Wooden world(28)

As the long tail twirled around in the air like it was dancing with it's own brethren the other tail of the horrendous monster, it suddenly stopped and struck, but it was stopped, not by Cades, not by the monster, but by an arrow that had been shot at the monster, halting it's attack due to the annoyance that was now obviously visible on the face of the seemingly invincible puppet.

The arrow that had somehow hit the unstoppable monster was weak, barely capable of anything, if at all then something interesting was perhaps the fact that the place where it hit burned with a low kind of flame for about a second before the puppet extinguished it by clapping on it with one of the hands, showing an incredible flexibility that made Cades almost feel like his own arm was broken, but what was more interesting was that he could feel the annoyance, as if the monster truly just saw them as a kind of toy, as a nothing, which it certainly did.

As Cades looked around, watching as the monstrous being leisurely walked forward, however that was even possible to do with the weirdly formed legs that it had, and got out a second one of the weird spears, one that appeared in its left hand.

After it did the beast began to twirl the two of them around in a show that more so showed how good it was at that very specific thing than anything else, a sign of intimidation, and then Cades looked a little bit further away, stopping his constant fixation on the invincible monster for a moment and seeing something that he had somehow, despite everything, not expected.

It was Manug, a decreptid and lost Manug, one that seemed to have been violated in almost any way imaginable, but still Manug, his ancle was bent at an unnatural degree, at least a quarter of his fingers were missing, and he wasn't certain but he could've actually gained toes from what he could see through his hsoewer that had been completely ripped apart.

He was covered in blood and an orange liquid that Cades knew far too well by now, it was the liquid that streamed through the wooden and otherwise dry bodies of the commanders of this limitless army, such as the being in front of him, or rather in front of Manug who was now showing quite a lot of skin, though not by any choice of his own.

As Cades saw the archer, no matter how battered and broken he might have seemed to be at the moment, he caught just the tiniest glimpse of hope, after all, maybe they would somehow succeed, maybe they would somehow win with some active that he had been hiding in that magic hat he seemed to carry around everywhere, metaphorically of course, but that small hope was quickly turned into mush as Cades stared with wide open eyes at what happened next.

The monster had been walking closer to Manug even while Cades was analysing everything as well as he could, but it was of no use to really hope for anything, after all, Manug was not even of the transcribe rank, and Cades was certain that that thing was at least one rank above even him, which meant that it was two ranks above Manug at the least.

For comparison that would be like a normal child fighting against the demon of the skies, albeit with different bodies and a lot of weapons and hidden cards up their sleeve, not that that would have really changed anything, no, they would still be completely ripped apart.

And the same situation was now happening, with Manug trying and succeeding another arrow of fire that was however just blocked by the merciless tails of the monstrosity that now seemed to have turned it's grimace into a kind of laughter as it stretched it's hand out towards Manug who now looked terrified, and for the first time that Cades knew of, not like the most beautiful being, at least not as much as normally.

But in the end the monster went up to Manug and grabbed him.

It was weirdly careful and soft in it's approach actually, bending down and grabbing at the neck of the beautiful archer with as much care and 'love' as it could probably muster in it's current wooden state, as if handling an incredibly fragile toy with one hand, or holding an expensive collector's item while knowing of it's worth, something that once more gave Cades who was just searching for anything to feel hope, a glimpse of that very same feeling that he was so thirsty for right now, as thirsty as a man who didn't drink water for six days.

But that didn't last for long, soon after it had the entirety of Manug within one of it's seemingly small hands, hanging down from the neck and starting to put pressure on the airways Manug's eyes began to produce tears as a kind of signal, perhaps just fear or terror, but either way it was not something that would help.

The 7 foot tall monster commanded one of it's tails to move forward, slithering downwards with a kind of spike extending from the seemingly plump end, shining in a weird metallic colour that Cades would've never expected to see on a piece of wood.

There was a kind of liquid at the end of the spike, but Cades couldn't really look at the incredibly sharp thing for long as within a single fraction of a second it extended backwards, and then, faster than Cades could even register, faster than any mortal should be able to see, the tail spun back, and in the next second it was all over.

Manug was in the air, 15 foot above the air, with the monster looking at him with what was probably meant to be a scornful smile, meant to intimidate a now non-existent powerful opponent, or perhaps just for it's own humour.

The thick tail had completely penetrated through the sack of meat that had once been Manug, and now that very corpse was dangling in the air, the tail still not fully extended but already starting to move again while the blood was starting to stream down it's entire length, finally stopping to care about the beauty.