Chapter Two: Horror-Tastic
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Then all hell broke loose.
Two bloodied limbs wiggled around in Mr. Feriger’s chest cavity from behind. Blood splattered the first row of students, too stunned to process what had just happened.
His arms and legs sprawled limply at his side. A small black monster widened thin white lips, stretching them until Mr. Feriger's whole body fit into its mouth.
And then, just like that, Aiden’s number one nemesis disappeared within the gaping maw.
He’d dreamt of similar things occurring before many, many times, but to see it happen in front of him...
Everyone stared in complete shock. The monster belched loudly, its lips pulling wide into a wicked grin.
It stepped toward Olivia, and Aiden’s mind blanked. He overcame the shock of its appearance, speeding through the seven stages of acceptance faster than ever before.
As much as he wanted to trick himself into thinking this wasn’t real or that this couldn’t be happening, it obviously was. Easy to skip that one quickly.
Anger. As it moved towards Olivia, he used his anger and fear to propel himself forward, accepting what he had to do.
He couldn’t lose Olivia.
He wouldn’t let it hurt her.
Before anybody else processed what was happening, he crossed the room. He didn’t think about what he needed to do, no. He just did it.
Kicking forward, he slammed his foot into the round head of the monster. It bounced to the other side of the room, screaming in protest as it finally came to a stop.
It pushed off the ground with its short, pudgy arms, rising to its clawed feet. It vaguely reminded Aiden of a yoga ball, but the arms and triangular ears set atop its head ruined that. When it looked at him again, his heart came to a jolting stop.
Its eyes were so human. Its sclera was pitch black, and the iris and pupil were colored bright crimson.
So expressive.
It unsettled Aiden.
But, in war, there was no time to sympathize with the enemy. Its pasty white lips turned down into a frown as Aiden brandished his pen in front of him.
He’d always thought about fighting someone with a pen, but now that he was actually doing it, he felt pretty dumb.
The monster shrieked loudly. Aiden covered his ears as the pitch continued to rise, not daring to take his eyes off the creature as it prowled forward.
Only when it closed its mouth did Aiden take the chance to attack again. It stood about half his height, so he continued to kick out at it as fast as he could. He really didn’t want to get his hands too close to the gaping maw.
If he was alone, he would’ve already run away, but the rest of the class had still yet to move.
More importantly, Olivia hadn't moved.
So, he held his ground, brandishing his pen at the monster, unsure of what to do next. It obviously didn’t have qualms about killing them, but Aiden had never killed anything before.
He'd have to push past that hesitancy sooner rather than later.
It opened its mouth, showing off several rows of needle-like teeth, and lashed out with the longest tongue Aiden ever saw.
It sailed through the air and smacked against his shoulder, carrying a surprising weight behind it. However, the worst part was the strange gunk that stuck against his left arm.
The tongue returned to the depths of the monster’s mouth. All feeling in his left arm slowly fled, the dark gunk leaving his shoulder awkwardly dangling.
“Help him!” Olivia screamed from behind him.
Her cry elicited a throaty chuckle from the monster. Red eyes stared Aiden down, but he resolved his will to fight back.
When it rushed forward, chomping wildly at the air, Aiden jumped out of the way and kicked it in the side of the head again.
He noticed that it turned slowly, much like bulls when charging a matador waving their red sheet.
He could use that.
After it recovered, it tried to lash him with the long tongue again, but he made sure not to let it touch him. If things weren't so horrifying, he would've probably looked rather funny as he dodged in every which way.
Only once the tongue returned to the monster’s mouth did Aiden catch his breath, grinning bitterly.
Knowing it wouldn't wait for him to recover, he taunted it. He needed to end things here and now. “Come get me!”
It charged once again.
Gripping the pen with his one good hand, the other numb from the putrid gunk, he stepped to the side and brought his entire weight down on top of it. The tip of the pen met a soft, gummy resistance, but it pierced through.
His hand shook uncontrollably as he drove the pen into its head over and over, losing count after the dozenth time.
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But even then, he didn’t stop. He continued to stab its limp form until a hand touched his back. He turned around, his head light as adrenaline roared in his veins. His heartbeat rhythmically sounded like war drums in his ears.
“Aiden,” Olivia shakily said. “Aiden, it’s dead.”
“Wha - what was that thing?” Viktoria asked, her voice pitched in a panic.
Aiden looked around. Nearly everyone in the room was staring at him and the monster remains. He looked back down to see it fade into a shadowy grey mist.
That couldn’t be healthy for the environment.
The randomness of the thought caught him off-guard, eliciting a chuckle from him. As if the floodgates had released, the laughter wouldn't stop once it started.
But he was far from amused.
Salty tears flowed down his cheeks and his arms hung loosely by his side. Like a leaf in the wind, his shoulders shook as the gravity of the situation settled on them. An overbearing weight that threatened to crush everything he knew.
Gasping for breath, he attempted to collect himself, but the harder he tried, the more his body spasmed in protest. His ribs groaned as he continued his bitter tirade, the laughter sad. More pained keening than mirthful amusement.
“Aiden? Aiden!" A voice called to him, but it barely cut through the desolate fugue he'd fallen into.
"Aiden!” Olivia shouted, her voice quivering. He turned to look at her, focusing on her face. He hated seeing her so concerned, so afraid and sad. "Talk to me. I'm here. Please, talk to me. What's going on?”
“Just -” He paused as another bout of chuckling threatened to spill out of him. Breathing deeply, he completely collected himself. “I really don’t know, Oli.”
“Did that thing really swallow Mr. Feriger?” she asked, eyeing the nearly dissipated monster corpse.
“It did,” he repeated numbly.
He stared at the monster for what felt like an eternity, but when he checked his watch, it was only seven forty-two.
Gripping the pen in his hand, he curiously watched as the shadowy dissipation ended.
Two milky orbs the size of marbles rested on the ground. Raising a brow, Aiden stabbed one with his pen.
Confirm (One) Essence allocation to Pen (Common I)?
Yes.
No.
He mentally selected “no” and watched as the orb reformed next to the other. Just to make sure what he’d seen wasn’t some kind of twisted trick of his overactive, adrenaline-muddled imagination, he poked it with the pen again.
Confirm (One) Essence allocation to Pen (Common I)?
Yes.
No.
Several people muttered behind his back as he stared into space, but he ignored them. He had a feeling that what happened next was going to be very, very important.
That was assuming that he hadn’t completely lost his mind.
Mentally prompting the “yes”, he got another one of the notifications.
Name:
Pen
Rarity:
Common II
Attack:
Piercing
Boost:
???
“That’s useful,” he muttered.
“Aiden, what did you do?” Olivia asked.
“I’ll explain in a second, Oli. I need to think.”
The Pen’s text box contained a lot of interesting information. Some of it was fairly obvious. It was a Pen and could poke things pretty hard.
But the Rarity had increased from the initial prompt, and all the information in the Boost category was unknown. He wondered if that meant it was inactive or if he just couldn’t understand it.
He banked on the former, hoping that he would understand in time. Staring at the second orb, he considered finding something else to poke it with. When he reached forward to pick it up, it dissipated into the same milky mist and slammed into his gut.
Contrary to his expectation, the mist was warm and filled his body with an elevated level of energy he’d never felt. So much, in fact, his head spun from the overwhelming stimulus.
Another status appeared in front of him.
(One) Essence assimilated.
View Essence Map now?
Yes.
No.
Looking around, he considered all the panicking faces. He wanted to say no, but he needed to figure out what was going on.
Prompting the “yes” caused him to lose focus of his surroundings. Instantly, he was forced elsewhere to some unknown.
He was no longer in the classroom anymore. He existed within a world of darkness that slowly lit up.
A dais raised from the ground. It shimmered slightly, slowly illuminating a small radius around it. As it finally raised all the way, stopping at chest height, it clicked into place.
Immediately, Aiden noticed the ornately carved map of the cosmos etched into the entirety of its side.
Floating forward in his manifested body, he analyzed it. A slot big enough for a single orb expectantly waited in the exact center on its flat, circular top. The top looked much simpler than the sides, boasting thousands of intersecting lines.
When he attempted to analyze it further, his focus snapped upward. An Essence Orb shined grey light as it descended toward the perfectly spherical, marble-sized divot in the dais.
A ray of silver guided it down, encompassing that milky great light in its entirety. Aiden couldn’t look away. No matter how hard he tried to look anywhere else, his focus continued to shift back to the silver-hued light, transfixed to its eerie glow.
Soundlessly, the Orb filled the slot. Everything flashed, prompting another notification.
Congratulations! Central Node activated.
As the Central Node activated, it illuminated the darkness. More ephemeral silver light and blue wisps combined to form an aura of serene radiance.
Five white lines inched slowly across the floor, reaching ever further as it pushed back the overbearing darkness.
Once those lines reached their final destination, the world completely changed. Five more Nodes, similar but different in comparison to the Central Node, rose from the ground.
The process was far faster than the Central node, but each one had unique etchings as well.
Shifting his consciousness forward, he moved to the closest dais. The Node boasted an aura of overwhelming might, the strength of body pushing past the laws of reality, of Power.
Subtly, it called to him. It yearned for him to strive toward a realm of greatness through the physique.
Just like the Central Node, it had the space for an Essence Orb. Unlike the simple Central Node, the Power Node's etchings moved as though alive.
Several muscular men, wielding a wide variety of weapons, shifted and stirred under his gaze.
Their weapons stabbed toward an unseen enemy. They shifted into unique forms and styles without breaking the fluidity of motion. They awed Aiden with the confidence of their graceful movements.
Each style paired with multiple weapons. He couldn't list them all, even if he tried. Swords, spears, axes… if it could cut, stab, or bludgeon something to death, it was depicted.
It lent credence to a sinking suspicion Aiden began to form. An uneasy feeling swelled and bulged deep within his gut.
Times were changing, and if Mr. Feriger was anything to go by, then they’d be changing for the worse.
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