It was here, and it stood in front of Cale approximately 38 meters away, a sadistic smile greeted him and such a smile was answered with a blank expression on his face.
Cale's heart was anything but calm, it beat louder and louder, every single inch in his body trembled.
'I'm going to face things even worse than this?'
If he was determined to survive, he would have to go through things way harder than this, this was certain to be correct.
[Well then, let's not drag this out and enjoy ourselves]
Crack!
It cracked its metallic fingers together.
'It really is humanlike, Even the sound resembles that of a human's'
It wasn't humanlike, the sound resembled that of a chalk being scraped against the board in the most torturing way.
"Hoooo"
A deep breath stole the oxygen from the atmosphere and packaged it luxuriously to the lungs. In turn, vocal cords strung out one cohesive loud sentence and that was.
"Do it now! use it while he hasn't noticed you!!"
A setup.
[!!!]
The monster turned around lightning fast and he was met with an unbelievable sight.
[...?]
Nothing was there, it was deadly calm even.
It turned around to face the stress ball that came to him voluntarily.
[....]
The stress ball was speeding through the courtyard, It was running so fast that it was surprising that he was just here a few moments ago.
[Kuk]
It covered its mouth. Chuckles drifting off in the wind.
[You think you can play with me using just this?]
A pulse reverberated Inside its body. Then almost immediately after, Its body started to flare up.
The hollow eye sockets that only held the dark started to flash and gave out a low hum.
Uuuung
Then, eyes started to form in its once empty sockets, bright blue retinas locked directly at the retreating figure of Cale.
Particles started to swirl around its retinas.
Swoosh~
Then it was gone? as if it had never even been there in the first place.
Swoosh~
Swoosh~
The action was repeated multiple times, covering an incredible distance each time, until it was inches away from Cale.
[Too easy~]
A lightning-fast jab was thrown at the nape of Cale.
"!!!"
[Huh?]
Its newly formed eyes widened at what just happened.
Cale had moved out of the way, narrowly dodging the jab.
Blood trickled slowly from the stricken right cheek.
'How did he?'
It thought back at what happened, and soon reached a conclusion.
[A sensory type of #%^#&%#?]
"..?"
'What did it say?'
For the slightest of few moments, both for different reasons took a dazed stance.
Swoosh~
That neutrality didn't last long before the speeding figure disappeared once again from all sight, when it did that. Cale had felt something pulse and swirl around his body, it was the black mass.
It concentrated itself on Cale's shoulder and nape.
Cale saw this, and his body acted out of survival instinct before his mind could even process as to why the black mass concentrated itself on his left shoulder and nape.
"Ngh!"
Feet retreated backwards.
"?!"
[!?]
Both Cale and the monster were astonished.
'H-How did I do that?!'
Blood trickled from the scratched shoulder, but it wasn't like it couldn't have gotten worse.
The living black plated armor stared at Cale, Its smile nowhere to be seen and wiped away like makeup.
[...]
Cale felt his mouth dry up, sweat trickling with blood mixing alongside it.
Swoosh~
It disappeared from Cale's sight and the moment it did.
A swirling black mass predicted where it would hit and narrowly allowed Cale to get out of the way.
"Kugh!"
But his balance was lost and plummeted to the ground, however he quickly recovered.
The living armor had already disappeared from his sight. The black mass had already predicted where it would hit but-
"?!"
It had already lodged Its hand at the side of Cale's body.
"Arg!"
Pain, scorching pain that instantly made the vocals in his throat want to scream out desperately, but Cale bit his lip and just barely held his scream in.
The living armor wouldn't allow Cale to recover even a bit.
It was mad, mad by the fact it had given a sliver of hope for this filth to hold onto.
[You shouldn't have something like that....]
It pressed its foot onto the back of Cale and then retracted his hand, kicking Cale in the process.
Thud!
Cale fell limply to the ground, The living armor didn't give him any room to breath and grabbed him by the hair.
"Ah..Ha..kugh! Cough!"
Cale coughed up blood, The living armor had no reaction.
[...]
It looked at him for a while, savoring his pained expression, while doing so It gripped Cale's head, and the stress ball winced in pain and struggled weakly trying to escape its grasp.
"Ugh!"
The stress ball groaned, strength leaving his body.
[Not...enough]
It muttered under its breath. Cale's screams and wailings of pain were what It wanted to hear but none of that seemed to be presented here.
It raised its arm and then-
Woosh~
It threw Cale, body slicing through the air, his vision already hazy.
Thud!
He finally hit the ground and rolled through the ground.
"Huff...Huff"
He was weakly breathing, his life about to be snuffed out.
He raised his trembling blood soaked hand, reaching out for help.
Crash!
"AHHHHHH!"
A piercing scream so loud it strained Cale's voice, he screamed In pain while the figure that had crushed his body with his foot on top of him, relishing in the pure agony Cale's scream had blessed Its ears with.
[This was...what it was missing]
The living armor heard Cale's screams a little while longer, until Cale stopped.
"Hu-Cough!"
Cale felt so much pain course through his body, his vision so hazy he couldn't make out anything anymore, even the shape of his blood soaked hand.
But he knew where he was.
'You want to my screams?'
His eyelids felt heavy, as if someone had put small weights on it.
'Take it. I wanted to scream everything out at some point anyway'
[Ah~ that felt good~]
'But if you want something, you need to give me something back right? Isn't that what equal exchange is?'
A metal liquid flowed from its ridiculous smile, salivating at the scene before him.
It raised its head, and it saw it.
'And what I want to take from you?'
Before passing out, he wrung out his last thoughts.
'No matter how short the time I take from you is. I want to take your freedom at least once, you will at least remember that way, that you don't mess with me without expecting a cage to trap your wings in'
An invisible humanoid like monster, wearing a navy blue suit, its hands donning black gloves with gold patterns on it, its square glasses were perched up on its face.
It was Carlos Ashen.
The living armor then realized where he was, It was the cafeteria, the door was open as if someone had prepared for this beforehand.
Its face paled at the realization of what it had just done.
[S-shit]
That's all it could say in this situation.
[Do you mind if you tell me what you are doing right now?]
The air in the room grew colder as Carlos spoke.
[Gravel Stone]