Chương 139: Fall Off The Bone III

With a few near-instant attacks, the shell's chest cavity had caved in. Of course, that didn't mean that June didn't get a few hits back in! Both sides were wounded, heavily wounded by mundane standards, but by Dreamer standards the fight was just beginning. The poker through his stomach worked better as a boon instead of a weapon; June's scattered focus had regrouped, and his intent to kill had sharpened appropriately to deal with the threat in front of him.

Feral or not, the cannibal seemed to have some experience fighting; he used an interesting martial art, one that flowed from one move to another. It contained a sort of consistency that reminded June of something… The man jumped at June with a flying kick, which June quickly sidestepped. These moves seemed practiced, formulaic even; this was simply not just a feral man biting and kicking to fight an intruder in his territory.

June started recognizing the practiced motions, the steps in between that never changed, and with the aided benefit of his innate Dreamer affinity of Body Manipulation and the flexibility that Flesh-Shaping provided him, cracks in the enemy's technique started presenting themselves to June. June backstepped a roundhouse kick, and with a swift jab with the heel of his boot, he sent the feral man's kneecap through the back of his leg, and with it, a cruel ichor of glee filled his body.

The laughter that was born to chase away the pain and fear slowly became real. His shell and his body laughed in unison, like a man and a devil laughing together at a foe's misfortune. June jammed a few thick gauntleted fingers into the cannibal's mouth, and slowly widened his giant hands within, prying the stunned cannibal's mouth open like a jack. The feral man grasped at his hand, trying to escape as an unyielding, barbarously cruel trance washed over June.

His shell's giant fingers opened and pulled apart, slowly pushing the jaw and maxilla apart from within; the corners of the mouth tore open as they grew tense, then slowly ripped like slow-cooked ribs; the jaw clicked, then clacked, then cracked; then locked… then June stopped. The feral man didn't fight back, as if the pain of his jaw being torn incapacitated him like a cat being lifted by its scruff.

June stopped widening his fingers within the man's mouth, and instead snapped his fingers shut on the man's tongue, before placing another hand on his face and tearing it out. The man fell back, struggling, writhing even… The caged victims laughed; they clawed out of their cages in an attempt to grasp at their captors' limbs and tear him apart before the feral man had the chance to do the same to them. A part of June was terrified, scared of what was around him, and what he was doing… it was wrong…

But the calm detached part of him commanded more… more violence, cruelty… retribution for the lost!! The idea dawned on him; he just remembered the whip he carried on his side, the one made of his own spine, barbed with Will-hardened transverse processes. The cannibal writhed on the floor. Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. The man was feral; he was lost, unfeeling even! Yet, a feeling was found!

FEAR June tore the spinal whip from his sinew belt and wrapped it around the writhing man, before giving it a slow and steady pull with enough force that the hardened transverse processes clawed a piece of the man's flesh on the way out.

June could feel anger boiling from within, but his eyes were widened, bloodshot, and his mouth hidden within the bowels of his battered shell was curled into an uncanny smile, the widest he had ever put on; he laughed, he laughed so incredibly loudly without even infusing Will into his voice. His helm had fallen off, and no head was in sight.

Even then, his deranged laughter still roused a chorus of laughter from dozens of children, adults, and even pets alike as they watched the one who took them unravel and fall apart into chunks in a single smooth motion. This was all wrong! The man was already too weak to fight back, but since he was a Dreamer, it was only a matter of time before he recovered. June resolved himself, and with a final pull, the man's flesh unravelled like a piece of origami.

All of a sudden, June was thrown onto the ground as something— no, two things pounced out of the darkness and knocked him down.

'The Sumeye!?' What he saw were thin, yellowish, wide eyes dotted over sleek creatures around the size of a dog; their fur was purplish black and curled as much as it was matted. This specific beast had no eyes on its head, yet the several eyes displaced over its body seemed to operate fine. Its stature and poise were not all too different from a panther.

June swept his legs over, and as he got his legs below him, one of the Sumeye pounced on him and opened its maw that extended further than any animal had the right to; its maw widened past its throat, making its mouth seem large enough to swallow an entire limb. He slammed his fist into the creature's side and watched it tumble, and was dumbfounded when he saw all the eyes on this Sumeye were on one side.

'Wait, where's the other on—' The other Sumeye pounced from behind, throwing him to the ground with an unnatural force for its size; the shell was designed to be heavyweight; it was hulking in size, but it still somehow managed to make him fall. June looked over to the side and watched one of the Sumeye close its eyes and disappear into black mist. It suddenly reappeared on top of him and dug its long snout down the hole that the helm covered; it snapped down at June's real body within the shell from the opening.

June tilted his actual head up, taking a moment to consider if he wanted to lunge and take a bite back as a retort, but shook himself out of that idea. He slammed his hand against the beast's stomach and dug his fingers deep into its gut; he hesitated for a moment with a wince, then used his Will just like Oni showed him…

PERISH The creature swelled violently as he forced his Will into its body and popped, spilling bloody viscera; his body jolted with a saddened ick, but this was no time to be feeling bad for critters; he grabbed the dead beast's intact ribs and threw the body at the cannibal as hard as he could. If the other Sumeye refused to present itself, he wouldn't wait for it.

June looked around quickly, then in quick bursts expanded his field of view to 360 degrees with the nameless vision technique taught by the Voice, but still nothing. He stomped the ground with an eyeballed dose of Will in hopes of avoiding a cave-in, and managed to shatter the floor, sending it rippling outwards in hopes of forcing his hidden foe out of hiding…

Crick He locked onto the sound of a soft paw disturbing rubble and quickly grabbed a shattered piece of floor rubble and flung it towards the wall with deadly force, and to his luck… Yelp The piece of debris nailed the beast in the side. A complicated expression fell over him. Nonetheless, he walked over to the bleeding beast and crushed its skull, despite his hesitation. He still wasn't a fan of killing animals... He wasn't a fan of killing in general, but this circumstance made it difficult to act otherwise.

The fight was over… He had won… He sure didn't feel like it.