"Hey! What's wrong?" Ivy yelled at Kaly, who was on her hands and knees a few feet away from the fire pit.
"I don't know!" she said between dry heaves. "Who is this guy? I feel so…heavy!"
"What?" Ivy's face scrunched in confusion, just then, the man kicked out, throwing her off of him.
She hit the ground, twisting, and instantly charging back before he had a chance to attack Kaly.
"I'm the Big Bad Wolf," the man said, arching his back, and making a wide pose with his legs and arms. The wound in Wolf's stomach dripped onto the floor, and his tongue was waving in the air as if he were a snake trying to smell the air.
As Ivy closed in, Wolf feigned an attack at Kaly, but when he swung back around, Ivy was gone.
He scanned the surroundings wildly, but a second later he collapsed to the ground. Ivy had come from above, slamming her brass knuckles into the top of his head.
One of the hooks skidded into the pit.
Ivy began pummeling Wolf.
Kaly coughed up blood so hard that a blood vessel broke in her eye. She fell on her back, and in pure desperation, she used muddy fingernails to tear open the wound in her stomach, reaching inside herself, attempting to remove whatever weight was building inside her.
Ivy stopped hitting Wolf when she heard the surprised scream from Kaly, looking at her in total shock at what she was seeing.
Pebbles spilled from Kaly's cut as her torso heaved from her heavy breaths. "My organs! They're turning to stone!"
The Big Bad Wolf: Once a cut is made on the stomach of the target with Wolf's hooks, it slowly overtime replaces their organs with rocks, starting with the least vital to the most. If not defeated in time, the target will be turned into a statue. If Wolf is defeated prior to 'statuefication,' the target's organs will return to normal.
Kaly cried out, putting a hand over her face as her left eye solidified.
Wolf scrambled out from under Ivy and clambered halfway up a nearby tree.
Ivy made a break for it, sprinting for her trident, which was several yards away in a bush.
She whirled around, holding her weapon out, ready for an attack, but Wolf was gone again.
Ivy's eyes were wide, looking around rapidly, sensing he was still in the general vicinity.
Her vision snapped to a few feet away where something small had dropped from the branches above. Blood. Without thinking, she flung the trident upward. At that same time, a hook came flying from above.
Ivy winced as the hook cut into the flesh of her stomach and clattered to the ground, next to her.
Wolf elegantly glided down, holding her trident, swinging from a rope, landing on his tip-toes.
She knew she had hit him, as the tips of her trident glistened red, but she wasn't sure where.
"Oh!" Ivy grasped her stomach, feeling bloated, like she had just inhaled a large amount of food. At the same time, Kaly watched as her world went dark, as her other eye turned to stone. Ivy regarded Wolf as he pranced forward, poking at her with her own trident, forcing her to move back.
Kaly lunged, using all her strength, wrapping her arms around Wolf's legs. Without her sight, she was able to focus, pinpointing where the man was.
"AH!" he screamed, looking down, seeing Kaly's teeth digging deep into his calf.
Ivy charged forward, and Wolf wildly jabbed at her with her trident. Quickly, she slipped her head under the jab, countering with her left hand, slamming her brass knuckles into the side of his face.
Kaly pulled her head back, tearing out a chunk of meat between her teeth.
Wolf stumbled back out of her grasp, his back against a tree. Ivy made a big hop forward as if she were going to attempt to tackle him, so Wolf loaded an uppercut sending it to intercept the takedown.
Ivy jumped back, moving out of the way of the punch, and shot forward, taking both his legs and driving the back of his head against the tree, then picked him up, turning and slamming him on the ground as hard as she could.
Her trident fell out if his hands and Ivy collapsed to one knee, gritting her teeth in pain, as she felt weight build up inside her torso. Behind her, Kaly let out a muffled sound. Her tongue had solidified. It was long, like a dagger, sticking out almost a foot from her mouth.
Wolf's green aura flickered as he blinked away the dizziness, reaching out his hand, dragging himself away. He reached the base of the nearest tree, seeing the bloodstain where the back of his head had slammed against it. As he climbed, he couldn't help but snicker—he had won. All he needed to do was wait out of reach.
Suddenly Wolf felt his head be wrenched back, as he was ripped off the side of the tree, and a strong arm was placed around his neck.
Wolf's energy slowly began to fade as Ivy held the chokehold, squeezing as hard as she could, her strength feeling as if it was being sapped by the second.
Kaly gasped, sitting up suddenly. She blinked, looking around. Her tongue retreated back into her mouth. "I can see again!" She winced as she got to her feet, holding the large wound in her stomach, keeping her entrails from spilling out, "Oh, damn! I forgot about that," she chuckled.
Ivy fell back, breathing hard, letting out an exhausted laugh, but stopped when she saw Kaly. "Kaly!" She hopped to her feet, running over to her.
"I'm good, I'm fine," Kaly grunted, "This guy, is he dead?" She pointed at Wolf as she hobbled toward him.
"He's going to be out for a while," Ivy said, confused.
Kaly collapsed next to Wolf, using her fingers to tear a hole in his body suit, she looked at Ivy with an apologetic expression, "You should look away," Kaly warned before putting a finger in her wound, and wiping the blood in a circle on her forehead.
Kaly stretched upward as her second set of arms extended from her. Since Wolf's blood was still in a ring around her mouth, she wiped some with her finger, making twelve jagged lines in the center of the circle reminiscent of a bike wheel.
Ivy's hand shot to her mouth, as she watched Kaly flip Wolf onto his stomach, and then stick all twenty of her fingers into his back, ripping at his skin to expose his spine. The hum of her energy increased in volume and frequency as she ran her fingers over his vertebrae.
"The Manipura," Kaly said, gripping his spine tightly at the middle of his back, "Be mine," the sound like a sheet tearing echoed through the woods as she severed his spine, drinking his spinal fluid, licking up as much as she could off the ground. After several minutes, she stood, turning to look at Ivy. Her wound on her stomach had completely healed, as if it had never been made.
Ivy stared at her, not sure of what to say.
"I tried to warn you," Kaly smiled sheepishly. Flecks of flesh stuck between her teeth.
Both Ivy and Kaly stepped from the tree line, as they moved from one end of the island toward the other, the topography changed, as there was rolling hills for miles. Climbing to the top of the first hill, Ivy spotted the wall in the vast distance.
At first Ivy thought they were just boulders, then Kaly said, "Look at that!" pointing. Scattered throughout the area were at least one hundred different statues.
They had spent most of the morning walking through the forest toward the massive wall in the distance.
As they continued moving forward, Kaly stared at the statues as they passed, men, women, and animals, all with horrified and pain-filled expressions. "All these people…" Kaly said, almost in awe.
"Yeah…" Ivy kept her eyes forward, "It kinda creeps me out."
A strong gust of wind blew through, rustling the grass.
"How come?"
"We both could be out here just like all of these people."
"Huh, I didn't really think about that…we're basically walking through an open grave site."