Chereads / Vaulstrae (Paused) / Chapter 5 - Death

Chapter 5 - Death

'There's no way... How can this creature...'

The crocodile-like monster was slowly toying with the remaining leg as if it was a mere toy, blood and small tips of flesh landing on the ground at each movement.

Yet, it didn't look even a bit distracted. The two black pearls serving the creature as eyes, never stopping looking at Asaki, not even for a second. The only feeling he could feel toward it, was that there was absolutely no way to escape this piercing gaze. Not a single one...

'It's gonna kill me... Why isn't it already killing me...? Why...'

Coughs and tears replaced his usual confident and gentle expression, almost keeping him from breathing correctly. Was Asaki about to choke to death because of fear ?

Or will the monster kill him first ?

"G...Go away... Leave me alone..."

For an unknown reason, hearing Asaki's voice finally made the monster make a choice. In a single movement, it threw the leg just above his head as if it was nothing but a feather. And when it finally landed, it was inside of its horrific mouth, getting swallowed in absolutely no time.

The proud smile that appeared on its face just after he managed to totally swallow it was nothing Asaki could never forget.

A sadistic smile, revealing around a hundred sharps fangs covered by blood.

That's it, it was his turn now...

Slowly, the monster started to walk toward Asaki. As if it wanted to torture him until the very last moment, Crocodile took all of his time, letting its disproportionate claws slicing through the ground as it continued to approach.

'How... How can this be so... So sharp...'

It was unfair, that's the only word that could describe Asaki's situation for him.

Unfair.

Around him, the entire world seemed to slow down, desperately backing away by crawling seemed useless now. His back finally meeting one of the wall of the kitchen.

The monster, his body, the sky, time, the world...

Everything was motionless.

The only things Asaki could sense moving, or even existing, being his thoughts and heart.

'That's impossible... I can't die here...'

A strong heartbeat echoed inside of his head.

'I don't wanna die...'

Another one.

'I... Not because... Of that ugly bastard...'

He needed to fight back, he must fight back. Why all of these efforts to maintain himself alive during all these years, otherwise ??

Why living to give up on life so easily ?

But on the other side... What could he do ? Kill what truly was impossible to kill ?

'I'll survive...'

Another tremendous cough almost got him to vomit, rivers of saliva drooling from his mouth. His arms were shaking so much that if Asaki needed to grab something like a baseball bat he wouldn't even be able to touch it. Not to mention the rest of his body.

With difficulties, he slowly, but finally, got up. Pressing almost the entire right half of his body against the walk to not fall on the ground again.

Quick... He needed to find what he could do...

The door, or should I say, where the door previously was, located behind of the monster. Outside, nothing seemed to wait for him in his yard. If he was able to reach his bicycle, he'll win.

... But the monster didn't seem like willing to let him escape. To be honest, it already seemed quite angry and surprised to see the young man rose from the ground to let him do anything else.

Playtime was over.

°°°

Around a year ago, Asaki surprisingly got into a fight. The guy was waiting for him outside of the school, and he wasn't quite the skinny type.

He practiced a bit boxing, and so was way faster and stronger than Asaki, he didn't had any chance.

To cheer him up, Kaoru decided to teach him something :

The law of inertia.

To not get lost into the details, when someone was attacking you, just after he threw his punch, the person wasn't able to move during around a second. If his memory was correct, Asaki knew that this was because of the punch's force dragging the whole body into the movement, making it impossible to enter another, because he was already in movement.

Once he finally faced the fighter, try to understand why, but Asaki somewhat managed to avoid the first attack. Giving him the perfect and only opening Kaoru talked him about. Of course, even though Asaki managed to land at least one punch, he got absolutely destroyed just after, left with multiple contusions on all of the body.

But still, he managed to use this rule to his advantage !

And so was he about to do again.

In a thunderous noise, the creature propelled himself toward Asaki. Destroying under its "feet" the previously shining and clean ground.

Its right arm was stretching toward Asaki, aiming for his torso in order to slash it, and so killing him.

Avoiding it by a hair, Asaki rolled on the ground while the creature's claws pierced the concrete wall, destroying a part of his kitchen in the process.

'Now !!'

It was surely the first time in all of his existence that Asaki ran so fast, his life was on the line after all. But as he managed to do so, a burning feeling suddenly crossed all of his back, an unknown force expelling him out of the house even quicker than his legs were already doing.

The crash of his body on the ground produced a sudden crack, literally freezing all of Asaki's blood when he heard it.

It was his leg, even though it seemed normal, he wasn't able to move it and an horrible pain was surging from all of it.

Fractured, the bone of his leg was at least fractured.

"Aaaaah !"

'This bastard...'

All of his back was covered in blood, a large and deep wound now covering a large part of its right side.

"I can't... Run away..."

Behind him, the shadow of the monster approached his corpse, ready to finally give the final blow.

Asaki didn't even need to look at this sadistic lizard to know that a wide smile was what was painted across its face. The opposite wouldn't feel logic at all. Instead, he preferred looking at the grass one last time before closing his eyes.

This is it, death was about to drag him out of this world.

A firm grip formed around all of Asaki's body, almost missing crushing all of his bones as the pressure was so strong. The invisible force dragged him to the sky, the wind crushing even more the poor boy's body. Wasn't death only supposed to only grab his soul ?

Wait. Was it death ?

When Asaki opened his eyes again, the grass was still beneath him, even though it looked different. Maybe much further...

"Oh..."

It wasn't grass, these were trees.

Above Asaki, and also holding him, was flying a sort of giant bird. Its head was that of a strange mix between a snake and some kind of other animal, as its skin wasn't covered by feathers but a deep black fur, excepted its gray wings.

Another creature, a flying one it seems, grabbed him when he was about to get killed, to eat him itself. What an ironic way of dying...

Sadly, between the coldness, blood spilling out of his body, the superhuman grip tightening around of his body and multiples broken bones, Asaki felt himself slowly fading away.

He couldn't see anything again, this time even unable to reopen his eyes that just closed seconds ago. Thousands of thoughts were crossing his head, his heart beating slower and slower.

'I finally understand now...'

The bird suddenly changed its trajectory, as if avoiding another bird.

'Why today, out of all day, was so... Special...'

The far sound of an explosion made his entire body shake, as if it just occurred near him. The grip of the bird suddenly disappeared, but not the feeling of falling from the sky.

'How could I even forget when she remembered...'

Brutally, the grip reappeared, changing his trajectory so violently that it missed tearing Asaki apart.

'After all... Today was...'

Before the two bodies crashed on the ground, one final thought crossed his mind.

'Today was my birthday...'