Cale needed to move fast.
'I could just somehow position a teacher close to the door and trick the living armor into breaking the rules, but there were problems with that'
Time.
Too much time would be wasted trying to get a teacher positioned where he would ideally want them, not only that but the monster would also have to be found without being too far away from the building which would be even more time consuming.
In other words, both needed to be done at the same time without wasting any precious time.
'I don't even know If I can survive that long, that monster Is incredibly fast after all.'
Step!
Step!
Cale kept speed-walking, checking every place he could In order to find the living armor, pacing himself carefully to make sure he doesn't get tired.
"No luck huh"
But just like two months ago, the living armor couldn't be found immediately.
Cale leaned against a tree.
'Let's not make ourselves exhausted before even meeting the guy'
This needed to finish this quickly, but obviously Cale couldn't make himself exhausted.
He glanced at his trembling hand.
"..."
His vision overlapped with another, a vision with his hand smeared in blood and body crawling on the hard stone.
Cale shook his head and steadied the breaths his lungs furnished and expanded themselves with.
'Let's just stay focused'
The search resumed, every stone left unturned.
***
Meanwhile, in the outskirts of the forest ->^◟♯ . / n/me . !^.
A headless body laid on the ground, blood flowed and seeped on the cobblestone, trees stained with bright red paint as if a child painted them themselves.
On the road, bodies of different shapes and colors laid, sprawled all over the floor.
And the only one who could struggle wiggled helplessly on the ground and pleaded with all their dignity on the dirt.
"W-Wait! please sp-!"
Crush!
Crushed and mangled like a stress ball being stepped on by a falling anvil, fragments of skull scrambled themselves on the floor like a weekly puzzle waiting to solved.
In the middle of the carnage stood a man in armor, it wouldn't be far fetched to say that the skin itself fused with the black-opaque armor.
The metal on the helmet started to shift, producing a sound that even experts find hard to replicate and it transformed Into something that resembled a mouth.
It smiled, the metal screeched like it were laughing at what it had done.
It then, slowly and delicately plucked one of the eyes that littered the floor, the head of the owner of these eyes was half destroyed. However the eyes were vibrant with life. As if it were still alive and feeling everything.
It then took the other eye out of its socket, taking both of the pairs that came in two like those 'BUY ONE GET TWO' deals in markets.
[It's so squishy]
A metallic grating voice rang out.
The sensation felt when caressing the eyes was ecstatic, the softness of the eyes resembled that of a stress ball.
[Just holding them fills me with joy...Huff]
The eyes were viciously gripped in it's hands, threatening to be crushed by them, Its breathing also turned ragged the longer it gripped the two small spheres.
Drip!
Liquid metal started flowing from the metal mouth and hit the blood stained ground.
[Ah...Ha, I crushed them]
It looked disappointed at how eyes were so fragile when in its hands.
[Who else should I break?]
Questions on what to do next surfaced, and another memory surfaced.
[Ah wait, wasn't there....]
It remembered someone, someone who didn't scream and was completely resilient to everything, even when their bones, arms and stomach were torn off, the certain someone did not feel it whatsoever and remained stoic.
[Yeah, I remember now]
This was finally a one in a thousand opportunity to get a durable instrument that could sing a beautiful melody.
[I want something that authentic to bless my ears again~]
It sung a tune as it was passing the hordes of corpses, expecting to find its stress ball that it had once lost two months ago.
[I can't wait till I]
The sight of Cale on the ground bleeding out filled its vision.
[Break and crush that spirit you delusion yourself into having]
The metal screeched and stretched once again, this time reaching its temples, a ridiculous smile full of sadistic desire became prominent on its helmet that resembled much like a human face.
***
Sitting on a rock. The black lines pulsed faintly, the hottest place closest to the humanoid monster was there, inside the forest.
"..."
'It finally found me huh, or well I guess I found it, to be fair'
Cale raised a head, for reference he sat on the rock after giving up on trying to find the humanoid monster.
'It came to me only after I gave up trying to find it, seriously why did I even bother trying to find it myself, if it was just going to show up by itself'
Fate had a cruel way of wasting everyone's time.
But deep down. Cale was happy it found him late, in case he got absolutely annihilated.
The pitch black lines got thicker, so thick that it resembled a black mass instead of just lines.
The seated body Involuntarily started shivering and trembling out of fear of what that thing had done to it in the past.
"Past this point is the forest..."
Cale had reached the forest, faster than he had once anticipated 2 months ago.
'So it was in the forest...'
It didn't matter to him why it wanted to go to and stay at the forest, he couldn't care less about its reasons. Because well he couldn't find out if Carlos kept rejecting his questions like he was rejecting a girl in love flushing out all her innocent love just to be rejected again and again.
"Let's see If I now have at least a chance of surviving a confrontation with that thing"
The rock that cushioned and rested Cale's buttocks was left behind, and his body tensed as he stared at the marching black mass that foretold death was approaching.
Clank
Clank
Clank
A creaking metal clank Invaded his ears, along with it he heard whispers pincering him from the side.
Drip
Something dripped. Cale thought it was water at first but there was any close water source that could produce such a sound.
"..."
Eyes were peeled open like a banana, instincts sharp and knees buckled.
[Ahhh~ I can't believe it~]
A distorted voice echoed and a metallic smell wafted in the air, the figure remained elusive to the naked eye.
[How can I be so loved by a stress ball? so much so that it would willingly come back to me to get more of my love?]
'The first words I hear it say since it almost killed me is this?'
Finally, as the seconds dragged out, a figure emerged from the shadows the trees provided it, a metallic scent wafted in the air.
'It seems it enjoyed itself quite a lot, not that I want to know what it did that it liked so much to start saying nonsense the moment it saw me'
From head to toe its body was smeared in blood, armor that looked to be forged for the sole purpose of mobility became visible in full gratitude.