Erind Hartwell

2:04 a.m., Wednesday, February 5, 2020.

They say your life flashes before your eyes when you were about to die. Fact? Or just a cliché line from the movies to sound cool? I’ve read an article about some research that suggested it was real to an extent. Science mumbo jumbo that the last part of the brain to go before dying was the part with memories.

Maybe it was real then? I dunno.

I’ve been in several dangerous situations myself. A few of them could’ve gone horribly wrong and resulted in my death. Come to think of it, I’ve actually had near-death experiences like three times already. First, when that bitch Myra tried to kill me, and then I met SpookyErind. Second, in the arena below the Eve club, when Mr. Ogre absolutely destroyed me in our one-versus-one fight; I got him back for that though, thanks to Deen. And last, when those fucker agents from the BID detonated their Greaves Reactors and nearly burned my ass to ashes, along my body attached to said ass, literally.

None of that life-flashing-thingy so far.

Too bad I wasn’t going to experience that now either. Given my indestructible body, I doubted if being the bait for a dangerous monster would count as a near-death experience.

I was genuinely curious what it looked like though…that life-flashing-thingy.

“Look over here, you ugly fuck!” I shouted. The bulky greyish monster that looked like a gorilla with the hind legs of a wolf didn’t listen to me. Rude. It was occupied with chomping down one of the group of humans it cornered at the far-left edge of the huge office space full of cubicles on the 21st floor.

A balding guy wearing glasses and a plaid shirt splattered with blood desperately threw a gun that was probably out of bullets at the monster. It harmlessly bounced off its hunched back. The monster continued eating, and the woman on the floor continued screaming. Bald guy bravely stepped forward to try and save the woman. Armed with an electric guitar that he took from one of the kids behind him—his son, most likely—he bonked the gorilla monster on its head.

It almost looked like a comedic gag except that the monster didn’t find it funny.

It grabbed the man’s arms, spreading him out like the letter ‘T’ dangling in the air. The man cried for help as the monster tried to pull him apart. Unwilling to go down without a fight, he kicked the gorilla monster’s head, but it caught his leg with its jaw and bit down hard. If I still had my human body, I would’ve cringed at the grating crunch of the bone.

“Pino!” Doms yelled from somewhere in the opposite corner of this office space. She was hiding inside one of the still standing cubicles in that area, waiting to do her part of the plan after I made my move.

Whoops, I got too entertained watching the gorilla monster eating people. If Mom was here, she would scold me that I got entranced again with animals eating each other, just like she did when I was still a little kid.

“On it!” I answered back. “Face here, fuckface!” Ugh, stupid line. “Drop that guy!” I rushed at the gorilla monster with my weapon held high—a spiky leg from a dead giant insect we passed. As I got close enough to have a better look, I found the reddish glow that indicated the location of the parasites. (It’s hiding in the spinal cord!) I told Doms.

I stabbed the monster from behind with the spike, aiming for the bony ridge along the middle of its back, like its spine grew too large and protruded out of its skin. There were hints of the enlarged spinal cord showing through the gaps of the vertebrae. The tip of the spike hit the bony part instead of the spinal cord and glanced off.

Fuck.

Oh well, I wasn’t planning on killing the parasite myself anyway. From experience, it appeared we needed to kill these monsters twice: first, kill the main body; and next, kill the parasite that could still control the body.

Or just inflict so much damage that could kill them both at the same time, like my best pal, Cesar, did ripping everything in his path. Condolences to his wife, Doms.

The gorilla monster still didn’t pay any attention to me.

How about this? Swinging my upper body down to add to the force, I held on tightly to the spike as I attempted to jam it into its lower back. The spike pierced its thick hide and penetrated about an inch. I did draw some blood. Yey!

The monster looked over its shoulder, its mouth full of the bald guy’s flesh and bones. It roared at me, spraying me with gore.

Uh-oh.

Or that would’ve been the apt reaction…if I wasn’t fucking indestructible.

“Stop eating too much, that’s not heal—” I shut my mouth. Wow, that was awful. I sucked at coming up with one-liners. I needed to get better at this if I was going to cultivate a heroic face. The Saturday movie nights with Mom watching campy superhero movies wasn’t a good influence on me. “Hey, can we have a redo—” WHAMM!

A massive backhand sent me in a direct flight path to the plasterboard wall of the office space. My body punched through it, tumbling into the next area, and kept on rolling until I crashed into a concrete column. I dropped to the floor in a heap, dust and pieces of concrete from the cracked column falling on me.

Damage check. Joints? Body parts?

My left hand, which was still holding the insect leg, was half a dozen feet in front of me, near the partition wall; I focused on pulling it back to my wrist. My left foot was a couple of feet to the left of my ankle. My right arm was bent backwards. The rest were still intact, but some joints were loosened. I concentrated on reforming my body again.

I felt the impact of the hit—in the sense that it vibrated throughout my metal body, not that it was painful or anything. The disconnect with what I expected to feel and what I actually ‘felt’ with my metal body was disconcerting, like if you ate something that looked sweet and it ended up being savory. Weird, but I was starting to appreciate this body.

I found myself in an empty portion of the floor. The lights weren’t even turned on. Maybe it wasn’t rented out yet?

Through the hole on the wall my body made, I saw the gorilla monster flinging around the screaming bald guy like a rag doll.

I waved my hands at it. “I’m still alive!” I could later say that I drew it here in this empty space to get it away from the survivors. That would lead credence to my story that I was a ‘good’ Adumbrae. “Come and get me!” I called out.

Seeing I was still standing, the gorilla monster bellowed at me. It threw away the bald guy it was eating at a water dispenser. The two kids chased after him. Yeah, they're probably his children or something.

The monster pounded its hairy chest, hunkered down on its knuckles, then charged at me on all fours in an awkward run. Awkward, but powerful. A filing cabinet was in its way. One punch and it was flying. The same thing happened to the fake potted fern bush beside it. The monster’s eyes glowed red in rage.

I didn’t move from my spot. I was supposed to be bait. But I did sit down and hug my knees, hoping this position would be best at keeping my body together.

(Doms! It’s coming for me!) I sent to her mind, although she also would’ve seen it.

(I’m moving.)

“GRoawwh!” It charged past the plasterboard wall, carving out a bigger hole, and launched itself at me with its springy hindlegs, almost reaching the ceiling in one great leap.

(Check the kids first), I managed to squeeze before two barrel-sized fists descended on me.

BAAMMM!

The ground, or even maybe the entire level, shook. My body sunk half an inch into it the floor. This is pretty neat, I thought. I was literally looking at the floor cracking because a gorilla monster was trying to forcefully replace the tiles with my body.

I held onto my knees and pooled all my thoughts in holding my joints tight; Doms wasn’t here yet so there was no need to control the power of my fingers.

“GHrooo, groawwhhh!”

The fists fell again and again like a group of burly workers with sledgehammers taking turns driving a stake to the ground. My body creaked, but it was only my detachable parts rubbing against each other.

There was no damage to me at all. Zero, nada, squat, zilch.

Also no life-flashing-thingy. Awww, too bad.

“Ha…haha…hahaha.”

When the skeleton centaur was dismantling me, I was annoyed with how weak I was. Having an indestructible body wasn’t that great compared to having the strength to fight.

Power is fun. Having lots of it was awesome.

There was a reason why it was one of the most common manifestation of an Adumbrae bleeding its existence into our world. The other thing was extreme healing abilities. Not quite like being indestructible, but it was obvious why a lot of people would also be enticed by that. Still, I thought super strength to be able to fight was better.

BAM!

“Hahahaha.” But now, I was warming up to having an unbreakable form.

BAM! BAM!

“I’m still alive!” I yelled to keep its attention on me. “Hahahaha! Try and destroy me.” I must say this was exhilarating.

Getting pounded by a powerful monster—no sexual innuendo intended—while having this tough body was a novel experience altogether different from having super strength. As I descended another half an inch into the floor, I realized this was becoming an addicting experience. My only concern was the floor giving way.

Between the legs of the monster, I saw the armored Doms tending to the kids and the injured, or maybe already dead, balding man. What was taking her so long? I knew I told her I was indestructible and she shouldn’t worry about me, but she should be more considerate with making people wait.

(Doms, it’s focused on me—)

(I'm coming!)

KRrrrck…

“Huh? Wait…” The floor! Hold yourself together, I thought with all my might. My body was already buried halfway in the concrete. Cracks were everywhere. Shit. (Doms!)

Ccracck…

The gorilla monster jumped up. Its feet and massive butt fell on me like a dislodged boulder during an avalanche.

Uh-oh!

CRRRASSSSHHH!!! BAAMMM!

I madly floundered mid-air for half a second in the midst broken slabs of concrete and a hairy monster ass above me before slamming into the floor below.

Am I still alive?

Clouds of dust filled the room, but my special eye could see the greenish glow of the gorilla monster looming over me, the reddish hue of the growing parasite inside its body overlapped with the monster’s outline.

“Fuck,” I said as it grabbed both my arms and held me in front of its face like it did with the bald guy. It curiously sniffed me before roaring and biting the side of my torso. The only thing that broke were some of its teeth.

“Grooaaa!”

“That was your fault,” I said. (Doms, I fell through the hole—) “Hey! My arms!” It was pulling me apart and roaring at my face in anger, covering me with spit, blood and bits of teeth. I couldn’t overcome its strength and it pulled my right arm off.

It tossed the arm away. But as soon as it let it go, I willed it to go back to me. It was surprised when my right arm flew right back and reattached itself to my elbow. Then I jammed my arm as deep as I could down its open mouth. It clamped down its jaws, but luckily its fangs hit my upper arm instead of a joint. A few more broken teeth were its reward.

“There’s no way you can destroy me,” I said, my cyclopean eyes locking on its enraged bloodshot eyes.

“Pino!” Something heavy dropped on the back of the gorilla monster. It remained standing despite the heavy weight of Doms with her armor, but lost its footing on the heaps of broken concrete and fell on one knee. “Sorry, I got delayed,” Doms said over the bellows of agony of the monster. She already got to work attacking the spinal cord.

I was connected to Doms with three fingers. I increased the energy I sent through my strength finger while also matching it with healing from another finger. I tried to maintain a balance so she wouldn’t suffer permanent damage after I disconnected from her.

(Just focus on fighting), I repeated my earlier advice to her. (Don’t think about increasing your strength or armor.)

(Got it.)

The gorilla monster released my other hand and reached for Doms, but its back was too broad and thick and its arms too muscular that it was having a hard time grabbing her. She continued hacking away at anything she could with her knife.

As for me, I tried to squeeze anything I could grab inside its throat. Any damage would help out. I noticed these monsters weren’t like Adumbrae; those regenerated, these monsters didn't. The parasites, on the other hand, grew by consuming the host body, which wasn’t technically regenerating.

The gorilla monster swallowed as hard as it could, its throat muscles contracting, its tongue pushing my arm further down.

I lost some of my fingers, then my whole hand, then my arm. I was about to be dislodged from its mouth. It only needed to swallow some more and then bite off my shoulder joint.

“Stop that, you fucking shit!” I said, punching its eye with my free left hand.

It grabbed my left arm before I could land another punch and pulled, while biting down my upper right arm inside its mouth, intending to tear me in two. I let it pull out my left arm. It threw it away and then tried to catch Doms again.

This time it succeeded.

“Let go of me!” Doms said. I saw her furiously stabbing the hands of the gorilla monster before it flung her upwards. She hit the ceiling and then crashed down on the floor.

(Doms! Are you okay?)

(I…I’m still alive.)

Still hanging from the mouth of the gorilla monster, I looked behind me and checked her situation. She was trying to get back to her feet. Even though she was encased in white bony armor, she was bound to be terribly hurt. I increased my healing power by half a notch again; I was hesitant to put it in full blast because I suspected that it, like the power of my strength finger, had a terrible cost.

The gorilla monster grabbed me by the waist and began pulling me down while also chewing my upper arm. Our situation was dire.

Any life-flashing-thingy incoming? None?

Although its teeth couldn’t dent my metal body, I was still helpless.

Or was I?

Was this the end?

Of course not.

If I really thought we had no chance with our current fighting power, I would’ve increased Doms’ strength no matter the negative effects and just discard her after she died.

But we weren't done just yet.

To the right of Doms was my left arm, and just a few feet further on was the monster insect leg. My left arm already started crawling across the rubble with its fingers to get to it.

I was face to face with the monster. I looked it straight in the eye. “I’ll be having my hand and arm back now.” From the pits of its stomach, I concentrated on reattaching my fingers to my hand, pulling the hand back up the esophagus to reattach to my forearm, then reattached it to my elbow.

The monster roared, the pain it experienced made obvious by the sound of its cry. I could only imagine the damage of its insides as it kept on trying to swallow my arm but I kept on pulling it back up its digestive tract each time its throat muscles relaxed.

It pulled more fiercely at my lower body and I just let it be. The joints of my legs popped out. There was no way I could resist its strength.

I didn’t need my legs anyway. I needed my left arm.

Come!

My left arm soared through the air, triumphantly grasping the insect leg, heading straight for my elbow. As soon as it was reattached, I slammed the insect leg into the eye of the gorilla monster. Hitting the eyes was becoming my signature move.

Black goo burst out of its eye.

“Doms!” I yelled both with my voice and my mind. “This isn't over yet!”