The reptile checked his watch, finding himself stuck inside the complex for almost half an hour. Walking around trying to find the heart of the haunted building to find nothing that could indicate such a thing existed. Yet the deeper he journeyed, the stronger the scent became. He was close, but he wasn’t sure what he was close to. Though the unmistakable stench of raw meat and bodily fluids was a hint that he was near something important.
However, instead of finding the heart of the monster or the breeding chambers that birthed new horrors. The reptile had found the edge of the realm's world. A bottomless pit that led to nowhere, an endless abyss of darkness. He looked up, to see that even the mirrored version of the world above him had that bottomless pit. Yet beyond that darkness, beyond the void, was the smell. The heart of the creature that the reptile believed beat behind the silence. He knew he had to find a way down, but he had to think of something.
Then something shifted. It was subtle as he felt his back toe digging into the ground. He didn’t find the end of the realm. He stumbled into the trap! Jackson turned around and ran away from the bottomless pit as the world inclined. Chairs, beds, and anything not nailed down slid and fell into the pit. The reptile slung the shotgun to his side as he climbed away, struggling to escape the pit as the world tilted. Eventually, Jackson latched onto a solid kitchen counter and hoisted himself up when the world became vertical.
The reptile looked down below, frustrated that the pit’s maw was the only way down and perhaps the only way to the creature’s heart. Though, he suspected he was also looking at certain doom. For all he knew, he was staring down at the stomach of the complex.
Before the reptile could reach for his grappling hook to escape the facility. A hound-like creature snarled in front of the reptile, standing on the vertical ground like it was unaffected by gravity. It had no fur, its skin jet black glistened as Jackson’s torch light touched its skin. Its teeth were like tree roots, jagged and all over the place. Its tail was raised above its head with a stinger at the end of it. It lowered its long leather ears while it leaned down, ready to pounce. But before it could attack, Jackson readied his shotgun and blew its head off with a well-placed shot. Its body slumped over and fell into the pit below, an unceremonious end to a beast.
Growls and low bellows followed as the blast of his shotgun echoed in the complex. A horde of hundreds surrounded the reptile, baring their fangs, their claws dug into the ground as they prowled their way to the reptile. They salivated, they were hungry to try new meat. Even from the mirrored version, the hounds gathered as they waited their turn.
Without hesitation, the reptile fired a few rounds into the horde of the hound creatures. Firing round after round into the mass of charging creatures. Their limbs explode from their bodies, the force of the shotgun rounds tearing the first wave apart.
Chi-chunk!
Jackson reached for a new drum magazine after he chucked away the empty one into the void. Sensing the opportunity, a hound leaped at the reptile, but the reptile managed to ram the barrel of the shotgun into its mouth and pulled the trigger the moment he loaded in a fresh magazine.
Another jumped from behind, but was knocked away as the reptile pulled his weapon out from the corpse of the dead hound and smacked the butt of the weapon straight into its face. Dazing the creature so Jackson could toss it into the void screaming.
However, they were relentless. One crashed on top of Jackson, causing him to drop his primary weapon and forcing the reptile to fall on his back. Jackson activated the retractable buckler inside of the creature’s mouth as it leaned down to bite his throat. Magical energies of the buckler shattered its front snout and teeth as it clamped down onto the metal. The reptile threw the hound off him, while he rose with his Glock at the ready. The hounds circle the reptile again. Studying him to see what was the best opportunity to kill their prey.
The reptile fired at them, trying to thin the horde before some charged at him again. One jumped from behind him, only for the reptile to dodge out of the way, grab its tail and use the momentum to slam it into the wall with such force its guts spewed out of its mouth. They kept attacking him, trying to get the reptile. Relentlessly pounding on an enemy that refused to stand down and give up. But their force was overwhelming.
Eventually, one ambushed the reptile from under him, knocking him off the platform and sending him over the edge. The reptile, fighting the hound midair as it scratched at his back and tore at his left arm with his teeth, crashed through walls and furniture. Only stopped at the edge of the void as the reptile landed on top of a concrete pillar with a hard thud, forcing him to drop his pistol.
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As the reptile quickly got back up, the hound opened its mouth and shot out its long tongue that wrapped around the reptile’s neck, tightening it. Thinking fast, the reptile pulled onto the tongue to bring the hound to him so he could grab onto both ends of its mouth and split it open like someone opening a can of tuna to force the monster to let go of its hold around the reptile’s neck.
Jackson jumped out of the way before another hound could land on top of him. To its surprise, the reptile picked the creature up from under it before he dug his claws in and under its ribcage. Using the hound as a gauntlet so he could punch a hound that pounced at him from behind before casting its body into the void.
Yet that won’t stop them. The hounds kept going at the reptile in the intent to feast on his flesh and drink his blue blood. To the reptile, all it meant was he would thin the horde so humanity doesn’t have to deal with them.
The reptile pulled out his grappling hook and fired it into the bulk of the horde. Pulling him right on top of them, its head and skull splattered all over while blood and brain matter squished between the reptile’s toes as Jackson landed on top of it. The reptile then killed the one near it as he drove his knife into its throat and slid it open.
Before any could attack, the reptile jumped off the ledge before using the grappling hook again to slam himself down into the different part of the horde at the other side of the wall to repeat the process of brutal executions.
Though as the reptile dashed around, getting in and out of fights. The hounds fought on, able to land a few blows on the reptile, striking at him and drawing blood. Yet that didn’t slow Jackson down. He tore limbs off them and used his claws to separate flesh and muscle from their bones. He reached into their back to rip their spine out of them. The hounds would use their teeth, but so would the reptile. He bit their necks, twisting them until he could hear a loud pop or crack.
The reptile made them feel pain, and he would do anything in his power to make their scars and wounds inflicted be felt through generations. It was a war of attrition, and he would do everything to make that war where victory is no different to defeat.
But even the reptile knew the fight was not meant to last forever. The horde was endless. No matter how many Jackson killed, it wasn’t enough. As the reptile redirected the stinger of a hound back into its neck. He was pounced on and knocked down into the abyss. Jackson managed to catch his fall by firing his grappling hook up and striking at the edge of the world. But besides helping him go back up, the hook’s mechanism locked up as the spring snapped in half. Leaving the reptile to dangle at the edge of the void.
Hounds formed at the edge of the abyss, snarling at the reptile as they waited for him to climb back up. But Jackson knew he was well and truly stuck. He let out a hissed in pain as he felt his wounds; the adrenaline dying down as he began to assess the situation.
Throom!
A sound of a large, heavy step shook the realm.
Throom!
Another step caused the world to shake, making the hounds whimper in fear. This time, it was closer and coming from the void. From the darkness, a large figure appeared, a colossus of unimaginable size. It had a humanoid form, but Jackson couldn’t discern its features, he didn’t bother to try. He reached for where his charm would be, only to find it missing from his belt. Not realising that his chime was knocked out of him from his prolonged battle with the hounds.
The situation forced him to choose: either fall into the unknown or wait till the colossus appeared before him. Either option would spell death to him.
The reptile knew he had no real option, but if he had to die, he preferred to die by his own hand. He closed his eyes and sighed. His free arm rested on his chest where his copper ring was. His most prized and valuable possession. He let go of the grappling hook and fell. He accepted his fate as he plummeted into the darkness. To die in a hostile world, alone, and to be forgotten.