The Human Race is an interesting species in that they have several redundant muscle groups.
The Elves have thin and lithe bodies that not only are able to allow them to traverse difficult terrain with ease, they use nearly all of their muscles save for a few exceptions.
The Dwarves in particular despite having large stocky frames similar in thickness to a Human have bodies consisting mostly of bone to support the earth in the case of a cave in.
Humans are unique in the way that they have more muscle than needed, and less bone able to support these muscles, allowing them to explode with unprecedented physical strength when mortally threatened.
This however has the downside of breaking their bodies to no return, but it is a nevertheless effective way of getting rid of their enemies.
Never play with a Human's life long enough for them to see no other path.
Excerpt from the Book of Mortal Anatomy by Chapanese Official Kyōko Nan
---
'What the hell just happened?'
Grunting and prying his body from the ground from where he lay, dust clung to his sweat coated skin as spikes of pain traveled up his spine from his leg.
'Ouch'
Resigning himself to lying on the ground, Ren stared at the ceiling with confusion in his eye.
'And where the hell am I?'
A stone ceiling met his gaze.
An unfamiliar ceiling made of wood was one thing, one that was made from roughly hewn stone was another.
'Since when did I get to a cave?'
Feeling a sharp jolt of pain as he tried to get up again, Ren finally noticed the culprit of the pain, that being a bone white dagger stabbed into his ankle bypassing the splint made to support it.
It was rather useless with the dagger in its way, so he ripped it out much to his soon regret.
"Hah!"
Letting out a sharp gasp for air as a searing pain tore up through his leg, Ren instinctively tightened his grip around the knife as he flailed it around in very confused pain.
But when the initial shock had ebbed away, Ren felt his eyes twitch as something warm pooled around him.
'Did I...?'
Feeling at his pants, he noted that the warm feeling was instead coming from the vast amount of blood pooling out of his leg.
'Ah.' That couldn't have been good in the slightest since he would probably bleed out to death if he didn't solve this problem.
Using the bone knife to tear strips of his sleeve apart, Ren shivered slightly at the chill that he just now noticed as he bound the wound, splint and all.
Tightening it and grimacing as subtle jolts of pain echoed into his mind reminding him of when it had appeared, Ren finally had the leisure to look around.
Looking around, nothing but darkness and stone met his gaze.
Without a singular light source to be spoken of, despite it all, he could still see.
Not that he thought much of it, he was always able to see well in places without light.
It was just that those places had some semblance of a light source, here there was nothing that could light up the dark, and he could still see perfectly fine.
'Why can I still see?'
Looking around in contemplative confusion as he tried to stand up with the support of a nearby wall while shoving the bloody bone knife into his waistband.
Then Ren's eyes happened upon. IT
"Ugh!"
An arc of pain originated from his eye, the already injured one this time, pain wracking his skull like a nail being driven straight through his eye as fire burned.
Collapsing onto the ground just as he had gotten up from it, Ren's hand clasped the sides of his head as soundless cries echoed out of his throat.
IT answered with soundless roars of its own from all of its mouths
IT raised its countless hands with a writhe.
Its eyes stared at him
Ren's eyes blurred as hands upon hands, faces upon faces, heart upon legs, mouths upon stomachs, FingersUponFeet,BonesUponBrains,Clawsuponteeth.
SpineRibcageSkullTeethHandOrganHeartStomachIntestineKidneyBloodTongueThroatLarnyxNervesVesselsSkinNailsNoseEarsMouth.
BREAK OPEN THE FLESH
Then suddenly.
Silence.
Ren desperately gasped at the air, swallowing it in large gaping mouthfuls, the pain a forgotten memory as he remembered to breath in the cold air striking at his lungs.
'Lungs? What even are those?'
Suddenly recalling a well of knowledge that he never even knew before, knowledge streamed into his mind... no. His brain accepted it with strikes of lightning in his consciousness.
It was strange.
Unnatural even as blood streamed out of his nose.
Absentmindedly wiping off instinctually, Ren felt his mind burn before slowly cooling enough to allow him some semblance of thought.
"What... What the hell was that?" Ren finally forced out to himself, not expecting an answer.
That was why he was so shocked when a voice other than his own
You saw the way to awaken the thing hiding within you child
"What the!?" Jumping in place at the voice, Ren hurriedly turned around to see a wolf with half a face staring at him.
"!"
Blue eyes seemingly staring directly into his soul as its half and half face stared into him, black soulless pits in the wolf's skull stared into his soul as it revealed a glowing blue tongue
Don't fear me child. What I just did to you is nothing in comparison to what that Tiger would do to you
The wolf positively growled, their eye burning with blue flame before it turned to Ren as he tried to digest what he just heard.
Brain burning as it tried to recall the clump of numerous bodies both animal and human clumped together, their mouths open as they cried out.
There was something worse than that?
You may doubt me now, but soon you will see what I mean because that Tiger. The Half wolf spat with audible anger. Is here
In Ren's eyes, the numerous writhing bodies soon turned their attention away from Ren. Their collective gaze burning with visible hatred as they clawed and roared at a specific place.
Feeling a chill crawl up from the base of his spine and up the Basal Ganglia, his instinct flaring with the desire to run as a heavy distinct pressure bore down on his shoulders.
The pain burning in his leg and eye were a far off dream now as cold sweat began to rapidly cool his body, Ren's legs tensing as they prepared to run from whatever the hell was approaching
You can't run. Not anymore
The wolf whispered into Ren's ears as a deep voice echoed throughout the cave in that very same instant.
"You never give up do you my fellow Totem God?"
A strong muscle bound paw stepped into Ren's line of sight from beyond a corner.
Then another
Then another
And another
And another
Like a centipede, several claws clung to the side, ceiling and floor of the cave, the stripe lined and fur coated body slowly approaching as a flat tiger face grinned at the floating face.
Three different colored eyes revolving around chaotically as if deciding on a place to settle, they eventually locked onto the floating half skull.
"And by the looks of it, you only have two more meals before you disappear for good. Where's that strong form that you were oh so proud of?"
Revealing a mouth filled with to many teeth to be considered normal, Ren felt even more disturbed at the opened mouth which split apart like an insects, the teeth clicking together creepily.
Why don't you just die?
"How harsh, your body is perfectly fine."
As a part of your gruesome trophy display
The wolf growled, Ren subtly making some more distance between him and the centipede tiger as his heart thundered against his ears.
'What. Is. That.'
"And where do you think you are going? Don't think I forgot about your little pet Kiklo... A human pet?"
Colliding against something something soft on the surface and hard underneath, Ren hurriedly turned around to see a portion of the centipede tiger blocking his way.
Unnaturally long limbs surrounding everywhere that he looked, stripes formed the makings of a jail cell as the tiger moved startlingly quiet for something that big.
"A human? They offered a human to me? And you offered your power to the human?" The Tiger sniffed at Ren as he sweated profusely. "Hmph, you must be going senile in your age. It barely qualifies as a snack."
Ren instinctively backed away, his hand itching for the knife in his waistband as knowledge of where the brain was located entered his head.
If he just pierced the eye and hit the brain, it would guarantee its death.
But with how the Tiger Centipede defied all biology that he suddenly knew about, Ren sincerely doubted a single knife would be enough to take it down.
"And where do you think you are going?"
Limbs clambering all over each other with a noise that wasn't there before, Ren realized that he was surrounded as the tiger centipede's body neared his own.
Being shoved closer into the center where the body of the tiger lifted upwards and stared into Ren's eye with all three of its own, the Tiger's teeth clicked together
"Even if you escaped my grasp, there is nowhere you can go."
All three of its eyes turned into upturned crescents as the tiger moved close enough for him to see the individual hairs on its head.
"Indulge my curiosity why don't you, show me what Kiklo thought up of this time."
Neck twisting in impossible directions as they stared at Ren, his heart beat furiously against his chest, numerous chemicals flowing through his blood in hopes of discovering a way out of this.
But no matter what Ren thought, he just couldn't see a way out of this.
Bone white teeth glistened with saliva, as he wondered how the hell knowledge on how the human body worked would help him when his opponent was very clearly not human.
That's where you are mistaken, what I taught you isn't meant to be used on that damned thing, it's meant to be used on yourself
Kiklo said, its half and half bone and flesh face grunting, still glaring directly at the Tiger centipede as it spoke.
"Therapy, Wolf? I never struck you for the type to be sentimental." The Tiger's head cricked and cracked in all sorts of directions "Unless you've finally given up? You can still survive if you become my pawn."
The Tiger goaded the wolf as its mouth filled to the brim with teeth flashed dangerously close to Ren's head, his hand twitching and eye twitching as he searched desperately for a possible route of escape.
"How is this knowledge you put into my head even supposed to help me survive?!" Ren shouted desperately. Trace amounts of spittle landing on his face as the Tiger laughed loudly.
"HAHAHA! You really have an eye for talent don't you Kiklo? First it was that Dwarf then now this human!" The Tiger centipede guffawed, its mouth twisted widely as it eyed Ren with an increasing amount of amusement.
"Well if there's nothing left that your little pet project can do, I may as well play with my food."
Ren felt a harsh force punch against his back as he stumbled forwards right into another one of the tiger's readied legs.
*Bang!
Kicking Ren away, he stumbled around into another of the legs that continued to near him.
*Bang!
A second kick right into another as the amount of empty ground not covered by the tiger centipede narrowed.
*Bang!
A third kick
*Bang!
A fourth
*Bang!
A fifth
A seventh
A Tenth
Fifteen
Twenty one
Twenty five
Thirty
Stumbling against what little ground there was left as claws dug into each and every one of his limbs, drawing thin beads of blood that could be barely be seen under the large purple masses that remained as signs of bruising.
"Blehrg...."
"Why did you waste one of your precious chances on this human Wolf? He can't even stomach a little beating." The Tiger said with an unconvincing tone that betrayed how much amusement they were gleaning from his situation.
"Hah! And would you look at that! It just vomited all over themself!" Claw pointing at Ren's prone body that continued to heave out fatal amounts of blood, Ren's eyes dazed as they were, focused for a moment as they bent down and vomited more blood.
...
"No reaction?" The tiger centipede said with amusement that turned into annoyance. "How annoying."
Ren felt a constricting pressure against both his arms and chest as instantly, all the air was forced out of his lungs.
"Ugh!"
"Aren't you going to react with this little pet of yours on the verge of death?"
The Tiger goaded Kiklo, it's maniacal grin locked onto Kiklo, completely unaware of the danger heading to the back of its head
No.
It was more like it didn't care.
*Shatter
Hearing the distinct sound of something breaking the Tiger turned its nonchalant gaze at the weak and pitiful human only to suddenly not be able to see anything at all with one of its eyes.
The Tiger roared
---
'Everything hurt'
His arms, his legs, his chest and his head.
Everything hurt in ways Ren had once thought impossible as every Fibre of his being tore apart to exhibit force far beyond what even a trained soldier could do.
*Snap!
Feeling the muscle in his thigh snap as they strained to hard against the claws holding it in place, Ren felt his eye twitch as he forcefully ripped his leg out, taking one of the Tiger's claws with it.
This came with a case of Tiger claw in thigh, but Ren didn't care as blood rushed into his ears, adrenaline flowing from the gland in his brain lowering the pain.
Not that he would've heeded any of it.
Ripping out the other leg in the same brutal fashion, bones popped out of place as muscles snapped under the strain.
"Stay. In there!" Kicking his leg against the Tiger centipede's shaking body, Ren felt the bone pop right back into place right before a mouth clamped onto his body.
Blood gushed like a fountain as supernatural strength punched through the crystalline sheen surrounding the Tiger's body, the bone knife shoving its barbed edges deep into the second eye socket.
Like he expected, there was no brain to be found when he twisted his near broken limb, but he honestly didn't give a damn.
Pain wracked his body as every fibre of his being tore itself apart to open another wound on that white furred body now stained red with its own blood.
Bones cracked as the muscles put out force far beyond what they were made for, flesh twisted as they collapsed in onto one another, blood flowing like a river from every pore of his bod.
All to hurt the tiger just s little bit more.
"Get. Off!!!"
Ren flew off of the Tiger's body as it thrashed madly, blood coating the once pristine white fur a deep crimson red.
And seeing it reminded him of the red skinned demons that were in a story he heard before.
Told by his mother, he could recall every one of her carefully spoken words speaking of the events in the story as if she were really there.
Those events were startlingly similar to what Ren was experiencing right now.
Feeling the life seep out of his fingers, Ren stared at the ceiling made of cold unfeeling stone as an anguished roar echoed throughout.
'How did things ever get to this point?'
Closing his eyes which got heavier and heavier with each passing moment, the Tiger opened its three sectioned mouth as it roared in anger, its face nearing his own as it prepared to feast on him
"I shall enjoy this"
Ren grinned in kind with what little strength he had left as his neck tensed
"Me to"
Then he broke his head against the Tiger's final eye.
*CracK!
+++
Tree that found out humans can do some scary stuff