Chương 117: Bonds Tied In Viscera III

With the unholy wrath of a maniacal god, thunder struck and exploded into a static implosion upon contact with the sodden earth. The dealbreaker, the confirmation, and the signal to tear another apart. The Wendigo kicked against the ground, uprooting muck and wet grass indiscriminately. In a single bound, the monster crossed the thirty-meter gap that walled off heavy truths of its opponent's battle lust. An outstretched fist aimed to tear into its kin's chest was met with a heavy punch of its own.

The force of the gauntleted fist, approaching the fleshed one, made a screeching pop as air rushed out of the way of the two scrappers' paths; then, with contact, the falling rain immediately upheaved, and the radius of precipitation that surrounded the two fighters bloomed into a fiery explosion. Flesh against plate, monster against monster. The Wendigo's flesh rippled despite the stretched skin that tightly fitted whatever lay underneath.

The force of contact in the first second was manageable, but like a press, the pressure of ONI's fist violently compressed against its skin in the next second, then, unlike a steady hydraulic press, the force of the noble's fist acted like a hammer; the force alone flayed the Wendigo's parchment skin off its arms, and the thin supporting bones crumpled like an aluminium can.

It recoiled as its balance was thrown over its shoulder along with its shattered fist, but as if indifferent to the pain, it spun its long neck, uncoiling the stretched neck skin that rested in helical folds, and whipped its head like a balled flail at the noble's chest; the bone-shattering force of this crude implementation of flesh merely nudged ONI back a few meters through the mud. Concrete would crumble, steel would tear, and earth would part, but the noble's poise went unaffected by the shattering blow.

Every blow made falling water and flowing air flee like discovered roaches and invited screaming shockwaves to take their places. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. The noble mask was unchanging; its poise was stalwart, unreacting, and unmoving, and when the time for action approached, the blow would not be registered until seconds later.

It narrowed its stance and raised its centre of gravity before moving towards the skinwalker at a casual pace, arms raised to parry. A few feet before the towering skinstealer had a time to react, the casual pace turned into a blur as a hand putting a bear to shame gripped onto its side, and after a moment, as if the noble were waiting for the realization, it slowly and deliberately sank its sharp talons into the Wendigo's side.

Its bones, flesh, sinew, skin, and viscera were squeezed and parted like a freshly steamed fish. The Wendigo, in turn, slammed its remaining hand into the noble with hysterical strength, blowing its limb off in rebound and successfully knocking the stalwart samurai off its feet and tumbling through mud. The skinstealer screamed out to the world in the strained, stolen voice of Eren.

It held what was left of its arms up, and the deranged human screams became more heart-wrenching as bones shot out of its stubs and vines of muscle climbed up the shafts of bone. Afterwards, pink flesh slowly bubbled through the creases of muscle and settled like a gelatinous pink membrane in place of skin.

Its fingers snapped back and twisted indiscriminately; its teeth chattered along with the human cries that it stole; its arms writhed; its bones protruded from flesh like they would when deboning a succulent chicken. The monster's body shivered as an eggshell-white sludge foamed from its emptied eye sockets, slowly unveiling two pale, irisless orbs and bubbling tears of borrowed blood, hugging the new formation.

Meanwhile, the noble slowly stood to its feet, leisurely; a mere IMP was a danger, but danger was merely a concept that followed failures. It ran its gauntleted fingers down its chest plate and settled on a chink in the armour for a moment before digging a digit into it and boring a hole right through it. ONI huffed and plunged the rest of its fingers into the armour before tearing it off with a screech of steel, revealing pale obsidian skin underneath.

It outstretched a thumb and, taunting the Wendigo's hunger, carved a line down its chest, letting black blood seep from within." PREPARE YOURSELF FIEND!"