Chapter 38 - Looming Danger

The atmosphere in the room suddenly changed from a serious battle's heat, to straight up terror. Andromeda's [Lioness] was truly a force, to be reckoned with, and at this very moment no one new it better, then her opponent, Hattori. Even with a speed [Power] like his, you couldn't dodge it if you were terrified, and couldn't move your legs.

In the very last moment, before she'd claw through his entire body, probably killing him, or in the worst case scenario, maim him for life, Hattori managed to gain control of himself, and dodge enough, that he'd only have to say goodbye to only one of his arms. They both new that this was only the beginning of this fight for his life, but he never anticipated that it would start out this badly.

He was generally known for his levelheadedness, but in a situation like this he just couldn't muster up enough strength to control himself. He jumped back as far as possible, and quickly ripped of a bit of his clothing with his mouth, as he was holding his shoulder with his hand. He quickly applied it as bondage, to keep himself (for the time being) from bleeding out.

Andromeda spit the arm out of her mouth, right in front of her prey, and snarled at him. Despite her appearance, she held onto her humanity, but her instincts were still quite powerful. She didn't just shift shapes, she turned into a half-lion. Within her, even as a human, for as long as she could remember, was this little bit right at the back of her heart, that she just couldn't reach properly as a human.

She always felt like more of a human, than an animal, but there was this itch, that she couldn't quite scratch. She needed that thrill - the Hunt. And as a human, hunting was so boring to her, that she eventually gave up. There was no risk in shooting a stag from a few yards away. It was just too… Safe.

She jumped forth again, this time not missing her target. This wasn't a fight, this was a Hunt. Hattori fell prone to the ground, and with as much resisting as he could, he barely managed to hold onto his life for long enough, that he'd feel his body being torn apart, by an angry predator. It wasn't the way he thought he'd go.

The Lioness sat up on her prey's lap, and roared up to the ceiling. It truly was a worthy kill.

——

The other side of the room was trembling from Andromeda's performance, and even Baulder felt intimidated. It wasn't the sort of fear intimidation, rather a 'I don't want to mess with her, ever' kinda intimidation. His opponent was already on the ground, forced down by him, so he didn't have to do too much, but he decided to deal with it more efficiently.

With a quick move, he turned the armadillo man upside down, caught all of his free limbs, and as he stood back up, Baulder left all four of his spare arms attached to them. From the two hands, that were keeping Donaldsson's head down, emerged two more strips of wood, binding him to the ground, at his throat, and forehead.

Binding him at six points didn't seem to be enough, and as he was trying his best to break out, the Big Man grew a few more branches out of the ground, using them to entirely envelop his foe. Donaldsson was cursing, and shouting from the ground, but Baulder knew better than to reply to them. He already won this fight, and there was no reason to do anymore.

He left the man on the ground, and turned back, to walk towards Ventus and Zenia, who were still safeguarding the injured man, and their captive. He set down next to them on the ground, swiped off some sweat, from his forehead, and regrow his lost arms.

"Amazing display, from the both of you," Caleb said, nodding his head slightly, "You trained well, Karver."

"Thanks," he replied. He still wasn't much of talker, and he didn't particularly like the man. He didn't have anything against him, he just didn't think of him in any special way.

"Andromeda, you too. Well done," he added upon her arrival, "Although, that was quite scary," he laughed nervously.

"Don't worry, I won't eat you," she laughed, wholeheartedly. She was steadily turning back to her regular human form, slowly losing her fur, her hair went back to normal, and her fangs and claws were retracting.

Seemingly a chill ran down Caleb's spine, and he started to sweat. He frantically looked around, until his eyes locked at the entrance elevator, and he mimicked the words 'Oh, no' with his mouth. He looked back down on the rest of the group, then Tentazione.

"We have to move," he said with a trembling voice, "This is really bad. Really, really bad!"

Zenia was almost acting the same way. The main difference, was that she wasn't as much as trembling, as almost feinting, and falling to the ground. She finally braced herself, leaning on the wall, and her eyes were entirely focused on the entrance.

"We're gonna die," she whispered, almost just to herself, as if she didn't even believe it.

——

As my Binders were getting close to Stacey's head, she ducked down, essentially straight up dodging my perfect attack. Now I won't lie, that kind of hurt. Everyone was already finished with their fights, and I was the last man fighting, and even then, I just couldn't get to my enemy.

For sure, Meda's roars sent shivers down my spine, but somehow they just motivated me. You know, sort of like when you listen to a cool soundtrack from a cool movie? It was sort of that feeling. It made me want to fight even more.

Even though I had some trouble fighting her, I felt like I can give it my all, and eventually somehow defeat her, and in a flashy way, if I can help it. It was time to use that ability again. I jumped back a few feet, and I kneelt down, pushing my palms against the ground.

Suddenly, all around us, my [Greed Binders] showed up, and lashed upwards, encompassing the both of us. I stood up, as Stacey was looking around, not quite understanding what was happening.

"[Binder Coffin], I just came up with the name, do you like it?" I taunted her.

"Stupid thing, naming your attacks. Why would you tell your enemy what ability you're gonna use?" she looked around, with a belittling look in her eyes.

"Let me show you," I let out a Binder. Nothing special, just a usual one. The type I1d mostly use in a fight, "And let me name it, [Greed Binder]," with that, the tentacle grew in size, and length. I only discovered this today, but with this, I was certain. Names did something to attacks. Something special.

"Yeah, yeah. You just made it stronger looking. Big deal," she said while waving her right hand in front of her face.

"Well, good luck breaking out anyways," I said, and I launched my final attack against her.

Binders from seemingly random locations sprouted out, and lashed at her. Most of them, she could block, or dodge, but about half of them hit her. So, as any rational man would, I upped the number of tentacles at my disposal. Instead of about ten, I was using twenty, then thirty. She couldn't keep up anymore. Wounds started appearing on her body one after another, and at that point, she was only trying to defend her vital body parts.

Still she was in [Berserker] mode, but with naming this attack, I could attack her without much of a problem. This place was my realm. I was the ruler here, and not a single soul could defy me. I made a throne behind me, out of the tentacles, and I sat down, watching, as my enemy slowly started to lose all her energy, falling to her knees, then collapsing face first to the ground.

I lowered my dome, and stood up from my throne. All of the Vice-Wardens were defeated, yet the faces of my friends didn't look all that happy. Zenia and Caleb looked like they saw a ghost, and the rest were looking at those two, with quite a bit of confusion on their faces.

"What's up?" I walked towards them, promptly stepping on Stacey's dying body, "Did you see a ghost, or something?"

"We're gonna die here, My Lord. There's no way, we could beat him," Caleb said, with a quivering voice. He was pointing towards the entrance.

I turned around, to take a look at this terrible person, that would kill all of us, but I didn't see anyone. It seemed like these ex-religious folks saw their god or something.

But then I suddenly felt something. Something, that made me fall to the ground, barely holding myself up, with my knee, and arms. I heard Ventus rushing towards me, to hold me up, seemingly without a problem. Andromeda was on the ground, just like me, and her eyes were fixated on the entrance.

While Zenia and Caleb were surprised, and scared, they didn't have any problems, but the two of us, we couldn't stand for a second there. Ventus and Baulder seemed okay, and Claire was still shouting.

Suddenly, this feeling went away, and as I managed to stand up, I heard a small creaking noise, and the elevator started moving.