"Stop it!" Claire barked at both of them.
This call of hers was unheard by a sole participant as his brutish bod reached out for the scrunched skeleton past them all. This skeleton stared, with a lone cone of vision, as the hand desired its neck seeking to cease the function of its struggling soul.
Since the commencement of the fighting, Daniel awakened from his spin of desperation searching for the truth of his reality. While witnessing their clash, he understood the peril that his presence remained for his friend. Whipping his face every which way, he discovered only the open door to be a sign of refuge thus proceeded toward it, off for safer shores. However, his path was a harsh one with his minuscule strength that buckled his elbows, constantly, as he attempted to crawl, like a caterpillar, away.
It simply left him useless as the now strengthened grip from Gan descended upon his trachea. The Evolved assuredly envisioned the splotchy groan of torn breath when his throat would be shredded from its place of purpose.
That was, if not for a second piercing wail which bounded across the metal of the walls punching into the soft scrunch at the center of Gan's chest. His pectorals flowered with the expression of soundwaves unraveling the skin into a raw sight which flipped open his abdominals. Exposed were the rectus abdominis, that should stay clothed by their fleshy prison, thus did the sting of air burn the boy. Blood once rolling in heated fission boiled after the bubbling strike.
Once the shockwave of sound vibrated through his form, Gan was flung from his lurching position. Now back onto the expanse of the concrete floor, denting it due to his increased mass, a suffused growl wrenched away a drag of nails across the solid surface. Those moments bought his brain a concussed reaction that sent his vision ablur which struggled to rewind the room into its proper form. Yet, all the same his gaze stayed transfixed on Daniel, as if to gloat on the insect's vulnerable existence.
Her lithe frame dashed between the clashing opponents before their next bout could begin. "GAN! STOP THIS!" A cry for peace once more gone without a sense of reaction from the one it was directed toward. However, his body stilled on the floor while a hand clutched at his chest in eager pain of the dent left upon its structure. Wheezing gasps fled from his mouth while tight palpitations suffused through him. Her ability was a frightening one that could even damage the internal organs protected by the immensity of Gan's musculature.
Claire fantasized off from Gan's position onto where Kage meagerly stood with his shaking heels making no more than a single sliding attempt to rise. The crash from earlier raked across his body as did the screeches from Claire, proving their worth ever the same. But when her eyes met Kage's, some immense plea begged her to return from them as a pointed remark begged her. Such was this ill-advised action that propagated a descent of worried mania in Kage's eyes. One she spied at an inopportune time that faced her back away from the source that created this devastation.
A change overtook Gan's huddled self as a roar, drowned in a deep mire, wrought wrath onto the participants in the warehouse. It was before either could react as his body transformed to the gazes of Kage as well as Daniel, who peered with terrible curiosity.
'CREEEEEEEK!' Muscles bulged with a ballooning effort which in turn produced the creaking shudder of his spine as it was forced to elongate. Six feet, then seven, possibly eight the child stood cracking the concrete beneath his naked feet as the loosely fit clothing ripped to pieces allowing all to gaze upon the heated steam which rose from his burdened form. In comparison, Gan's head no longer belonged upon the mass of squirming flesh dancing with pridefully large veins that pumped with fluid. It was much too small with his shoulders nearing four feet in length; about the same as one of the warehouse's doors.
Heat indeed slinked from his body, rising to the top of the warehouse clouding the attendants in a deep mist threatening to strangle the oxygen from the room. Yet, his transformation was not complete. Hands drew forth as the tips to his fingers broadened to the size of freshly cooked sausages. The muscles flashed with a quick sheen that demonstrated their near impenetrable sturdiness only to be outdone by the holes, conjured by the multiple stab wounds, sealing up as well as spreading the poison to cleanse his stream.
In the midst of this metamorphosis, Gan's aura could be felt for a near mile, sucking up the strength from all within it. A gnashing of blood with delightful gore spited itself as the inner machinations of its owner were displayed into their minds. So vast was this desire that it flattened Daniel's face to the ground; holding no conceivable means to fight against this force. Nearly the same outcome happened to Kage if it were not for the experience of undergoing a similar aura in the past.
But this did not mean he was unaffected as it slowed his movement immensely. Stopping him from saving Claire.
She faced Kage, arms stretched toward both him and Gan, eyeing the sudden leap he made in her direction. Initially, she felt provoked to end this action of his bringing her other arm square at him. This thought was disproven all too slowly before she understood its true context. Sluggish she was to understand the fear tearing distraught that fell into his mask of an expression. A sight which made her regretful as she could not react to the shadow of a hand coming before her very eyes, cloaking the world in its starless splendor.
Gan's hand fell onto Claire's face, each finger touching the dip in the back of her skull. All except for the index which curled inward as it spread over the land of her face. Then a swift stride punctured the appendage through the cornea dipping without defense to the vitreous body. From there nothing could spare its harrowing journey into the girl's optical disc splattering the nerve in its haste to travail horrific pain.
Meanwhile, as the finger scooped away Claire's left eye of its innards, the flat of Gan's palm squeezed, crushing bone as his grip only drew tighter. Screeching snarls mixed by the hiss of bone sliding against each other cried from the figure mutilated before Kage's vision. Her face malformed into a misshapen caricature of itself in which he had no choice but to be caught in its slowed aura that brought movement to a near halt.
The left eye, all but vanquished, stood no worse than her right which began to bulge as the suffocating pressure exerted its potential. Cheekbones burst from their protective covering spewing vacuous fluid across the creases between the meaty sausages, leaking a tide akin to one brought by a waterfall's expenditure. Gan's middle crashed to the bridge of Claire's nose bending the pointed structure to its side serving to widen the once princess button nose, opening the nostril of her right while shortening that of her left. An event ended by the splatter of the tent pushing out of its fleshy flap.
However, as the horrifying passage of time fell by the nanosecond, a familiar pressure burdened them all.
Claire's screaming voice, filled with sorrowful ache, exploded across the bystanders with its direct force focused onto the entity invoking such harm on her. The walls of the warehouse shook with shelving units collapsing under the burden imposed by her wail. Slats of metal came undone, screwing holes into the warehouse while the led dust which surrounded her sped off bursting subsequent bullets of concrete into Kage's face.
This wave knocked Kage onto his rump a fair distance away without hope of reaching Claire. Yet, this nausea sought to succumb him was only worse for Gan who stood in its epicenter. His strength exacerbated as he meant to end the scream before it tore away all that he was from the land of the living.
Waves of flesh eradicated from his body, slicing open ligaments then cracking his own gritted teeth, bared as the wind stripped off his lips. However, the source of greatest discomfort came from the very hand that made to end this anarchy which took place. It barely held mass as Claire's mouth stole half of it with her siren chant. Gan's hand turned bare of none but liquefying bones which were soon to dissolve; the same as the rest of him. He took this realization into account while he brought his left hand to snuff out her life for good. By way of ripping away her throat from its form she would have no means to produce the dastardly sound which penetrated into Gan's being. Therefore, she would no longer be a threat. Then all that would be left were Kage and that boy.
'Fucking idiots!' Gan spat with sleeping hatred in the inner recesses of his cerebrum.
The air swirled as his hand abruptly drew forth from its pocketed position. A quick shot for success that would become unearned with a precise speckle of formulation from another who was ruled as a lacking opponent.
Kage spotted what Gan meant to do, quickly he searched for a pocket of weakness in the indomitable physique the boy sported. His eyes darted with precise timing to catch the vascularity among the muscles, skeleton, even breaths exerted by the creature. This process took less than a second, giving credence for Kage to find the outlet that was needed.
A flip of the poisoned blade tipped its sharpened point between his index and middle before speeding it with a single closed eye. Its jagged edge soon rolled into its propelled transformation as a thrown spear directed toward Gan's temple. Of course, Gan wasn't such an amateur to not notice the coming projectile; it was an obvious flick of the wrist that need not require full concentration. Due to his attention brought onto Claire's choking throat, he did not have the capacity to completely evade the blade. Despite this uncertainty, the boy held no fear as to the detrimental effect the metal could prove to him. Afterall, no metal would bend nor break him in that form.
Everything became too flimsy beneath his strength.
Or so, he imagined.
Something, whether that be instinct or intuition, chose at the last second to bend his neck as far from the impact of the knife as possible. Thus, he was saved from the dagger skewering into his brain. However, his instincts alerted his body too late for him to forgo damage at the behest of the blade.
Its jagged edge splayed into the crevice of tissue sticking between his jaw while razoring across rows of molars cutting them from the gums of his teeth. Next the triangular points dragged across the boy's tongue erasing buds of various nerves from the organ. Shortly after, the tip shot through into the other side, ejecting rancid fluid from its exit, as well as entry, flooding the inside of Gan's mouth. Chortling on his own blood, Gan began to drown as he couldn't vomit up the immensity of the eclipsing salvo.
Strength whittling, he removed his hands from Claire's body to then redirect the muscles into his calcaneus on either leg jumping back several dozens of steps to be covered in a bathing darkness. This gave him the rest his frame desperately begged for after withstanding the brunt of Claire's ability at its heightened pitch.
Left without the hardened hold of another, Claire was left to fall onto the solid floor crunching her legs as the wail ceased its introduction. She landed with a wetted 'splat' as her face bled upon the grayed ground staining its perfection into a scarlet rose that dipped into the etched cracks blooming this flower to its final phase.
"CLAIRE!" Kage made to rush toward her side, hopping as a limp manifested in the side of his left leg. Its broken nature finally came back with a vengeance that welled within his pain receptors. However, not a step more did he steal before Kage was stopped by the guttural growl of a wild beast groaning in abject death. Deep within the shadows, away from the piercing gaze of the still roaming bulb, a gnashing of metal tore into the blade but found no necessary response other than an ache in the beast's gums. Grasping onto the entrance where the blade's handle still remained, Gan relaxed his jaw then cautiously removed the weapon raking its triangles of poison lacquer across his stilled mouth. Even after preparing himself for the damage did he discover excruciating pain unlike any other.
Finally, the blade left from its recently constructed home only to be lifted to the eyes of its beholder. "Iliun… Basthard." Gan promptly tossed the blade overhead into the fallen branches of the shelving units. A clatter was all that told of its lasting impact, well the noise as well as another more pressing issue still unbeknownst to the wounded.
Coughing fits burst from the esophagus beyond Gan's mouth hole as he forced the draw of much of his blackened blood out from its residing home. Even now he still felt it drowning his lungs in its release. A hand placed onto the web of cracked concrete, he managed to excavate this liquid from stealing his life while more simply pooled under his tongue. The insides of his mouth were a horror show with blood seeping from all manner of openings which left Gan in the uncomfortable situation where he simply must grow acquainted with the feeling of having it roll from either roughly cut hole in his midface.
Once confidence brewed enough, allowing him to return to a standing position, he glanced at the stanced position Kage resigned himself within. His right foot forward as the left lay diagonal, not far behind. Hands were raised with open palms as the left held high beneath his chin while the other floated lower near his pectorals. It was one unknown to Gan but bled no worries for him. No matter what martial arts the child understood, only certain death awaited this evening for those who could not participate in a battle of Evolved. Kage was barely one anyway.
Taking a step forward, Gan instantly felt a pulsing need clutch his skeleton forcing his hand to shoot at his own heart. He clawed for the sacred treasure while a rumbling moan echoed out from him once more. It was stronger than the one he felt with the dagger or even Claire's screaming as this originated inside of his very body toward the pit of his stomach where a great bleeding occurred. A similar feeling that propagated discontent in his brain as the world flipped then blurred. Despite this state, he couldn't possibly have missed the knowing smirk sketched onto Kage's down casted expression.
Unable to make headway of the disorder, Gan opened his lips to question him but immediately regretted this decision as the black bile from before sped out, yet this time replaced with a putrid green paste. His blood weighed in a thicker density as it left his lips in their sweetened taste. Although the symptoms were unrecognizable to him, Gan realized the origin of this sickness. A glance at the misshapen dagger told all as he swiveled himself back round to glare at Kage.
"You fucking basthard!" Just as he was about to spew more obscenities, the vomit came forth again, fusing the words with his barf that decorated beneath him.
When the blade had pierced through the flesh of his mouth, it wasn't solely the smattering of poison on its steel shine that perforated into the skin from the cut, but also the saliva and spilled blood which was drunk by the behemoth. A broth of poisoned soup dashed into the bowels of Gan's stomach tearing him from within as it found itself into his gut. There it made its sickening brew home, seeking to stain all the nutrients and inner lining that belonged to the Evolved.
In essence, Gan's body had become a time bomb of amassing poison strong enough to bring down any Evolved, even Unity if one were able to get close enough.
This was a fact conveyed to Gan as his proud footfalls became shambling steps inching somewhere hopefully in the direction he wished. Thus, Kage predicted the fighting was over, it had to be as the boy took a concoction of medicine so deadly, he would be one with the afterlife in a matter of seconds. Although plain in its truth, he still had not fallen.
The once striking height he possessed from the transformation returned to a proper one at just six foot five, far larger than normal but nowhere near his absolute peak. Meanwhile, the bulging muscles lessened but still stood bright and deadly. The machine-like gears of his form were turning as he limited each portion to maintain their critical roles while routing some for personal use. This poison had the potential to kill him at any moment but because of his understanding of his own body and its nature, he was able to fight off the imposing tide of sickness. Not cease it, but simply withhold the growing flood.
Striking his teeth to a tipped point, Gan rose to face his challenger. The object of his desires. Although much less in strength than the undefeatable mountain which strangled Claire, a great power still dwelled in the shorter bastion of death.
What should have been a cowardly figure beneath his unruly might was instead one of unwavering will. Kage's eyes blazed with the anger of a demon or three, and it only burned with greater warmth as the gasping breaths from Claire's staunch figure rattled evermore.
Before, he struck out at Gan because of the calculated rage he embraced at the revelation for him putting both Daniel and Lisa into their current conditions. This brew caused him to choose saving his own life over that of Gan's parents because of a simple concept.
'Fuck him.'
At that point he desired to bring Gan near death's door as that was the only way to subdue him. Anger took part in the outcome but was not the deciding factor, it was rejection at the prospect of another daring to steal his fate away from him. One that he conjured by his own will alone on the matter. No other should have a shout to determine otherwise, the least of which being the very cloister of vermin that brought his cherished to their states.
Now, however, he bore witness to the boy's manic violence on Claire. It was of a monster ripping to shred their prey then performing gruesome mutilation after the fact. Gan did not mean to solely kill her but cause her unimaginable anguish, otherwise, his hand would have eaten into her neck instead of her face. This decision on the other's part reflected a heady mirror onto Kage, one he hated. Hate destroyed the barriers of restraint as he beckoned the monster with an aloft hand.
"Kaaaaaaagth Testh-ler!" Vapor burned from Gan's mouth, evaporating the splotches of blood which caked onto the sides of his face. Yet still blood dripped in steaming rivers from his lips.
Hate kissed at his grin, prancing with the white of his pearly teeth. Blood would flow for what the beast had done. The vermin would be extinguished for the sin it caused. Pain as unruly as that beaten to Claire's body must be inflicted doubly so onto her aggressor.
Gan's right hand reaffirmed itself as the flesh from his bicep curled downward enveloping the disappearing fingers. The flesh remade itself around the appendages, no longer leaving their bony nakedness to be beaten by the air. His hand restored, a slight flex rejoiced him of its usage.
'I'll fucking kill him. He'll die by my hands; I won't settle for less than that!'
A finger from the once lost hand pointed into Kage's brow. Gan heaved a grand breath that rattled the warehouse to the core of its foundation.
Finally, with an ejected blood curdled spit he roared, "NOW DIE!"