A Shaitan - a bare brute nearly twelve feet tall, coal-black skin stretched stiff over corded muscle. Two curved horns jutted from its hairless head, framing dull, vacant eyes and jaws filled with jagged teeth. No sentience resided in that primal mind, only endless rapacious hunger.

Yag trembled, claws digging lines in Ken's shoulder. “Bad, very bad! That's an Under-Dweller - mindless flesh-eater! We're in mortal danger - it will rend us limb from limb!”

Ken felt no fear gazing upon the nightmarish creature. Merely cold purpose. “No more cowering,” Ken whispered.

Time to gain some experience.

The Under-Dweller's head snapped around, nostrils flaring wetly.

A blunder! If Yag could sense it, then…

It caught their presence and charged with a ground-shaking roar, barreling towards them like a runaway beast wagon.

“Run, run! We must flee!” Yag shrieked. But Ken stood fast.

“Distract it,” Ken commanded.

The hulking Under-Dweller charged with primal fury, iron-hard muscles coiling under black skin. Ken evaded its opening charge with precise footwork, weaving fluidly between massive fists as Yag shrieked and fled its initial swings.

Darting with expert footwork and graceful precision between the strikes, Ken launched rapid punches to the creature's thick legs, focusing his intent on each blow. Using Rejection, Ken attempted to sever the Shaitan's soul from its body. But the Shaitan shrugged off the blows with primal tenacity. Its mind knew only hunger and rage.

One more strike. Ken repeated the mantra inwardly as he propelled himself back into the fray. Undeterred, Ken continued to weave his evasive dance around the monstrous foe, as Yag followed by giving useless bites. The Under-Dweller then turned its attention fully to the desperately fleeing Yag, thick arms flailing wildly to snatch the wolf.

Nodding and side-stepping with uncanny swiftness, Yag evaded each blow while darting in to draw painful nip bites, just enough to irritate and distract. Ken rushed back in, landing precise punches to its legs.

The Shaitan growled deep in its massive chest, backhanding Ken away in irritation. Ken plunged roughly over the ground, coming to rest in a gasping heap beside a tree trunk. Pain blinded him as ribs cracked, blood bursting from his lips. Gritting through the throbbing ache in his abdomen, Ken staggered up on unsteady legs. Breath ragged, he shifted in and out of the spirit realm, yet he was determined as he surveyed the unfolding chaos.

From the corner of his eye, Ken saw it closing in on Yag, massive claws flashing to snatch the small wolf. With only moments left, Ken cried out telepathically. “Yag, to me now!”

Yag scurried clear and hurried over as the Shaitan pursued single-mindedly. When Yag reached Ken's side, he looked at his friend weakly. Ken choked out but gave Yag instructions telepathically, then collapsed on the ground just as the Shaitan launched itself at them with a fanged maw open wide.

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Yag nodded and his form rippled and stretched, promptly shifting into a crescent blade anchored deep in the soil on either side, forming a razor-edged barrier before Ken. The Shaitan crashed straight onto the curved edge and was sliced clean in two, falling apart with agonized howls as black blood gushed forth from both halves.

Growling in pain, Ken gritted his teeth as he swiftly extended his right hand to touch the upper half as it soared midair above him. Activating Possession he was grasping desperately for its soul.

Upon touch, he extracted the Meta-Object, feeling it slide greasily from the soul, he absorbed it, while letting go of the soul.

It was the best time to also confirm I could use Possession like that.

With a thought, he shifted back to the physical realm, and with another thought he materialized the chain back into his left hand, Ken rapidly clapped his hands to seal the greasy Meta-Object into the hand artifact.

A shroud of silence engulfed the area, as Ken absorbed the chain back.

Panting he shifted in and out of the spirit realm, heart still racing from exertion and thrill. Ken then shifted back entirely to the spirit realm.

The boy lay beside the lifeless hulk, as he activated self-healing. But it did not work. Thought as much, Ken realized. I can only use one Meta-Object at once along with Possession and Rejection.

Ken clenched his teeth against the searing pain that wracked his body. Multiple broken ribs, blood filling his lungs with every ragged breath - without healing, he would be as good as dead.

Agony coursed through his broken body with each ragged breath. Still, he forced himself to rise unsteadily to his feet, gaze streaming across the terrain for refuge.

Leaning heavily against a nearby tree, Ken surveyed his surroundings through a haze of pain. The perpetual gloom revealed no signs of spirits or entity presences nearby that could pose a further threat.

Summoning his fading strength, Ken began a slow limp along the outer ring of the clearing. Finally catching sight of a massive strangler fig in the distance, its gnarled roots and thick cover looked the most defensible position for recovery.

Step by torturous step, Ken closed in on the towering tree. Collapsing beneath its sprawling branches, he sagged with relief.

As a fresh wave of torment washed over him, Ken steeled his mind and reached inward. Drawing upon his dwindling reserves, he shifted to the physical realm.

Once there, focusing through the haze of pain, Ken activated self-healing, and right then it worked. A burning sensation spread from his gut, like molten lead coursing through his veins.

He silenced his screams as broken ribs knitted back together beneath his skin with a series of cracks. The agony was taking over, and all he could do was focus and remain conscious as his body repaired itself from within.

Slowly, the worst of the torment began to fade. Still, a bone-deep ache lingered, his wounds now merely a tender bruise rather than a mortal injury. Exhaustion threatened to drag him into darkness after such a taxing ordeal.

Coughing up the last of the blood in his lungs, Ken managed to sit up on shaking arms. Sweat soaked his brow from the immense strain of self-healing. But he had survived, purchasing time to fight another day.

The wounds that would have taken weeks to heal were gone in an hour.

Ken stood up and brushed his tattered clothes through the force of habit as he shifted to the spirit realm. Yag had shapeshifted back to his wolf form and hopped shakily beside Ken. “You did it!” He praised.

Ken did not reply as he silently began walking back to the battlefield. Yag followed along.

Once there, the boy was regarding the lifeless giant impassively. Only practice could transform raw potential into true mastery. And the Underground held no shortage of test subjects.

“I thought you don’t eat,” Ken snickered jokingly, hinting at the statement Yag made when he recognized the mindless under-Dweller.

Yag was shaking. “Ya, we can eat other spirits… if we want,” Yag admitted. “Not for survival….uh! But for growth.”

Astral flesh, eh! Ken looked at the corpse of the beast. A kill is a kill. Bowls growling. Beggars can’t be choosers, so… “I wonder what it tastes like!” Ken grinned.

Yag was shook to his core by the words of the boy.