The creature screeched, its form twisting, shifting, breaking.
Its six legs snapped inward, shattering into countless microscopic shards.
Then --
It melted.
A black tide of sludge that slithered along the floor, rippling like living tar.
A shiny, writhing sheet that could bend, twist, reshape at will...
Jargen: "... Coward."
Jargen's breath came heavy.
His skin glowed.
His body radiated heat, distorting the air around him...
... But his rage burned hotter.
He charged.
Jargen’s fist flashed forward.
A punch --
Like a meteor crashing down.
WHAM!
But, the black mass shifted.
A hole opened --
Jargen’s fist slammed straight through, crashing into the brick wall behind.
Cracks spiderwebbed through the clay.
His knuckles split...
Blood dripped...
But --
He didn’t stop.
Didn’t flinch.
Didn’t even acknowledge the pain.
Tyssa: "Oh my god... He just punched the wall with everything he had!"
Her voice wavered.
Tyssa: "How is he not in pain...?!"
Punjo: (weakly) "When he'sh like thish... Jahgen’s body..."
A ragged breath.
A shake of his head.
Punjo: "Feelsh no pain."
Rel: "What...?!"
Punjo could do nothing...
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Nothing but watch.
Because every movement hurt.
Every ounce of strength left in him had to be saved...
... lest he wouldn't be conscious to make it through the night.
Jargen: "STOP DELAYING THIS!"
A barrage of strikes.
Lightning-fast blows, too quick to see.
His fists blurred as they hammered toward the creature --
But it moved even faster.
A shifting mirage.
A phantom.
It flowed like liquid, dodging each attack effortlessly.
And now...
Jargen was too slow.
His rage kept him going...
His body burned like a furnace...
But his punches couldn’t hit what his eyes couldn’t track.
And the longer this went on --
The faster he burned out.
Rel: "Dammit..."
His fists clenched.
Rel: "He's not even thinking anymore. He's just going berserk! At this rate, he's going to collapse..."
Tyssa: "Then we need to be the brains here."
Her eyes darted across the laboratory.
Looking for anything.
Any solution.
Rel: "Tyssa, I know that look! What are you thinking?!"
She bit her bottom lip.
Tyssa: "Heat."
Rel’s breath caught.
Tyssa: "That’s its weakness, right? Jargen’s body is so hot that the tar melts right off. But what if we had a larger heat source? Something that could melt all of the tar at once?"
Rel: (realizing) "Without the tar to move its body... We might be able to slow it down. Maybe even stop it completely, if that’s its sole means of locomotion."
Tyssa: "That’s what I’m hoping... But it’s no use. There’s nothing around here we can use."
Her shoulders tensed.
Her chest tightened.
Tyssa: "And a heat source that large... It would melt more than just that thing."
Rel scanned the laboratory.
No tapestry to burn.
No strong light sources.
No alchemy knowledge to rely on.
Dmitri hadn't made this easy.
Rel: "I don't think we're defeating this thing if we keep it in here. But then again... We can always take it outside."
Tyssa turned, staring at him.
Tyssa: "...W-what are you saying? You want to release it?!"
Rel: "A *controlled* release."
Her blood ran cold.
Rel: "Letting it loose in the city would most likely be a death sentence. But if we move the fight somewhere else, we can turn the environment against it."
Tyssa: "... A flammable environment!"
Rel: "That would be ideal."
A beat.
Then --
Tyssa: "... Leave it to me!"
She turned and ran.
Rel: "Tyssa! Where the hell are you going now?!"
She called back over her shoulder.
Tyssa: "You already know! The only place we've seen that could be lit up like a fireball…!"
Rel: "Shit --"
Tyssa: "Tell Jargen to meet me there in a few minutes! I'll get everything ready!"
And then she was gone.
Rel exhaled sharply.
Rel: "Of course she gets the easy part... How the hell are we supposed to get Jargen’s attention?!"
Jargen wasn't listening.
His skin darkened to a deep red-brown.
His veins bulged, pulsing with overexertion.
His breath hissed between clenched teeth.
The only thing in his mind?
Obliteration.
Rel: "JARGEN! YOU NEED TO SLOW DOWN!"
Nothing.
He wasn’t hearing them.
Punjo: "Heh... Won’t lishten. Not like that."
Rel whipped toward him.
Rel: "Then how?! We’re stuck to the damn floor, Punjo! We can’t do anything!"
Punjo nodded, slow.
Then --
A deep inhale.
A shaking breath.
He forced his broken, bloodied lungs to pull one last roar from his chest.
Punjo: "THISH… ISH NOT WHATH YOU PROMISHED HER, JARGEN!!"
Rel froze.
What?
His mouth hung open.
Those words meant nothing to him --
But to Jargen?
To Jargen…?
Jargen’s fists trembled.
His steps faltered.
His body stopped.
His breathing hitched.
Tears welled in his eyes.
Like a part of him had been screaming those same words all along.
Jargen: "I... I-I know, Punjo..."
His skin cooled.
His muscles relaxed.
The fury drained from him.
Punjo: "If she shaw you now..."
A cough wracked him.
Punjo: "She’d never trusht ye again. How can she come back to you... if ye can’t even honor yer own damn word?!"
Jargen stared at his hands.
Bloodied.
Broken.
Shaking.
Jargen: "I honored it for as long as I lived."
His jaw clenched.
His breath shuddered.
Jargen: "Now..."
A grim smile.
Jargen: "I am but a dead man walking."
