Kenji stood just a few feet away from the beast and looked as Ishiki was eaten by the monster without a second thought.
"ISHIKI!"
The scream tore from Kenji's throat, carrying all the horror his mind couldn't process. His legs moved before thought, rapier extended, charging at the headless monstrosity with something that transcended courage and crossed into pure, desperate frenzy.
He struck it as fast as he could. Again and again and again.
"Give him back you bastard! Give him back."
His rapier blurred—a flurry of precise thrusts targeting the beasts tough hide with hope that violence could undo what he just witnessed.
The blade struck the hide and bounced. Struck again and slid off. Struck a third time and accomplished just a little scratch.
He was useless.
His skill, was perfect for support, for reconnaissance, for knowing where enemies were.
But it couldn't hurt them or pierce their hide. Couldn't save anyone.
Across the battlefield, Shen finally brought down the Xenon which walked on its two front legs with a tail forming from its hind legs.
The creature collapsed with a sound like a building falling, its club-tail smashing one final crater into earth before going still. But the victory was pyrrhic—paid for in broken bones and spilled blood.
One of the Princess's twelve cabinet members lay motionless beneath the creature's bulk, crushed in the final exchange. Shen himself could barely stand, his armor dented and torn.
But he turned to his next target anyways.
The headless Xenon trying to walk towards the Civilians.
He gathered the four Players who could still fight, barely. All of them were bleeding and exhausted. They all joined the battle against the beast along with Kenji.
Suddenly, a tentacle caught Kenji and threw him away like a rag doll.
He flew backward, weightless and helpless, crashed through the first tent in an explosion of canvas and rope, momentum carrying him through the second, then the third, each impact adding bruises until he finally slammed into solid ground and skidded to a halt.
Pain exploded everywhere simultaneously. His muscles spasmed and his head rang out, making every voice blur.
He lay there gasping, staring up at stars visible in the night sky, mind blank.
'Pathetic... You are so pathetic!'
Tears burned in his eyes—shame, rage, grief and guilt mixing into something toxic.
15 days ago, when Ishiki first joined in the hunting party with them, Kenji hadn't liked his impulses. He was a bit... too much truthful? Or maybe because he blurted out anything that he thought.
And then the new comer had somehow managed to kill two Xenons, but also got injured. And Kenji felt that gnawing guilt that it was somehow his fault. If he would have guided him better, or maybe if he was stronger.
So he'd visited Ishiki daily during recovery. Brought him food. They both sat in companionable silence, didn't talk much—neither of them were particularly chatty. But somehow they understood each other anyway.
And they became friends. Well... that was what Kenji had assumed, because, for him friends are the people who believe in him and Ishiki, Kaori and Akari, these three believed in him, they were his teammates.
And now... he had seen his friend being eaten by an abomination, while he stood frozen like a coward.
Then his gaze shifted to the side, he could see the horde of civilians huddled near the school building. Hundreds of people—children, elderly, families, all staring at approaching doom with terror in their eyes.
But also hope. Somehow, they still hoped.
In the front line, Akari stood beside Kaori and two other players. Both women held weapons ready despite the impossible odds.
A question formed in Kenji's battered mind.
'Why are we fighting? What's the point?'
The answer came immediately, obvious and simple.
For the ones we love. For those who believe in us.
Two months ago, nobody had believed Kenji could save lives. He was just a scared kid, getting bullied in one of the upper sectors, barely worth acknowledging.
Now? Now some people looked to him. Trusted him and believed he was worth something.
'It feels nice... being trusted.'
He pushed himself up, body begging to just stay down and let death come quietly. But his legs obeyed anyway.
A smirk pulled at his bloodied lips. "For Akari. For everyone stupid enough to believe in me. I will not die."
He raised his head to locate the beast, planning his next completely futile attack—
Then what he saw made him shudder.
***
Ishiki fell into utter darkness.
He fell through wet heat that smelled like death's breath, through air so thick it felt like drowning in hot water.
Then he hit the bottom.
SPLASH.
He landed in something slimy and wet and wrong in ways that made his skin crawl.
Ishiki tried to stand but the entire world moved. The ground beneath him—which he realized with creeping horror wasn't ground at all but puddles of meat and half-digested bones.
He fell into the slimy liquid.
The smell of rot, decay and stomach acid mixed with organic dissolution. The concentrated essence of every horrible smell in existence, fermented and aged to peak potency, hit him suddenly.
He gagged, scrambled up and managed to get his feet under him.
'Eww... this is so creepy.'
The liquid came up to his abdomen. Thick and viscous. Already his skin was starting to tingle, like a sunburn developing in real-time.
His head swam with the absolute absurdness of being inside something that was digesting him.
'Screw this! Why do I have to be here? This place smells worse than actual shit!'
The creature moved—lurched forward on the outside and Ishiki stumbled, barely keeping his feet, arms windmilling for balance in acidic sludge.
His stomach rebelled.
He turned and emptied his stomach into the beast's stomach, adding his own contribution to the digestive nightmare.
'Piece of Shit!'
He spat, trying to clear his mouth of taste that would haunt him forever, then gritted his teeth.
Complete darkness surrounded him. He couldn't see his hand in front of his face. Couldn't see the walls... stomach walls of course.
There was nothing except the blackness that pressed in from all sides.
'I am not doing something like this again. Better kill this bastard quickly.'
He mentally summoned Black Tether.
The obsidian spear materialized in his shaking hand. Then he closed his eyes—pointless in the darkness but somehow psychologically important, and activated Ghost Blade.
The familiar yet vastly strange sensation engulfed his body. His consciousness expanded outward, touching space, flesh and boundaries, creating a mental map that let him "see" without eyes.
And suddenly he could perceive everything.
The stomach walls. The digestive organs. The simple, almost primitive anatomy of this Xenon.
And much—much more.
He could see outside.
His perception extended through the creature's flesh, mapping the battlefield beyond like watching through frosted glass.
He saw Kenji attacking desperately with his rapier, strikes bouncing off hide uselessly. Saw Shen and others joining the assault.
Then he saw the tentacle grab Kenji.
"Shit!" Ishiki's curse echoed in the stomach cavity. "Stay away from this monster, dumbass! Your skill isn't suited for attack!"
But Kenji couldn't hear him. Nobody could. He was alone in the belly of the beast.
Ishiki forced his attention back to his immediate surroundings, scanning the creature's internal structure with his enhanced perception.
What he found was... surprising.
The anatomy was Ridiculously simple. Just a single massive body cavity with organs clustered together in one central location—the stomach where he currently stood, surrounded by muscle and bone and that impenetrable hide.
'Not so tough on the inside, huh?'
He found the heart. Massive and pulsing. It was suspended above him in the darkness, pumping blood.
Ishiki tried to jump, Black Tether extended, aiming for the vital organ.
His feet slipped in bone-studded slime. He came up short by at least two feet, spear tip nowhere near the target.
'Too short. I need height. Damn it! Why am i not tall.'
He looked down and grimaced.
Half-digested skeletal remains from previous victims, scattered across the stomach floor like macabre building blocks.
Ishiki started gathering them with trembling hands, trying not to think about the fact that these were people, that each bone represented someone who died screaming in this exact darkness.
He piled them and created a makeshift platform that would let him reach high enough.
Minutes crawled past like hours or maybe hours crawled past like minutes.
'aghh! I am going Insane. Stop thinking useless things.'
The smell was driving him insane. He could feel his mind fraying at the edges, rational thought giving way to gibbering terror barely held in check by desperate purpose.
His skin burned now. Telling, that if he didn't escape soon he'd become just more bones in the stack.
'Focus! Climb. Kill and Escape. In that order. Don't think about anything else.'
The creature lurched again, and Ishiki's bone pile collapsed.
'Screw you! Can't you stay still bastard.'
He screamed in frustration and started over.
Built it again from scratch. This time he made it higher and more stable.
After what felt like an eternity, after his fingers had gone numb and his lungs burned from toxic fumes and his mind had retreated to someplace small and dark just to survive, he finally finished.
The bone pile stood tall enough. Precariously.
Ishiki climbed onto it, his feet slipped on surfaces slick with dissolution. Hands grabbing femurs, ribs and skulls that crumbled under his weight. Ascending through darkness guided only by Ghost Blade's supernatural sense, toward the heart that beat above him with infuriating steadiness.
Finally he stood atop the corpses and extended Black Tether.
The spear's tip—augmented by Ghost Blade's unnatural sharpness, touched the creature's heart and easily went in.
Ishiki drove the spear deeper with both hands and what remained of his strength, twisting, tearing and destroying.
Soon, the heart busted in a fountain of foul blood.
[You have Slain a Superior Xenon]
[You have received 200 Data Fragments]
Outside, the beast suddenly stopped moving.
Everyone froze—Players mid-strike, civilians mid-prayer, Princess who had just finished the three headed monster.
All of them stared as the headless Xenon went perfectly still.
Then it shuddered. Convulsed and collapsed in a heap.
It hit the ground with an impact that shook earth and sent up clouds of dust.
Silence fell across the battlefield.
Then the creature's vertical maw moved.
Ishiki crawled out on hands and knees—pale skin made paler by contrast with the filth coating him. Black hair plastered to his skull with slime, acid and blood.
The scrawny young man's frame was shaking with exhaustion. He made it three steps from the corpse's mouth.
And looked at the nearest player who stood there with his mouth hung open like he had seen a ghost.
Well he did see a ghost, crawling out from the dead.
Ishiki looked at him and frowned. "Hey! Can you take me to the bathroom." he pointed at himself. "This thing stinks."
Then he collapsed face first.