Battle

Heat burns within my chest, and with a breath I leap forward.

The Stray Devil's jaws open wide to reveal impossibly black fangs. I duck under it, and before it could turn around to slam me, I spin and stab the pipe through the Stray Devil's thin body. It screeches in pain, and with a roar I slam the Stray Devil into the ground, stabbing the pipe through the concrete.

I narrowly avoid its tail, but I'm not fast enough to avoid the rest of its serpentine body. Thin as it is, the force behind it sends me flying back, and I grit my teeth as I quickly land on my feet. The Stray Devil pulls itself out from the pipe, and it hisses at me as inky black venom falls from its fangs.

I wince. I've already known that I won't be fast enough to avoid the sudden jerks the Stray Devil can do. My eyes are more than happy to give me the exact amount of force that'll slam into my gut. But it doesn't make my stomach hurt any less.

I turn to it, and it seems amused. It thinks I've been injured. It's not wrong. That single attack cracked three of my ribs.

But I smile anyway.

The Stray Devil lunges again. I swerve to the side, and pulling out another pipe I stab it through, creating a wound just below my first attack. I quickly jump back, and I then duck just fast enough to let its tail fly over my head. I use the opportunity to pull out another pipe and stab it just below the wound I just made.

My hand reaches back to grab another pipe, but a warning blares in my mind, and I quickly jump back. The Stray Devil suddenly slams down, and a giant crack appears where I stood seconds ago.

This continues for the next few minutes. I swoop in, stab pipe after pipe into the Stray Devil, creating wounds down its body. The Stray Devil lunges at me, and when I come close, it twists its body and tries to slam me. Most of the time it misses. But I'm not used to fighting, and it's inevitable that I find myself slammed back a few times.

And it is vicious. Its whole body acts like a coiled rubber band, and at any moment any part of its body can snap and smash into me. When it does, I scream in pain as I'm thrown back.

Just a minute later, I'm not doing well. Blood trails down my cheek from the wound on my forehead, taken when I overextended once and got my head slammed into the concrete below. My head feels light, and every breath I take sends a spike of pain through my chest. All the internal bleeding inside isn't helping either.

But the Stray Devil isn't looking too good either. The rage and hunger in its eyes have yet to fade, but it's clearly slouching now. Wounds run down its body, all leaking with black blood.

I reach to my back. There's three pipes left in my backpack. It'll have to do.

I suck in a lungful of air. Pain rings in my chest, but following it is an explosive burst of heat. The Primal Energy coursing through my veins have spread to every inch of my body, and it feels like lightning is snapping through my bones.

I lunge forward. The Stray Devil leaps to meet me, fangs soaked in venom as it hisses. I duck low, ready to swerve under. But it knows better, and with inhumane flexibility the Stray Devil stops its lunge and slams its head down towards my skull.

But my eyes have told me of its plan seconds before, and I instead leap over it. The Stray Devil hisses in surprise, and I grit my teeth as I pull out a pipe from my backpack. And with a shout, I stab downwards, creating a new wound to join the line of holes I've punctured through the Stray Devil.

Its tail suddenly jerks towards me. I bring up my arms, and the tail slams right onto me. My bones ring painfully, but my arms come out relatively unharmed. I quickly use the chance to stab another hole through the Stray Devil. It screeches again, and I leap away.

I wince. The bones in my arm are fine, but they'll definitely bruise after this. But it's fine. I only have one pipe left in my backpack.

I can do this.

I lunge at it, drawing my last pipe from my backpack. The Stray Devil hisses, before it draws back and coils into itself. And like a spring, all that tension is let go in a single moment, and the Stray Devil blurs as it launches forward.

But that's perfect. In just a second the Stray Devil closes the distance between us. Its eyes glare right into mine, fangs hovering just inches away from my cheeks.

My arm whips up, and the Stray Devil hisses as it suddenly finds a pipe pressed into its jaws. And given free reign, I grit my teeth as I grip onto its head. It glares at me, enraged and confused, and I only grin.

I begin pulling my hands apart.

Snap-

Its head splits into two, torn roughly from my pull.

Its eyes go wide, realization dawning on just what it is I'm trying to do. But My hold on it is tight, and it can only watch as I begin tearing my hands away from one another.

Snapsnapsnap-

There only remains a thin filament of muscle and skin between the line of holes I punctured through the Stray Devil's body, and those filaments are the only defense stopping the Stray Devil from falling apart into two halves. And now those filaments snap one after another as I continue pulling the two sides apart.

Snapsnapsnapsnapsnapsnapsnap-

Half of its body has already been torn in two, but still it lives. I'm not too surprised. Similar to a snake it may be, this Stray Devil's biology can't be any closer. Its 'heart' exists close to its tail, where its skin is toughest. It's the reason why I didn't just go straight towards the tail. My pipe would've been batted away.

But tough as it may be, the muscles beneath it are as squishy as the rest of its body. Once I start tearing its body apart from the top, the rest will follow.

Snapsnapsnapsnapsnapsnapsnapsnapsnapsnap-

For the first time, something akin to panic appears in its eyes. It's hissing grows frantic, and venom practically floods down from its fangs, as if it believes its venom will somehow fly into me. But I'm both too focused and too pained to notice anything but the snapping I can hear.

Snapsnapsnapsnapsnapsnapsnapsnapsnapsnapsnapsnapsnap-

Then, suddenly, I see that all the thin filaments between the wounds have snapped. The only thing holding the Stray Devil's body intact is the small bit of muscle on its tail. And there, just barely poking out from the purplish muscle is a dark red gem, surrounded by some disturbing black fog only visible to my eyes.

I smile tiredly. And then I pull.

RIP!

Satisfaction rings through me as I finally tear the Stray Devil in two. I hold a half of the still living Stray Devil in each hand. I then hear a clink, and I turn to see the red gem fall onto the cracked road. I quickly throw the two halves away, and they make an unnatural hiss as they twist mid-air to try and lunge at me.

But it's too late. By the time one of the halves landed on the road, I'm already standing over the red gem. And it can only hiss in horror as I slam my fist down. The gem is smashed apart, and all the ominous energy stored within is released into the air.

The two halves begin wriggling, before they inevitably fall back onto the road, now inanimate and dead.

I stand there for a good few moments, before I begin to wobble. My adrenaline finally gives out, and I lose all strength in my legs as I fall onto my back.

My head hurts. My arms hurt. My chest hurts. Really, every inch of my body hurts. I'm bruising all over, and I'm pretty sure I also have a concussion from that one time the Stray Devil slammed my head onto the road.

My eyes tell me that my internal bleeding has healed; my body's regeneration somehow bolstered by the outpour of Primal Energy swirling through my body. Which is…interesting. I didn't know that. Doesn't make my insides hurt any less though.

I know I should probably be heading inside the abandoned church by now. Gotta check if all the people are fine and all.

But I'm going to lie here for a minute or two. I need a quick rest.