Beast Soul

"Wait! Gerald, where is Max going?" Harold suddenly yelled out before realizing his mistake and immediately covered his mouth once again. His loud voice got the attention of Gerald and Alphonso, and they turned around to see Max walking off from their group and heading towards the corpse. 

'Oh no! He's not covering his mouth!' Gerald said to himself as he dashed towards Max, who seemed to be near losing consciousness because of inhaling the green gas. He arrived while stumbling in front of the corpse and held the corpse's cold hand.

Screeeee!

The vine monsters, which were lying still until now, opened their mouths and began to snarl loudly, which made Gerald flinch and move back. The monsters, however, didn't attack them, and instead, they slowly opened their mouths, and spat out multiple green eggs which were covered with spikes.

'Max! What are you doing!' An angry Gerald continued pulling Max by his shoulders, trying to bring him back to where the group was, but he simply didn't budge.

"Gerald…" Max turned his head around and looked at Gerald as he spoke. Gerald saw that his face was now pale, and his lips were blue. His eyes were now nearly closed. It was obvious that the toxic gas was affecting him. But Max didn't seem to be concerned about his deteriorating health and pointed at the eggs that the vine monsters spit out. "T-That.. that is why it called me.." He said with a weak tone, and Gerald raised his eyebrows in confusion.

"This egg…" Max walked up to one of the green eggs as he continued speaking. His legs were shaking and his body was swaying left and right. But nevertheless, he arrived near one of the eggs, knelt down right in front of it, and pressed both his hands onto its outer shell, which was completely covered in spikes.

Spalt! Splat! Splat!

Gerald watched in horror as Max's palms were brutally impaled on the countless thorns that were on the periphery of the eggs. Blood was flowing out from his hands and onto the egg, running along the outer shell before dripping down onto the ground.

'I should do something!' Gerald wanted to stop Max's crazy actions before he could do something even more dangerous, but found that he simply couldn't move from his spot. It was as though he was completely captivated by the events that were happening right in front of him!

"AHHHHH!" Max screamed loudly, but before Gerald could make the decision to pull him back, he turned around and looked at Gerald, shaking his head, urging him not to interfere.

"This… this is the way…" Max said with a trembling voice, a bitter smile now forming on his face as he spoke. "This is th- the only way to survive…" He said while looking at the confused Gerald, and right then!

Crack! Crack! Crack!

The giant green coloured egg began to shake violently, as the tip started to crack open!

Crack! Crack! Crack!

"What- What the hell…." Gerald couldn't believe what he was seeing. It was already unbelievable what was happening right now, but it seemed like the surprises weren't planning on stopping anytime soon. 

Max and Gerald watched as the monster egg began to slowly crack open and reveal a long green vine within it, which had a red flower bud on the tip of it.

'What is that thing?' Gerald thought to himself as he looked at the vine with the flower bud tip, which was swaying left and right. It definitely was alive, he was sure of it.

'Is it similar to the vine monsters?' Gerald turned his gaze towards the vine monsters which were right next to them, and the creatures snarled at him.

"Gerald…" Max's weak voice entered into his ears, which made him turn his head towards him once again. "…. I'm going to need you to trust me on this one…" His face was even paler as he spoke.

Gerald said nothing. He simply squinted his eyebrows.

"I know it's going to look bad…" Max said, as he stared at the flower bud. "But it's the only way to stay alive." 

SWUAAAA!

The flower bud suddenly opened on it's own, revealing the sharp toothed interior of the monster.

'Jesus F*cking Christ!' Gerald wanted to curse out loud so badly, but he held his breath in.

Whoosh!

The flower monster slammed its face right onto Max's, which made Gerald let out a gasp of terror. The flower monster had attached itself onto Max's face, and the vine part of the flower monster split itself from the head, and Max's body fell down onto the floor with the flower monster still stuck to his face.

Thud!

Gerald landed on the ground right next to him with a terrified expression on his face. 

'Max…' He said to himself as he stared at the seemingly lifeless body of Max. 'What on earth do you want us to do?'

"Cough! Cough! Cough!" Before he could think it through, Gerald began to cough uncontrollably, and he was forced to cover his mouth with his hands.

He pulled back his hands and looked at it, and saw blood that was dripping from his nose.

'F*ck me….' Gerald said to himself. He was ignoring it all this time, but now, he could certainly feel that he was getting weaker and weaker as time went on. There was no hiding from it.

'Is this really the only way?' Gerald shifted his gaze towards Max, and bit his lips. 

'Screw it!' He clicked his tongue as he leapt up from the ground and waved his hands at Harold and Alphonso.

'Is he calling us over?' Harold thought to himself. He then looked at Alphonso, who was now extremely pale. 'He can't be serious, right? How on earth is Alphonso going to make it there?'

Harold pointed at Alphonso in reply, but Gerald simply shook his head and continued waving his hands, signalling them to head towards them.

'Sh*t! He's really serious.' Harold clicked his tongue. He knew that he could make it there on his own, but he wasn't sure about Alphonso, and he certainly wasn't planning on leaving him alone.

"Hey, Harold…" Alphonso's voice interrupted his thoughts and Harold turned around to see him on his feet with a weak smile on his face. "I'm not dead yet, b*tch… I can do this."

Harold wanted to reply. However, in the end he decided to just nod with a smile. 'I guess we are walking, then!'

———————

"GRRRR.. Wh- What…" Noah, who seemed to be perfectly fine up until a few seconds ago, was forced to kneel down on the ground as soon as he came into contact with the gas, and his eyes slowly began returning to normal.

"God- God Dammit!!" Noah, who seemed to be frustrated, screamed as loud as he could and immediately rushed towards the spider creature.

GRRRRA!

The spider creature roared loudly and used the spider web to swing upwards, causing an aggravated Noah to slam onto the wall that was right behind it with a loud noise.

BAM!

Before Noah could think straight and strategise properly, the spider creature shot out the spider web once again, which attached itself onto the back of Noah, and pulled him back with a tremendous amount of force.

"Kuagh….." Noah groaned loudly as he was flung backwards, right in the direction of the spider creature, which stretched out one of its sharp legs in an attempt to stab Noah.

"Oh, no you don't!" Noah, whose voice had now partially returned to normal, shouted loudly as he spat out flames from his mouth in an instant, which propelled him up into the air, evading the attack before slamming his leg down onto the creature.

However!

BAM!

The creature, which seemed to have already anticipated this attack from before, raised its hand up and grabbed Noah's leg, and the cancellation of the attack sent a powerful gust of wind in every direction, signalling how much force Noah's attack contained.

"Wha-" Noah couldn't even finish his words as he was slammed onto the ground by the spider monster, which screamed loudly into the air right before slamming him down for a second time.

"Gah!" Noah felt as though he had been hit by a truck, and blood spilled out of his mouth, spraying all over his face.

Whoosh!

The monster didn't let go of its grip on Noah's leg, and instead pulled him up from the ground, raising him up to slam him down again for a third time.

"AHHHHH!" Before he could do so however, Noah screamed loudly as he pulled his upper body up and opened his mouth, and a gigantic ball of flames burst out from his mouth and struck the spider creature by its head right before it came crashing down, resulting in an explosion that shook the whole place!

The spider creature was pushed backwards and crashed onto the wall, while Noah let out a groan and coughed up blood while lying on the ground.