Beast Soul

"Ugh…" Gerald groaned softly under his breath as he opened his eyes. "What the hell happened?" He mumbled to himself as he placed his hand on his head. His head was hurting. 

He then started looking around the ruined sewer space, which was now covered in dust, debris and boulders. "Where are the rest?" Gerald said to himself as he tried to find his friends, and his eyes landed on the corpse monster, which was lying under a large boulder, unable to move.

"Max!" Gerald then shifted his gaze to the right and found Max, who was getting up from the floor while coughing furiously. He was completely covered in dust, and had closed his eyes.

"Max, are you alright?" Gerald said as he immediately got up and walked towards Max, knelt down in front of him, grabbed his hand and pulled him up from the ground. 

"G-Gerald?" Max said while still coughing, as he began patting his body and trying to remove the dust materials that were covering him. "What the hell… what just happened?"

"I don't know.. I'm not sure," Gerald replied as he pointed at the spider creature and the transformed Noah, who were fighting with each other and wrecking everything that stood in their way. "That thing.. it just came crashing down through the roof and crash landed on top of the spider creature."

"What is that thing?" Max squinted his eyes as Noah was flung backwards through the air, slamming onto the wall behind him with a loud noise. "It… it kind of looks like a human being.." Max whispered under his breath, and Gerald bit his lips.

"Well, whatever that thing is, it certainly doesn't seem to be that friendly." Gerald said as he started looking around once again. "Now come one, we have to find the others."

Max nodded his head and the two turned to look for their friends.

Screeeee!

The corpse that was lying underneath the boulders let out a screeching noise, which forced Max to stop in his tracks for a brief second, and then turn around to look at it.

His eyes were locked onto the corpse's face, squinting at it, as though he was trying to understand something.

"Harold?" Gerald whispered softly before immediately rushing towards Harold, who was lying next to one of the broken pillars, a piece of which had fallen right next to his hand. Gerald approached Harold and found his eyes closed. He seemed to be unconscious. 

"Harold! Harold!" Gerald called out to him and pulled his collars, vigorously shaking him back and forth until a groan escaped from his lips. "Ugh… wh- what in the?"

Harold opened his eyes and rubbed them as he stared at the relieved face of Gerald in front of him. "Gerald? What the hell… wait, did we get out? Where's the monster?" Harold began to ask questions as he slowly started to remember the situation that he was caught in. "Was I unconscious till now? When did I faint?"

"Let's worry about all that later, alright?" Gerald said as he stretched out his hand, and Harold grabbed onto it and pulled himself up from the ground. "For now, we have to get out of this place immediately. It isn't safe here."

"Uh, I don't know if that's possible now, Gerald.." Harold said with a frustrated expression on his face as he pointed at the spot where the sewer openings were located, only to find that they had all collapsed and were covered under boulders. "Oh, you have got to be f*cking kidding me." Gerald covered his face with his hands and let out a sigh as he spoke. "Why does this keep happening to us?"

"I don't know, Gerald.." Harold sighed as well. "Did you find Alphonso?"

"Gerald!" Right when Gerald was about to answer, he was interrupted by the loud voice of Max, which came from behind him, and the two boys turned around to see where he was.

"Max?" Gerald and Harold walked towards the spot where his voice had come from, and found Max kneeling in front of a large piece of the pillar that was lying on the ground after its collapse. "Gerald, Harold.." Max saw the two boys arriving, and got up on his feet. "Alphonso is…"

Gerald and Harold turned their attention towards the pillar before Max could finish, and found Alphonso lying on the ground, groaning in pain. His leg was caught underneath one of the large pieces of the pillar, which meant that he couldn't move.

"Sh*t! Alphonso!" Harold rushed over to his side and kneeled down, his hand clutching Alphonso's. "F*cking hell.."

"Guys, help me…" Alphonso spoke in a hushed tone. It sounded like he was unable to increase his voice, because of the pain he was feeling. 

"We need to move the pillar to rescue him.." Max walked up to Gerald's side and whispered into his ear. 

"Just us?" Gerald turned to look at Max and asked with his eyes widened. "Is that even possible?"

"If I'm being honest…" Max turned around and looked at the piece of the pillar and then shifted his gaze towards Alphonso, and continued. "I don't think we can.." He paused for a second, bit his lips and continued, "But we won't know until we try."

"Hah…" Gerald let out another sigh. He realized that he had sighed a lot today. Probably more than he would in a whole week. "Well then, what are we waiting for?" He said as he rolled up his sleeves. "Harold, get up." Gerald turned to Harold, who was standing by Alphonso's side. "Help us out here." He said as he pointed at the pillar.

"Oh, okay.." Harold, who was surprised for a brief second, nodded his head and then got to his feet, but only before reassuring Alphonso that he was going to be alright. 

The three boys stood next to the pillar, with Gerald and Harold on one side and Max on the other side. 

"Ready?" Gerald said as he placed his hand under the pillar, and the two followed suit. 

"Three, two, one, GO!" The three boys tried to pull up the pillar with all their strength. 

"AHHHH!" Alphonso screamed loudly, and Gerald could see that the pillar had lifted up a few inches up from the ground. It wasn't much, but it did give Alphonso enough space to pull out his leg. 

"Harold!" Gerald called over to Harold, who turned to look at him. "I'll count to three, and right afterwards, I want you to go and grab Alphonso and pull him out, okay?"

His eyes then shifted to Max. "Max and I will try our best to keep this pillar up, but you won't have a lot of time." Max nodded his head, and Harold did the same.

"Alright then," Gerald took a deep breath, and began counting down. "Three, two, one, GO!"

Whoosh!

Harold rushed over to Alphonso as Gerald and Max kept the pillar up, the two grunting as they held it up in the air. 

"Argh…" Harold grabbed Alphonso by his hands and pulled him back, which made Alphonso groan due to the intense pain that he was feeling.

"I got him out!" Harold yelled out as soon as Alphonso's legs were completely pulled out. "And… DROP!" Gerald said, and the two let go of the pillar and immediately took a step back, causing it to fall down with a loud noise.

BOOM!

"Hah… hah.." Gerald and Max breathed in and out as they sat down, panting heavily, while Harold knelt next to Alphonso and inspected his injured leg.

GRRRRRAR!

As this was happening, the spider creature and Noah were still fighting with each other.

The spider creature roared loudly, clearly annoyed by the fact that Noah still hadn't lost to it, even after all this time.

Whoosh!

Noah snarled at the creature as he dashed towards it with incredible speed.

"GRRRR!" The spider creature opened its mouth wide and spat out countless of the glue-like substance, aiming for Noah.

However, Noah moved quickly in a zigzag manner, avoiding almost all the attacks except for a few shots that he had no choice but to face directly, for which he spit out balls of flames and disintegrated them.

Swoosh!

Within seconds, he had arrived in front of the spider creature, and swung his claws, aiming for the creature's face.

BAM!

His claws slashed through the thick skin of the spider creature and carved its face, causing a transparent substance to burst out of the creature's wounds, causing it to scream loudly in pain. 

Noah wanted to kill the spider creature with that attack, but unfortunately for him, the creature had moved back to avoid the attack, and Noah could only land a weak strike.

"Those things are really going at it, huh…" Gerald said as he watched the two monsters fight with each other, destroying anything that stood in their way. 

"What do we do now, Gerald?" Harold asked, glancing at Alphonso for a second before shifting his focus back to Gerald. "Alphonso can't move. I'm not a doctor, but I'm pretty sure that he needs medical treatment."

"What to do indeed," Gerald placed his hand under his chin and thought to himself. The sewer openings were now not accessible, and the only remaining way out is…

He turned his gaze at the collapsed roof, which was, although covered in boulders, still provided a small opening to the outside world.