When the monster’s head fell off to the ground, all crushed like a lump of meat, its body also fell to the ground while Arthur watched the nightmarish scene with a horrified look on his face. No words could truly describe how he felt at that moment.
He didn’t even know that he could reach this level of disgust and fear at the same time. Yet, here he was staring, at a creature that just crushed its own head to pieces and died. Or so was the logical result of such an action, and yet, the notification he received said otherwise.
‘Phase 2?! What phase 2?! Why did it crush its own head?! Oh no, I don’t feel good about this!’ He thought to himself as he gripped his sword. Even though the headless creature was motionless, Arthur knew that this battle was far from over.
A few cruel seconds passed very slowly with nothing happening. Arthur contemplated attacking the monster while it was down in such a state. But, he immediately threw that idea away as he didn’t want to risk approaching it and getting a sudden attack that would kill him.
‘My health isn’t too low, but it ain’t full either. I cannot do something that risky yet unless I know I can kill it.’ He thought to himself.
Surprisingly, his assumption was quickly proven to be correct as the headless Ethereal suddenly started shaking a while later. Its body which should’ve been dead started vibrating wildly.
Then, from within its severed neck, something exploded outside in one wild swipe. A large lump of slimy, black flesh emerged from nothingness and grew in size rapidly. The flesh moved and contorted as if it had a mind of its own and slowly formed a spherical yet chaotic shape around the monster’s severed head.
Blood and other unknown fluids exploded everywhere as the transformation took place. Arthur’s mouth hung open in shock while watching the creature turn into something far more morbid than anything he could’ve ever imagined.
A few seconds later, the lump of flash finally stopped growing, and then, at the top, it parted open, revealing a large mouth and a long set of sharp teeth mixed with disgusting saliva.
“GRRRRRRRRRRAAAA!!!!” A shriek unlike anything else erupted from its mouth like a booming explosion.
Arthur felt his ears shudder from sheer loudness. He had to cover his ears to reduce the pain.
Then, the creature finally stared at him with its mouth still dripping. The boy didn’t know what to do or say at that moment. Not even jokes could make it any lighter or more humorous. But, Arthur was different… Very different.
“… N-Nice teeth, man. Who’s your doctor?”
“Grrrrrrr!!!!!”
“… *Gulp* You know, they say having a conversation is the best way to solve a problem. We don’t have to use violence, my fri-”
Before he could even finish the sentence, the monster opened its mouth wide before the lump of flesh suddenly shot forward at horrifying speed aiming for his head. The boy’s eyes widened and he instantly jumped back.
*BANG*
The sand exploded everywhere upon contact and the debris covered the entire area.
‘It can extend?! Did anybody see that?! This thing had just extended! Great! This is great!!’
Before the boy could even take everything in, the monster’s extended head emerged from within the cloud of dust, rushing toward him. So, Arthur turned around and dashed away as fast as he could.
A series of explosions occurred one after the other as the head smashed into the ground every time it tried to take Arthur. Luckily for him, he was still fast enough to actually outrun the monster and yet, he also couldn’t run forever so he knew that he was only going to lose if he kept running.
‘That mouth would dissect me to pieces if it gets me!’ He cursed as he jumped to the side, dodging the head before he rolled on the ground and continued running as fast as he could. The neck was extending so far that he could only be shocked by how long it was.
It looked like a slimy substance that could stretch forever if it wished. The situation instantly turned into a chase rather than a fight. Arthur didn’t know what to do at that moment or how he could even close the distance between him and the main body of the monster.
“Just give me a second to do something! Woah!!!”
*BOOOM*
Falling to the ground from the impact of the hit, Arthur instantly sprung up and tried to run as the head moved after him relentlessly. ‘It will get me! It will definitely get me if I don’t do something!’
His heart was beating loudly in his chest and his mind was racing, trying to figure something out. Arthur wasn’t battle-hardened to quickly come up with a plan nor did he have the scheming abilities to trick his enemy. However, he knew that he had to learn those things if he wished to continue fighting for a long time.
‘Think! Think goddammit!’
As seconds passed, the monster was growing closer to catching him. Arthur tried to continue running in circles around the head not to go too far away. On certain occasions, he got extremely close to being captured by the sharp teeth. The unfortunate dead corpses that were grabbed by it were turned into a paste with one chew.
Arthur imagined his body being the one broken to pieces and that made him scared enough to continue running. His stamina continued depleting at a rapid pace and he could feel that in real time. Time and effort weren’t on his side, and so was his position.
He was completely at a disadvantage. However, during that time, Arthur’s mind didn’t stop thinking at all. He went through countless ideas and things he could do to get to the main body and finish the fight. He noticed that apart from the neck, the rest of the Ethereal’s body was completely exposed which meant he could easily attack it if he reached it.
But, because the neck was already brutally fast and offensive, he had no room for offense himself.
From an outsider’s perspective, they could only see a small boy being chased by a large monster that wrecked everything in its way like a gluttonous titan. The already destroyed battlefield turned even more chaotic. Holes riddled the entire area with mingled corpses becoming even more horrendously desecrated. Nothing was left intact, not even the weapons on the ground.
‘Come on, Arthur! Make up something or you’re going to lose! How am I supposed to get rid of this long lump of flesh?! It’s not infinite, but it’s so damn long!’
After running for a while, Arthur was able to gouge the limit of the neck’s stretch. He noticed that when the monster’s main body started taking steps forward to be able to keep chasing after him.
‘I’m so scre-‘ At that moment, Arthur suddenly had an epiphany. ‘Wait…’
A weird idea that sounded so ridiculous he almost wanted to laugh popped into his head. Yet, for some reason, he didn’t immediately ignore it.
‘Could this… Could this work?’ He asked himself. ‘Ugh! Do I even have time to ask?! I have no other choice at this point!’
“I will give you a taste of your own medicine, bastard!!”