A Thread

Jack could feel strain in his head. It wasn't the kind that was like a headache, but rather like some sort of thread was starting to snap. A kind of feeling he had recalled having before, but was pushed away from. Though he couldn't be sure, it felt like it was his father doing so.

Regardless, it was a little hard to focus on that at this current time.

After Caden had ripped off his bandages, it revealed scars, both new and old covering his entire body. The few patches of skin that were still intact were even paler than his face, making him look more like a ghost rather than human.

There was a rather large frown on his face, showing his reluctance. After all, he hadn't used it when one of his allies, albeit suddenly, had been eaten alive in front of him.

Through the scars, it was possible to see a bloody tarot card that had been forcibly inserted inside. By flexing his abdominal muscles, he pushed a pre-placed playing card within. Blood immediately began pouring out of his body, causing his skin to wrinkle up and his body to deflate, squeezing his body out for what little remained within. His hood had come off, simply because of the force of blood, revealing a similarly scarred scalp.

Seedy lashed out with multiple vines, but the moment they had gotten close they were all sliced off.

The blood that gushed out from Caden's body didn't fall down to the ground, but instead, all floated around independently in the form of numerous dagger-like blades. Although Caden himself was looking rather horrible, he looked quite determined.

Seedy daringly went in first, one of its heads rushing forth recklessly, completely undeterred by what just happened. At the same time, it sent several vines at various angles around him.

Caden began hyperventilating while sweat began forming.

However, his eyes were wide open while clearly showing his determination. Seedy's head was split into several different pieces while all of the vines were similarly cut off as well, not a single one had made it through.

Seedy was definitely looking a bit worse for wear having lost a significant chunk of its body.

If Caden's condition could be ignored, he seemed to be in quite a good spot. However, many of the cut-off vines either crawled onto him or directly fell on top before they began pulling.

"Shit! SHIT! FUCK!"

And brutally ripped chunks off his body.

"Aa... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-"

Not that there was much left in the first place, but that probably also made it much more important.

The elephant let out a pained roar despite seemingly not being injured. It attracted Jack's attention, prompting him to wave the twigs. The elephant seemed to be in a daze, but still limped its way over to support the bear fighting against Elena, while the raptor rushed towards Caden. On top of that, the gorilla wasn't too far away, rushing over.

Lily observed the situation and hesitated for a while. In the end, she decided to flee. Jack's eyes were trained on her until she went out of sight but didn't do anything in particular about it.

Elena was thrown by the bear, slamming into the ground several meters away getting quite far from Caden. However, that appeared to be an intentional move as she unclasped her black deck, taking out a rather small syringe that appeared to be filled with some kind of viscous black substance.

She appeared a bit nervous but resolved herself before injecting it.

In just a moment, the syringe emptied, mostly due to its small size. However, the effects were apparent immediately. Despite appearing like such a small amount, Elena's veins bulged black as cracking sounds emitted from her body as it rapidly grew in size. Her muscles had grown particularly exaggeratedly, making her look like it had consisted mostly of muscle rather than anything else.

By the time both the bear and the elephant had caught up to Elena, she was now on par with their size.

The bear confidently lunged at her as it had always done, but Elena took one step forward, slamming her foot down before a lightning-quick fist was thrown at the bear before its claws could even reach.

A devastating bang resounded as the bear shot out like a bullet, only stopping after crashing into a fallen tree.

There was an ugly purple wound on its stomach. Although there was no visible blood on the outside, it was clear that it had suffered severe internal injuries. She let out a roar with a big smile on her face.

"Hahaha! I don't know why I didn't just do this earlier! I would've been invincible! Who cares about the increased food consumption the steroids come with?"

While she was talking to herself, Caden was on his last legs. He had collapsed to the ground, with blood pouring from his new wounds. It appeared that he wasn't able to control those, which made it pour down and go into his eyes, impairing his vision.

Still, his will to fight hadn't been cut short.

While letting out bloody screams, the bloody daggers wildly slashed at the area around him, forming a tight net. Both the raptor and gorilla were slashed fairly badly, countless bloody wounds appearing across their body, making them look not too dissimilar to Caden himself.

However, in his wild rampage, he wasn't able to target any weaknesses. Although there were wounds to the neck, none of them had reached either beast's jugular. As badly injured as they were, they were still alive.

And his efforts of retaliation were weakening as well.

In the end, Caden had lost the will to continue on, crumpling on the floor, not dead, but also not far from it either. Both beasts came up to him, the raptor biting down on one arm while the gorilla firmly grasped one as well.

However, they did not kill him. Rather, they held him up, letting his head limply hang while his eyes looked rather devoid of life. Jack giggled as he spoke up.

"Seedy, let me take a little bit from him and you can have the rest since you worked so hard for it!"

Seedy let out an excited roar before bringing him next to Caden.

With a smile, Jack spoke to him.

"Did you have fun playing together?"

 While he was talking a discreet blade of blood shot for his neck, but Jack caught it before it reached. The dagger of blood continued going forward and split apart his hand, starting to dig through the bone. Seedy let out an angered roar, but didn't end up doing anything. As for Jack, he still didn't seem concerned about that. Instead, he was more curious about the answer.

"Hmm... I guess not everybody likes losing, but it's important to find playing itself fun too!"

Caden coughed out a mouthful of blood as though to respond. At the same time, the blood dagger had gradually lost its form, spilling down onto the ground. Jack tilted his head to the side before he used his bloody hand to hold up Caden's head.

Though his eyes were unfocused, he could still make out Jack's bright smile, which gave the impression of having only the best of intentions.

"I know what will make you happier! And it will make me happy too."

Jack gently reached out with his other hand, putting it on the side of Caden's face. Then, he suddenly dug his fingers into the eye socket.

"Aaah... it hurts... no, stop... please..."

Tears formed, matching his begging behavior. His mouth was open while he frowned deeply, almost making him look like a baby. On the other hand, Jack let out a giggle.

"Don't worry! I know you're just too excited, but it's ok to have fun once in a while. You've only been stabbing yourself all this time, but there are so many other ways to have as well!"

It was a slow and bloody process. Although Jack didn't hold back, an eye was something that was firmly lodged within for good reason. However, that only served to magnify Caden's pain.

He continuously let out pleas to stop. Though eventually, they gradually turned into ones that begged Jack to kill him. Yet, all of them fell on deaf ears. He couldn't even try to put up a resistance, with the raptor and gorilla each holding onto his arms, as though that much was needed.

In the meantime, Elena was having a complete power trip as she fought both the bear and elephant and actually had the advantage. In fact, the only reason the beasts had a chance was because they were fearlessly going forward, ignoring the mounting ugly bruises that appeared on their body.

Jack's eyes narrowed ever so slightly as he looked over at Elena.

His gaze turned back to Caden and stared at him for a few moments. Jack could feel a thread in his head was just on the verge of snapping, and it felt uncomfortable. However, he was just far too excited and filled with too much of a twisted sense of joy.

Or perhaps more accurately, bloodlust.

Jack could tell if he pulled his eye right now, that thread would snap. It was in fact the main reason why he hadn't done so already.

A system prompt had flashed in front of him, briefly attracting his attention.

[60 seconds left before full rewards and punishments will be distributed.]

Without stalling any longer, he ripped out the eye, along with the thread in his mind.