The red creature, named facehole, growls lazily, its sound echoed by the screams of the habibis in hiding. Slowly, it begins to walk toward the team. Towering over three meters, the creature's face forms an upside-down trapezoid, with a large, hollow opening at the center that pierces straight through its head. The elongated eyes, lined with sideways lids but no brows, stretch the full length of the face, perfectly aligned with the trapezoid’s angled sides. It has no nose, no ears, and its small, peculiar mouth bears no resemblance to anything familiar from the living realm.
The creature's thick neck connects seamlessly to its peculiar head shape. Its body resembles that of a giant, with broad, muscular arms and legs, large hands, and solid feet. Though it appears completely naked, its skin is covered in short smooth red fur.
“What in the world, I mean, Hell is this?” Yu is staggered by the creature in front.
“Wait, where’s Judy?” Mira wonders, trying to look behind the creature.
The creature growls again, this time more fiercely, setting the habibis into a frenzy of unrelenting screams. Its chest swells, as though drawing in a deep breath. The hole in its face begins to tremble, glowing faintly at first, until the once hollow opening turns a bright, burning red. As the creature’s chest deflates, a beam of concentrated laser shoots out toward the team.
The team splits into two groups, three moving to the left and four to the right, dodging the incoming beam. The laser follows their movements, leaving behind a blazing trail as it moves. It sweeps across Mira, James, and Lisa, sending them down to the floor and rolling, engulfed in small flame. As the laser turns back toward them, Anish swiftly pulls the fallen members out of harm's way, while Wyn propels himself with full force toward the creature.
Wyn is halted as his chakrams lodge into the creature’s backhand. The laser ceases, and the creature's eyes lock onto Wyn with intense focus. It swings its hand, trying to dislodge both Wyn and his weapons. At that moment, the chakrams begin to glow.
Wyn's chakrams have undergone a striking transformation. They’ve evolved into wearable metallic gloves that cover the backs of his hands and extend halfway down his palms. Above the knuckles, secure locks keep the chakrams in place. The blades themselves, now slightly larger, are glimmering silver, and the inner blades are neon cyan, having lost the dark brown leather that was once there.
The evolved weapons offer increased versatility in combat. As melee weapons, Wyn can slice and dice with them, spinning the chakrams as he throws punches. For ranged attacks, Wyn can tighten his grip to dislodge the blades with any motion or posture, as long as he avoids pointing them at himself.
“Woah! Helppp!” Wyn cries as his newly evolved weapons are still securely embedded.
“What a terrible time for his weapons to evolve,” Yu remarks.
The team closes in on the creature to attack its feet. In response, it stomps the ground, forcing the members to retreat and keep their distance.
“We can’t risk hitting you. Release yourself from the chakrams! I’ll save you,” Anish shouts.
Another powerful beam erupts, forcing the team on the ground to scatter in different directions. As the facehole is preoccupied, Wyn seizes the opportunity to climb up the giant, dislodging and lodging his chakrams all the way up to its shoulder. As he stands, he throws a punch into the eye, causing the sharp eyelids to slice shut violently. The creature halts its laser and shakes its head in response, before retaliating with a powerful punch from its other arm, aimed at Wyn.
Wyn braces for the incoming punch, securing himself firmly as he lodges his chakrams into the creature’s fingers. As the creature pulls its fist back toward its face, Wyn dematerializes his weapons and cyclone dashes directly into the eye, embedding one of the blades. The creature reacts by stomping the ground, then swings its backhand at Wyn. Anticipating the possibility of the creature’s next move, Wyn prepares for the sweep with one blade ready while releasing the lock on the other glove to let the blade stay in the creature’s eye. The sweep drives the blade into the backhand once more, but this time, the creature begins dragging Wyn along the ground. As the sweep ends and the creature raises its hand, Wyn is hurled into the mountains, leaving the final blade lodged in the creature's backhand.
Yu rushes toward Wyn’s direction, while the remaining team members intensify their attacks on the creature’s eyes. Anish thrusts his javelin, Christine hurls snowballs, James shoots icicles, and Lisa fires electrifying beams from her gun. Meanwhile, Mira wraps the creature’s toe as it lifts its foot, burning it with fire. The metal tip now trapped under the toe causes each step or stomp to not only discomfort the giant but also trigger explosions.
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Overwhelmed by the barrage, the creature keeps its eyes tightly shut and refuses to lift its feet, though it raises its toe slightly to prevent Mira’s whip from causing an explosion. However, with Wyn’s chakram still vertically lodged in the eye, a small opening remains.
Wyn tumbles into the mountains, facing the battlefield. Although he’s badly injured, he's safe from the hiding habibis. Yu, with Wyn's arm around his neck, carefully makes his way back to the team.
“You’re sure you’re okay?”
“I’m fine. We must get back to the team.”
Taking advantage of the situation, Anish orders the team to focus their attacks on one eye. Meanwhile, he takes flight, using his javelin hook to wrap around Wyn’s blade still lodged in the creature. As he falls from the creature’s back, he pulls the javelin hard, slicing the eye upward with the movement of the chakram blade.
The facehole reacts with a deep growl. Both eyes are now open, revealing a deep cut in the injured one. Desperate, the creature tries to cover both eyes with its hands. However, its hands aren’t large enough to fully shield the elongated eyes, though the team still struggles to land a critical blow.
At Anish's command, the team halts their attacks. Anish then flies between the hands, hooks them with his javelin from both sides, and pulls with all his strength as he descends. The hands are forced away from the eyes, giving the team the chance to finish the creature off with direct attacks to the injured eye, which can no longer shut due to the pain.
Just as they’re about to celebrate, the ground starts to tremble once more, but with a higher frequency this time. One, two, three, four, and five more of the facehole creatures emerge from the cave.
“Is that? NO!” Mira exclaims.
One of the faceholes is holding Judy’s severed head, which from a distance appears to be unconscious. The creatures growl angrily at the sight of their fallen comrade. The grip tightens, slowly crushing Judy’s head. She awakens in terror, screaming in immense pain before what’s left of her is crushed completely.
Meanwhile, the habibis gather around the battlefield, responding to the angry growls. Their curved horns touch the ground, and fire pillars erupt around the area. Suddenly, one by one, the habibis ram through the fire and into the team with burning horns. Despite their horns curving backward toward their necks, the repeated impacts cause injuries resembling fractures: Wyn’s chest, James’ leg, and Lisa’s side all sustain significant damage.
Amidst the chaos, five giants fire laser beams, disintegrating habibis as they advance toward the disorganized team. Wyn, Yu, and Anish coordinate their attacks as they dodge, all aimed at the faceholes. Wyn thrusts his chakram blades into the habibis, then releases and throws them into the faceholes with the aid of cyclones. Yu uses water fountains to lift and suspend the goat creatures, bending the streams toward the giants. Anish, with his wind powers, hurls habibis directly at the massive foes. Lisa joins the assault, firing electrifying beams from her hands, as her weapon is too large to be useful with the habibis in close proximity. Despite their combined efforts, they fail to land a single hit into the eyes of the giants.
Christine and James, struggling to hack the habibis’ horns, receive help from Mira, who blasts the creatures with her explosive whip.
“Someone needs to get on top of just one of them,” James yells.
“No, we need to leave,” Wyn responds.
“He’s right. Shoot me, Wyn! Shoot me into one of them. Go for an eye or shoulder,” Anish says.
“NO! I can’t risk anyone’s life!”
In the midst of the chaos, a laser beam targets Lisa as she battles the habibis. Reacting swiftly, she summons her gun to shield herself from the incoming attack. The sheer force drives her backward slightly but constantly. The beam lingers, its heat intensifying as it focuses on her weapon. Gritting her teeth, Lisa braces herself, her arms absorbing the brunt of the searing energy. Meanwhile, Mira finds herself trapped as two beams converge on her, completely disintegrating one of her legs.
“NOW, WYN! I’M READY!” Anish shouts.
Panicked, Wyn hesitates for a moment before launching a cyclone toward the faceholes, propelling Anish along with it. He fails to notice that the barrage of beams has subsided. The faceholes, now aligned, charge up for a single, devastating power beam.
The facehole in front pivots its head, directing the combined beam toward the team. As its head turns, the beams from the others bend seamlessly, still aligning to pass through the hole in its face. Without a moment’s hesitation, Wyn performs an enveloping dash, sucking all the team members along and crashing them into the safety of the mountains beyond the engulfing flames. The cyclone also catches several habibis, including those hiding behind the fire pillars, causing the chain of pillars to collapse.
The facehole in front pivots its head once more, this time directing the combined beam toward the approaching Anish. Wyn, ignoring his own pain, springs up in a desperate attempt to check on him, but it feels as though something within him sinks into a void. Before his very own eyes, the beam cuts through Anish’s shoulder, then chest, and then – Wyn’s greatest fear – his head.