Chapter 34

Michael shifted his perception to the soldier and stepped through the door into the den of the monster.

A small girl sat at a table in the room, splintered bones and trash littering the floor around her.

She looked human, but he couldn't sense any flesh within her body other than her skin. If he didn't know any better he'd say she was completely hollow. But one thing for sure was that she definitely wasn't the child she masqueraded as.

Sigils littered the walls and floor, glowing a soft red and pulsing periodically. Crystals covered the table before her and she seemed to have been melding bone to one of them.

"It's about fucking time we got somebody to come down here."

She stood from the chair and cracked her back.

"I mean do I have to fucking move every month now? I swear the populations get emptied out sooner and sooner nowadays."

She walked over to the soldier and did a onceover of his body. Michael had him stand still. She clearly thought he was under some sort of mind control and he wasn't about to tell her otherwise.

She poked his arms and cringed, "Gross, this skin is terrible. Has this dumbass ever heard of moisturizer? No, of course he hasn't. None of these stupid fucking primates have."

She sighed, "Well at least his bones are useful."

With that the floorboards of the cottage shook as thousands of bugs began to crawl out from the cracks.

They swarmed the soldier, tearing away at his skin and flesh. They burrowed into his body, consuming him where he stood.

And the girl was confused, "Well that's weird, this thing's not human. Its muscles are too dense and its lungs are practically nonexistent. What exactly is this thing?"

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

"Holy shit, Keith did you see that?"

"No, there's a wall there."

"...fair enough."

Michael reached into his pack and pulled out a bandolier of grenades, yanking the pin from the lot of them.

"Let's get you a closer look then."

Michael disappeared with a flash and reappeared in the air of the cabin. His eyes met the girls and he grinned.

This may not be his world, but fighting a monster always seemed to get his spirits up.

He let go of the grenades before disappearing with a flash and reappearing amongst his soldiers.

Deafening explosions echoed out from the cabin, the shrapnel ripping through the rotting wood as if it wasn't even there.

Seconds later the door burst open and the young girl stood at the entrance. Her skin had been badly torn by the explosion, revealing an amalgamation of bone and insect shells.

"Who in the fuck do you thi-"

Michael didn't wait for her to finish and mentally ordered his soldiers to open fire upon her.

The bullets flew before impacting a semi-transparent barrier surrounding her.

"Did you just fucking interrupt me? You destroy my goddamn skin and you fucking interrupt me?"

Bugs began to crawl out from within the swamp as Michael charged the girl.

She flicked her hand and bolts of energy soared towards him, which he narrowly dodged and swung his mace upon her shield. Cracks spread throughout, but it held.

The girl grinned, "Looks like you're not so weak yourself. What, did the townspeople scrounge up enough money to hire a mercenary?"

The bugs swarmed towards Michael, but he ignored them for the moment. Instead focusing everything on breaking the shield before him.

"No, you're no mercenary are you? You'd be far too expensive for the likes of them."

She smiled, "But I bet you'd make for some quality materials wouldn't ya?"

With another swing the shield shattered and Michael rushed towards the witch.

She clapped her hands together and magic flowed, attempting to rip Michael's head from his shoulders.

But he wasn't having that, and disappeared with a flash and reappeared over her shoulder. He gripped down upon it and their eyes met as she spit into his face.

Bright red sigils began to glow where his hand met her shoulder as they disappeared and reappeared in the crossroads he'd first appeared in when he'd arrived in this dimension.

"God you teleporters are fucking annoying."

The sigils began to burn into Michael's hand, forcing him to quickly release her. Worse yet he could feel the spot where she'd spit on him festering.

He could feel insect eggs within the saliva, and he reckoned if left unchecked he'd have significantly less face here in a couple minutes.

So he didn't give it time to fester and molded the flesh of his face, crushing the eggs that were upon him.

"Yep, you most certainly aren't a mercenary. Are you one of the stupid fuck heroes? That'd at least explain why you attacked me out of nowhere."

Michael scoffed, "I wouldn't say out of nowhere. You're bugs devoured one of my soldiers. I say that's just cause to kill you in my book."

"Oh come one. You're clearly not fucking under the hypnosis and you were clearly there. If anything you let me eat him."

"Where'd you get that skin you're wearing?"

"Where ya think dumbass?"

...

"Hey Keith, have you figured out what she is yet?"

"Some kind of witch."

"What would you say the best way to kill her is?"

"I don't know, just break her or something."

"Well said."

Michael could feel his soldiers tunneling to his location. They'd arrive shortly, he didn't want them rushing to him aboveground and leading that swarm of bugs to him.

"You must think you're pretty hot shit to even fucking consider trying to kill me. I'll have you know you're going to regret that decision."

Sigils lit up upon her body and the air shook. She took out a purple crystal from her pocket and moved to crush it, but Michael was already upon it.

Her attitude irritated him. Maybe she'd simply killed out of a need to survive. To some creatures humans were nothing but prey. That's just how some of these worlds worked. But he wouldn't just sit back and accept that.

He refused to leave her be. He'd crush, burn and bury her.

So he swung his mace down upon her as she crushed the crystal. Immediately smoke moved like a torrent upon Michael.

He moved to dodge, but it seemed impossible. It impacted him near instantly and he immediately knew its purpose. He could feel his skin attempting to peel away from his body, which was probably how she'd acquired her skin originally. The skin rejected him, and desperately tried to free itself from his body, but it too was flesh.

The willpower of dozens of soldiers combined with his own as he commanded it to calm itself. It tried to reject the order, to rebel, but he refused to allow it. Flesh was his domain, and he wouldn't let his own disobey him.

The skin reluctantly stayed upon his body and he forced himself through the smoke. Once he was upon her his mace finally connected.

Light rippled off the weapon as energy flowed from his crown into it, and the witch's body splintered into the swamp.

But she didn't die, and seconds later sigils appeared atop the water and she reemerged. The stolen skin she wore all but destroyed.

"You stupid fucking rat bastard! I am bone, I am decay. You think you can kill me by swinging a fucking mace? This is my domain, a place of my aspects. It'll take more than that to kill me."

"We'll just have to see then."

Michael rushed towards the woman, avoiding her magic all the while. It was quite difficult, as it homed towards his location. But dozens of minds worked in tandem with Michael's, and the magic became significantly easier to avoid.

He moved through the barrage of spells, not letting a single one touch him, but not all of them necessarily needed to hit Michael. Some would work simply because he was within eyesight. She cast several curses upon him, but these simply failed to take hold. These were likely attacks upon his soul, which wouldn't work due to the effects of his crown.

With that his hammer met her body, crumpling her to the ground, but no blood was expelled from either of them. It seemed the hammer wouldn't activate if the target had no blood or anything equivalent to spill.

It wasn't the biggest problem though, a minor setback at most, one he wouldn't let her capitalize on.

His weapons slammed repeatedly into the monster, cracking the cobblestone road in the process. Her body rebuilt itself at a startling rate as bone seemed to literally jump from within the muck of the swamp to replace any damage upon her body.

So he changed strategy.

Michael reached down and placed his hand upon her before her body could reform. He had a hunch about her. She'd said that she couldn't be killed within her domain, but it was much more likely that she was simply using the resources within the swamp to rebuild her body.

Why not deny her those resources?

They disappeared with a flash and reappeared deep beneath the earth. Flesh covered the walls of a hastily dug room and Michael grinned.

"Good luck."

Needles of flesh shot from the walls into her body and began to take root in her bones. Seconds later they began to rip her apart as Michael's weapons repeatedly impacted her.

Her bones splintered, but her body refused to perish, as she seemed to be putting her everything into minimizing the damage. She glowed red and sigils lit up upon her skin as bone reformed throughout her body.

But Michael's senses were sharp, and he could clearly see the strain this put upon her body.

"You bloody idiot! I will rip your eyes from your fucking skull! I will scatter your ashes among the bile of this world. I will fucking kill you!"

Keith chuckled towards the witch, "This isn't exactly what I would call a winning strategy lady. It's very unlikely you'll outlast this idiot I'm currently working with. So that can't be what you're trying to do. You wouldn't happen to be waiting for your insects would you?."

Michael shook his head, "I don't sense any insects nearby."

"Which means it's something else. Kill her quickly, before whatever she's waiting for arrives."

"Already working on it."