The Hand-Within-Hands

"You know not what you do, leave now, cease your selfish pursuits and take your freedom! Return to the land of the living and whittle down your days!"

The tall man just continued to stand staring at me, as if expecting me to... get up and leave.

I tip-toed closer to him, but he continued to simply stare me down, unstirred.

He isn't going to fight me? What kind of boss is this?

Who cares, it's not as if I'm going to progress anywhere without eliminating this guy.

With full strength I brought down my row of obsidian shards on the giant for -330 damage.

A geyser of blood sprayed out across the black marble floor, and the giant roared in anger.

"Have it your way, pest! I will break you and cast you down in the hole where I left you!" The giant bellowed as he lunged at me from across the room with an enormous cleaver, which sliced me down the middle for a searing 511 damage.

I hissed through my teeth. He just went agro so quickly...

I leapt back across the floor several times to get some distance from the prince of skin-stealers, chomping on an uyuchu fruit to rectify my first mistake.

Shipe-Totek's red shroud fell to the floor in tatters, and the giant's hideous guise was revealed. He wore a fleshy garment of countless skins stitched together. Hands and feet flapped from the folds of his figure, hollow slits of what were once the place of eyes and mouths gaped out at me from along his shoulders and thighs, and beneath it all were crazed blue eyes gazing out of deep red flesh.

"You are just a grub! A larva with no cocoon with which to reach the heavens! The great work is squandered on you!"

Again he charged towards me, swiping wide and then tall with the cleaver, which I managed to dive out of the way from.

Just as I stood safe, having anticipated his slashes, the skin-walker produced in his other hand, a pair of massive bronze-cast calipers, which he used to pluck me up and cast me into one of the room's columns for a dizzying -230 damage.

I managed to leap up to my feet as fast as possible, dodging another frenzy of swings he wound at the column.

I rolled further down the floor and managed to pounce on the skin-taker's flank, slashing into its side for -230, -234, -237 damage, gushing blood from the giant's wounds and showering my armor in a wash of viscera.

The ghoul began to flinch and jerk, preparing to hurtle towards me with its blade once more. I anticipated his strikes and managed to roll around him, again hacking away at his flank with my roaring and wailing obsidian blade for another -228, -231, -229 damage.

"You fool! If you persist in this you will erase centuries of progress! You will mire us in acursed recurrence forever!"

He was almost down to half his health now, and I had finally learned his attack patterns. I was growing too self-assured. Too arrogant.

I hopped from side to side, ready to zig-zag my way towards Shipe-Totek and unleash another barrage of cuts. That's when he donned the calipers, again, and snapped at me. I managed, but he crushed my bones with three great snaps of the metal pincers for -234, -230 damage. I just managed to block his final clamp with my shield! My health was beaten down to a sliver!

"You think in slaughtering me that you will be liberated, nay, you damn yourself! You serve lying masters who have set you against me that they might seize the fruits of our miraculous arts!"

I downed another Uyuchu fruit, which didn't quite restore me to full, and prepared for the fleshy mass to rush me in another brutal assault.

This time he ran towards me, holding the cleaver in the air to strike down at me, and I ran past his right side, managing to slash several gashes of -227, -235, and -235 into his heaving belly and hips.

Shipe-Totek's HP dwindled down to a third of its full strength. To my horror, he wailed a pained scream and wrenched at his skin-suit, tearing the off of his hide. What was revealed underneath was an enormous red giant, his bare-muscled body dripping blood and his row of large white teeth jutting from his gums. He had big blue bloodshot eyes, his hate-filled gaze fixed on me.

The prince of the skin-takers beat his chests with his fists and roared: "I have stripped you bare and now I will rend you, I will leave you a torn and splintered feast for the vultures!"

Shipe-Totek threw down his cleaver and his calipers and ran towards me with even more speed and ferocity, catching me off guard with his new attack and scooping me up into the palm of his hand. He crunched down, crushing me for -199, -197. -103 damage before hurling me bloodied and battered onto the ground.

I struggled back onto my feet. I was barely hanging on and I was all out of Uyuchu fruit. I didn't understand this new phase's attack patterns, but I remembered how Jess had dealt with the spider.

I walked towards the red giant, paying special attention to the flayed god's twitches and gesticulations. Just when I noticed him finally begin to heave forward, his fingers outstretched to grasp me, and his eyes rolling back, as he lunged I dove past his outstretched arms and drove my macauhuitl straight down his spine, lashing him for -233, -237, -232, -238, -241 damage!

Shipe-Totek collapsed onto his knees, blood spurting from his eyes, his mouth, and his nose and cascading down his shuddering exposed body.

Grunting, he struggled out his final words "Worm. Now the skin is severed, and the worlds will spread and intermingle, blood in a bowl."

The flayed god fell onto his belly, bleeding out motionless across the marble.

Sacrifice Devoured