The creature that crawled out from the door was something from a nightmare. Its appearance was so shocking and vile that it sent shivers down the spines of Little Wrath City’s greatest Sinners. Goosebumps crept across their skin as a feeling of untamed dread filled their souls.
A gurgled cry that sounded similar to that of a dying baby came from its terrifying mouth. The Maldread opened its mandible-like jaws that could easily swallow a human head and revealed to the horror-struck fighters a set of bloody, six-inch teeth that resembled rows of sharp needles.
It was nearly ten feet tall, walked on creepy inverted knees, and had massive arms like a silver-backed gorilla with knuckles that dragged across the floor. Its hands and feet each sprouted six-inch claws that were black as onyx and looked sharp enough to cut through stone.
Its face was alien, but its skin set the creature apart from anything they had seen. The Maldread looked like a grotesquely peeled human being until it had nothing but a thin layer of bloody skin, covered head to foot in black scabs, yellow pus, and thick coagulated blood clinging to its body like a layer of filth.
The Maldread opened its flap-like jaw and cried like a baby as it slowly hulked across the room, walking in a strange, rhythmic motion. It sniffed playfully in the air and looked curiously at all the new playthings it had come across. The nightmarish creature began to step forward, and as it did, the fighters felt like their feet were glued to the floor as they stared hopelessly at it approaching.
A loud crunching sound distracted the creature, and it looked down at its feet, only to see that it had accidentally stepped on a slave's unconscious head: killing him instantly. A long-barbed tongue like a poisonous snake rolled out of its mouth, and it curiously scooped up a chunk of bloody skull in its long red fingers, bringing it close enough for a sniff.
Jonas nearly vomited as he watched the creature eat human brains, and the loud crunching noise from the pieces of the skull didn’t help. The Maldread purred in ecstasy as it bent down and began scooping up more gore and shoveling it into its horrible mouth like a hungry animal that hadn’t eaten in days—Jonas noticed it had dried blood on its face and claws.
The moment the creature took its bulging eyes off them, the fighters finally found a tiny flame of courage that allowed them to slowly back away. Nobody cared about freedom, nor did they care about making money off of slave fights, and the only thing the entire room could think about was getting as far away from the creature as possible. Perhaps putting their backs against the wall and pretending to be moss was the only thing that could bring them comfort.
The creature picked up the headless corpse of the slave like it weighed nothing, and it sank its long needle-like teeth into the neck, pulling out chunks of flesh as it happily fed. Don Marino had woken up only to stumble into a nightmare; however, he and his fellow Carl were the closest to the exit door. Some fighters backed away toward the eastern wall, while some backed toward the western wall. There wasn't a single person who wanted to be on a straight-line path toward that creature.
As the Maldread made its way to the dead slave's torso, it sniffed curiously, and its claws dug their way into the rib cage like hot knives cutting through butter and latched onto a warm, non-beating heart. It used its long barbed tongue to wrap around the fist-sized treat and pulled it into its mouth.
Don and Carl Prince tip-toed toward the exit door, and the hefty gang leader reached his hand toward the handle. He found the door was locked and gulped as he looked over and saw the pin pad mounted on the side of the wall. Don turned his head to see if Howard could tell him the code—perhaps hold up hand signals, but became horror-struck as he realized that the massive slimy creature was staring at him because he had drawn its attention by moving too much.
Its scream ruptured the eardrums of all those unfortunate enough to have been nearby, and Don watched in horror as it leaped onto all fours and began bolting across the room like some grotesque lion.
“Howard!” Carl screamed. “What's the code?” But Howard Hurts wasn't dumb enough to speak, shout, or do anything that could draw the Maldread's attention.
The creature leaped twenty feet and cleared the room in a blink of an eye, and it landed with a thud right in front of the two terrified gangsters, who could no longer feel their fingers or feet. Don Marino could only feel warm piss pouring down his leg as he trembled before the hungry gaze of the Maldread.
Maybe it was the sheer absurdity of the human soul, or perhaps he had just acted out of instinct, but Don's Sin Scars began to glow brighter than they had ever glowed in his entire life, and then he punched the creature across the face because it had leaned too close to him.
The creature looked flabbergasted for a moment, as something like a pebble had hit its face, and Don looked horrified as he realized that his punch had barely made the creature flinch.
The Maldread didn’t scream or cry but grabbed him by the throat, and its razor-sharp claws slit his jugular, and blood began to gush out like a fountain. Then it picked up the three-hundred-pound man as if he weighed nothing.
“Help!” Don tried to gurgle, but blood was pouring out of his nose, mouth, and eyes, and the last thing he ever saw was the darkness of the Maldread’s mouth as it slowly brought his head inside.
A sloppy crunchy noise filled Carl's ears, and he was the first to see the headless corpse of Don Marino. The stretched flesh was nerve-wracking as the Maldread tried to separate the head from the torso. Blood splattered all over the gangster, and he fell on his ass as hot tears began to leak out of his eyes.
The creature finished crunching Don’s head, ripped his heart from his chest, ate it, lowered the giant torso, and tossed it like trash.
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The fighters had been doing nothing but trying to meld with the wall as the creature committed a brutal murder. Jonas watched as Yuki slowly pressed her back against the stone wall, and he quietly got to his feet and leaned against her for support.
“What do we do?” He whispered as quietly as he could, and thankfully the creature was too preoccupied with murdering Carl Prince, and it wasn't interested in the tiniest whispers from across the room.
The handsome, black gang leader's screams camouflaged their conversation, and the creature had decided to try eating from a different spot, so Carl was held by his shoulders as the Maldread bit a gigantic chunk off his stomach.
Carl’s eyes rolled back into his head as his intestines were removed and playfully swung around, sending blood and gore splattering across the room, and the creature wrapped itself with Carl's innards like jewelry.
“One of us distracts it,” said Yuki while nodding toward the broken door that led back into the gang. “ The creature follows,” she paused and waited for the creature to tear into Carl’s head. “The rest of us leave through the exit,” Jonas was impressed with how fast she came up with a plan, but he couldn’t help but wonder which one would serve as the distraction.
Which one of them would be crazy enough to sacrifice themselves? Who would be fast enough to outrun the creature, make it through the halls of the Hurts gang, and buy enough time for the rest of them to escape?
If it had been before Howard melted him with True Sin explosions, Jonas would have done it himself. Not only was he the fastest person there, but he was also the only one crazy enough to try it. Unfortunately, Howard had nearly burned his legs off, and he could barely hold himself upright, let alone make a run for it.
Yuki bit her lip. Jonas saw that she wanted to offer herself as the sacrifice; however, she was terrified to speak the words into existence.
“It’s okay,” Jonas whispered, and her eyes turned red as she felt shame.
Howard had almost reached the wall closest to Jonas, and his experience was evident because he moved skillfully: stepping only as the creature made loud noises.
“Distraction,” his back hit the wall next to Jonas, and he pointed towards the exit door. He had the same plan as Yuki.
“Who?” Jonas asked. Though, he knew that Howard Hurts wasn't going to volunteer himself.
“Slave,” he whispered and pointed toward one random slave glued against the wall across the room.
“No,” Jonas rolled his eyes. “Too slow.”
“Fight it?” Howard asked, and for a moment, Jonas considered. A massive, ten-foot creature with inhuman physical capabilities; a desire for carnage, razor-sharp teeth, and claws that could playfully slice through human flesh—versus a dozen of Little Wrath City’s greatest warriors?
Even if he was the most narcissistic Crusader in the history of Hell, Jonas couldn’t feel a shred of confidence in that plan, but those two options were all they had. Either someone distracted the creature long enough for the rest of them to escape, or they joined together and fought it to the death. Neither option seemed very successful, and they didn’t have the time or ability to communicate the plan with the others across the room.
“Fire,” Jonas said quietly. “How many fireballs are left?”
“One,” Howard said.
“Lies,” Jonas shot back.
“Two,” Howard conceded, and Jonas couldn’t believe the arrogance of his enemy. How could he possibly have thoughts of saving his strength for Jonas when the harbinger of death was forty feet away chewing playfully on corpses?
“Best chance,” Jonas said. “Don’t miss.”
“Fuck,” Howard swore, and just as Jonas was considering signaling to those across the room, he had a sudden inspiration.
“Dagger?” His mind thought back to that long, golden-hilted knife used to carve his chest.
“Yes,” Howard slid his hand into his suit and pulled out the golden blade.
“Give,” Jonas held out his hand, but Howard silently snorted at him.
“No.”
“Fine. Get fire ready,” Howard began charging up a blazing fire in his right hand.
“Fire, attack, stab,” Jonas confirmed the plan with Howard. The young Crusader grabbed the attention of those across the room by waving his hand.
First, Jonas gestured to the ball of fire in Howard’s hand, and then he pointed to the creature while holding up two fingers. Ahmed nodded and began whispering the meaning to Simon and Johnson, who then whispered it to their neighbor like a terrible game of telephone.
Ahmed once again locked eyes with Jonas, and this time Jonas held up a fist and pointed towards the creature that still had its back turned to them. The last gesture Jonas gave Ahmed in their awkward game of charades was pointing to the golden dagger, then to his head, and finally toward the creature. Once again, Ahmed nodded and quickly transmitted the rest of the plan to the terrified fighters next to him.
“Can’t miss,” Howard said. “Need distraction still.”
“Fuck,” Jonas slowly pulled himself away from Yuki and tried to trot toward the center of the room, but she nearly yanked his arm out of its socket as she pulled him back.
“No,” she looked like she might head butt him out of anger. “You’re hurt.”
“Stupid girl,” Howard was seething. “Need a distraction.”
“I’ll go,” she whispered, but Jonas nearly broke her wrist from squeezing it so hard.
“Hell no,” seeing the two lover’s game of who would sacrifice themselves nearly made Howard throw over his flame and explode them both to bits. Maybe some sick God of Luck was bestowing them with fortune, or perhaps a God of Misery just wanted to see them struggle some more because the distraction they craved fell on their laps. A slave who had been unconscious in the middle of the room had stirred and groaned loudly.
“Did we win?” His voice echoed off the walls, and he made a strange expression toward Jonas because he noticed them all with their backs against the wall. The slave stupidly rubbed his eyes and turned toward the exit door. Something was staring at him, and he thought he was still dreaming.
The Maldread screamed like a baby, and he shrieked with it. The beast leaped across the room and landed on top of him with a sickening pounce.
Its clawed feet sliced right through his body and nearly cut him in half. He moaned and tried to push the creature away, but it swiped its claws across his throat, and Jonas watched horribly as that dummy slave began to choke to death on blood. His suffering didn’t last long because the creature ate his head whole, and the sounds of his screaming died out immediately, but his sacrifice wasn’t in vain.
The Maldread crouched over the corpse and had its back to Howard. With one last hateful glare at each other, he and Jonas nodded in agreement, and then Howard stepped forward, gently tip-toeing his way to the feasting monster.
“Hey, bitch!” Howard yelled, and just as the creature turned its head to find the source of the noise, a fiery explosion hit its face.