Iris wrapped her arms around herself as she continued to shake, flinching as another thunderous footstep carved itself through the soil.

When the enigmatic fiend made itself visible, passing through the line of trees and into the sunlight, Ren understood why it elicited such a despair-driven reaction.

"--What the…"

Nothing about its form made any sense. It stood on stout, veiny legs, each toe resembling the shape of a hand with all five fingers, caressing the soil it cursed with its presence. Four, muscular arms protruded from the sides of its humongous torso, which took up most of its unorthodox body. It had no head, unless the torso counted--holding its massive mouth, which opened with four, slimy prongs that revealed dozens of giant, sharp teeth, stained with blood and muck.

Once more, the sound of a horn roared into the air--coming from the sphincter which sat atop its bulbous torso. Meeting the harrowing horn once more, Iris covered her head as the tears she held back flowed down her cheeks.

Covering its pale, almost translucent skin, a coat of some kind of slimy substance secreted from its pores.

"I wasn't planning on fighting today...but since you made the girl of my dreams cry, I guess I don't really have much of a choice, do I?"

All he could do in the face of the horrific entity was force a trembling smile on his lips, as his sword shook in his weak grip. As he took a step forward to approach the stationary entity, which seemed to smile with a salivating grin--he stopped as something held onto the back of his shirt.

"--Don't go…"

Iris told him with her shaky voice, keeping her gaze down.

--It's not fair when you ask me like that.

There was not a single thing he wanted more than to drop down and embrace her, to hug away the fear that plagued her--but that was the resolve of a child.

--I'll gladly take that hug, after I get rid of whatever this oversized monster is. Just...How do I go about that?

Under any other circumstances, just the sight of the creature would be enough to send Ren running the other direction with his tail tucked behind his legs, and his rear stuck out behind him. However--this was a special case, a phenomena that occurred with all young men, especially those with a hero complex.

In front of the girl that had captured his heart, it felt like he could face anything for her. Even so, as he stepped closer to the pale monster, standing taller than the elder giant he faced--only one thought flowed through his mind.

--I'm scared. I'm scared. I'm scared. I'm scared. I'm scared. I'm scared. I'm scared. I'm scared. I'm scared. I'm scared. I'm scared.

He slowly raised his blade, pointing it towards the grotesque entity, forcing his grip to tighten as he tried to halt the constant shaking.

"Ren…!"

Still paralyzed by fear, Iris called out to him as she finally raised his gaze, looking upon the back of the young man who stood his ground.

Swallowing the pathetic fear that made its home on his face, he looked back at her with the widest smile he could muster, pointing to himself with his thumb.

"Just sit back and watch--I'll show you the theatrics of Nakamura Ren, the rising star of the Outlanders!"

In response to his brazen, the horrific entity let out a noise that resembled laughter in the form of a, "Zehehehe!"--Ren couldn't help but feel as if he were being mocked by even thinking he could stand a chance against the creature.

"Damn, even you can tell I'm pretending, huh? Bastard."

Ren mustered only a slight chuckle under the present fear that rested against his skin, settling into his pores as he attempted to correct his ragged breathing.

A putrid gas in place of its breath left its mouth layered with black flesh as it laughed, causing Ren to gag as it invaded his nostrils.

"Damn, this thing is getting on my nerves…"

Its laughter obscured its malice as he nearly found himself on the receiving end of its oversized fist, narrowly dodging its reach. Thinking he escaped its grasp, its already lengthy arm stretched forward like rubber, flexing its fingers as its talon-like, obsidian fingernails grazed his tunic.

"—Safe!"

Ren proclaimed as he ducked under its aggression reach, retaliating with a swing of his sword directly against its thick forearm.

The blade bounced right off of its skin as if he had struck an unmoving boulder.

"Huh…?"

Another heckling laugh resounded from its rancid mouth as it watched his futile strike.

Its mouth then shut tight, shaking as if holding something within it.

"Crap! Dunkel: Veil!"

He was a moment shy of perfect timing, conjuring the black shield, but not before droplets of the acidic fluids that erupted from its mouth reached him.

The black muck ate away at the spots on his clothing it landed on, carving a dozen holes on his shirt before branding his skin. Burning and corroding, the substance pressured the barrier, eating away at it as holes began to form in the black shield.

--Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit!

Looking back to check the space he had--if he released the shield, there was a chance the corrosive liquid could reach Iris.

There was little time afforded to him--his barrier was being melted away, yet dodging out of the way would put Iris in risk of being in the blast zone.

--I'll have to put everything I have into my reinforcement!

In the moment he disabled the shield he conjured, he raised his arms in front of himself, focusing his entirety on his reinforcement before the corrosive substance crashed against his forearms. Quickly, he realized his gamble was a bad one.

The liquid bypassed his reinforcement without so much as a fight being put up, wrapping itself against his bare forearms as he began to hear the sizzling of his own skin as the substance ate away at him.

A gasp left his mouth as he felt the substance drill itself through his skin, freeing the blood inside of his arms out onto the soil below.

Even the blood that evacuated his body fell to the ground like a droplet of lava, burning at the dirt ground.

--This isn't normal. It feels as if the liquid is trying to force its way into my body. Is it poisonous? Crap. Crap. I have to do something.

Once again, it seemed the creature took fun in the sight of Ren's weak resistance, letting out a wail of ear-ringing laughter.

He slid his hole-filled tunic off of his body, fervently rubbing the fabric across his corroded forearms--wincing as it felt as if he was rubbing a million shards of glass directly into his flesh. By the time he had wiped off the murderous saliva, his shirt was left as nothing more than strings of loose material.

"Iris! Please, get up!"

In the petrifyingly ghastly face of the monster, knowing there was little chance he stood--he tried to get the girl to stand, rushing over and grabbing her shoulders.

"--"

She stared blankly at her own knees, only muttering unintelligible words as tears dropped from empty gaze.

--Should I just carry her out of here? Try to get Sirius? I wandered off too far. With how tattered my arms got, I don't know if I could even carry her. Shit. I have to do it. I have to step up, here and now.

Cursing his horrible luck, he engaged the monster before it could reach Iris, evading its outstretched limbs as it swiped at him with its long, rancid nails.

Or he thought he evaded it.

Suddenly he was hoisted into the air as a sharp pain rang through every atom of his body, looking down to see a pair of those dagger-like nails sticking into his stomach, using his flesh as a grip.

--It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts.

Opening its rancid mouth as the slimy, black tongue it contained flopped out over its lips, the creature slowly began to move Ren down towards its mouth--planning to consume him whole.

--I have to use it now. I'm too close though. At this range--there is no avoiding being caught up in my own attack. Still...it's either that or die without accomplishing anything.

Taking a deep breath to plug his sense of smell from the sewage-like breath that replaced the air around him, Ren held his palm in front of him.

--Sometimes, everything just clicks in a way that tells you, "It's that time". The breeze feels a certain way, fear becomes a vacant feeling, and your body moves on its own.

"Dunkel: Piercer! Times two!"

Following his command, two thin shadow spears plunged into the monster's mouth, digging into its massive tongue.

Recoiling from the pain, it swayed side to side as its tongue thrashed about, releasing banshee-like cries of pain before Ren followed through.

"--Araphel: Detonation!"

He was no more than a meter away from the spears he planted into the monster's saliva coated appendage, watching as they began to glow with bubbling, violet energy in response to his incantation. In response to the searing pain that was inflicted to its sensitive tongue, the creature pushed its claws deeper into his body, pinching at his flesh from the inside.

"This isn't a game of chicken. Even if you let go of me right now...I'd stand here all the same until I make sure you've dropped dead, even if it costs me my life!"

Being in the face of death, he didn't feel fear. Maybe it was the fact that he was able to choose the way he went out, finally making a decision for himself, or maybe it was that he knew that with this, Iris would stop crying over the sight of the monster.

Either way, he smiled.

--Thank you, Sirius. If you didn't drill that stuff into me with the giant, I'd have died without ever putting up a real fight. With this, I can do it. I can rid it from this world. I can take away that look of despair in her eyes.

The raging flames of black that emitted from the volatile spears he planted into the creature's mouth held no mercy towards their own caster, roaring with a heat that began to pull away at his own flesh, turning his pale skin to a bright red, then a charcoal black. At this point, pain was hardly something he had focused on--only experiencing ecstasy after feeling the raw power of the spell to come, confirming to him that it was capable of ending this monster's reign of terror.

His own lips were scorched and torn by the sharp winds generated by the spell's ferocity, exhibiting a smile to match the monster's natural ghast. Every last ounce of mana he could find within his body was forced into the bursting spears, sizzling as they could barely maintain their form with the overflow of magical energy being thrust into them.

The blood that ran through his veins boiled under the unyielding flames, feeling his own lively essence cook him from the inside, his tongue bubbling up as it boiled all the same.

As stiff as his arm became, as weak as his body turned at the loss of mana, he continued to hold his hand forward as the relentless flames of his own making ate away at his flesh, giving everything he could to those spears that would rid Iris of her fears. The fact that time seemed to slow itself down to a near halt told him that he had indeed set himself on the path to the afterlife.

--Is my life going to start flashing before my eyes? If so, I'd like to see her smile then. I wish I had the strength or time to turn around and see her--even if I have to see those puffy, tear-filled eyes. Shed some of those tears for me, okay?

The black spears began to lose their form, releasing an air of dark mana as they heated up in front of his eyes even further, scorching the creature's tongue before finally, the volatility he wished for manifested itself. An explosion of abyssal flames erupted all within a moment as time resumed for him, engulfing him in his own spell of destruction.

As he met with the utter destruction he caused, his own vision fell to the same darkness his magic invoked into reality.

--Ah. I'm dead, aren't I? This is the reward that awaits heroic efforts, isn't it? Not that I expected riches or fame to come from this journey...I just wish I could've at least got a single kiss on the cheek from her.

He could see nothing, feel nothing, smell nothing, hear nothing, taste nothing--there was absolutely nothing for him in this mindscape of darkness.

--I'm not scared, sad, nor do I regret anything, truly. I'm happy. I'm happy I had the strength to save her. Meinhard, I'm an idiot, aren't I? I'm sure I'd earn a slug from you if I told you exchanging my own life to save another was a good deal. Then again, you aren't one to talk, are you? If you do happen to get mad over my reckless decision, well...I'm heading where you're at right now, so you'll have your chance to reprimand me.