Julian's POV:
The hundreds of canines in its mouth are tearing away the flesh from the bones of the cult members. They screamed and begged for help from their overseer, but their overseer acted as if nothing was happening, ignoring them, and then they were crushed like ants beneath their feet.
I looked in horror at the scene in front of me. The grotesque display of a predator eating its prey as the prey struggled for its life. To the predator, its prey held no more value than basic nutrition.
I tried to move my body, but I couldn't move in fear; my legs were trembling. For some reason, all the time I have spent over the past three to four days hasn't felt like I've been afraid, and I have forgotten what it was like to be afraid of something or someone. This proved to be quite the humbling experience.
The thrown overseer finally stood up.
"Julian Raymond…..don't think you will be out of here alive!"
He yelled at me before attacking me with his grotesque sword. I barely managed to move in time but still got a scratch on my right cheek.
"Ah!"
I felt a burning pain in the scratch. It was like an infection trying to spread to the rest of my body.
The creature finally finished eating the remaining members, his hollow eyes were now locked at me and the overseer.
It lunged at us with a speed that was faster than before. I had noticed earlier that when it finished eating a single person, its body started to glow red, perhaps eating people is its way of obtaining strength.
But now wasn't the time to think about this; it doesn't matter if I kill it or not. It's about escaping this dark place. I needed to create an opportunity for escape.
Before I could collect my thoughts properly it attacked me. I managed to block his hit with the dagger but was pushed several metres back. It didn't stop its attack and rushed towards me again. I was barely standing from the previous blow. Sweat dripped down my forehead as the creature let out a terrible roar.
I reinforced the dagger with magic again and rushed towards it. I managed to block the first attack, but the second one landed on my already injured chest, leaving giant claw marks behind. I managed to overpower it for a second and cut off its head.
Just as my dagger decapitated it, another head grew back out of thin air.
'What the hell!?'
It grabbed me from my neck and hoisted me up in the air; compared to its giant body, I looked like a child. I could smell the fresh blood from its mouth. I tried to struggle from its grip but it didn't matter to it how hard I tried.
After grabbing me, it went for the overseer who tried to fight back. He managed to push it away with his sword which gave me a chance to escape from its grasp.
Seeing the door just a few steps away, I ran towards it as best as I could; the creature noticed and quickly grabbed the overseer and ran towards me.
I managed to open the door but the lunging body of the creature landed on me. I closed my eyes for a second as I felt my body and soul separating from each other, but as soon as I opened my eyes, I noticed a figure standing next to me, the mysterious lab girl. Her feeble hand held a sword which was similar to my reinforced dagger but its circuit structure and colour were different. Her white hospital gown was spattered with blood.
I took a quick look at the surroundings, which resembled the cult's base with the wall, colour and metal.
For some reason, I started to feel like throwing up I gazed back at the girl who was looking at the creature with a glare.
'For her to have a reinforced weapon, she must have made a contract… but with whom and how? As far as I know, a contract requires summoning spells and the ability to convince the summoned being to be your contractor. So how?'
As I was thinking, the creature and the girl locked eyes with each other. The moment they did, the sound of a sword tearing flesh echoed in the room as the girl attacked the creature. I barely registered her moving from one place to another. The point of interest was that the place where she had cut it didn't heal like earlier attacks from me.
'Well, now that's interesting.'
I thought as I stood up from the ground and looked at the overseer lying on the ground beside me, blood was coming from his cloak as his body was crushed by the grip of the creature. He was likely unconscious since the blood wasn't that much, it was a minute amount, enough to cause unconsciousness but not be fatal.
I moved my gaze back to the two of them who were exchanging blows.
'If I go in now I think I won't be able to keep up with them and will halt the girl.'
I thought as I looked at the intensity of the fight. The ground they were standing on was shaking. The impact of their blows was causing cracks to appear in the ceiling.
Her sword movements didn't have any elegance or technique to them, they were just swings meant to kill. The creature was no different from her; it was just a raw, brutal struggle for survival of one of them.
Since I was distracted, I thought I should escape from here; the girl didn't look like she was struggling, unlike me. But for some reason, I didn't want to abandon her like this.
My train of thought was broken when the creature suddenly attacked me. Unlike previously, I was able to dodge its attack on time; it seemed to be a bit slower than before.
The girl followed behind it and slashed at its waist; it was nearly cut in half, and its bones were visible. A terrible scream came out of the creature as it cried out in pain.
It attacked me again, this time with a kick to my gut. I was sent flying into a room that I recognised easily.....it was the computer room where I had my first confrontation with the overseer earlier. I spotted a black leather-bound book near a cloak. It was the cloak I had thrown towards the cult members in an unsuccessful attempt at distracting them. I hurried towards the book and opened it to read its contents. It was then that I realised that this was the occult book I had used to summon Astaroth and made a contract with him to fight off Ethan.
'I can't contact Astaroth right now, perhaps if I try to summon him again, he will respond to me.'
As I tried to find the spell I used earlier the girl came flying to the room, on her back were a pair of black wings that were wider than the girl was tall. She came through the same hole I came from earlier. The creature followed behind her. Its left arm was completely cut off by the girl.
It ran after the girl, she blocked its claw with her sword and tried to slash its other arm, but he dodged it. Perhaps he was adapting to her combat style.
'I have to help her, it's left arm is cut off, it would have restricted movement compared to us.'
I thought as I rushed forward with the dagger stabbing it in his chest, another deafening screech came from the creature's mouth.
Blood started to come out of my ears as it continued to screech, causing me to pull myself away from it.
I covered my ears with my hands as I waited till the creature stopped screaming. My gaze drifted towards the girl who had also pulled herself back; her wings were covering her head and torso in an embrace-like position.
As the creature finally stopped screaming, she launched herself towards the creature, slashing at it. The creature dodged it and attacked her with its claw, causing a deep wound on her left arm, but the blood didn't flow out of her arm as the wound magically healed itself.
'I am not gonna question it now, nothing seems impossible to occur.'
Since she was distracting me, I finally had the time to find the summoning spell from the book. As I finally found it, the creature noticed me and slashed at my torso. In the process, the book was cut in half, but luckily, the summoning spell part was still intact.
"Astaroth, Adon HaTzelalim, bo elai akshav!"
I screamed out the spell at the top of my lungs. A giant black hand with claws came out of the book and grabbed the creature from its head covering it fully. Seeing the opportunity, the girl didn't waste time and decapitated the creature.
A small, white, glimmering light came out from the body of the creature. The black hand grabbed it with its finger, and the burrito came back inside the book. The torn book started fixing itself automatically. A bright purple light came out of the book nearly blinding me. The book had a new appearance. Its structure was made out of flesh, and an eye in the centre of the cover looked at me with an enraged expression.
The body of the decapitated creature turned to ashes.
I had finally done it.....I had survived another day.