This mouth was different from the one Chimera always showed him. It had wide flat teeth that ground whatever came between them like a pneumatic press. The lips smacked up in down with each mouthful of the environment. While it wasn’t as wide as the horizon, it did take up miles in its width. Whenever it missed something with a bite, it turned its head to gobble it up in the next one. That’s when he could see it had many eyeballs with flailing tentacles driving it forward. Deacon noticed all of this in one glance as he began to ignore the pain the in his leg. A never before known terror creeped up his spine at the sound of wet lips smacking together behind him. It was eating everything in the pocket dimension of this Wode.
Deacon ran. His leg gave out several times, but he ran. His Speed attribute was forty seven and even a loping jog was as good as some Olympic sprinters back home. He began to notice he was still channeling the Tempest as clouds attempted to coalesce around his feet. At this speed it wasn’t going to happen. He was benefiting from the Champions lack of a stamina bar in this instance more than ever.
The sun was fully set now, and darkness swept through the forest like someone was turning off lights in series. Deacon noticed the smell of fallen leaves and the slight mildew of wet foliage. Several times he tripped on roots jutting out of gritty earth. Eventually he broke through the trees, but it he was shocked to see a vast desert sprawling out in front of him. He could see the tracks of all the animals that ran through here as they escaped the maw. What was strange to him was the trees all stopped at the same point. Like someone snapped a chalk line where the forest should end. Chomp! That sound made him pick up the pace again. He just kept following the tracks of the animals. Hopefully, he would find some place to rest while that thing finished up the forest.
An hour or so later, Deacon came across a few burnt up squirrel carcasses. This was a tell tale sign of Caphida being nearby. He figured now would be a good time to switch to Infernal energy. He spoke his trigger phrase and his pupils turned red orange in color. Drawing in his aura to more tightly control than usual, Deacon ventured forth a little slower now hoping that monster was taking its time with the trees. Once he crested a dune, he finally caught sight of Caphida. He was meditating in a lotus position with small flame gouts puffing out of his aura all around him. Deacon got low in the sand feeling the coarse grainy material spread between his fingers. This sand was nothing like the mystically charged stuff he got from the first Wode. It was just…sand. He wondered if he should attack him or try to find out what the hell was happening. He looked behind him to see the trees nearest the edge of the sand starting to shake. The starry night above offered him no answers and he decided to go around him. That’s when a gout of fire shot from Caphida’s direction right at Deacon. Deacon rolled out of the way.
“I was hoping to make to tempting a target and maybe die with the honor of taking you down myself. Since you got out of the forest without being eaten,” yelled Caphida from the bottom of the dune.
“Yea well, there are bigger issues going on right now. What the hell is that thing and what happened to you?” Deacon asked genuinely curious.
“Fight me!” said Caphida charging up the hill.
“Don’t do it, I have the high ground. Can you just be civil for one instance? I don’ t even know why you are attacking me,” questioned Deacon preparing to fight fire with fire. Deacon began spinning several Infernal based sickles around himself.
“What happened to me? What happened to you? We both entered at the same time, but I’ve been running from that thing for a week. Now you just show up and want to talk? No. I’m going to kill you and then I’m going to roast that monkey man in his armor,” Caphida complained while gesturing around wildly.
Deacon didn’t know what to think. This guy was an asshole sure, but he didn’t want to get into another fight with him. He wrecked Deacon’s shit a week or so ago. He wanted to know what he meant by running for a from that thing for a week. Deacon was worried that the weird time dilation effects of the Wode prisons may not be uniform. The last one was essentially a pocket of slow time where the outside world moved much faster. He wondered how this advancing day night cycle compared to the outside world. Then Caphida was upon him.
Deacon thrust his constructs forward and to his surprise Caphida dodged around them this time. Last time he just batted them out of the air. With a quick burst of fire from his feet, Caphida closed the distance and struck out at Deacon who used Spectral Dodge to evade the strike. But Deacon was channeling the Infernal plane this time, Caphida landed in the fire that was left in Deacon’s wake. Caphida popped back up to his feet and went to brush off the patch or red orange flames from his hip. He took one step, and the infernal flames began consuming his pants. Caphida looked down, alarm showing clear on his face. He began hopping up and down trying to take his pants off.
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“What is this? Why won’t the flames extinguish? This is not how holy fire should work,” asked Caphida in a panicked voice as he rolled around in the sand.
“I wouldn’t do that…just going to spread it around,” Deacon said from a few feet away.
Deacon knew that infernal energy was one of his most dangerous weapons. That’s why he didn’t use it often. That little demonstration back in the woods when they were searching for the Corpungie nest taught him that. He figured learning to use it in a desert environment would have less of a collateral damage impact. Deacon was fascinated to see that Caphida’s control over fire didn’t apply to Infernal flames.
“Explain how you found me so quickly and I’ll extinguish the flames,” Deacon said with his arms crossed and tapping one foot in the sand.
“Never! I hate you! You’ve cost me everything!” screamed Caphida on the ground still attempting to put out the fire but just spreading more of it around him.
“This is very ironic but you two are just about out of time. Where did your horns go little demon?” asked a familiar voice from behind Deacon.
“What the shit!” said a startled Deacon spinning around in the sand.
“You have another ten minutes before The Unsatiated finishes up in the forest for today,” said the monkey man.
He was just standing there fully armored leaning on his staff that was just floating in the air. The image was almost comical to Deacon. Then the weird warrior started chomping down on an apple while Caphida hurled invectives at Deacon. Caphida finally got his pants off but now had melted pieces of fabric jutting out from his legs. His pile of clothes and some newly created, orange-tinted glass lay on the ground.
Caphida looked worse for the wear. He was still covered in bruises from when Deacon first saw him but now, he panted heavily and struggled to move one leg. Caphida looked down at his leg then up at Deacon and the monkey man. He pulled his right leg out to the side widening his stance and tucked his elbows close into his ribs while extending his pointer and middle finger from both hands, curling the rest of his fingers into his palms.
“Big move coming, sure you don’t want to just run?” asked the monkey man.
“Yea I’m picking up what you are putting down. Race you to the bottom of the dune?” questioned Deacon?
“You’re on,” replied the monkey man as he swept Deacon’s bad leg out from under him then took off down the Dune.
Deacon fell flat on his ass an orange glow emanated from Caphida. The singles competition champ’s chains were now wrapping around both arms which were extended forward. An enormous amount of heat was being generated around him and the sand was turning to glass at his feet. Two large fists of magma began bubbling out of the skin around his arms and bunching up like a coiled snake as the chains wrapped tighter. Deacon wasn’t idle, he began scurrying back then started rolling down the hill sideways. This wasn’t ideal for a speedy getaway but then he felt more than saw the two fists curving over the peak of the dune. His assumption was correct. That stance combined with that much power required Caphida to be stationary. The monkey man tipped him off when he asked if he wanted to run. Deacon was willing to bet his life this was all Caphida had left in the tank.
As one magma fist careened toward Deacon the other was chasing the armored warrior. Caphida would see them both burn for all the indignities he has suffered. Maybe then he could leave this place. Maybe then he could reclaim his position in the rankings. Caphida asked himself why the light from the stars was gone. He looked over his shoulder as some saliva dripped and sizzled off his arm. Chomp!
While the armored warrior was speaking out loud, Deacon noticed the tree line was already gone. There was no way they had ten minutes to spare. At that point he decided to go along with the bluff to lull Caphida who was facing away from The Unsatiated to rage himself into letting his guard down. Deacon thought it was a fitting end for the bully. With Caphida gone the fists were directionless and just fell to the sand to cool. Now Deacon had another problem. He was maybe a chomp and a half away from that monstrosity. At full speed he might be able to make it up the opposite side of the dune before it finished chewing it’s last morsel, but the monkey man had disturbed the sand on that side.
“Okay, new plan,” Deacon said as he pushed Spectral Dash to its limit. He triggered it in sequence three times costing him fifteen percent of his soul energy and shot over the top of the dune just as the next chomp came down. He sailed up and over leaving a burning trail of infernal flames in his wake. That’s when he heard the second sound that he would never forget. It was the sound of someone gathering a cluster of throat oysters before hocking a loogie. To his surprise what came flying past him was anything that was burning with infernal flames including the tinted glass. Deacon caught those with Polterheist, and they went into his bag. In the distance he could see the monkey man floating on his Bo staff clapping.