The walls were somehow miles high, or had the weight of such a structure. Shadow monsters sat together, side by side, filled nearly every seat that was fashioned out of their flesh. So, it stood to reason, that with all of these elements together—it would be near-impossible for this place to be silent.
But the appearance of the Jaw Subsumed in its new hide, hushed the crowd and made their collective anticipation palpable. Though, it was hard to call what was before Calypso and Gale a mere “Jaw” anymore.
“Cal—do we run now or--?” Gale asked the in-between girl before her, that was the only line of defense for the still-human.
Calypso growled lowly, gnashing her two rows of teeth. Not exactly the fangs trying to push out the human teeth, but pushing against each other, paused in the process of merging.
Making Calypso notice that the “Jaw” Subsumed was just standing there. Panting through it’s new, glistening canine snout.
The girl’s black eyes glanced back at the crowd, then back at it. Maybe there was a connection.
“For a spirit of vengeance or whatever you’ve called yourself…” Calypso mustered a cocky smirk, her large and the only neatly manifested fang pointing out of it. “You’re oddly calm about all this. What are you waiting for? Rip us limb from limb.”
The Jaw laughed gutturally. It’s elongated, serpentine head rocked on its bullish build that went through a gradient into the form of a massive eel’s tail. Its wings fluttered against the bovine’s sides, the cricket legs folded into each other creaked and the elephant’s feet becoming firm into the arena.
“Oh no…” the “Jaw” Subsumed mocked, its former namesake was so jutted outwards that Calypso felt that they were on the verge of tearing out. “I shall. But this is honor, after all. You have to face me, first.”
The monster girl noticed that the dreg’s speech patterns were much clearer. The suicidal confidence had foundation to it in this tense moment.
She had to play along. For their sakes.
“Face you?” Calypso constantly looked about her surroundings. “Battle you, then—for the honor of your fallen, to be clear?”
“The very same. Now rise to your feet, halfling vermin.”
“And you’re not one yourself? Look at you… You’re everything and the kitchen sink now. Where’s the purity in that?”
“Because I am ideal…” the “Jaw” slobbered. “I stand where my brethren sit and gawk. I’m using the gifts that they’ve thrown away. I have become the ultimate, the highest of breed. With the achievement of Chimera, I will end this bootless charade.”
During her searching with the time she bought, Calypso’s void eyes looked at the audience, still quiet. The skies still brimming with the red runes above, like unnatural lightning. And Gale still in the middle of all of this, still human and sweating up a storm.
None of this could do. But she had to make a choice.
“Gale, cover me…”
Gale stumbled over her words for a moment, “C-cover--?”
“Look towards the skies and look around the area…” Calypso planted her prongs on the ground, shifting into a track runner’s stance. “Go to the entryway, but not too far and be ready for anything—”
“We don’t know if you can fight like this, do we?!”
“Usually works when they’re surprised, I have to admit… But I have healing on my side, at the very least. I have my head. And to be frank, we don’t have too many options—if this thing wants an honor fight, I’ll give it what it wants.”
“There has to be more that I can--”
“You arguing is wasting time. As much as I want to test a theory by making it wait, but we can’t afford anymore screw ups.”
There was a flash of brilliance in the monster girl’s eyes. Her expression shifting to steely, quizzical pondering.
“If I may be so bold—and yes, I’ve had been in every encounter we’ve had… Spare the girl? Since this is between you and I? After all… Isn’t this what this was about, hm? The ones we love…?”
The Jaw Subsumed’s fangs practically twitched into a tightened grimace. There was no need for eyes, cheek bones, facial muscles. What it felt then was not only clear, but could be tasted in the air.
“Fine, you manipulative, halfling witch.”
Calypso cocked her head. “You heard it. Now go, Gale. Please.”
Calypso heard a very supple, but curt “damn it…” in her ears, before hearing her footfalls linger away. But she was faced with her enemy, never turning away not once.
She never got why, and how, she gets so eerily calm in the face of these battles. Calypso enjoys it, but only when she knows that she’s powerful, when she had every reason to be terrified. But once those pins and needles bore themselves from the inside and out, that lingering ache… It felt so good. She felt glad that something so potent could exist within her in the first place.
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This was the challenge Calypso yearned for.
“Now then, Jaw Subsumed… Or ‘Chimera Jaw’?” Calypso slowly rose to her feet, raising her prongs up. “Come avenge someone that barely mattered as food, to me.”
All she heard was roar of righteous pain, and couldn’t fathom anything else.
The Chimera-Jaw Subsumed rushed forward, but that wasn’t exactly it. To Calypso’s strong but ultimately untrained eye, the being just turned into a black blur, practically twisting into streaks.
Before she knew it, a massive jaw crushed her shoulder, punctured the back of her ribcage, and broke her arm in half. And for good measure, thrusted into the air while tightening its hold.
Calypso shrieked out in this immense pain, trailing off into a monstrous cry. Gritting her fangs, somehow enduring the pain only because she can feel the wounds seizing up, Calypso slammed her prongs against the beast’s hide, raking them against the surface.
Only for every single digit to break, one by one, as Calypso tried to gash this beast.
Her efforts amounting to white lines against its skin.
“—Ierm—This—Very problematic…!” Calypso growled out in continued misery.
The monster girl proceeded to fire off a series of knee-led kicks, right into the underbelly of the beast. She felt in real time, her knee caving in, not even the sharp bits of the shattered bone not at all making a dent into this titanium hide. No matter what she did, Calypso still had not established her tempo in this bout, this beast continued to drive it further. The only one between the two, that was moving.
Calypso was whipped back down into the ground, as the beast flicked the head towards its side and to the back.
Now laying within her crash site, all Calypso could do in this moment was position herself—So that her altered body can snap back into place. Bones that should have been shattered beyond repair, crippling for life, healed over within seconds of each other. A grievously damaged leg was good as new, just after destroying it moments ago.
Good thing as well, as Calypso was able to jumped away, the beast became a blur again. At least this time, she could’ve seen something coming.
Throwing a grizzled huff out of her throat, Calypso sprung into action, but kept her distance. Using her newly gifted speeds, she circled the beast as it laid in the crater it fashioned.
She was using this momentary lapse to actually see the damn thing. Using her sharp eyesight to study this beast, to figure out what weakness it was hiding--to figure out something she was missing. But all she could gleam was how much of a mismatch this existence was, truly as if a human went mad and took various body parts of their fellow man and grafted it on themselves. There should be rejection, all of this fighting against it…
All Calypso could see, was an assured predator chuckling to itself. Waiting for her to make a move.
Or a better one than this.
“…My own medicine sucks,” Calypso shook her head, looking around, taking stock again.
Once again. What was once a rowdy crowd was waiting for a pin to drop. The skies that tried to strike her down was not exactly calmed, but was buzzing about contained.
And looking near the entrance, Gale was holding her forehead. Glancing down at her phone, then looking at Calypso with such panicked, wet eyes.
The sight caused Calypso to bound forward, leaning into trajectory like an arrow. Her in-between status locked her entire frame into a suitable primal stance. A build that brings out speed, sharpness, and ferocity.
Almost akin to a cheetah latching onto a gazelle, Calypso landed on the hide once more.
She swiped in a cross formation. She tried overhand and then raking down, undercutting upwards. Struck with two prongs on each “hand”, pressed together, to drive them deep into what should be simple flesh.
All of that resulted in slight scuffs.
There was nothing to it, Calypso opened her mouth wide—doing the action reminding her that it isn’t her maw that could expand further. But she arched her head downwards.
Only for her fangs to slide right off, forcing the girl right on her back. As if her prongs anchoring her did not matter at all. In any fashion.
Calypso cursed herself in that moment, as she looked down to see her hands rendered into nubs.
It was strange. She was the best of both worlds, she knew that she was strong and nimble and virtually “unkillable”. But that was not true in the slightest, and Calypso did not feel that more than right now. The pain was incredibly different, it lingered and her body didn’t reward her for it. She’s healing quick, but… It was recreating an inferior body that wasn’t meant to be used. Merely pass through, get by, preparation for the actual transformation. This mode was only needed for cutting or running.
Calypso needed to do both right now.
“GALE, STAY THERE—WE’RE LEAVING!”
Jumping backwards, out of the crater, Calypso squat downwards before leaping straight into the air.
Slamming down next to Gale, seeing the girl leap in her own skin when she did, Calypso looked behind her. To see the beast “staring” up at her, still within the crater, radiating such cocksure energy.
Her prongs became fully formed again, so the monster girl scooped Gale into her hold quickly. Shuffling backwards, then running to regain that ground, before bounding forward for what hopefully would be the final time.
She too Gale’s shouts that were directly in her ears, took her nails digging into her due to clutching so tightly. But Calypso wasn’t there, she was too deep in her mind. Badgering herself, about never coming to Mrs. Moses for advice and knowledge, never testing out her transformation capabilities. All she did was having “fun”, when she was but an engorged fish in a puddle, splashing in her squalor.
Only to snap out of that. Sensing something watching her. But it wasn’t just—wasn’t the same “energy” as the previous presence, but there was two of them.
Her eyes trained downward, as she was still within her arch of the jump. Easily scaling over the area, but that didn’t matter anymore.
The pair was looking up at them. They dressed as New England settlers—in black cowlings that covered everything on the top of their bodies sans the eyes. They sported white, long gloves and boots, which stopped at the elbows and knees respectively with a coiled, thick band that was a shade darker. They wore tattered, silver rags that hung yet complimented with the flowing cowls, as if they were peasants for hire—pilgrims that barely made it to the new world.
It wasn’t that they were suddenly here, it wasn’t how eerie they looked. Calypso did not like the fact that they felt like they knew what they were doing and knew exactly what she and Gale were.
“What is it—with this fucking to--?!” Calypso couldn’t get the words out.
Because the roar of the Chimera-Jaw Subsumed cut everything off.
Calypso looked behind herself, to find the beast was using its wings to glide. And it was gaining far too quickly.
But the monster girl at least had the one gambit left.
She kicked, she kicked at the air until she felt the wide, massive, tombstone sized maw of her predator. And used everything in her current power to use them as a springboard.
Calypso didn’t have long, she became an arrow within the air again—now with precious cargo. Adjusting quickly, Calypso had her back towards the incoming ground, her turn to clutch Gale tight.
Within moments, her back was creating a deepening straight line in the ground, pulling the soil at the sides of her impact impression until she hit a fairly rooted tree. Smashing her altered skull with a sharp thud.
***