The image of her mouth gurgling blood out through her lips, her life-fluid streaming down her chin, would haunt Rumble for a very long time. Her face was a mix of shock and fear, pupils constricting and wavering around in her bloodshot eyes.
She grabbed onto the appendage that was driven deep into her stomach, kicking and screaming in a desperate attempt at freedom. Her body burst into a painful construct of fire, as she immolated herself in an attempt to escape.
Her efforts only caused the creature to chitter with glee as she only dug herself deeper onto his weapon. “Stop moving!” Rumble cried. She had to stop.
He could barely think as he felt his construct fly away from his tail and into the woods. He looked to the two boys and ordered them to help. He barked at them, but the children didn’t move.
“What are you waiting for?? Help!” But they didn’t move. Paralyzed from fear, the children looked at the beast who had tossed the strongest of them to the side.
They watched its eight green eye’s stare hungrily at the dangling girl. Then they watched it turn to them.
A very sapient smile crawled up the creature's exoskeleton face.
It… smiled.
Rumble watched the two boys scream and dash into the woods in terror. Pushing past whatever group was behind him in the woods. They abandoned him.
They abandoned him.
They abandoned THEM.
Flame, his best friend since birth, choked on blood as he laid against the flaming tree. His eyes were glossy as he grabbed at his wound and muttered to himself. The fire climbed down the tree and was about to make its purchase on his body.
No.
NO!
When he started to run over, he heard her, “Rumble! Help me!!”
He looked up and saw the flaming girl burn and scream for his help. Saw his friend in the corner slowly dying as his life drained out of his body.
He heard her screams and watched the fire climb closer and closer to his body. The screaming, the fire.
The screaming, the fire. The screaming, the fire. The screaming, the fire. He clutched at his head.
He didn’t know what to do. He… He needed help. Rumble thought about how those boys had run off. The: “Biggest and Strongest of The Cradle.” The boys Flame had chosen were just pure physical ability, lacking any of the will.
Rumble was caught. He didn’t know what to do. What was the right answer? He was caught between two hard decisions.
His friend? Or a girl who he barely knew…
The answer was obvious, right..? Yeah… yeah… that was the right answer right? He hadn’t talked to her before!
Who’s to say that she wouldn’t have abandoned him just like those boys would…
Flame was the obvious choice. He was first. He was their leader, he was–
He saw the face of her accepting her fate. Crying as her flames started to eat away at her own body.
She gave him that look of betrayal that Rumble had given the boys just a moment prior. Flame’s face was about to be covered. He sighed, a black hand squeezing his heart as he made a decision.
Whoom Whoom Whoom Whoom.
He felt his pickaxe blade still in flight and got down low to the ground. “Please… Just hold on Flame…” He whispered.
He willed it to turn around.
He pulled back on his construct and felt it quickly swivel in the air. WHOOM WHOOM WHOOM WHOOM! The improvised boomerang flew faster as he watched her body slowly get lifted toward the Rabbit's lips. The creature drew out the moment, solely to satisfy its own malevolent desire to increase the smell of despair. The exhaustion and focus made Rumble’s legs shake even more. He couldn’t walk even if he wanted to.
He cursed those boys as fire started to pour over Flame’s face, an agonizingly ironic moment for the one Blessed by Fire. With a whipping sound in the air, the pickaxe surprised the beast. The creature was pegged in the back, the sudden injury gushing out an inky spout of blood, it screeched into the sky.
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Warrior slipped out the creatures ‘thankfully’ not barbed limb. But that didn’t stop her from crying out in pain as it exited out her body. She landed on the floor with a thud, her flaming construct falling away, and Rumble quickly ran over to protect her.
The beast was injured and screeching. It tried to leap away, but the giant stone structure firmly in its back made it a futile effort.
It was… stuck here.
A part of Rumble wanted to release his hold on the construct.
This battle wasn’t one that he felt like he could win. He may be cavalier when he fought Nike but this creature would kill him if he moved wrong. A part of him wanted to run away. That part wanted to abandon his two friends and run with the other Imp’s.
He swore under his breath. But that wasn’t in his nature… was it?
“If we get out of this, you listen to what I say, you understand!?” He yelled to the girl behind him.
He heard her mumble something. The creature’s limbs seemed to be having some kind of effect on their bodies.
Flame would have at least attempted to get up. He watched the boy try to get up when his bones were smashed by Nike, this was poultry in comparison.
Rumble watched the creature's legs fold in and its body start to glow a slight dark purple. His mouth fell as the creature's wounds started to slowly close.
He had to deal with this.
“Ru…Rumble…” He looked next to him and saw Warrior holding her wound and looking up at him. She practically coughed out her words.
“We’re getting out of here, don’t worry.” He tried to comfort her as he watched her wound start to slowly turn green.
Warrior’s lips slowly got more dry…
“Just… Just stay right here alright… You’ll be okay.” He said. His voice didn’t even convince himself. Warrior nodded slowly. The girl he named looked to him in hope.
He couldn’t let her die here. He looked over to Flame, whose head was now completely abjured by fire.
…
Rumble felt his chest burn as he drew all the power he could. His capacity was terrible. His control was only ok. But Rumble knew that in order to win this, he would have to push beyond what he’d done so far.
Build a construct that was better and bigger than anything he’d ever done. He plugged his tail in and spread his magic further. Medicine ball, Large rock, Wrecking ball. His body swayed as he rested his hands firmly on the dirt.
More.
His range grew, his tail wouldn’t be able to lift all this… it…
He coughed.
Blood dribbled out of his mouth and eyes as he went beyond his own reserves, drawing on his very life. What did Flame call him? A dramatic battler?
He wiped his mouth. Guess he should lean into that, huh?
Rumble leaned into the ground and felt his own construct consume him.
…
…
Shoji ran through the forest, his bio-weapon already drawn. His unique blade made of organically grown steel shone as he held it tight.
This was bad.
He was fond of understatements like that.
A chimera, the true enemy of the demons, was not supposed to appear in this neck of the woods. Those mutants were rare, a dime in a dozen. Its appearance was stupidly, insanely unlucky.
Why during this test? His worry swelled as he leaped up into the trees, setting his heart beating. He used his superior Oni gifts to move through the forest like a wild monkey, easily throwing himself . He nimbly dodged through fauna and perfectly leaped from large branch to large branch.
The trick was to look three trees ahead of you, positioning yourself only on the branches that are absolutely sure to hold your weight.
He would mark all the children after this mishap. This wasn’t going to happen under his supervision. While this wasn’t truly Nike’s fault… it would be good to tell The Chieftain how Shoji had swooped in, and—
*RUMBLE*
He nearly fell out of the tree as the forest shook. He heard the flapping of birds as he felt it. ‘Earth magic?’ He thought. But… it felt…
He jumped as fast as he could and made it there to see it.
Holy…
A giant, spiked black ball of compressed earth, almost the size of Nike, faced off with the chimera.
Thin holes peppered all around the ominous earthen sphere like the tunnels of a corpse dug out by maggots, producing the sound of a child screaming.
The terrible ball slowly began rolling towards that monster rabbit he’d spotted attacking the children in his spyglass. The creature paled and tried desperately to crawl away.
The giant stone Pickaxe in its back weighed the creature down as the giant ball slowly rolled up to the beast.
Shoji watched as it attempted to run away and even try to unwisely leap despite being burdened by such a large construct in its back.
Slam!
Its body is brought back to the ground as the weight of the pickaxe seems… to get heavier? The creature stops moving, starting to whimper as the shadow of the black spiked ball looms over it. It rolls slowly and methodically, glowing a faint tawny. Shoji almost felt bad for the beast as the ball climbs over it,
And swallows its body.
The construct stands there rolling back and forth, grinding the beast to a fine paste. Making absolutely sure that the rabbit is dead and gone, Before it slowly falls away. A river of sand bleeds from the ball, slowly as the caster lets go of their hold.
Shoji is shocked when the ball keeps bleeding sand. “Who… The compression on…” He’d seen feats before but…
‘These kids…’
He watched a small boy with a tail fall out of the ball. He was bleeding from every orifice and the earth around his body hardened and softened sporadically.
He was dying, and slightly whimpering as he lay in pain.
Shoji ran up to him and looked around the battleground. He saw a girl afflicted with a terrible poison who was cradling a boy who suffered a terrible burn.
A pile of sand, the boy who had done the impressive feat of magic mumbled “Flame…Flame…” As he writhed on the ground.