Everyone was paralyzed in front of the frightening presence of that hideous being in front of the four of them - Lucian, Ruby, Mannie and Lucy - That monster was nothing like a human, this was something completely... dark.
A humanoid creature with a wrinkled body, its left side with exposed muscle fibers. Its body is thin, and you can see its bones above the wrinkled skin. The exposed skin has its muscle fibers and some parts of the bone exposed for all to see, from which oozes a very dark green, gooey liquid, this being has an eyeless face, where the left side is burnt, and a bizarre ear-to-ear grin is constantly shown as a form of debauchery to the poor frightened bunnies in front of it.
Its neck has a clean cut that would probably cause this monstrous being's head to plummet and roll across the floor, but pitch-black hands clutch it around the head and keep moving out of its neck.
This being has an open chest, and in the middle of it, a heart is constantly beating and a green liquid similar to the one dripping from its skinless arm.
This being is no longer Josh... that's a Corrupted.
Ruby reacts quickly when she hears the shrill scream coming from Lucy's mouth, and then grabs her and Lucian's hands. She then pulls them all to the ground, and at the same time, using her foot, she knocks Mannie to the ground.
Everyone was paralyzed except her, so she managed to react in time and save everyone. Immediately after Ruby's actions, a black line passes right through the position of everyone's neck.
The wall that was in the path of the blow received this black line, and was soon damaged with a cut. Ruby soon shouts - Calm down! Lucy uses the whistle! Lucian, Mannie, let's hold him down!” she said as she twirled her knife again.
The knife spins and yellow sparks of electricity begin to fly out, and then she shouts - Be careful! Don't die!
Mannie soon recovers, her irises focused on her target, the corrupted man with his chest open in front of her, and she readies herself.
He grasps his blade with both hands and immediately lunges towards the creature in front of him. He strikes a blow towards its neck, looking for a direct cut that would kill or incapacitate the target. After all, he knows that a Corrupted would rarely die from a simple cut to the neck.
He strikes the blow, and the sound of steel hitting hard is heard, and the next thing he knows, the dark hands coming out of the creature's neck have multiplied, becoming 6 and all holding Mannie's slashing attack.
He withdraws the blade and rolls to the left, crouching in a defensive position.
Ruby took advantage of this moment and, while her knife was spinning and releasing rays of energy, she planted her foot on the ground, turned her spine and, as if she had thrown something at immense speed, quickly threw the knife towards the Corrupted.
The blade travels at high speed, leaving a trail of yellowish electricity in a straight line, a glow running along its trajectory until it hits its target. The creature soon stands still, but the black hands on its neck twitch.
The exposed heart in its chest beats faster and the green liquid begins to flow more steadily out of the creature's chest.
Lucy watches this scene in horror, but acts as Ruby asked her to, and pulls out a black whistle with silver details from her dress.
No sound is heard, but Lucian and the others feel a strange sensation coming from him as she blows the whistle.
After feeling this sensation, Lucian returns to the real world, and even though he's frightened, he gets up quickly and rolls over to Ruby, crouches down next to her and takes aim with his revolver at the creature and fires two shots.
Bang Bang!
The sound of the shots echoed in the house, and one bullet hit the creature's abdomen and oozed green liquid. The other bullet was headed for its head by accident, but one of the black hands grabbed the bullet and crumpled it up like paper.
Even though Lucian feels scared, he knows that he has to act, he has to demonstrate his performance now that he is inside the Night Breezes, and he has the opportunity now!
The creature that had stood still from the start, only its dark hands moving defensively, defending him from some attacks, finally moved.
It stretches its two arms out to the sides, stretching them as far as they will go, into a T pose. Soon, its wide grin showing yellowish teeth opens up, showing a huge red tongue with some worms moving above it.
The hands on his neck hide in the cut they originate from, and then 6 appear on each forearm. This all happened very quickly, this monster may not look it, but it is very agile.
His forearms soon separate from his body, spreading a black liquid, but his forearms are still connected to his arms by black hands that form several black lines.
He soon makes an X-shaped swing with his arms, and his forearms stretch out, acting as whips, and so head towards Lucian and Ruby.
Ruby manages to react in time and rolls to the side at the same time as pushing Lucian, the two of them managing to narrowly dodge a powerful blow, which caused a hole in the wood of the house.
Lucian feels useless, he's depending on his partner's reflexes to dodge the blows. But he won't give up, he has to serve something.
He rolls onto his side and holding the revolver with both hands, he runs to get a better view of the creature's temples. As it has a body similar to that of a human, he imagines that it will also have the temples, being a place that, in a human being, is more fragile.
He tries to concentrate and aims for the temple, and pulls the trigger just once in an attempt to hit a specific corner of its head, but misses.
“Damn it, I've got to improve my aim! In my past life I should have tried harder and learned a few things in the time I spent training for the army!” he thought as a rebuke, but soon pulled himself together when he heard Mannie's grunts.
He looked in Mannie's direction, and realized that an incredibly thin, dark-colored line running from the creature's neck had pierced his chest. -Mannie?! Are you all right?!” Lucian quickly approaches to help him.
He touches Mannie's shoulder, but is startled by a loud cry of pain coming from him as the black line that pierced his chest begins to grow.
Mannie drops his saber and crouches on the ground clutching his chest. Lucian sees the line and then focuses his vision on the saber.
He picks up the saber and quickly slashes at the line, but when he hits it, only a slight defect is noticeable in the line, which gets thicker by the second.
He makes another and another, but to no avail.
Ruby watches the scene and feels desperate. She points her finger straight and her dagger-like weapon Core magically returns to her hand.
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She rushes towards the beast while twirling the knife in her fingers, and with a reckless but well-timed blow, stabs the Corrupted straight through the heart.
The rays travel from the short blade of the knife to the heart, and the Corrupted lets out a strange scream that sounds like the fusion of several voices of different genders and different ages in unison.
He takes a few steps back, and the line that was piercing Mannie's chest is soon detached from him. Mannie continues to wince in pain, but less abruptly. He begins to cough up a little blood, but he looks better than before.
Lucian feels more relieved, and soon drops Mannie's saber next to him, then pulls out his revolver again.
Ruby steps back as she removes her electric knife from the Corrupted's heart, her arm completely covered in the green liquid that continues to drip steadily from the creature's heart.
Lucian soon realizes that the creature is momentarily paralyzed, it is writhing and grunting with the mixed voices of several people. He has a chance of a critical hit!
He soon realizes that he's used up 3 bullets from his revolver, with 3 more to go before he can reload it, he'll have to go all out!
He takes aim and unleashes a shot.
Bang
A direct hit to the heart, which was already badly damaged. Then another shot.
Bang!
A shot right through the leg, causing it to separate from the body and balance on just one leg. The green liquid oozes out and scatters on the floor along with a few pieces of meat. And finally, the last bullet.
Bang!
A direct shot to the head, this time hitting the temple by accident. The shot causes the creature's head to explode and scatter into several pieces of flesh and brains. Greenish blood spreads around the room as the Corrupted's body falls to the floor.
Lucian first feels disgusted by the scene in front of him, a body has had its head completely blown off in front of him! He's killed someone, he's shot someone! Even though he's already dead, it's something very strange... a very strange feeling.
He looked away from the creature with the exploded head, managing to avoid vomiting on the floor at the moment, and then turned to help Mannie, but it wasn't necessary, Lucy was already treating him urgently.
Mannie had fainted, but he was fine, he'd managed to stay alive... he's resilient. Suddenly, Ruby nudges him.
He turns around and Ruby says - Lucian, congratulations, I'm impressed. You're just someone who hasn't even mastered the Spiritual, but you've managed to take on a Corrupted.
His forearms soon separate from his body, spreading a black liquid, but his forearms are still connected to his arms by black hands that form several black lines.
He soon makes an X-shaped swing with his arms, and his forearms stretch out, acting as whips, and so head towards Lucian and Ruby.
Ruby manages to react in time and rolls to the side at the same time as pushing Lucian, the two of them managing to narrowly dodge a powerful blow, which caused a hole in the wood of the house.
Lucian feels useless, he's depending on his partner's reflexes to dodge the blows. But he won't give up, he has to serve something.
He rolls onto his side and holding the revolver with both hands, he runs to get a better view of the creature's temples. As it has a body similar to that of a human, he imagines that it will also have the temples, being a place that, in a human being, is more fragile.
He tries to concentrate and aims for the temple, and pulls the trigger just once in an attempt to hit a specific corner of its head, but misses.
“Damn it, I've got to improve my aim! In my past life I should have tried harder and learned a few things in the time I spent training for the army!” he thought as a rebuke, but soon pulled himself together when he heard Mannie's grunts.
He looked in Mannie's direction, and realized that an incredibly thin, dark-colored line running from the creature's neck had pierced his chest. -Mannie?! Are you all right?!” Lucian quickly approaches to help him.
He touches Mannie's shoulder, but is startled by a loud cry of pain coming from him as the black line that pierced his chest begins to grow.
Mannie drops his saber and crouches on the ground clutching his chest. Lucian sees the line and then focuses his vision on the saber.
He picks up the saber and quickly slashes at the line, but when he hits it, only a slight defect is noticeable in the line, which gets thicker by the second.
He makes another and another, but to no avail.
Ruby watches the scene and feels desperate. She points her finger straight and her dagger-like weapon Core magically returns to her hand.
She rushes towards the beast while twirling the knife in her fingers, and with a reckless but well-timed blow, stabs the Corrupted straight through the heart.
The rays travel from the short blade of the knife to the heart, and the Corrupted lets out a strange scream that sounds like the fusion of several voices of different genders and different ages in unison.
He takes a few steps back, and the line that was piercing Mannie's chest is soon detached from him. Mannie continues to wince in pain, but less abruptly. He begins to cough up a little blood, but he looks better than before.
Lucian feels more relieved, and soon drops Mannie's saber next to him, then pulls out his revolver again.
Ruby steps back as she removes her electric knife from the Corrupted's heart, her arm completely covered in the green liquid that continues to drip steadily from the creature's heart.
Lucian soon realizes that the creature is momentarily paralyzed, it is writhing and grunting with the mixed voices of several people. He has a chance of a critical hit!
He soon realizes that he's used up 3 bullets from his revolver, with 3 more to go before he can reload it, he'll have to go all out!
He takes aim and unleashes a shot.
Bang
A direct hit to the heart, which was already badly damaged. Then another shot.
Bang!
A shot right through the leg, causing it to separate from the body and balance on just one leg. The green liquid oozes out and scatters on the floor along with a few pieces of meat. And finally, the last bullet.
Bang!
A direct shot to the head, this time hitting the temple by accident. The shot causes the creature's head to explode and scatter into several pieces of flesh and brains. Greenish blood spreads around the room as the Corrupted's body falls to the floor.
Lucian first feels disgusted by the scene in front of him, a body has had its head completely blown off in front of him! He's killed someone, he's shot someone! Even though he's already dead, it's something very strange... a very strange feeling.
He looked away from the creature with the exploded head, managing to avoid vomiting on the floor at the moment, and then turned to help Mannie, but it wasn't necessary, Lucy was already treating him urgently.
Mannie had fainted, but he was fine, he'd managed to stay alive... he's resilient. Suddenly, Ruby nudges him.
He turns around and Ruby says - Lucian, congratulations, I'm impressed. You're just someone who hasn't even mastered the Spiritual, but you've managed to take on a Corrupted.
-Normally we can't even pull a trigger out of fear, but at least you managed to put up a bit of a fight. The more you evolve and consume Cores, the more your mind will improve and you'll be able to cope with seeing similar scenes or creatures. At the same time as the Cores give us powers, they also help us minimally with mental resilience... heh heh, it's kind of ironic that the Cores cause our possible madness and at the same time bring mental resilience to ordinary situations...
Suddenly, Lucian notices something: a faint purple glow begins to emerge from the body of the creature with the exploded head. The glow expands into a straight beam that disappears after a while, and in its place appears a very dark purple, almost black object.
Ruby looks surprised and says - A Core! - She then approaches and picks it up.
Lucian approaches it and analyzes it. It was a dark, wavy object with a spiritual aura that caught Lucian's attention.
Ruby then extends the hand that holds the dark object to Lucian and says - You killed the creature, it's yours, you'll get stronger.
Lucian takes the object and feels a strong spiritual pressure coming from it, it's a small object, but for some reason it's very heavy!
He puts it in his pocket and the weight disappears, and he asks - I'll wait a while... I'm still weak enough to be able to use a Core, I want to learn more about combat first, and then become a bit more useful in hand-to-hand and long-distance combat before consuming the Core.
-Understandable- Ruby said, smiled and continued- You have a future, Lucian.
...
Some time passes, and soon the four of them - Lucian, Ruby, Lucy and Mannie - have returned to the Night Breeze base.
The other members of the Night Breezes, who are stronger than them, decided to go ahead with the investigation, and the other four went to rest.
The days passed, and Lucian began to visit Ruby frequently for her training sessions, he visited her three times a week except at weekends.
The training went well, alternating between hand-to-hand combat and shooting practice. Lucian managed to improve a lot over time, he became minimally stronger.
Two weeks pass, the training takes place and Lucian also gets even more used to his family, they are no longer so unfamiliar to him.
They even planned that next week, on Tuesday, they would go on a trip to a theater, taking advantage of the fact that Lucian had gotten a much better salary than before. Mary had also gotten a better job at the bank, going from her old salary of 20 Bronze coins to 2 Silver and 20 Bronze.
They are even planning to move house in search of better quality housing and a better life, but for now they are focusing on buying other necessities.
But for Lucian, a day is coming that is good for him...
“Tomorrow I will consume the Core of the Corrupted Josh!”
To be continued...