Chapter 5: Acid Bath

Within the darkness that was the croc's belly, Ryo lies pondering how to get out while remembering all his memories acknowledging the fact that he might die. How unfortunate, dying is one thing but dying in the smelly belly of a croc is another. All of a sudden through pain, he notices that the stomach acids within the croc started melting his skin. If he were to describe the pain it would be the equivalent of a thousand fire ants making a meal of him.

 "Sizzle, sizzle"

"Ahhh" he screams lightly.

He could hear his skin burning from the acid and was beseeched with pain and lamented on his weakness to escape the situation.

But this was not enough to make him give up. He started punching and kicking, twisting and turning, biting and chewing all in an attempt to set himself free but all his efforts proved futile. From what he could tell, the stomach lining of the croc was at least as durable as steel and had the consistency of rubber. One could say that it was a naturally made shock absorber. Any normal person would have given up at this point but not Ryo. He wouldn't give up and kept on punching and struggling for his life as the acids slowly melted into his skin.

About twenty minutes had passed since Ryo was swallowed by the croc. His feet and hands were completely ridden of skin while other parts of his body just barely had some skin on them but he kept struggling and didn't stop. As time passed, he slowed down and could no longer punch and feel to the bottom of the Croc's stomach. He was ready to give up on life but couldn't shake off the guilt of letting his sister down by not living as he promised.

Ryo laid down and stopped moving and once again his life flashed before his eyes. He didn't want to die, obviously he wanted to live but what could he do when faced with a situation like this? His day since he woke up in the morning had been sour. He almost got killed by a zombie and now he's gonna be digested to death by a croc. Truly a weird way to go out

" Ah fuck, I honestly thought that when I die I would either be surrounded by my family or at least some big booty bitches if you know what I mean. But here I am. Life is just so harsh to me" he says to himself while laughing with a crazy look in his eyes.

Ryo is faced with the true outcome of reality which is all things must come to an end but this only makes him seek life even more.

"You know what. I don't care if god says this is my fate, I will defy destiny and live whether the gods like it or not" he says with passion burning in his eyes.

He gets up and starts punching again. He hits and hits and hits.

"I won't give up" 

"I will never give up"

"I will survive"

"no matter what." He says with the determination to survive his situation.

His eyes exude a golden luminosity as he gives it one more go and gets his hands ready for another punch. And punches upwards

"AHHHHHHH" he exclaims.

As his hand connects with the stomach lining of the croc, his hand bursts into a beautiful barrage of gray crystals creating a large pillar about twenty-five meters long from the ground stabbing the croc and making a huge gaping hole large enough for Ryo to get out while also crystalizing the surrounding area making the ground to be covered by beautiful gray crystals. The impact was so strong that it sent some of the crocs blood flying. This blood started to rain and covered the crystals creating quite a breathtaking display. But that wasn't enough for Ryo, Using his now crystalized hands, he kept punching over and over again slowly turning the croc into nothing more than minced meat.

"Wow," he exclaims while looking at the surroundings.

"Did I do all this" he ponders

He had not realized that his power of crystallization would be able to do this.

Ryo looked at his hands and noticed that they were still crystalized. He relaxed and the crystals faded away and when he tensed up again they came back. He could now somewhat control the crystals. He takes some steps to look at himself in the water to know just how much damage he took from being bathed in acid.

When he took a look in the water, he could see that more than sixty percent of the skin on his body was gone. This was shocking but not as shocking as what he saw next. While looking at his reflection, he could see that his eyes were glowing like a pair of golden stars covered in a bloody background that was his face. He assumed that the glowing of his eyes was because of him activating his power and to test his theory, he removed the crystallization and his eyes turned back to normal.

When he threw that crystal punch, he had adrenaline coursing through his veins so he could barely feel pain at the moment. But afterward, he could definitely feel just how excruciating the pain was. The pain was enough to make a person black out.

He decides that he has no time to waste and starts seeking shelter. Ryo walks around while feeling dizzy. This was because of the amount of blood he had lost. He could regenerate but without food, he would need to sleep to heal fast.

He wasn't strong enough to find shelter and slowly fell to the floor. Since he didn't have any more strength in his legs, he used his hands to grab the ground and crawl his way to safety but couldn't find anywhere to stay. He pants and sighs

"From the frying pan into the fire Hun?"

"I really have some dog shit luck don't I." He says in a worrisome manner.

"I mean since I left the shelter I have been passing out over and over again. Can't I get a brake?"

"Life really isn't in my favorrrs....."Says him while he slowly falls asleep

He slowly passes out but before he sleeps completely he subconsciously activates his powers. Once again his eyes glowed and his body made a dome starting from his body touching the ground and covering him making a lotus-like gigantic gem protecting him from the elements.

To be continued.