The battle for survival raged on!
The creature swung everything, attacking like an enraged child whose food had been snatched away. Tails, claws, teeth, and water bullets were all sent flying. Unfortunate bystanders caught in the crossfire were skewered apart. It wasn't long before the creature began to tire. As it paused its tantrum, it searched for the target of its fury.
"Hey, you damn beast. I'm up here!" came the voice of Thomas. The boy was falling quickly from above. Thomas stretched his arms below him and conjured a massive fireball before hurling it towards the creature. It smashed into the creature's back, leaving horrifying burn marks. The creature screeched, its anger escalating with every passing moment.
"How's that for ya! Isn't fire so awesome?" the boy cheered, making Malrik sweat at the antics of his new partner in battle. 'I was beginning to think the guy was cool. Thank the gods he proved me wrong.'
Thomas's cheering soon ceased as the creature gradually rose. The air began to feel oppressive as Malrik perceived a dark crimson aura emanating from the creature, filling the room like smoke. The creature shook its head, and its eyes returned to their original black colour, causing all that aura to vanish.
"Uuh, Thomas, I don't think the creature is getting any slower," Malrik warned. They both took a step back, preparing to run if need be. The creature stared at them, its eyes looking predatory and dark, like a lion about to pounce on its prey. The beast roared, sending loud, powerful shockwaves toward the two boys. They braced for impact as the air smashed into their bodies. It took all they had to prevent themselves from being lifted into the air. The creature's roar was too powerful. The creature prepared to leap at them again before chains sprouted up from the black sand below.
The creature roared again in anger, struggling to break free from the binds that held it. Finally snapping out of their dazed state, Malrik and Thomas looked over to see what was happening. Behind the creature, they could see a girl with both her hands stretched out. She was trembling and had tears in her eyes.
"What are you doing! Get out of here!" shouted Malrik.
"N-no, I won't run away! I—I can't just sit here and let you two d-die trying to s-save us," stammered the girl, her legs shaking like they would give out at any moment. 'I can't give up, not when I can help!'
"Idiot, you're just going to get yourself killed." The creature roared once again, swinging its tail blindly in the hope of killing the girl controlling the chains.
"Hey, kid, this creature is obviously smarter than we originally thought. It keeps gaining strength and speed somehow."
"Huh, it's gaining speed?" Malrik asked in confusion as Thomas nodded.
"Mhm. That thing was too slow to shoot a water bullet before I struck it, yet it was able to create a magic-enhanced roar before any of us could react. First of all, it shouldn't even have that amount of intelligence to even think of that, let alone perform it. And second, the sudden spike in power was way too noticeable for it to be its own."
"Well, we'd better think of something fast. I can't die here. I still got things I need to take care of." Malrik looked toward the now silent booth, his eyes meeting the glowing ones of the man under the hood.
Thomas just nodded. "Listen, that fire bullet took a lot out of my stamina. You think you can distract it so I can figure out its power source?"
Malrik nodded and charged forward. Drawing his sword once again, he leapt toward the restrained monster. 'If I could just channel this energy into my sword, I would have been able to kill it by now!'
The boy swung at the creature; however, its tail finally broke free and blocked the incoming attack. The beast then sent its second tail toward the girl, who was too scared to move out of the way. 'Damn it! I gotta think quick; I can't let her die.' Malrik quickly rolled over the tail and used it to launch himself toward the girl. Gliding next to the attack, he sent multiple strikes to the tail in an effort to slow it down.
This backfired, however, as the tail changed direction and swung at Malrik, who used his sword to block it but was sent flying. The creature roared with power and dashed toward the boy, who had recovered with a backflip and sped away from the creature.
Malrik dodged from side to side, evading the water bullets. He allowed one to hit a random child, using the smoke it created to dash forward unexpectedly toward the beast. Malrik leapt onto the wall and into the air above the creature. Twisting his body, he dived down and slashed. Yet it was just another scratch. However, as Malrik looked, he smirked slightly. The place he had been striking since the start of the battle had been growing deeper. 'Almost there!' he thought, before a surprise attack from its back leg slammed into Malrik. The poor boy crashed several times onto the hard sand before coming to a stop.
Malrik slowly picked his battered body up. His shirt had long been lost, and numerous bleeding scratches could be seen all over his body. He looked over at Thomas, who was looking strangely at the hole in the middle of the room. 'Hold on! Since when was there a hole?'
"Watch out!" screamed the girl, knocking the two boys out of their confusion. The creature began charging at Malrik again, and Thomas ran toward it. "Hey kid, quick, we can take it out if we do a combined attack!"
"Right!" Malrik ran toward it at full speed, then sent the energy to his feet. Simultaneously, he jumped high above the creature while Thomas dove beneath it. Malrik channelled magic into his fists as the monster looked up at him in rage. It opened its mouth wide, preparing to swallow him whole. Then fire smashed underneath its mouth. The creature cried in pain once again, shaking its head to get rid of the burning sensation. However, new pain would soon come as Malrik dove right onto the creature, smashing his fists as he did and sending the beast crashing straight into the ground.
Malrik turned back to the creature, ready to attack, only to see no movement from it… 'What happened?' Malrik stared at the motionless creature, trying to process his victory. Thomas walked up and placed a hand on his shoulder. His beaming face told him all he needed to know.
"Alright!" the boys cheered as they stared at the defeated monster. It wasn't long before the whole room cheered; the kids' cries of joy and utter relief rang throughout the room. They had straight-up lost it, thanking the gods for their victory. Malrik smirked triumphantly toward the booth. However, his smile soon dropped upon seeing the smirks of all the adults there. What's going on? We won, our work is done, we can go home now, right? Why are they smiling?
"I know what you're thinking," Thomas said as he placed a hand on Malrik. "Our job isn't done."
"What are you talking about?" Malrik looked at the knocked-out monster. "We won. We got the creature tired enough to knock the damn thing out. You said that was all it took to win."
"I know, but that was before we discovered it had a power source." Malrik looked at him in confusion. "You see that hole over there—the one that creature came out of?" The boy nodded. "I don't know when, but at some point, during the battle, the thing went back down and opened again. During your last confrontation with the monster, I noticed it emitted a crimson red glow—just like the creature's."
"Wait!? So, you see it too?" asked Malrik.
"See what?"
"The glow. The aura people sometimes emit."
Thomas raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, you've been channelling it through your body since I joined. But enough about that. We're almost done here. I guess we just got to kill whatever's in that hole."
Malrik shrugged. "Simple enough." He looked toward the booth, staring at the smirking Vale and Rave. He didn't know why, but something didn't feel quite right.
"So, what are you going to do when they let us go?" asked Thomas.
Malrik shrugged. "To be honest, I haven't really thought about it. I mean, do we know whether those bastards will let us go or not? Besides," Malrik looked back at the booth, rage and anger appearing again on his face, "I don't think I can move on until I've gotten revenge for my dead parents."
Thomas looked at Malrik a bit worriedly. He had that same lost, angry-at-the-world look since the start of the battle. Honestly, the kid sometimes didn't seem like a normal child. "I'm sure most of us feel the same, to be honest. We all watched our parents die at the hands of one of those monsters up there." Now Thomas was looking up at the booth as they walked. "Still, if we've got any chance of getting out of this alive, we can't live our lives in fear and anger, you know. We've got to survive so we can uphold the legacy our parents fought desperately to save."
Malrik pondered Thomas's speech as they finally arrived at the hole. He looked at it with interest. "We took our sweet time getting here. Do you think it's still there?"
"That's because you started thinking of murder." Thomas laughed as Malrik just looked away in embarrassment. They both peeped into the hole, revealing a barefooted small girl further down.
"It's just a kid," said Malrik.
Thomas bent down. "Hey, kid, you okay down there?" The little girl looked up. She had pale skin and was wearing a strange purple kimono. What was even stranger were the glowing purple eyes staring back at them. Thomas widened his eyes as they instantly glowed green.
'Hold on. It's radiating a purple magical aura. What that means!' was the only thought Thomas had time to register before the little girl leapt from the hole, her skin turning black and her mouth widening toward the back of his head as she flew toward them like a rocket.
"What the—!" Malrik echoed as he quickly backed away. However, Thomas just quickly stretched out his arms into the hole.
"Die, you damn monster!" A large fireball appeared and soared toward the creature, colliding in a massive explosion. Thomas quickly stepped back as the flames surged out, the explosion unable to be contained within the hole. When the fire subsided, he peered in again to find nothing there. He looked toward the stunned Malrik and gave a thumbs-up.
"All done," he said before they both sighed in relief.
"Finally," Malrik stood up. "By the way, you never told me what you would do after all this."
Thomas just laughed. "Honestly, I want to have my own family."
Malrik glanced back at him for a moment, then burst out laughing. Thomas shouted at him angrily, "Don't laugh!"
Malrik coughed, struggling to hold it in. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. It's just, you're only six and you're already thinking of starting your own family."
Thomas looked away, embarrassed.
"That's not what I meant."
"What did you mean?"
"Forget it. I'll tell you later. Besides, you never told me your name."
Malrik cast a sidelong glance at him. "Suddenly changing the subject won't stop me from asking you later. My name is Malrik."
Thomas just smiled. "Malrik, huh? That's an awesome na—"
CRUNCH!!
The whole room fell silent. The cheering and celebration vanished. Not a single word escaped the stunned crowd. The sound of teeth meeting flesh echoed in the air. And then—THUD!
A headless body dropped onto the cold black sand, blood spewing from the neck, adding yet more stains to the bloody room. Shock and confusion were written all over the children's faces. Time seemed endless in that moment, as if it were barely moving. All Malrik could do was stare at the gruesome scene before him in shock—the action landing too fast for his mind to process. All the other emotions would arrive later.
And then it did. Tears welled up as Malrik stared in horror at his headless friend lying on the floor. The blue serpentine creature crouched in victory, savouring the boy's head. Malrik couldn't move; his body understood what had happened, but his mind couldn't accept it. The tears fell uncontrollably, and his mouth quivered, trying to get any sort of sound out. He could feel the creature's aura as it began to change. Its colour shifted as if it were undergoing some sort of transformation. If Malrik's eyes had been glowing, he would have seen dark purple words forming above the creature's head:
The Inferno's Scourge
The room filled with a pulsating purple aura, growing stronger with each passing second. Its pressure pushed back everything around it, and its tails swung violently with newfound power. It stared at the poor boy before it, smirking as it decided to claim its victory. Once more, it leapt into the air, aiming for Malrik—only to be ensnared by chains that sprouted up. It roared in anger, its eyes shifting to the teary-eyed woman behind them. The creature fought desperately to escape, and it screamed as flames poured out of its mouth.
The creature lost it. Like a little child, it threw fire everywhere from its mouth. The room heated up as it became bathed in flames. Children screamed as they were burned alive. Steam rolled over the numerous corpses lying across the room.
"Well, this is an interesting development." Dr. Helmbrecht looked at the commotion. The kids were desperately running away from the flames, and the monster was breathing fire like air. He sighed. "There goes all the beautiful potential."
The adults in the booth looked on with interest. Drunk men were laughing at the screams like they were watching a movie. Vale brought out some coins, handing them over to his brother.
He sighed. "Man, I can't believe I lost the bet. That's what I get for relying on some stupid kid."
His brother laughed. "Honestly, I'm surprised you even made it. Thanks for the free change, though."
The girl with chains ran over to the still-frozen Malrik. She knelt and shook him. "Hey, kid, snap out of it. If we stay here, we're going to die."
Malrik clenched his fists, his face moving from her to the dead body, which was now burning. He closed his eyes in an attempt to shut out the pain.
"I know how you feel. He was a good person and didn't deserve to die."
The girl suddenly stopped as a large shadow covered them. The two froze as the creature loomed over them like a god.
It roared, and the dark flames enveloped them—and Thomas's corpse.