His arms shielded his face from the massive fist. Blasting into the air like a lose kite, Ikky tried to reposition his body before landing in the snow. From just one blow from the spirit, his arms had already turned numb.
If he had taken such a hit before he had ascended to prophethood, his arms would have burst into splat. Now though, he could probably take one more slightly stronger hit from the spirit before that happens.
What did that mean? Ikky was grossly outmatched in this fight, and very, very much so.
Without it still moving from its spot, the spirit pulled back its gigantic arms, shrinking it back down to the size of its body.
This creepy spirit was only shaped like a human. Its body was a grotesque amalgamation of the carcasses of dead spirits. And from the smell of it, those bodies had been there for way longer than they were supposed to— since spirits were all meant to burst to smoke after a while.
It was three meters tall, and apart from the skulls and bones of random creatures that occasionally popped out of the spirit's rotting flesh of a body, its head was certainly that of a dead human; grey and decaying.
One of the eyes of that head had popped out long ago, leaving a hollow space. And while the other was still in its place, albeit loosely, it faced the sky, making its countenance resemble that of a person who was about to pass out.
It's open mouth was filled with scattered teeth, but it didn't seem like a creature to even use its mouth to talk.
Raising one of its bony fists in the air, the spirit shot it at Ikky, making the thin pale muscles around its arm stretch along so fast, the attack was able to breach the gap between it and its new prey.
It was a good thing for Ikky that the spirit had knocked him back a great distance, giving him a better chance to react to the new attack. But as soon as Ikky leapt out of the way, a weird shock suddenly passed through his entire body, making him lose control of his muscles.
'Gh?! What? No no no! Not now!!'
A wave of frustration and anger soon flooded Ikky's mind. He was asking why? Why he was cursed with such fate. He never did anything to those people, so why did he have to take the brunt of their misfortune?!
Why did their voices reach him now after all this time, once again singing a curse to aid his demise?
———
"What?"
Rick, pulled out his bottle from his mouth as he rested his body on the counter. He looked at his wife and replied again,
"Like I said, he can handle himself. So it'd just be a waste of my time sticking around."
"Bah, you're just being lazy, aren't you corazon?" Arley pinched his cheek playfully from behind the counter.
"Tch!" Rick moved his face, trying to shake off Arley's hand, but found it harder than he had expected. Feeling the fingers on his cheek clamp tighter, Rick cautiously looked back at his wife, finding a dark eerie veil of annoyance covering her face.
"You have nothing else to do today if I remember correctly. So if ANYTHING severe happens to my WORKBOY'SBODY before he even gets the chance to be the SLIGHTEST bit of helpful, I will make you starve te lo juro!"
With the tone of her voice rising and falling intermittently, Rick made sure to pay close attention to the message being conveyed, clearly.
"... Okay. I'll go get him." Rick coughed out his food with a nod.
"Yes. Thank you. It's the boy's first day looking around Mahar. He doesn't know how things are here so he needs you, his guide to show him the ropes." Arley patted his shoulder before leaning in and bringing her lips to barely touch his ear.
She whispered in a soft breath, "But hurry back now. I've recently gotten hold of some materials we can use for tonight's... dinner session."
"Ah... Uhm. This is a public space Arley." Rick tried to keep a straight expression on his face, but just looked nervous instead. He went to get his coat while itching his ear. And without further words passed, he walked out of the restaurant, leaving Arley to continue tending to her customers as usual.
It was true that Mahar was a new environment to Ikky, so he needs his guide for now to look out for him and help him get familiar with the environment.
However, danger always seemed to follow the amber-eyed man regardless of where he was— danger that was beyond the casual incidents and reasoning of even the world of prophets.
His misfortune came from within his own Virtue— a cost that was too much for a man just starting a life, to shoulder.
———
{Live a life without direction; not able to recognise head or tail.}
Ikky fell in the thick snow, his body sore and numb from what [Child of Nyx] had just subjected him to.
The spirit slowly retracted its arm in preparation to launch another attack at him, while Ikky could only watch this happen.
'No!!! No no no no no!' He cursed at his fate, struggling to regain control of his body.
"Move!!" He cried out, focusing all his energy into his arm. And by the time the spirit was ready for another attack, Ikky finally felt a muscle react.
However, as the spirits arm, reshaped into a massive axe of bones, letting the rotten scanty flesh fall down upon him, it was his leg that moved instead; and at an angle that dislocated it nonetheless.
He cried out in pain as the bone axe fell into the snow, blowing it apart and making a large crevice in the ground.
Ikky could not even tell if his back was broken. Because of the curse, it was his arm that hurt instead.
He was dug deep into the snow, his face down with the passing thought that maybe he should just suffocate.
The spirit's fleshy axe might not have been sharp enough to split him in half, but the blunt force was too much even for a person like Ikky to shrug off.
Out of sheer stubbornness, he tried to move again— trying to shift even one toe, but making his eye blink instead. He tried to move the same finger and his elbow twitched.
"Ah..." He realised there was no specific pattern to what part of his body would move if he tried to move another part.
Muffled laughs sounded from within the snow he was dug in. He was so frustrated that he laughed.
It was like his previous theories had been confirmed. The world really wants him gone. He was strangely relieved knowing that he wasn't to blame, and that he had tried his best.
'Just take me home... I'm tired of this place mom. The rules here are really unfair. But at least I tried, right? I promise I tried my best.'
The snow around his chest started to feel slightly warm. But he knew that his face was what was really warm.
"What? What are you saying, child? What best are you talking about? You have not even done anything yet!" Yaga exclaimed.
Ikky did not say anything.
The axe of flesh had finished forming and was about to fall for a second time.
"Move everything! Force all of your limbs and get out of the way! Something is bound to work!"
But Ikky still was not speaking.
"Move! Move! Or... Pl- please son, don't let them send me back to that place. You're my only chance. Please, only you can save me."
The axe dropped like guillotine pressing him deeper into the snow.
Ikky had ended up a mess with dislocated limbs and broken bones. But at least he had been able to shift his body just to the side of the axe.
'Maybe letting the axe strike me would have done more harm than I did myself for just trying to move.' He thought.
Nonetheless, he was still alive.