Chapter 6 v2 - Burden part 3
The monster was already almost upon him.
The man raised his leg violently—a direct kick, charged with aura.But the creature was faster. With a repulsive snap, it interposed one of its limbs and blocked the blow.
The impact resounded, but it didn't stop it.The man used the inertia of the clash to pivot on his leg and leap with the other, rising as if the block had been nothing more than a springboard.
The air split around him.The monster stopped dead, driving four of its six limbs into the floor like stakes. The corridor shook from the impact, splinters bursting in all directions.
With one of its two remaining limbs, the beast lashed out, stretching its arm like a brutal whip, trying to snatch the redhead mid-ascent.
The monster's limb came down like a whip ready to cleave him in two.But it halted in place.
The man had crossed his sword at the exact moment, the blade cutting deep and embedding itself in the viscous flesh. He used the caught limb as leverage: stabilizing his body mid-air, planting his right arm and leg against the immobilized extremity, tensing his muscles like springs.
The red aura condensed on his left leg.It wasn't the same diffuse glow as before—now it was denser, almost liquid, vibrating with every heartbeat.
He coiled his leg.An instant of silence, pressure mounting.
And then, the detonation.The inverted kick struck the monster's left flank with brutal force.
The impact hurled the creature as if blasted by a cannon. Its body shot to the right, soaring through the air toward the alchemist's room where it had all begun.
The redhead spun with the momentum. A full turn, three hundred and sixty degrees, and in that final twist he yanked the sword free, tearing it from the monster's limb in a spray of viscous fluid.
The monster flew several meters… but not far enough.It crashed against the floor, bounced with a roar, and crawled a few steps before stopping. It hadn't even reached the inner wall of the room, nor the hole still opening in the floor.
The man landed firmly, though with his back to the room. His breathing was ragged, aura still crackling along his legs.
He froze for an instant.
"And the crash?" he thought.
He had unleashed a blow that should have made the wood tremble, broken walls, shaken the whole ship. But he heard nothing. Only silence, broken by his own breath and the dripping water in the corridor.
BOOM!A dull blow thundered through the structure. The entire corridor jolted violently, as if the ship had dropped several meters in an instant—like a runaway elevator.
The redhead cursed furiously at whatever was making the ship jump like that.
Another noise made him turn his head.A second thud, closer, more immediate.
The torn wall from the room—the one the monster had smashed at the start—was now collapsing in pieces over him, a whole block falling like a guillotine.
The man raised his left hand, muscles tensed.The weight crashed against his palm. The impact dragged him down, speeding the fall until his boots sank into the floor, bearing the entire block on his shoulder and arm.
Crash!A metallic, vibrating roar filled the air.
He cursed it instantly.He didn't need to see to know what had caused it: the monster was moving again.
His gaze swept the scene in a quick flash.If he let go of the wall, the boy would be crushed.But if he did nothing, the monster would reach him in seconds. Three, maybe less.
He didn't wait to finish the calculation.He was already moving.
He dropped his whole center of gravity, freeing himself from the weight. The wall resumed its fall, plunging toward the floor. At that same instant, the man stretched his right leg in a direct horizontal motion, kicking the boy.
The boy's body shot away, just out of the deadly path of the wall.
The redhead used the next second with surgical precision: he bent his left leg and snapped it like a spring, launching himself in a short jump. With the small space gained, he curled his torso, twisted, and leveled himself parallel to the floor, shrinking just enough.
The wall crashed against the floor behind him, raising a screen of smoke, splinters, and dust.
But the man had already slipped through the gap.He rolled until he was framed in the doorway, outside the reach of the collapse.
The cloud spread through the corridor, but it was thin—light enough to see through it…
And what he saw froze his blood:The silhouette of the monster, mid-action, revealing exactly what it had done in that instant.
When the creature saw the rising cloud of smoke and splinters, it slowed its charge slightly.It didn't lunge straight ahead—it swerved sharply to the right, exactly where the redhead had kicked the boy seconds earlier.
With a brutal motion, it caught the unconscious boy's leg.And without pause, it began spinning, using the youth as an improvised weapon.
The swing was devastating.Had the wall not already been torn down, the boy would have slammed into it, shattered to pieces before the spin was even complete.
The worst came after.Before finishing the spin, the creature released the boy, hurling him into the dust cloud.
The man caught the trajectory.The boy flew past him, high enough that he could see his face, before crashing headfirst into a circular window of the ship. Those windows were built to withstand external pressure, to never give way.
But this one gave way.Glass shattered into a thousand fragments under the impact of the boy's skull.
The frame was wide enough—or perhaps the boy's build small enough—that his shoulders slipped cleanly through, half his body sliding outside in an instant.
The redhead hesitated.But in the same moment, he understood what was about to happen and lunged with desperate hands, catching the boy's legs just as his hips were about to pass through the frame.
His grip locked tight, securing him.
Crash!A blow rang out behind him.
The man wasn't surprised.He had already foreseen it: the monster would never give him time, not now that it had noticed where he was.
The water on the floor reacted first.A liquid surge rose like a spring beneath the redhead's back, catapulting him upward.
With a sharp tug, he shifted the pressure in his right arm, trapping both of the boy's legs with his left. The boy was secured against his side, dangling, half his body still outside the ship.
His free arm closed around the sword's hilt.
Clack!His fingers tightened on the grip.A twist of the wrist aligned the blade in a straight line, aimed directly at the monster charging through the curtain of dust.
The air thickened around him.The red aura ignited along his hand, vibrating like contained fire, like molten metal about to erupt.
He aimed at the monster's head.At the only place where—by the most brutal, desperate logic—the brain had to be.
His jaw clenched.His eyes, loaded with strain, locked onto the target.
And then came the change.Effort showed in his expression as the aura ceased to be a static shroud. Energy began to flow, sliding, crawling from his palm into the sword.
First the hilt, then the guard, then the entire blade.
Red streamed like burning blood until it enveloped the weapon completely.The glow ran along the edge, vibrant, concentrating at the tip.
And in the very last instant, when the monster was already upon him…The aura sealed it.
The sword had become a projectile in waiting, a red lightning bolt lodged in his fist.
Steel met flesh.The tip pierced first the rough skin, then tore thick muscle, and finally punctured something that cracked like hollow bone.
The blade didn't stop.It pushed through without resistance until the guard slammed against flesh. The sword was buried to the last centimeter.
But the creature did not stop.
CRAAK!The floor thundered under the monster's feet as it advanced with all its weight.
The redhead planted his boots, leaned his torso forward, center of gravity low, muscles blazing. The water on the floor swirled, pressing against the flow, straining to give him stability.
It wasn't enough.
The monster kept advancing, dragging him inch by inch.The man's feet screeched against the wet floor, leaving marks, losing ground every second.
The pressure mounted.The boy, still held, tilted further into the void as his rescuer was pushed toward the wall.
The man understood in a flash.If this continued, both would be crushed, and the boy would be hurled outside.
With a guttural growl, he dropped his left arm and released Eilor's legs.At that very moment, the monster slammed him full into the wall.
The impact pinned him hard against it.
The monster, however, did not stop.Its six limbs pressed like living battering rams. The entire mass of the creature advanced with a violence that made every rivet in the corridor groan.
The impact rattled the structure.
The redhead's body was wedged between the cold wall and the monster's weight.
Worse still, the sword was still buried in the creature, its hilt pressing against the bruise on his abdomen.
Only because he had managed to hold it with both hands in time did he keep the hilt from crushing his stomach.
Then… it halted.
The man blinked, disoriented.The weight still bore down on him, but the monster was retreating.
A fleeting thought crossed his mind:"Is it dead?"
But no…The blood in his veins froze as he understood what was coming.
The monster had only pulled back to charge again.
The redhead's skin bristled; he tried to break free with all his strength, but the boy's leg shifted, hooking under his armpit, hindering his escape. The beast was already charging a second time.
BOOM!
The impact was brutal.The redhead sank deeper, smashed flush into the wall. Metal cracked and caved under the pressure.
The sword's hilt slammed against his abdomen with a force that rattled his ribs.Air burst from his lungs in a sharp gasp, almost a strangled scream.
The blow was devastating.A wave of raw pain coursed through his body, burning like fire in every nerve.
The wall buckled further until it could no longer hold—splitting open, letting in the rain, the wind, the cold.
The wall gave way completely, and the two of them began to fall into the void.