"I know what I'm doing, relax." said Lilith. A weird tapping noise would follow her words, adding weight to the echo of her words.
Wait, tapping noises?
Fuck.
While the others may have not realized what was going on, Yoel had experienced an encounter like this before.
It appears that those weird bugs he had run into produced a horrid tapping noise when approaching enemies, or rather.. searching for them.
As the blood in his head rushed to his body, he yelled towards his group.
"Weapons out! Prepare to fight! It's the same parasite from before!"
Although none of the parasites had ever managed to attack his head or anywhere near it during the first encounter, he suddenly felt very conscious about that unguarded spot.
His teammates showed confusion at his sudden outburst but decided to trust him.
A slender rapier made itself visible, its delicate steel now exposed to the outside, ready to lash out at a moment's notice.
A plain dagger made its presence known, the tip and blade of it deadly and vicious, like a serpent's fang. It moved with caution.
Metal gauntlets, accompanied by bandages that wrapped all around the arms of Loki, flourished against the small glitters of sunlight that protruded through the leaves.
A shortsword was unleashed from a scabbard, ready to slice all that crossed its path.
And lastly, a spear of plain steel was brandished against the oncoming foes, they would face its wrath and cruelty.
It was the second day of the exam.
And on that day, this group of teenagers.. would come to meet a horrifying truth.
Death was never too far away.
And even if it was, it would find a way.
The tapping noises were now audible to the entire cohort.
Something scrambled between huge bushes and trees and scrunching sounds were heard from behind them.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
What revealed itself was not the parasite they were expecting, of course.
Humans. Humans? No.. those aren't humans.
Yoel wished he hadn't eaten anything that day.
His face was overcome with sheer terror.
Human bodies, with the parasites as their heads?
The parasites wiggled and moved, their tails swinging around, acting as an antenna to their now human-like body.
The blue veins bulged from behind the skin, almost like fighting to break free.
And at that moment, the bodies moved.
Almost mechanically, they got in a beastly crouching stance and prepared to leap onto their prey.
Nervousness gripped the cohort as they prepared for the worst, gulping more than once.
But they were all still stunned by the sight that laid bare before their eyes.
Small bug-like legs revealed themselves from within the parasites, and as they clicked simultaneously, the dead leaped at the living.
The battle had begun, there was no time to ponder as to what had happened to these bodies.
All that mattered now, was to keep their lives.
A somewhat slender human body engaged in battle against Yoel, flailing its long claws at him.
It took a lot of concentration to even keep up with its attacks, and much more to properly deflect them.
Leaves and plants were torn apart as they moved through the jungle, a reminder of the battle that was taking place right now.
Luck was not on the party's side, as a log had found itself under Yoel's foot, while he was backing away from the moving corpse.
Its attacks carried the weight of a truck behind them, with the speed to match an adult cheetah. It was really impressive that anyone was able to keep up with their wild dance.
The situation was grim. The first one to lose the barely-kept balance was Loki.
Even though his fists expressed incredible might and power, the creature that fought him had been created from something far stronger than they could ever perceive.
Loki fell to the ground, and the creature immediately got to work. A blue tendril of nerves sprouted out from one of the corpse's hands, and it lunged at Loki's vulnerable figure.
..The blue tendril was stopped short, however, by a hurling ball of light.
It seems that Lilith had her parasite under control and could spare a few seconds to analyze the battlefield, and even assist anyone who was struggling.
That short moment of respite was all Loki needed, he grasped at what remained of the tendril and squeezed it, blue blood spilling on and under his calloused palms.
And then…
A slam was heard.
Yoel had collapsed to the ground, the log that he had slipped on now seemed like a grim reaper in disguise, sent to him from the heavens to collect his soul.
Was his time over, so fast?
Certainly, he couldn't let that happen.
Yoel, in a desperate final act, decided to throw away his spear and search for his dagger. He grasped at the sheath, which was located on his waist and prepared to stab at whatever came at him.
However, when he looked up, he saw no trace of the corpse parasite.
He looked around, only to notice that the corpse had been pushed back, burn marks all over its side.
He stared at it in confusion only for a moment however, he knew what had happened.
He didn't have enough time to express his thanks, because the creatures had left neither of them any time to do so.
He instantly got up and grabbed the spear that was now muddy and somewhat bloody, covered in both types of blood, red and blue.
He didn't have time to care for the condition of the spear, it wasn't his right to do so, at the moment.
He lunged at the still crouching abomination and struck it with a piercing lunge, with all the power he could muster behind it.
It struck the creature right at its would-be forehead, and it was the first clean cut he had landed.
And possibly the first cut to truly damage one of those damned abominations.
Blue blood gushed out of its tail like a fountain, the parasite writhed in agony and confusion.
It thought it was perfect, in this new form that it had attained.
But alas, even a fool knew that no matter the creature, a weakness would always exist.
Nothing in this universe moved without a flaw, nothing was flawless.
..That's for certain.
After that first deep cut, the rest was easier.
The flow of the battle had turned in the favor of Yoel's party.
Yoel had managed to land many more devastating attacks on the parasite after that, and eventually, the parasite had fallen.
Its body stopped moving and in turn, the nerves that had tainted the bodies of the fallen had retrieved themselves back into the parasite.
Slowly, the parasite slid off from the head of the human body it was latched onto, to reveal a grim image.
Dried blood and mangled flesh greeted Yoel, corrupted flesh mixed with blue blood had formed a monstrosity to look at.
Bubbles, scratches, and many more wounds were plastered over the face of the human.
It was a sight to grimace at, for sure. Unfortunately for Yoel however, he didn't have the time to do so.
There were more parasites to fight against, his party wasn't out of the battle yet.
Yoel eyed the battlefield, looking at the progress his team was putting in.
It seemed that everyone except a few struggled deeply against the parasites.
Lilith was able to conjure orbs of light while also performing close-range attacks with incredible precision.
Wasn't she supposed to be a ranged fighter? I guess people kept their secrets until their last moments.
A weird thing, he thought.
Why would someone keep something like that a secret even in the direst situations?
More than that, however, he remembered reading about this creature in a guidebook, once. He hadn't noticed it before.. but hadn't this specific type of creature been of a higher strength than they were supposed to be?
Come to think of it.. the Jungle had been way too quiet, there were barely any other examinees running around, and he had encountered none except for this poor fallen group, made into flesh seats for their hosts.
Ahh, whatever. There's no time to think about it right now.
He looked over to another man fighting against one of the parasites.
His blonde hair fluttered against the wind as he clashed with the parasite.
His sword was riddled with cracks, but despite that, it swung as if it were brand new. It was the parasite that was struggling against him, not the other way around.
He did not look mad this time around. Instead, his eyes seemed completely serene and full of focus. It seems that he could control his emotions whenever he wanted to.
Or whenever he felt like it.
Despite the serious look, to any outsider, this would look as if he was purely toying with the monster as if he had found a new plaything to mess around with until he got bored again.
A pathetic distraction from the burden of his problems, perhaps.
There was conviction in his eyes, a set goal for him that he had to reach.
It was a sight for sore eyes. Minus the gore, blood, corpses, and the unsettling theme of the jungle.
Alas, the parasite fell to the ground, sliding off of the corpse's head, and the corpse now returned to its eternal rest, with no spawn of hell inhabiting its body any more, forcing it to move against its whims.
It could sleep, finally.