Dead Man Standing

 "Avis!" The instructor jumped at the creature as he saw the brutal attack, without wasting a swing, he called out his spirit.

 From his back, a muscular grey hand started materializing, as it was finished, the hand looked more opaque than Maizy's sword, more real. While he held one of his swords, the hand bent and unsheathed the second he was carrying.

 " U-Sh-Le-Sh…" The creature spoke.

 The sound of its voice alone made the man gulp, he knew it was a pointless fight, a speaking monster must have been too far above his level, he knew even without seeing its full body.

 "Haaahh!" He charged, the first swing was his, and as he expected, the blob slipped, but at the moment it stood above his sword, his spirit brought down its own blow. "Fuck me…"

 As the creature protected its eye, the body it kept hidden was revealed to the world. As it saw the petrified adventurer, it raised its own attack.

 'This is it… Here I die…' He thought, but in his heart, something was amiss, while he was ready for death, something else pushed at him, something latched directly to his soul. 'No, I refuse to concede, I am more than this!" Somewhere along his thoughts, he began to shout, if for no one else, for himself to know he didn't give up. He raised his hands to block, all three of them, the free one supporting the blades as he braced for impact.

 *CLANG* *SHISH*

 The monster hit the swords at a bad angle, making them cut through its wrist, and because of its own momentum, it was unable to stop, letting the words cut its hand clean off.

 "I-I did it!!" In his moment of distraction, the creature didn't wait for him, and by raising one of its legs, it stabbed his stomach, making a deep incision. The man fell to his knees, letting go of his swords to prevent his guts from flowing out. "Ah… Shit… No…"

 *BLUGH* The mouth of the creature, located on its lower body, opened, only to close again over his neck.

 "Instructor!" Maizy despaired, both of her companions were dead, she had to fight, she knew, but as the creature slowly crawled closer, without a hurry, simply enjoyed her fear. She was frozen, she tried to call out her sword, but nothing responded, as if it was more afraid than her.

 The creature reached her, its head started rubbing against her body, and as the mouth was about to be brought down on her, a yelp escaped the creature, and it lost interest in the young girl.

 Brought out of her trance, Maizy looked at what had saved her, but all she could see was a 'thing' covered in blood, with one hand on the sword that pierced the monster's back, and the other barely holding on to another sword, but if there was something she recognized, it was the eye on the chest, now open and glowing in pale pink, her savior was Avis!

 'I-I thought I was dead, why now of all times did you decide to wake up, how dare you save my life again, at this rate I'll be even more in your debt.' She though, without speaking out loud, in fear that he would let her die.

 The eye, of course, couldn't speak back, but he felt its emotions, like a weak connection, but a connection nonetheless.

 Avis recognized the bad condition of his body, concussion, a broken arm, and a gaping hole on his side, inflicted by his own sword, but despite that, his body listened to his every move, moving faster than it ever did before.

 'You are doing this, right? You take orders directly from my brain, and transmit them to my muscles, Maizy told me this about spirits, even so… I won't be able to last for long, my body feels like it was ripped apart and put back together backwards. Give me the strength to protect Maizy, I beg of you, one more push.'

 As the creature turned to swing at the boy, he let go of the sword and lowered himself until he crawled beneath the claw. After it passed, his good hand grabbed the sword he stole from the instructor, broader, but sharper, made of a strong alloy specially forged for the ghoulish arm, it would be enough, he felt the eye wanted to say. It had to be.

 He lifted the hunk of metal with one hand, swinging at its torso, the little strength he could muster being blocked by the monster's toughness.

 "Maizy! At my signal, swing upwards at its neck. Understood?!"

 "...Yes!" After getting over her fear, Maizy got in a position to fight, controlling her sword from a distance to distract the monster.

 As he slipped under the monster, Avis was met with a soft belly, unable to pass the opportunity, he struck, not taking into account the sharp legs that could impale him at a moment's notice. He tried to crawl to its back, but after being enraged, the creature would not let him get away, taking its attention completely away from the girl, and giving her a chance to strike. The charge of the flying sword ended with it being impaled in the abdomen of the monster, but it was still ignored, so without waiting for an invite, the stabbing continued, the skin was tough, so deepening the wound would be easier, and by taking in and out, it burrowed further in until it reached the monster's insides.

 By that point, the monster couldn't decide on who it should kill first, the boy bravely blocking its legs, or the girl who keeps stabbing her.

 "N-n-o Y-ou Ne-e-ed Die!!" The monster screamed, going completely crazy, jumping and crashing its claw into the nearby trees without caring for its body, its intestines started to dislodge from their cavity, first falling on Avis but he managed to roll out from under the creature as it tried to jump on him.

 'One… More… Strike!!!" As he jumped on the back of the creature, raising the sword with both of his hands through the grueling pain, he slashed at the same time as Maizy, but the neck kept slipping along the swords. 'No!' Avis thought, but a bump reassured him. 'The swords caught!' And with one more push, its head came off.

 "We did it!"

 "Avis, no!"

 He was getting ready to celebrate, but suddenly, he got hit with the backhand of the beast, weaker than the last time, but he was again sent flying, thankfully being cushioned by the soft embrace of the girl. As she dragged him behind the tree, there was only one thing left to do, wait for the monster to bleed out, its adrenaline was already running low, but as its injuries caught up to it, it began to waver, and soon it fell against a tree, not moving anymore.

 "It… Fina… ly..!" *COUGH* *COUGH*

 "You are not going to believe this…"

 "W-what?"

 "Its soul…"

 From the enormous body, an ethereal image of the eyed ball began to rise.

 Avis turned to Maizy.

 "Can I…"

 "Go right ahead, you did all the work."

 He gave her a smile through bloody teeth, and walked to the spirit, he raised his hand, and the creature started sniffing it with missing nostrils, but eventually, it touched his palm, and began melting into his skin.

 "Aaaaa!... Fuuck… I-I'm… Gonna… Fai…" He fell, with his hand stuck up, but for the second time, the girl caught him, before laying him down. She collected the severed claw of the monster, and the instructor's swords, strapping them to her back, it would be proof of what happened, but there would still be consequences.

 While she was preoccupied with other things, Avis' body was going through a transformation, the new spirit traveled through his body, looking for a place to anchor down, but as it did so, it met a familiar sensation, on the boy's chest, a creature similar enough to it was sleeping, the little spirit felt a call to it, an attraction that would bring it bliss, and around the eye that was already there, two more slits appeared, in their infancy, but just as dangerous.

…