Chereads / Threads of the Soul / Chapter 8 - Between a rock man and a hard place

Chapter 8 - Between a rock man and a hard place

If someone had told Seth this morning that he would be in the middle of an intense threesome in a work stationary room, first, he would have been confused as to why this person was telling him such a thing. But after that, he would have been excitedly looking forward to it.

Unfortunately his current situation was far from anyone's dream threesome, unless of course they dreamed of being enthralled in a life and death fight between a disassembling fanged skeleton and a seemingly invincible stone titan.

Of course it would be one thing if they simply focused on each other, letting him slink out of the room like every introvert at a party. But, naturally, luck was not on his side for this occasion. 

Once they broke their way into the room and saw him, he became entangled in their death feud.

He ducked under a freight train punch from the rock man, weaving to the side and swinging the fire extinguisher upwards. It clocked the skeleton under its jaw, shattering it once again as the fanged fiend slashed at the magma covered man. The rockman grabbed the fragile skeletons arm, crushing it for the dozenth time, before turning his head only to get a faceful of sodium bicarbonate that was sprayed directly from the hose of the fire extinguisher.

Seth made sure only to use a quick burst. Just enough to stun the indomitable titan and maybe even snuff out his fire even for a few seconds. He knew that he only had a limited supply, so every burst had to count.

In the few seconds that the rock man was stunned from the sudden facial blast, the skeleton had reformed its destroyed body parts and Seth had quickly caught his breath. And, just like that, they were back to their elegant dance of death. 

The coal colossus swung wildly, relying on his crushing strength and unyielding body. The skeleton slashed and took a smashing only to get back up like nothing happened. Seth, did his best to dodge every life-ending attack and dish out his own attacks with the steadily depleting & comparably meagre-looking fire extinguisher. It was a battle that seemed like it would never end. But, of course, everything has to eventually.

The turn in the tide came when the skeleton took another crushing blow to its head, shattering it apart and sending pieces clattering throughout the confined room. This wasn't the strange part, as it already happened a dozen times. What changed things was Seth noticing something other than glass-like bone fragments.

What he noticed was a small red ball no larger than a marble. It flew out of its shattered head, bouncing a few times on the carpeted floor before stopping next to the desiccated corpse of Seth's last opponent.

This on its own wouldn't have been too out of the ordinary, if anyone can consider anything happening ordinary anymore. But something about it made Seth's gaming senses tingle. A creature like this couldn't possibly reform forever, it had to have some sort of core. It had to have something to control the process.

This thought process was only confirmed as he saw the red marble start to roll itself across the floor, back towards the headless skeleton, with the shards of its skull trailing behind the marble.

Seth knew he had to take advantage of this moment, so he put everything into securing the chance to execute the fallen foe. He turned back to the indomitable rock man, glaring at it with eyes burning with determination as he squeezed the trigger of his extinguisher. Like the breath of a frost dragon, the white powder spewed out the nozzle in a continuous stream, burning through his last remnants of protection.

But it was all worth it for the few moments of respite it gave him. He turned his attention back to the marble, which was nearing the reforming skull. While still blasting the molten man, Seth lifted his boot and brought his heel down on the tiny red orb, shattering it for good.

He watched as the almost fully reformed skeleton twitched slightly, before cracks started to cascade across its entire boney form. Then, like an ancient scroll being touched by the sun for the first time, it simply disintegrated. Leaving behind nothing but a vaguely human shaped pile of fine, glittering dust.

Just like that, with one swift and rather simplistic strike, the unrelenting undead was put down for good. It would have been a time for celebration, if it were the only opponent in the room. Unfortunately for Seth, it wasn't. Not only did he still have company, but said company was pissed.

Through the constant barrage of the annoying powder, the rock titan could see the skeleton being reduced to dust, certain thoughts racing through its bouldered mind.

Denied the chance to slaughter its first prey, the irritating insect that kept stinging it and would never stay down, and now being kept at bay by a mere powdered spray that doused its wondrous heat… It wasn't going to take this anymore.

With a grating yell of frustration, a cragged black hand burst forth from the white cloud and wrapped its fingers around the nozzle of the fire extinguisher. With a firm squeeze, the nozzle was crushed and the constant stream of powder cut off.

It kept one hand there, permanently cutting off the source of the irritant, and used the other hand to grab the wretch by its shoulder and pin it against the wall. The rock man could hear the wretch's strained screams as its hand burned through the clothing and seared the inferior flesh of the one that stole his prey.

It stared at the squirming flesh thing, seeming to enjoy the pain it brought to it. Pain that it couldn't give to its last prey. It enjoyed the way it squirmed, the faces it made as its flesh sizzled and seared. It could easily crush the collarbone then turn the head into paste, but it wanted this one to truly suffer for stealing what is rightfully its.

Thankfully for Seth, the wretch being burned and choked at the same time, the rock man took pleasure in his suffering. Drawing out his seemingly inevitable death for as long as possible to revel in its newfound sadistic tendencies. While, at first, one might not think this is something to be thankful for, one would understand when they realised that this entire time Seth hadn't let go of the trigger of the extinguisher. He kept it tightly squeezed, pouring out more and more of the powder.

Naturally, it had nowhere to go as the titan torturing him had a vice grip on the nozzle. But that just meant it kept building and building in the pipe, a pipe that was currently swelling. Glancing down at it, Seth let out a raspy chuckle and couldn't stop himself from smirking.

He waited just a second more, when the pipe was twitching and ready to rupture, before looking the rock man straight in his red, glowing eyes and mouthing a single word.

'Boom.'

And boom it did. Seth managed to squeeze his eyes closed and clamp his mouth shut just as the pipe ruptured, bursting forth a cloud of the dowsing white powder. It wasn't enough to wound either of them, but it was certainly enough to snuff the flames on the front half of the rockman and cause him to drop Seth in surprise. Seth definitely wasn't going to let this opportunity slide, so while the titan was still reeling from the burst he lifted the battered remains of the extinguisher and started to slam it into the rock man's chest.

Over and over, not giving him a second of respite. Even when his arms burned and every breath started to ignite his lungs, he kept swinging at the doused chest of the once inflamed molten man. Eventually his perseverance bore fruit as the chest cracked open like an egg, a few pieces of charcoal like flesh flaking off of it and falling to the ground, revealing a pulsating glow. A glow that glowed and dimmed rhythmically, a familiar rhythm in fact.

The rhythm of a heartbeat.

Wasting no time, now that the shell had been cracked, Seth took the scissors out from the back of his pants and plunged it into the newly formed glowing cavern. He drove it in as deep as he could, feeling the monster's body twitch and tense up underneath his hands. The rock man let out a shrill screech of pain that was like stone grinding against itself.

With one final twist of the blade in his hands, Seth watched as the fire in the creature's eyes dimmed before finally snuffing out. Quite literally.

He stepped back, panting heavily as he basked in his victory, his survival. His heart thundering in his chest and hands still twitching from the adrenaline flooding his veins. He stared at the corpse of the rock covered man, half expecting it to come back to life and slaughter him. But it simply stayed there motionless.

The tension was finally broken after a few seconds, when he heard a gentle chime in his head followed by a familiar, comforting voice.

[Congratulations. You've earned a Requital.]