An idea was forming inside of Kai's mind, one that had an incredibly high chance of going wrong, but it was their only shot.
Whatever Cecilia was cooking up back there wasn't ready yet, so it was all up to him.
As for what that plan was?
It was simple, in theory.
He was going to keep running around the Yeti, attacking at its ankles and hoping that it got dizzy.
Sure it wasn't a great plan, but it was all he had. The situation was abysmal so what other choice did he have?
So, gritting his teeth, Kai set his plan in action.
He would swiped at the Yeti's ankles, ever so slightly digging into its flesh every time and slowly accumulating shallow wounds that would eventually start to actually affect the battle.
Whenever the Yeti attacked, he was able to just about dodge, but every time he had to dodge he was always cutting it close. The only reason he was able to was because Aura of the Chaos Beast was ever so slightly lowering the Yeti's physical capabilities.
Again and again, Kai attacked the Yeti's ankles, spinning around them and hoping that he didn't get squished. It seemed luck was on his side as it didn't end up happening.
Until it wasn't, that is.
Having enough of his tricks, the Yeti roared out and lifted one of its feet. Then, with all of its monstrous might, it stomped down on the ground and sent violent tremors throughout the entire arena.
Tremors which managed to knock Kai off balance and stop him in his tracks.
That was all it took for the tide of the battle to shift completely.
Kai had miscalculated. He had messed up.
While Kai was stunned, the Yeti grinned, its thick, powerful fangs grinning maliciously as its arm shot forward and grabbed Kai's own arm, yanking him into the air to look it in the face.
Kai felt the Yeti's hot, putrid breath hit against him and it mad him want to gag. It reminded him of the stench of a sewer, how it would make your eyes water.
Desperately digging the claws on his free hand into the Yeti's wrist, Kai tried to break free, but the beast's grip was too tight.
Hopelessly staring into its endless black eyes, Kai swallowed and paled. He felt his heartrate pick up as he tried to think of anyway out of this.
Esurient came plunging down from the sky onto the Yeti's wrist, but the blade just bounced off of its fur, unable to damage it or free its master.
Exhaling one more time, the Yeti grinned before its body moved again.
It roared out as its body lurched forward as it swung its arm downwards, slamming Kai into the ground with a large bang, a cloud of dust and snow surrounding him.
Kai cried out in pain, spit flying from his mouth as his eyes dilated from the shock. His body let out a disgusting crack as various bones in his back broke. He wasn't sure if his spine had broken, but maybe if it had he wouldn't be feeling so much pain.
His mind blanked. His ears were ringing painfully. Everything hurt more than it ever had.
It was so painful that honestly...
Maybe it would be so bad if he were to die.
The pain was unbearable. He had been through a wide variety of torturous pain before, but most of it has come from the mental or Soul variety, not just pure physical pain.
Kai hated it.
But it wasn't over.
He yelped out in pain once more as the Yeti yanked him upwards, pulling at his arm, making it pop out of place in the process.
Then...
It let go.
Kai was in the air, his momentum slowly coming to a halt. It wouldn't be long before he would start falling, crashing against the crater he had just created and feel another wave of unbearable pain.
But that wasn't to be the case as Kai's eyes widened, watching the Yeti's arm retract before closing its fist, that same fist flying towards him while he floated.
Time seemed to move in slow motion as the fist flew towards him.
Kai blinked.
He heard the cries of Cecilia far behind him. He couldn't see her, he could just make out the sounds of her begging him to dodge the fist, to somehow awaken a new more or upgrade a new skill or something like that.
But this wasn't the type of situation where that could happen.
Not every story had a happy ending, Kai knew that much.
Failure, Annie, maybe even The Ever-changing, all of them got screwed over.
It seemed fate had decided it was his turn.
He could only accept it as the fist collided with his chest.
First came the sound, the massive bang as his body folded around the fist, contorting to fit around it.
Second came the pain. He heard and felt all of his ribs shatter. Breathing instantly became incredibly hard as bits of bone shrapnel pierced his lungs and presumably some of his other internal organs.
Third came the realisation. There was no way he was going to survive this. The only reason he had survived the punch in the first place was because he made use of the 50% damage mitigation from his armour, but even that wouldn't be enough to save him. His body was in ruin, no amount of health potions would be able to save him.
The chest area of his armour shattered instantly, breaking into millions of pieces of bright silver, falling to the ground almost like a shiny snowfall.
Blood was slowly going to clog his throat. His lungs wouldn't be able to function if they had a bunch of tears in them. His heart was probably in ruin. All of his other internal organs were damaged beyond repair too.
Kai was flung backwards, his body soaring in the air before it inevitably fell to the ground, bouncing for a solid distance from how hard he had been punched. Every time he bounced left skid marks of blood, until finally he began to loose momentum and just roll along the snow, leaving one continues bright red trail behind him.
His body stopped rolling only when it had perfectly arrived at Cecilia's feet, bloody and battered.
Kai looked up at Cecilia, his eyes barely open. He couldn't move his body at all, just being alive was causing him immeasurable pain.
Before the blood could fully block of his throat, he coughed.
"... Cecilia?"
Petunia stood beside Cecilia, her eyes wide and get gaze blank, like she couldn't believe what she was seeing. It definitely wasn't a good sight, not one that a child should be seeing anyway.
Cecilia let out a weird mix between a chortle and a sob as she dropped to her knees, trying to tenderly place Kai's head on her lap, failing to do so as he ended up letting out a yelp, and softly pulling back his hair.
She then took out a HP potion, unable to take out the better, boosted ones as they had been stored inside Kai's spatial storage ring, and lifted it to his lips. She wiped away some of the blood surrounding his mouth before doing so.
"Here... drink."
The red liquid fell down his throat, but inwardly Kai knew that no matter how much he drank there was no coming back from this.
No hope of survival.
Ah... shit... What the fuck is this bullshit.
Kai felt the edges of his eyes start to get wet. He didn't want to cry, didn't want anyone to see him like this. It wasn't even that he was scared of death, well, of course he was, who wouldn't be? But it was also that he would be leaving Cecilia, Umbra, Remy and Petunia here, unprotected. As soon as he was gone, they would soon follow in his footsteps. They wouldn't be able to face the strength of that Yeti.
But he was in so much pain. Every inch of his body hurt more than it ever had before. Just the slightest of movements made him want to scream out.
However, no matter how much pain he was in, he wanted some sort of comfort.
Kai's hand twitched, a final effort on his part, but luckily Cecilia got the memo as she tenderly picked it up, intertwining her fingers with his as she lifted his hand a little closer to her, pressing his hand against her forehead as she sobbed.
"Oh... Kai..."
Kai froze, his eyes widening as he looked up at Cecilia's tear streaked face. He felt his eyes become even wetter as he opened his mouth once more.
"You... called me-"
Kai coughed up blood, smearing his mouth in it once more as he turned his head to the side so he wouldn't choke, the action causing him even more pain than he was already in. He squeezed his eyes closed, listening to the sounds of Cecilia's sobs as he spat to the side.
Cecilia's other hand softly palmed his face, turning it back so he would look up at her.
Opening his eyes once more, Kai...
Smiled weakly.
Her eyes... When they had first met he had thought that her eyes were so beautiful, how he would be able to get lost in them.
It seemed it finally happened.
Looking into her glistening green eyes, it was almost like every bit of pain he had been feeling was washed away. It didn't matter anymore, none of it mattered.
"Don't-" Cecilia choked. "Don't you dare start smiling now. You still have to get us to the peak, remember?"
Kai's smile grew a little. He wanted to laugh at Cecilia's words, but that action would cause him too much pain.
Groaning as his gaze fell, Kai glanced to the side to look at Petunia and-
His eyes widened.
Petunia wasn't standing there.
Following his gaze, Cecilia looked to the side and also realised that Petunia wasn't there. Panicking, her head whipped back around and saw...
Petunia slowly walking towards the Yeti, clutching the teddy bear in her hand tightly, squeezing it with all her strength.
"Petunia!" Cecilia cried out, wanting to get up and chase after her but not wanting to leave Kai behind.
"Come back! It's not safe!"
Petunia didn't listen. She continued to take slow steps towards the Yeti, her gaze burning into it the entire time.
A few moments later, she believed that she was standing close enough.
The Yeti grinned, leering down at the young girl. It was just about to take a step forward when Petunia moved once more.
She lifted up her teddy, pointing it up at the Yeti, the beady black eyes of the stuffed animal having a staring content with the harrowing black eyes of the beast.
Then, she spoke.
"Mommy... Kill it."
Kai coughed.
What are you doing Petunia? Your Mother's gone! Get away from-
Then, his eyes widened as he felt another presence wash over him. Something ancient, something primal, something horrifying.
He watched as Petunia's body was engulfed by bright red flames.
Then, he felt the ground beneath him begin to shake, like something was trying to crawl out of the deepest pits of hell.
But when the ground actually did crack open, the entire arena turned red.