan to take away the children, if all he wanted was the money for removing the rat? And he was the one who brought the rats in the first place.
And how he talked about his plan, about pretending to be a dumb kid in the village for two years. Why? Erel was clueless, and instead of answers, he just had even more questions. Looking at the abomination in front of him, which looked even more horrifying than the one he had nearly died to in the stadium, he remained strangely calm.
The monster’s red eyes, covered in bulging veins, glanced at Erel as what was left of its face twisted into an eerie grin, revealing torn flesh and shredded muscle underneath.
‘Ain’t he a beauty.’
Before Erel could make the first move, the creature vanished from sight. In the blink of an eye, and before Erel could even track its movement, it reappeared beside him, swinging at him with a hand that looked sharper than any blade.
Erel’s tattoo flared with the premonition of the impending attack, giving him just enough time to shift his torso, barely dodging the swing meant to behead him in one motion. Its hand whipped past his head, and Erel managed to avoid it by a hair, though the tip of its blade grazed his chin.
Erel jumped back, his heart hammering in his chest, feeling warmth dripping down his cheek.
‘Fast, way too fast for something that size.’
The creature’s limbs were long and weirdly stretched, but it moved with a ferocity that left Erel struggling to keep up. His eyes could barely manage to keep up with the afterimages its movements left.
Seeing Erel’s focus sharpen, the creature let out a guttural laugh.
“She mi-might be stronger than me, but you, you are weak.” It roared, Ren’s childlike voice replaced by the growls of a predator.
“I’m go-goin to rip you to shreds. Then it will be her turn, her naivety will be her downfall…”
It bellowed, dashing at Erel, leaving a crater of dust on the cold stone where it had stood. Erel barely had time to bring his sword up to parry before the creature was already upon him.
Erel’s tattoo burned as he commanded the serpent to coil around his hand. With that much force, it would be a miracle if his strength could match the creature’s.
Instead of slashing, the creature lunged straight at him, aiming to stab its hand through Erel’s gut. Seeing the attack, Erel barely managed to bring up his sword, trying to parry and redirect the blow to his right. The creature’s hand cut through the air just past his ear, giving Erel a few precious seconds to counterattack.
With a turn of the wrist, Erel angled his sword down, then brought it up in one strong motion, aiming to sever its limb. The creature, still moving forward, could barely react as the blade met its target. But instead of cutting through, the blade bounced off its skin, barely leaving a mark. Erel’s hands shook from the impact, nerves rattling from the force.
‘What the hell!’ Before Erel could step back, the creature made its move.
It swung its left hand with brutal force, closing its fist and punching Erel straight in the gut. The hit was unlike anything Erel had ever experienced. The force sent him flying, crashing him against the stone wall.
Pain exploded through his body, nearly breaking his ribs as he struggled to breathe before his body hit the wall hard enough to make him black out.
‘Jesus… Can’t breathe…’
Erel collapsed to the floor, his body still reeling from the force of the blow, as he tried to breathe. However, all that his lungs managed to achieve were feeble, wheezing sounds.
Knowing the next attack could come at any moment, Erel forced himself to stand, using the wall as support as he finally managed to take in deep, heavy, laboured breaths.
His hands were already shaking from the previous exchange, but his vision slowly returned.
‘Damn that… he’s too strong…’ The creature before him was a Kin, just like the one in the stadium, yet the raw strength and speed it possessed set it completely apart.
Before Erel could even properly stand, the creature was already rushing at him again, its hand gleaming under the pale light.
The creature thrust its arm forward, but before it could reach Erel, he strengthened his legs with the serpent and leapt away from harm’s way. The creature’s arm smashed into the stone, missing its target, finally giving Erel the seconds he needed to catch his breath and readjust his stance.
‘He’s having trouble controlling his explosive strength. Close quarters might be my only option.’
The creature landed its arm right into the stone walls, piercing through the exterior, lodging itself deep underneath as it missed its target. With a guttural roar, it tried to pull out its arm, each try rattling the stone walls, sending out dust and debris around.
As the creature finally managed to pull its arm free, making the wall shake and sending piles of stone falling around it, Erel saw his chance. He tried to strike from behind before it could turn. As the wall rumbled and dust filled the air, Erel took advantage and aimed to behead the creature, attacking from its blind spot. He readied his blade and, with a vault, brought it swinging with enough force to cleave through its thick neck.
The creature noticed the attack and tried to turn, but Erel’s strike hit true.
However, he had once again underestimated the toughness of its skin. His blade managed to dig only a few inches into its neck.
The creature turned, wrenching Erel’s sword from his grip as it fell and rattled against the stone, making him stumble and fall on his back.
Before he could even command the serpent for protection, the creature jumped at him with a guttural roar, driving both arms through his abdomen, clutching his insides as he coughed and spat out blood.
The creature buried its arms deeper, then lifted Erel off the ground, blood dripping onto the cold stone floor. It raised Erel’s limp body further into the air, as he coughed out fresh blood, his eyes turning bloodshot.
The pain was unbearable, as his insides burned, the blood continuing to leak out of his body. He wasn’t sure if it was the lack of blood or the sheer pain from the attack, but darkness slowly crept on in his vision.
The last thing Erel saw was the maniacal smile on the creature’s face before death embraced him in its cold grasp.
That darkness, however, was suddenly replaced by brutal clarity. He was now standing behind the creature, which still had its arm lodged in the cave wall. Each effort to pull it out made the whole wall rumble, sending dust and debris everywhere.
Looking down at his abdomen, where the creature had skewered him, Erel’s body shivered uncontrollably.
‘Fucking bastard!’
Just having used his ability recently, noticing the horrific death by the hands of the rats, Erel’s mind had already been reeling. And now dying by getting sewered had made him reach his tipping point.
Further noticing that his flux reserves were almost gone, Erel realised with cold clarity that his next death in this plane would undoubtedly be his last.

Chapter end