Taura was on her way to meet her death and yet, she fought.
Her body was battered, her stance frayed, and the floor under her boots was slippery with blood and debris, yet she did not retreat. Every strike she threw was like that, the same weight: desperate, relentless, and defiant, even. But desperate, as if she hoped to somehow emerge victorious, she did not.
The monster had regenerated before her eyes.
Flesh knit together and the torn abdomen sealed itself as if it had never been wounded. Then it lifted its head and roared, a sound that crushed the air and rattled the ruins around them.
Taura replied with a gesture.
She surged forward again.
But behind her, still on one knee, Assad gazed upon her charging, with something uncomfortably twisting in his chest.
He had many questions in his mind. How was she moving forward? Where was her spirit, which compelled her to move forward like a warrior?
That was until Assad recalled her previous words.
'Half the time it turns into clean up of people who should be handling this stuff but don't'
With these words alone, by the way, Assad wondered if Taura was talking in a form of sacrifice, but when it comes to that, who would have installed such a mindset onto them?
Assad clamped his teeth together. He couldn't continue to admire it.
He had to stop.
If he remained in his place, watching, thinking, and waiting, then Taura would die before him, and he would be left with that memory for the rest of his life in this world.
Slowly, he pushed himself up from the ground.
Assad breathed slowly and steadily.
His glare remained fixed on the battle, raging before him – Taura charging, striking, being flung aside, yet rising again. He saw it clearly. She had struck the monster open, yet it healed itself.
That meant one thing.
'There's a weak point.'
His eyes traveled over it as it moved. The stitched flesh. The misshapen torso. The arms that swung with cruel force. All irrelevant as long as the heart remained spared.
Then something surfaced in his mind. What if he referred the monster to a demon?
And demons, at least in every story worth remembering, always shared one truth.
The head.
Assad's eyes lifted suddenly.
The grotesque, misshapen face, the fused mouth, screaming with expression permanently embedded in its skull. This would be where, if there was any core, any center, any reason for its existence, it would be found.
Or at least that was his hope. His guesses may not have been true.
But staying stationary was a guarantee of only one thing.
Now comes the harder question. How the hell was he supposed to test that?
He had no monstrous strength. He lacked any kind of Qi techniques flowing through veins. His only power available to him in that moment was himself, or so he thought, in a battlefield that did not discriminate.
His grip tightened, his eyes constricting as Taura is once again sent skidding across the ground.
He saw Taura strike again, just as hard and precise, equally failing. He realized power was not the answer. She needed time, just a second.
He needed to do something, and that something was to freeze it in place, even if just for a moment. He touched the back of his hand to the ground. Leaves. Dry, brittle, unremarkable.
Assad broke eye contact with the monster, not because of fear, but because of focus. He took in a deep breath, trying to steady his breathing, focusing on a single aspect of reality.
"Nauseous."
The two leaves rose.
They did not burn, glow, nor shatter reality. They simply moved, and they moved as if driven by something unseen. They shot forward, slicing through the air before circling the monster's head in tight, uneven spirals.
The creature froze for a moment.
The enormity of its body was swaying. The stitched flesh was trembling. The steps of the creature were faltering, as if the ground had tilted sideways from under it. A confused growling sound came out of its throat.
Suddenly, Taura noticed that there was no movement from the monster anymore and was really perplexed.
"What?" she muttered, her eyes narrowing.
Then she heard Assad's voice, sharp and urgent, cutting through the chaos.
"TAURA!"
She whipped her head toward him.
"GO FOR THE HEAD…OR THE NECK!" he yelled.
"DO IT NOW!"
The leaves continued their orbit, and Taura moved.
She launched herself forward, every ounce of strength in her body behind the blow. The cleaver flashed, the orange light slicing through the dark in a single, decisive arc.
The head of the monster had been cleanly severed from its body.
Nothing happened for a heartbeat and then the abomination fell.
Its immense body struck the earth with a hollow thud, and the stitched flesh disintegrated almost immediately. The thing did not bleed, nor did it struggle. Instead, it withered, and the flesh of the humans deteriorated to nothing more than dry gray specks scattered across the gravel.
The threat was gone.
Taura stumbled forward, the cleaver disappearing back into its original form as a knife as it lost power. Finally, her legs gave way, and she fell flat on her back.
Assad followed not a second later, landing on one knee… then the other… then sitting there, panting heavily. For a moment, neither of them said a word. Then Taura suddenly sat up.
"WOAH. YEAH, YEAH," she said, throwing her arms up weakly, then letting them drop back down.
Assad stared at her.
"…Are you serious right now?"
She grinned, breathless but alive, and glanced over at him.
"Nice one, seriously. How'd you even know the weak spot was its head?" she asked.
"Guessing maybe.I don't know," he said
Taura looked at him skeptically, but before she could push on, Assad took note of her state.
"Hey, don't move around so much, you're pretty badly messed up."he said hurriedly.
Taura waved him off lazily.
"It's cool
She put her hand into her pocket and took something out.
A small emerald. It was glowing soft and steady green, not bright but more like warm green. She popped it into her mouth like candy and bit down.
The emerald broke silently.
The green color raced through her body, pure green, spreading through her veins. Her bruises smoothed out, healing. Tears stopped, and her breathing steadied. Her pain vanished, as if it had never been.
Assad watched and was stunned to say the least.
"You just ate a healing item."
Taura swallowed and wiped her mouth.
"Yep
She stretched her arms and rolled her shoulders. She was perfectly fine now.
"Emergency stash, you never leave home without one." she said casually.
Her eyes met his to behold a softer smile from her.
"But hey… good call back there."