Ethan shoved the boulder aside, his muscles straining with the effort. He stepped out of the fireplace and into a scene of terrifying destruction.
The temple was collapsing around him. Walls crumbled, reduced to piles of rubble. Everything, except for the nine imposing statues, lay in ruins. The air was thick with dust and the stench of death.
The sounds of a fierce battle echoed from somewhere deep within the temple. The clash of steel, the roar of mutants, and the desperate cries of the combatants sent shivers down Ethan's spine.
He'd experienced hardship before, of course, but nothing like this. Seven years ago, when he was only ten, his parents had died in a mining accident, leaving him and his younger brother in the care of their frail grandfather. He'd been forced to grow up fast, taking to the streets to try and help provide for his family. That's how he had met Kyoji.
He'd tried to steal from the kind, handsome young man, but Kyoji had caught him. Instead of anger or punishment, Ethan had found unexpected kindness. Kyoji, for reasons Ethan still didn't fully understand, had taken pity on him and taken him and his brother in.
Ethan had always been sheltered, protected. He'd never experienced real danger before, not really. Even his parent's deaths, while tragic, had happened at a distance. He was too young to truly grasp the loss.
But the raw terror that permeated the air now, the tangible sense of danger, was something he couldn't ignore. He wanted to scramble back into the fireplace and hide until it was over, but he knew he couldn't. Kyoji was out there, somewhere in this nightmare, and Ethan had to find him.
Taking a deep breath, he plunged into the heart of the ruined temple. It was a vast space, made even more confusing by the destruction. Finding Kyoji would be almost impossible, but he was determined to try.
___
"Damn it!... Damn it all!" Kyoji cursed, narrowly avoiding a falling chunk of stone. His once-expensive white suit was now stained crimson with his blood.
His plan to kill the mutant had failed. Spectacularly. Now, escape was all he could hope for. But the creature was relentless, herding him back towards danger with every attack.
Kyoji realized, with a growing sense of dread, that this was no mindless beast. The mutant was intelligent. Its attacks, while seemingly chaotic, were designed to trap him, to cut off any avenue of escape.
"This is it," he thought, despair threatening to consume him.
"This is where I die."
"No!" He snarled, rejecting the thought. He'd been given a second chance at life, and he wasn't about to give it up without a fight. He would survive, even if he had to crawl out of this hellhole with broken bones and severed limbs.
His eyes fell on a pair of unused throwing spears lying on the ground. An idea, a desperate gamble, sparked in his mind. If he could use the spears as a distraction, he might be able to create an opening, a chance to put some distance between himself and the relentless creature.
He didn't hesitate. Moving with surprising agility for a man so badly injured, he darted toward the spears. Spikes of stone rained down around him, forcing him to duck and weave.
It didn't take long for Kyoji to reach the fallen spears. He snatched one up and sprinted away just as a massive spike slammed into the spot where he had been standing, missing him by mere inches.
The thirty kilogram spear was heavy, slowing him down, but Kyoji didn't dare waste precious seconds looking back. He bolted around a corner, his heart pounding in his chest. He could hear the mutant roaring in the distance, getting closer.
Soon, he was within reach of the creature's terrifying tentacles. They lashed out with blinding speed, aiming for him with deadly accuracy. Kyoji ducked and weaved, his movements a desperate dance of survival.
To a distant observer, it might have looked like a macabre ballet, a young man twirling and leaping between whipping tentacles. But to Kyoji this was no performance. Every move was a matter of life and death. One misstep, one miscalculation, and it would be over.
He spotted an opening, a brief window in the relentless assault. Leaping high, he hurled the spear with all his might, aiming for the creature's one remaining eye. A searing pain shot through his injured back, but he ignored it, focusing on putting as much distance between himself and the monster as possible.
Surely, the mutant would focus on protecting its eye, giving him time to escape. But Kyoji had underestimated the creature's fury, its single-minded desire to crush him.
Ignoring the spear hurtling towards its face, the mutant lashed out with a tentacle, slamming into Kyoji's shoulder with bone-shattering force. Kyoji was sent flying through the air at the exact moment the spear found its mark, burying itself deep in the creature's remaining eye.
The spear embedded itself deep, but the force of the impact had stopped it midway. Still, the pain was enough to make the monster roar in agony. It ripped the spear free, its injured eye contorting grotesquely. In a matter of moments, the wound healed, the eye as good as new.
It reached for the second spear, ready to remove any threat, but a terrified cry interrupted it.
"KYOJI!"
The voice, high-pitched and filled with fear, was unmistakable. Ethan.
Kyoji, struggling to rise from the rubble, felt a surge of terror. He turned to see Ethan, frozen in place, his gaze fixed on the monstrous creature before him.
"Ethan, run!" Kyoji screamed, scrambling to his feet. But Ethan just stood there, paralyzed by fear. He wanted to run, to escape, but his legs wouldn't obey.
When he first arrived, he saw Kyoji being hit on the shoulder by the mutant's tentacle.
He felt a strong urge to go forward and help when he saw Kyoji in such a bad condition. But he overestimated his own bravery. As soon as he got close enough to feel the mutant's terrifying presence, he felt himself stiffen with fear. A sense of dread took over his body, and he was unable to move from his spot.
The mutant roared again, its attention now divided. It had been so close to breaking through, and now these insignificant insects dared to interfere. It opened its maw, its tongue shooting out like a viper, aimed at the terrified Ethan.
At the last possible second, Kyoji slammed into Ethan, knocking him aside. They tumbled across the ground, narrowly avoiding the creature's tongue, which slammed into a nearby boulder, shattering it to pieces.
The monster retracted its tongue, frustrated. But in that moment of frustration, Kyoji saw an opportunity. A flash of anger, of defiance, blazed in his eyes. He lunged, grabbing hold of one of the spikes protruding from the creature's tongue. This wasn't over. Not yet.
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The instant Kyoji's hand clasped around a spike on the mutant's tongue, he was yanked skyward. The creature was retracting its tongue with incredible force. Kyoji almost lost his grip, the force threatening to rip him away, but he held on with everything he had. His life literally depended on it.
The mutant's tongue stretched a good twenty meters, but its retraction was lightning fast, taking only a second to deposit Kyoji near the creature's gaping maw. He was about to be swallowed whole.
Seeing the impending doom, Kyoji released his grip on the spike. Using the momentum of his ascent, he delivered a powerful kick to the tongue, propelling himself higher into the sky.
A deafening roar erupted from the mutant below. Hundreds of feets above, Kyoji felt the impact of the roar – a powerful gust of wind that nearly knocked him out of the air. But it was what happened next that truly sent chills down his spine.
The mutant exploded.
A terrifying wave of energy pulsed outwards, engulfing the entire temple. The battle that raged at the other corner of the temple screeched to a halt as if someone had hit a pause button. Every eye widened in horror, their owners frozen in place.
They didn't need words to understand what had just happened. One of the mutants, right there in the midst of their desperate fight, had ascended. It was now a Corrupted mutant. The thought sent a wave of terror through the remaining fighters, their faces mirroring the horror in each other's eyes. This wasn't just bad, it was catastrophic.
"Damn it! This is a disaster!" Major Gareth choked out, his voice ragged with fear.
"Fuck!" Miss Anna echoed, her usual composure shattered. The situation had taken a horrific turn.
"Where are the damn reinforcements? When are they getting here?"
Major Gareth shook his head, his face grim...
"Not anytime soon. We have five 'Corrupted' running rampant throughout the shelter, not to mention countless lesser ones. The reinforcements are pinned down. We're on our own."
"Fuck!" Anna swore again, her voice laced with despair.
It was clear that neither she nor Major Gareth were in any shape to face another Corrupted level mutant. They were already stretched thin dealing with the fiery one and its horde.
The temple lay in ruins around them. Countless lives had been lost, and countless more were severely injured, unable to fight. The healers were beyond their limits, their energy reserves dwindling with every passing moment. They were desperately trying to save as many as possible, but the sheer number of wounded was overwhelming.
The battle had reached a terrifying stalemate. Both sides were hurting, but the arrival of a second Corrupted mutant tipped the scales in favor of the enemy.
As for the fiery Corrupted mutant and its minions, they were far from finished. If anything, the surge of energy from their comrade's ascension had invigorated them, fueling their bloodlust. They continued their assault with renewed ferocity.
Hope was a flickering candle in the wind, threatening to be extinguished at any moment. All they could do now was pray for a miracle.
Speaking of miracles…
Kyoji, still suspended in the air after the explosion, was paralyzed by a wave of primal terror. Mutants exuded an aura, a palpable wave of fear designed to cripple their enemies. Had the ascending mutant not retracted its aura during its breakthrough, Kyoji and Frederick wouldn't have dared to approach, let alone attack.
But now, it was fully unleashed. The terrifying power of the newly ascended Corrupted washed over him, amplified by the creature's unrestrained aura. Kyoji's body locked up, his mind screaming in terror. He was completely at its mercy.
"Damn it!... Damn it all!" Kyoji cursed, his heart pounding as he assessed his dire situation. Fear threatened to consume him, but he knew succumbing to it would mean certain death.
He clenched his jaw, biting down hard on his tongue. A jolt of pain shot through him, momentarily clearing his head. It was a brutal tactic, but it worked. He bit down harder, the pain intensifying until he tasted blood. It was agony, the kind no sixteen-year-old should endure, but Kyoji had faced worse in his previous life. Still, the pain was undeniable, his tongue throbbing and bleeding.
Ignoring it, Kyoji used the momentum of his descent to twist his body in mid-air. He focused all his strength into his right foot, preparing for a final, desperate attack. The upward momentum he'd gained from kicking off the mutant's tongue was gone. He was falling, plummeting thirty feet back towards the monstrous creature.
The wind whipped at his face, but Kyoji remained laser-focused on his target. As he neared the creature, he swung his right foot with all his might, aiming for the mutant's eye – the one with the spear still embedded in it.
The plan was audacious, but simple. The spear was lodged halfway into the mutant's eye. If Kyoji could generate enough force with his kick, he could drive it the rest of the way in, delivering a fatal blow.
But achieving that was easier said than done. He needed pinpoint accuracy and immense power. The mutant's head was a moving target, covered in spiked tentacles. Thankfully, the creature was in the final stages of its transformation and seemed oblivious to Kyoji's presence, like a human ignoring an ant. Still, the other challenges remained.
As Kyoji's foot moved towards the metal end of the spear, he silently prayed that the mutant wouldn't move. For a moment, time seemed to stop. Then, with a sickening crunch, his foot met its target.
The spear plunged deeper.
Pui!
Warm liquid splashed across Kyoji's face. Blood.
He'd done it. He'd actually done it.
It was a brutal strike, one that would undoubtedly prove fatal. It had been a desperate gamble, a last resort fueled by adrenaline and instinct. But it had paid off.
His moment of triumph was short-lived. The mutant, feeling the spear pierce its brain, let out an earth-shattering roar. One of its tentacles lashed out, catching Kyoji squarely in the chest.
He was flung through the air like a ragdoll, the sound of his own bones snapping echoing in his ears. He crashed against the hard ground, tumbling over and over before coming to a stop. Pain engulfed him, but he was too weak to even cry out. His body was unresponsive, his life force ebbing away.
'So, this is it…again,' he thought, his vision fading.
'At least I went out fighting,' he mused, a faint smile touching his lips as darkness closed in.
[Your FE has increased]
A shimmering rune flashed before his eyes as consciousness slipped away.
# #
[A/N_ I'll be back to releasing 2 or 3 chapters a day starting tomorrow. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoy!]
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