...This was the first time someone called him uncle. Nox was momentarily caught off guard by her words. Did he look that old? But being called stupid used to be a daily occurrence with Roxanne.
Hearing the second half of her sentence, Nox focused again. "You've seen another minotaur in this restaurant?" That didn't seem possible. The restaurant would have a lot more broken furniture if the hulking monster was present.
The girl narrowed her eyes, her dark purple hair making her pale face seem even whiter. "Don't they have a saying that two birds of a feather flock together? If that bull is bird one, guess where bird two is."
Nox opened his mouth to say that she was using the phrase wrong, only to freeze slightly as his eyes caught onto his shadow. Or rather, not his shadow. Unless he suddenly grew a pair of black wings on top of his head.
A sharp "Uncle, run!" snapped him out of his trance.
An unknown instinct twisted his body just in time to avoid the razor sharp talon. A deep scar was gorged into the wooden floor. He spun away with surprising agility, facing the new enemy hanging on the ceiling. It cost him though; the stitch in his side came back with vengeance.
The monster looked like a large deformed bat merged with a pterodactyl, black fur parting to reveal two gleaming eyes and sharp fangs. Its wings were enormous scaly things, each one around the size of that grand piano his deceased grandma always kept on display.
There seemed to be something stuck in its dark fur. Nox squinted, catching sight of a silver handle embedded in its body.
He scrambled away as it released a loud predatory cry, looking around for something to defend himself with. "Couldn't you have warned me sooner?"
"Why do you think I was hiding in a cramped compartment," she snapped, running to his side. The stairs were just a few feet away. "That big bat thing disappeared after it killed that woman! How was I supposed to know where it went?"
Based on her words, she probably arrived at the trial earlier than him and the duo fighting downstairs. Fay never mentioned anything about seeing a girl- unless she omitted that certain detail, but she didn't seem like a person who would do so. She wouldn't gain anything by hiding the existence of the girl.
Now that the purple haired girl was right next to him, Nox noticed a large dark stain on her black windbreaker. "Are you hurt?" he asked with alarm, arms covering his face to prevent the giant wings from nicking him with their talons. He had assumed that the scent of blood was from the dead woman.
Wincing, the girl waved off his question. "Shut up if you don't want to die, Uncle." She avoided a sharp claw by ducking behind a table.
Nox dodged another blow from his left, feeling chills run up his spine at the depth it carved into the floor. "Why didn't it see you while you were hiding?"
"Because it was eating that woman somewhere else! Besides, aren't bats supposed to be blind?"
Her story didn't add up. If she had come here before everyone else, then how did she escape the minotaur outside and prevent the flying monster from eating her? Unless she was dragged into this trial from a different location…
But that still wouldn't explain how the bat was able to eat the woman before it ate her. Nox felt his mind run in circles, unable to come to a conclusion.
Seeing the bat purposely target him, a thought flashed through his mind as clawed feet nicked his skin, painfully scraping away a layer of skin. Was the bat simply playing with its food? Or was it luring in more prey by keeping one alive?
"That's a lie. Bats can actually see pretty well," he informed her, barely suppressing a startled yelp as he ducked his head to avoid the incoming talon.
After flinging a knife that only succeeded in distracting the bat for a split second, she yelled back in frustration. "Then why do people always say that they're 'blind as a bat'?!"
Nox didn't answer. This girl really liked to pull out sayings from nowhere. "Go downstairs-"
"No!" The girl took out another knife from nowhere, hurtling it at the flying monster. It let out an ear-piercing shriek, the blade miraculously embedding itself in the furry body. "The old lady died the moment she tried to run down!" The stairs are a prime location to swoop someone up unsuspectedly.
The young girl was unusually level-headed in this situation, but there were also noticeable gaps in her story. Well, it wasn't like she had to tell him the truth. Nox scoffed at himself inwardly. She might be hiding something, but at the end of the day he was a stranger and she was doing her best to survive.
Nox grabbed her shoulder, forcing her to look at him. "We're not going to last if we stay here anyway," he said, mouth drawn in a grim line. "You can run downstairs, I'll hold it off as long as I can."
The least he could do was buy some time for her to escape. He wasn't cold blooded enough to leave a child to fend for herself, but he had his own selfish reasons too- if she died, they would have to face the penalty. It was best to choose the former, since he didn't know if the latter implied a similar death scenario- or worse.
Not that he could guarantee his own state of survival… but there was nothing else he could think of right now.
He pried away the knife she still held in her hand. Seeing her about to protest, he pushed her towards the stairs. "Don't be stingy, I know you have more. Give one to me so I can at least defend myself." The lack of knives in the kitchen exposed the little hoarder.
The girl snorted, looking back at him. "Since you have that, don't die." She took out another blade from her pocket, hesitating before leaving with a, "I'll see you outside, uncle." Without looking back, the girl ran downstairs. What a trusting child.
The monster immediately chased after, talons extended to grab its prey. Grunting at the weight, Nox lifted a nearby chair and aimed it towards one of its wings. Thankfully, this restaurant had low ceilings so the chair successfully hit, causing the bat monster to be thrown off balance. It was enough time for the girl to disappear out of sight.
"Your attention should be over here, bat-face," Nox taunted, smiling as he eyed the long talons carefully. It squeaked at him in rage, spitting through its fangs. It was very scary to face a mouthful of fangs coated in dried blood.
As expected, it took flight again and tried to clip him with its claws. Nox ducked, taking a stab at its swooping wings. The sharp edge of the blade managed to make a tear in the membrane, causing another round of high pitched screeching as the creature dove for his head.
Then he tripped over a loosened floor board.
"Urgh-" With a thud, Nox crashed onto the ground, rolling to level out the impact while his arms protected his face. The creature wasted no time in pinning him down with its talons, chittering in success as its glowing purple eyes stared at him, fixated.
Nox gritted his teeth, trying to squirm out of its grip only to grunt in pain as more pressure crushed down on his chest. He gasped as the weight bore down, feeling the chilling sensation of being slowly mangled until he became a human shaped pancake.
Food isn't very comforting right now, he thought, feeling his ribcage creak. The pressing pain felt like he was going to suffocate to death.
His only free arm wasn't long enough to reach the knife that spun out of his hand, but any attempts at getting up were thwarted by the bat-faced monster.
A talon rested directly in the hollow of his throat, slowly applying pressure. He stared into the purple eyes glinting in delight, coming to a sudden realization. It liked watching him suffer with the little intelligence it had, playing with his life before it got inevitably snuffed out.
Annoyed, Nox weakly punched its scaled foot, the only thing he could reach in his current state. The talon pressed against his throat dug deeper until a red bead of blood appeared, slowly trickling down his neck.
Nox took a shallow, pained breath, reaching a hand out to grab that damn talon choking him. As his fingers touched the base of the talon, he unknowingly made contact with the viscous crimson liquid resting on his throat and a voice rang in his ears.
[Abnormal plane detected.]
[Error.]
[Initiating Chaos Contract.]
"?" Nox frowned, wondering if the lack of oxygen was getting to his head.
[Contract complete. He welcomes your presence.]
… Who's welcome? If it was the god of death, then he didn't want it.
[May Chaos reign amongst the stars.]
_______________________
With a flash of red, the head of the bat monster rolled onto the floor, its large body slumping onto Nox.
Gagging, he pushed it away, taking in a few breaths of air to relieve the lingering pain of being crushed. He wrinkled his nose at the black liquid pouring out of the place its head used to be, soaking the floor thoroughly. It was utterly disgusting.
Nox looked down at his clothes with a forlorn expression, his jacket and shirt covered in monster goo. It seemed like these would have to go in the washer when he got home. He hated doing laundry.
Standing in front of its corpse, Nox huffed out a breath of relief. "This is why you shouldn't play with food."
He kicked its corpse to vent out some anger before leaving.
_______________________
Stepping out of the ruined restaurant, Nox looked around for the girl that ran out before him. His body felt unexpectedly lighter, like an unknown burden had been lifted. A sudden shout made him remember the two people he left behind.
Cursing under his breath, Nox ran around the area, still not catching sight of the girl. Letting out a frustrated sound, he turned back towards the crosswalk where Fay and Chang Feng were still fighting. Since there were no more monsters, she would probably be safe until the minotaur was killed.
Hopefully there wasn't another hidden creature eyeing them from the shadows.
Skidding to a stop, Nox stared at the scene in front of him with wide eyes. Fay, somehow, had managed to climb onto the back of the monster, gaining a handhold by grabbing onto its horns; she was trying to stab it with her vicious looking knife, already stained with black blood.
The monster roared; reaching back to grab her, it threw her off with surprising accuracy. Chang Feng was there to fill in the gap, lashing out to no avail despite the visible force he was putting into each attack.
Hurrying forward, Nox used himself as a landing mat and crashed onto the ground with Fay, groaning as his back hit the unforgiving concrete. "Nox?!" Fay's voice exclaimed with surprise above him as she scrambled off his dying body.
He gave her a thumbs up. "Alive." He was becoming more of a hypocrite by the second.
Fay forced his torso up, scanning his bloody black shirt with a pale face. "What the hell happened to you? What about the other person?"
Nox shifted, wincing as he braced himself up. "She got out. Don't know where she went, but she should be safe." He took in her condition. There was blood smeared on her arm, scuffed up from the battle as numerous wounds were scattered on her fair skin.
With a grim nod, Fay patted his arm, causing him to hiss in pain. "We'll talk later," she promised, picking up her sturdy looking knife again. "We just need a little more time to kill this bastard." She ran back to join Chang Feng, limping slightly.
Liar.
Both of them were clearly injured- Chang Feng had an arm that was moving awkwardly, likely suffering from some major damage. He had blood running down his face and his broad nose looked suspiciously crooked. Fay didn't look like she was in any better condition.
The minotaur was still energetically slashing with its claws, ignoring the small wounds inflicted on it.
Drawing back at the sudden pain, Nox lifted the sleeve of his jacket, revealing the bandage that was carefully wrapped around his forearm dyed red. Looked like his wound reopened.
Well, it might not be the worst thing in this situation.
Pushing away the throbbing sensation, he stood up unsteadily. Gritting his teeth, Nox ran into the fray of battle.
_______________________
A giggle came above the commotion, far away from hearing range. Even then, the man with black hair seemed to look around for the source of the noise, momentarily distracted before being forcefully pulled back by an incoming slash from the monster. He dodged it awkwardly, inexperience showing through his movements.
The woman looked down on the situation out of sight from the participants, casually twirling a long strand of her golden hair between her fingers. She held a dangling pocket watch in the other hand, swinging it around.
Giggling again, she pointed at the lean black haired man, his slim face and clean features giving off a feeling of freshness even amidst the bloody fight. "That one might be interesting," she told the cat-man next to her.
The person who caught her interest was handsome in a quiet way, one that people wouldn't notice right away because of his ability to slip away from the attention. But once someone saw his face, it was really hard to look away.
The long bangs brushing against his eyes hid the wide black eyes from enchanting anyone. If she squinted, she could even see the long eyelashes that framed those pretty eyes.
In comparison, she scrutinized the cat-man next to her. The only thing that was cute about him was his cat face, but if she factored in his human body he was rather disgusting. She glanced at his back, wondering if she could ask for him to be modified to have a tail as well.
A shiver inexplicitly went up the cat-man's back. "General, please remember to conduct yourself with the dignity of his Malevolent Majesty."
He was stuck up too. "Yeah, whatever," she snarked, a grin of delight stretching across her delicate doll-like face. "That old man won't care about losing a few people." She gripped onto the golden shimmering pocket watch, eyes pinned on her target, white teeth bared in elation.
A gray ear twitched at her blatant disregard. "It's only a matter of time before this world embraces Chaos with open arms," the cat-man said, attempting to change the subject. "His Majesty will be pleased with this batch." To his relief, she tilted her head in agreement, golden eyes gleaming in delight as she watched the fight below.
She spread her arms out wide, laughing as she watched her prey. "May the blessings of his Malevolent Majesty shine down upon you!"