Becoming a Monster (part 3)

(Fred's POV)

FLASHBACK…

"Hey, hey, how are you still walking?"

"What do you mean?"

"I just drove a screwdriver into your gut. How are you still fighting?"

"Well," I looked at the scene around me. These guys from the sixth grade had ganged up on me to take revenge but now they were lying all around. The guy in front of me was bleeding from his mouth, his cheek swollen. I look down at my stomach to find a screwdriver jutting out of it. I was bleeding.

It hurt. It did hurt. But it didn't matter. 

I managed to beat up these bullies big time after all.

"Well, I don't know what that means. I just wanted to kill you guys for real."

"You are a monster…" he said before fainting out.

"Bitch. It was you guys who turned me into a monster

tch." I spat on his face. 

Wee woo! wee woo! Wee…

I could hear sirens now. I am gonna get a bad hearing from my parents now.

But it's at least better than being treated like shit.

END OF FLASHBACK

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(3rd person POV)

Beatrice was healing Rem and her condition seemed to be getting stable slowly. But things were not good over Fred's end. Subaru kept on watching Fred getting beat up and bruised all over.

[Shit! He's gonna die at this rate!!] He bit his lips, but he didn't move. He knew couldn't do anything to help him after all.

[I am pathetically powerless.]

The white-haired harpy spearwoman was still knocked out cold and Fred's cut-off left hand was still grabbing her hair. And things went south after that.

Fred was now struggling with the remaining harpies who showed up after he was exhausted. They ganged up on him but he somehow managed to take two more down.

[It was going all good and then he decided to unequip his armour and his sword and instead go fighting them with daggers? One held to his mouth??

Did he think he was Naruto??] Subaru was critical of that move. 

[That's the main reason why he ended up like that!!]

He jumped and bent like a worm to keep on escaping their attacks somehow. 

And it was long-range attacks that did him in. He had no way to deal with long-range attacks. 

If he defended himself from one attack, the other harpies dived in attacking him from the other fronts. 

And if he attacked, they would still attack him using his opening. 

[I don't know if he has a gun or a bow, but he didn't seem to use them. And he can't use them now either, he lost one of his hands after all.] Subaru laid down his thoughts in order. He could see how the situation turned around with just their increasing numbers and Fred's brute strength couldn't do anything against their attacks.

And presently, a green-haired harpy holding him in her claws kept on bringing him closer to the others like a worm to be torn apart by many birds.

[Beatrice is still healing Rem as Frederick asked her to, so her hands were tied. 

If we had only one more fighter here, we could have easily helped him. 

Wait a second. Emilia-tan… she can fight too. She can turn around the tide of this battle!!] A bright idea struck Subaru and he jumped in anticipation of the results. 

"Ram, wait here. I will go and bring Emilia-tan here." 

"All by yourself?

You are going to become bird feed Barusu! 

And Frederick-sama is going to be dead by the time you get to her." She brought him back to reality by explaining the situation better.

"Shit!

Do we have nothing we can do?"

Subaru looked at Beatrice. She was biting her lips in frustration. 

[She is feeling terrible too. But she can't turn down Fred's request.] he sighed in resignation.

"Are we just going to watch him die?" he muttered to himself. 

Then something caught Subaru's eyes. 

[Fred, he is- glowing?]

A subtle golden light enveloped Fred like a blanket. It reminded Subaru of the golden bracelet which he got in the loothouse as an after-effect of Fred's magic.

"Woah! What the hell is happening?!" The bracelet on Subaru's hand started vibrating crazily and then it liquefied and darted towards Fred like a hungry snake.

[Did it react to the glow just now?]

It was in such a hurry that it seemed like it would die if it didn't get to Fred the next moment.

(Reference to the golden Bracelet- chapter 4: The final confrontation)

The Harpies were unaware of the transformation that Fred went through. They were too busy trying to rip him off. 

Suddenly, the green harpy shrieked in pain and dropped Fred as a result. 

"Ruth! Are you okay?" the commander Harpy asked her, worried.

This time, the harpy with the knuckles dived to scoop him up. But Fred bashed her with a shield which he had summoned in his hand. The golden fluid finally reached him too and coiled around his left hand. 

He looked like a pirate now. Not with a hook, but with a whip for his left hand. 

He flung his golden whip on the harpy wrapping her with his whip and swung back and forth using her as a lever. It made her lose her balance and then he released the whip after gaining enough motion and placed the shield on his feet. 

The other harpies were too bewildered watching the scene and didn't have the time to react and try for a second scoop-up. 

Fred landed on the ground with the shield as his skateboard.

SWOOSH!! 

Dust blew up on the ground due to the impact. But Fred stood up, unfazed and looked at the harpies. His calculating eyes which had turned yellow now seemed to be watching each of their movements like a hawk.

Fred unsummoned the shield, and took up a spear instead. It was the same cherry flower-adorned spear that he had used in the previous loop. But unlike the first loop, he was wielding it more fluently and skillfully. 

With deadly precision, he cut off the limbs of the knuckled harpy who tried to punch him in a fit of rage, aiming to smash him.

The harpy screamed in agony, but he delivered a quick blow to the back of her head with the blunt end of his spear, putting her out of commission and ending her misery. His method of only cutting off their limbs was giving the onlookers, aka Subaru and Ram a bad taste in their mouths. 

Subaru felt like barfing at any moment. But he kept his eyes on the fight. 

He didn't know when one of those birds would dive at them. So he kept his guard up.

Fred was now the hunter. 

He immediately parried the sickle blade thrown at him by the loli harpy using the spear and proceeded to pull her down with the whip in his other hand. 

Then he proceeded to pull her down and cut off her limbs while defending against the oncoming attacks. 

6 remaining.

One of them cast magic, but he coiled his whip into a shield and reflected the attack. 

Another one down 

5 left.

A harpy with a sword dived at him while another one chanted magic which resulted in a black mist surrounding him.

Since it wasn't a direct attack, he couldn't reflect it using his golden shield.

The spell had a debuff effect which slowed down his movements.

However, when the harpy went low enough to slash him, spikes from the ground rose, impaling her all over. Fred had conjured a spell to lure her in and skewer her well.

Another one down. 

4 left.

Then, Fred decided to do something wild. He conjured some flames beneath his feet and burst up in the sky like a rocket. He summoned his shield once again and bashed into the harpy who had cast the debuff spell.

Without waiting to lose his momentum he lashed his whip onto another harpy, cutting off her wings. Then both of them start to fall.

2 more down. 

Only 2 left.

He landed atop one of the harpies, reducing his impact and then proceeded to cut off their hands and legs too. 

He laid his cold gaze on the remaining two harpies.

Finally, the commander harpy and the green-haired harpy-Ruth were left. Ruth defended both of them using her wind magic. She deflected the magic projectiles which Fred kept on firing at them. 

After being in a stalemate for a while, he cast some ball-like projectiles and shot them their way. 

Ruth deflected them using her magic, but he clicked his fingers and the balls exploded sending both the harpies downwards. 

[He is a monster.] Subaru trembled in fear of Fred's battle prowess. 

A versatile monster indeed. Fred didn't seem to use too much power and solely relied on tactics and flimsy tricks accompanied by lots of evading and shield bashing to do these birds in.

He cut off the limbs and wings of all the remaining birds. 

They were all alive. But immobile blocks of meat. 

After that, he simply fainted.

"Goodness! What a ridiculous guy." Subaru said as he ran to pick Fred up.

________________________________________

AN: To my dear readers who have been with me in this journey so far, I would like to thank all of you and express my gratitude for supporting me this far.

But I noticed that my craft didn't meet the certain level of expertise and execution.

It's a mistake which i should've realised earlier, no excuses about that. But better late than sorry.

Long story short, I am going for a remake. And I will be hibernating for the time being, fixing up the plot, the scenes, the execution, the backstory, everything which a proper story should have. That means that I will be back with the remake by NEXT YEAR.

I have a lot of grinding to do on my part, and I won't make excuses. This story means a lot to me as it does to you all.

That's all. Thanks for your understanding.