Chapter 6: Bad to the Bone

[A/N: This chapter is brutal, and depicts a horrific death scene in quite a bit of detail. If you dont want to read that stuff, i'd recommend skipping this chapter. Be advised!]

A towering monstrosisty of indeterminable features, neither humanoid, nor like any beast Raze had ever seen.

Its entire body was marred by cracks, like a dried up riverbed, but they were glowing, gleaming in an incandescent gold, causing the surrounding area to be bathed in a harsh, golden glow, accompanied by a rapidly rising heat.

'That thing's gonna do somethin' any second now!'

Raze didn't quite know where to go, but he had a really good idea where not to go, and so grabbing his things and scrambling to his feet, he attempted to make an escape.

But he couldn't.

His legs felt like they were melting into the ground, his whole body bathed in an opressive heat surpassing that of the stars that boiled the land, wind whipped into every exposed piece of flesh, and hails of sand attempted to rend his skin from his body.

But despite all that, he was the lucky one.

The unlucky one, the one who had called out at the worst conceviable time, was in true danger. Raze couldnt quite make out if that thing had eyes, but if it did then it would be staring right at that poor fellow.

The cracks on the beasts body began to glow brighter, until they were almost blinding.

Another roar from the beast was heard.

"Huh??? Wh- WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING?! OH GO-"

Unable to even finish his sentence, he was consumed by a wave of golden flames which began to stick to him like napalm, only far, far worse. His hair was the first to burn, filling the air with a pungent, sulphurous smell.

"AHHHHHGHHH!!"

He flailed aimelessly, screaming incoherently as the flames scorched him, his nerves uselessly sending frantic signals as his body began to break down under the inferno.

His flesh was next, barely a few seconds had passed before the epidermis had burnt, sloughing off in chunks, the bright pink flesh beneath rapidly charring under the intense heat.

There was no blood, it boiled away in thick plumes of red tinted steam, leaving a sticky black residue behind, which began to melt and deform under the intense heat, dropping to the sand with light thuds.

There was no more screaming, his throat and airways had practically melted away, the only sound he made was a faint wheezing, an attempt in vain to intake oxygen into his carbonized lungs, a sound that went unheard amidst the howling of the winds, seemingly reaching a crescendo, like a crowd of onlookers cheering at an execution.

He continued to burn for a few more moments, before the flames, him along with them died.

Most of his flesh and muscle had burnt away, leaving only bones, blackened by the heat, which quietly dropped down onto the sand, slightly crumbling.

The beast was silent for a few moments, staring at the corpse, until it picked it up, and began to consume it, one of the cracks on its face widening, allowing enough space to force the charred remains into.

Smoke, ash and the familliar smell of burned meat mingled in the air, carried by the winds.

Supressing the urge to gag, or scream in terror, Raze silently willed for his legs to move, while also praying that that beast wouldn't see him, that it would be so absorbed in its meal, that it wouldn't bother searching for seconds.

Managing to finally shake his terror off, Raze began creeping away from the beast, managing to circle around it's back unseen, before making a bolt for it with a strength and speed he never knew he had.

His heart thumped wildly, supplying blood to his muscles, he continually inhaled searing air, with no regard for any of the sand he could be swallowing. His legs burnt and his chest hurt but even still, he ran.

He ran, and ran and ran, not stopping for anything, praying that he wouldn't encounter anymore of those freaks.

But when it rains, it pours.

A low growl, one that Raze could inexplicably hear despite the raging sandstorm came from in front of him.

A canine-like beast slowly made it's presence known, and walked almost leisurely towards Raze. It was not very large, roughly the size of a medium-breed dog, with few body features save for the cracked grey skin, and the gaping maw, filled with two rows of teeth.

Unlike the giant, this beast's skin possessed no golden glow, and combined with it's comparably diminutive size, he inferred that this one was substantially weaker than the giant.

Readying his sabre, Raze studied the beast, finding that its hind legs were highly developed and muscular, its front legs being thinner, but somewhat longer, making it look almost comical, if it wasnt so repulsive.

'Can i escape this one? Unlikely. Moment I take off, that thing'll be on me in no time. Good thing im a good distance from that massive one. Can i win? No. I have to win.'

Deciding that letting the beast pounce was a bad move, Raze brough the sabre up, covering his midsection, and rushed towards it, hoping to gain the initiative and reduce the efficacy of the creatures lunge.

It pounced towards him anyway, mouth wide open, poised to bite.

Raze jumped slightly to the side, swinging his sabre towards the beast's opened mouth, hoping to split the thing in two.

In response, the beast clamped it's mouth shut, the sabre making a hideous sound as it scraped across the enamel.

'Those things are fucking hard! Gonna have to come up with a good plan.'

Now readying his sabre once more, he intended to chop down towards it's exposed neck, but the creature quickly righted itself, and took a small distance back, out of reach.

Unsure what to try next, Raze's left hand slowly left the sabre, snaked into his clothes, before being concealed behind him.

From the earlier exchange, he could tell the beast was intelligent, or at least had good instincts, and was likely able the recognize the danger that his dagger would represent, so he decided to hide it, so it could be used at the opportune moment.

Having stared at him for a moment, the beast pounced once more, but this time, it was far faster. Having spent that brief standoff fully tensing it's hind legs.

It was on Raze before he could even react.

Knocking the sabre out of his hand with an impromptu bodyslam, Raze fell backwards, hitting the ground, trapping the dagger under his own weight. Opening it's mouth again, the beast snapped it's teeth towards Raze's neck, barely being stopped right before it's freakishly sharp teeth bit into his jugular.

Raze had shoved his arm in the beasts mouth, hoping that it could buy him enough time to use the dagger trapped behind his back.

It gnawed at his flesh, the two sets of razors in its mouth bringing an indescribable agony.

His thoughts went blank, his mind crackling like static, as he barely supressed his cries of pain.

However it bought him just enough time.

Managing to pull the dagger from under him, Raze plunged the blade into the beasts body in a frenzy. Abdomen, legs, head, anywhere the dagger could reach, was cut to ribbons, pouring with a black-red blood that congealed rapidly.

It didnt even have enough time to make a deathrattle. It merely flopped on top of Raze, dead.

Taking a moment to get his breath, Raze stood up and began inspecting his wounds.

"What the fuck...?"

His right arm, the one that was shredded, had a single, broken tooth sticking out from it.

Almost in awe, Raze watched as the broken tooth, along with the rest of the beast seemed to liquefy. The majority of the beast melting into a brownish puddle, before seeping into the sands.

With the liquefacted remains of the tooth seeping into his exposed cuts.

He was speechless.

Frantically scrubbing, messing with his wounds, or trying to strangulate blood flow to the region didnt help.

It was gone in a flash, with the dead remains of a supernatural beast now coursing through his body

Shortly afterwards, the sandstorm ended.

'Were those things connected or something? What the hell was that? Why did it melt? Is this reality?'

He didn't know, and wasn't sure he would for a long time.

Unwrapping the bandages from his face, shaking the majority of the sand off, and finally rinsing both the bandage, and his cuts with more of his water, he wrapped his wounds once more.

'What was that thing...?'

Deciding to leave the thinking for later, he sighed, scrapped his plans to rest any longer, and continued his journey towards civilization.