The second he was nearly a meter away from the irregularity, Aectaeon felt a gust of wind hit his face. It made him take a couple of steps back, but soon, a sharp pain arose on his nose bridge.
Aectaeon tried to scrunch his nose, yet the pain prevented him from doing so. He immediately let go of the knife. He then brought his hand up to pinch his nose, only for his fingertips to graze the blood trickling down his nostrils.
"Aish, I haven't even started." He groaned as he wiped off the blood with the back of his hand.
The man began laughing, latterly picking up the survival knife.
"Alright, alright, I get it. You're strong. No need to show off."
He pointed the gun at the irregularity, his hands quivering. His heart was beating so energetically that it was beginning to overwhelm him. Yet the smile on his face had reached the corners of his eyes. The glints on his eyes were sharp.
'Those arms probably have a reach of more than a meter. To prevent the card from being taken, it won't need to take a step outside of the circle. I will trigger its response if I'm approximately a meter away from it.'
Rather than taking a step forward, Aectaeon began to walk around the irregularity. According to what he had concluded, the entity shouldn't not correspond in any way to his current plan. After all, he was outside of its suspected one meter range.
And as expected, he was able to cover one round without receiving another attack. But nothing came after that. Both Aectaeon's mind and body were exhausted. His vision was also starting to become hazy.
Aectaeon went ahead and procured the fire kit.
'Yeah, there's no need to deal with things so aggressively. I won't win against that monster anyway. There's definitely another method that I can use.' He thought as he quickly sat on the ground, a wave of nausea assaulting him.
He dropped the gun and the knife beside him. Aectaeon then shut his eyes tightly for a brief while, gulping several times to swallow his urge to vomit. Once he was a bit better, he moved on with creating the fire.
But before he proceeded, he gave the irregularity a glance.
"Stay there. Let me just finish this, okay?"
Following his useless talk, Aectaeon opened the kit and inspected every single item there was.
"Hmm, it's a starter kit," Aectaeon grumbled as he read the instructions stated on the paper.
He immediately executed the steps, lighting the man-made tinders within a minute.
"It's that easy? My plan might just work."
Aectaeon put out the small fire forthwith. He picked up another fire rod and scraped half of its coating with the knife. Once he was done, he said, "Use First Aid Kit"
The kit appeared in front of him, enabling him to take out the medical tape right away. He started to build a makeshift box from thin pieces of cardboard he found inside the office. He also tore some paper documents into pieces, filling the box with them.
The tinder included in the fire kit was too small to ignite a fire -- one that was large enough to affect the irregularity.
"Tree branches are very, very good holders of fire. I bet you will be thankful to me." He muttered as he put the leftover tinder in the box.
The moment his preparations were finished, he placed the rod over the slab of tinder and struck it with the knife. The tiny spark from alighted the fire he needed. He waited for the flames to grow before fanning with his hand. The second that the magnitude of fire satisfied him, he got a hold of the gun and stood up.
Aectaeon let out an audible sigh, tightening his grip on the gun. He began walking towards the irregularity, kicking the box lightly along the way.
The man stopped just outside of the entity's range. He raised the gun and pointed it at his enemy's head.
"Let's just hope this works." He said prior to firing the gun.
The recoil sent streams of pain all throughout his body, the deafening sound making him lose orientation.
He was barely able to keep his feet steady.
Still, he persevered.
That's the best thing he could do at that stage in his ordeal.
{{ Warning! }}
{{ MAS-38 Low on Ammunition }}
The instant he saw the warning, Aectaeon kicked the box, using just enough force to shove it inside the circle.
The embers touched the entity's left leg. From that, the fire crawled up its limb, and shortly, it enveloped its entire torso. The smoke that emerged from both the fire and the gunshots was beginning to fill the room.
Aectaeon continued to fire until the gun was depleted of ammunition. He hurriedly retreated back to the window and covered his nose with his arm. He felt his lungs burn, urging him to cough and cough till his throat was hoarse.
He turned around and attempted to open the window. However, the area restriction wouldn't be removed until the mission was accomplished.
'What were the objectives again? Steal the clue, uhh, stab the heart, and force that monster out of the circle.'
As he recalled the objectives, the heat of the growing fire became excruciating for Aectaeon. He clicked his tongue as he lowered himself to the floor. He released the gun from his hold and picked up the knife next.
'It's all or nothing.'
Without a delay, Aectaeon ran towards the entity. Again, he felt an incoming gust of wind. But just as it was about to hit him, he docked. The entity's arm missed the top of his head by an inch.
Unfortunately for Aectaeon, he had run out of luck.
The entity began attacking him with its arms altogether. Since he was being hit from all directions at the same time, Aectaeon wasn't able to make a move. Not only did he sustain cuts and bruises, but his garment was also slowly being clad with fire.
He couldn't even draw a single breath.
And the last thing he saw before he fell unconscious was his lifeline.
{{ Time Limit: 00 D ; 00 H ; 16 M ; 24 S }}