Threads of the Soul

Alfie let out a triumphant laugh at his successful attack, which was unfortunately drowned out by the agonizing screech of the mighty Rat King. It was like a blunt knife trying to scrape the black off a blackboard.

Finally releasing its rancid jaws from Alexandra, the rat king reeled back in pain, its head flailing from side to side as its flesh sizzled. Chunks of charcoaled meat schlopped off of the rats ruined face, a deep gorge carved into its flesh by the The sparse tufts of wiry fur it still had were working against it, as they had been lit ablaze by the exploding fart attack, only worsening its wounds and making its pain last that much longer.

It's head was so ruined that, one quadrant of its jaw was hanging on by a few muscle sinews, while another was completely torn off and still clung to Alexandra's body. Stumbling back, the beast raised its paw and batted at its face, trying to douse the remaining flames that clung to its fur, inadvertently forgetting about the enemy it had previously trapped under that paw.

Or perhaps, it simply didn't care for anyone else anymore. It's disfigured and bloodshot eye, which was bulging out of its ruined face and was completely missing its eyelid, wiggled around in the socket before finally locking onto Alfie's tiny figure.

Raising its paw high into the air, it let out another roar, this time it was a guttural snarl of seething rage that sent bowling ball sized droplets of spittle flying across the battlefield. Just the sight alone, seeing his impending death hanging above him like the sword of Damocles, was enough to turn Alfie's legs to jelly as he himself was about to be turned to jam.

Yet, before he was smashed into a visceral spread to go on the Rats morning toast, he felt something slam into his side and throw him out of the looming paws shadow. Alfie bounced across the ground until he came to an ungraceful, sprawled stop, alongside his Lord and true saviour, who had tackled him out of the way at the last second.

Just as the Rat King was about to bring down its titanic paw for another jam slam, it itself was tackled by the gelatinous giant known as Cynthia. Having finally achieved her Blobby Kaiju form once again, she ensnared the Rat Kings limb with her water filled tentacles.

Whilst Cynthia used her colossal body to tip the Rat King off balance and keep the fight on her, so the little people could have a chance to regroup and sort themselves out, Alfie quickly sat up and looked at his Lord Crow with an expression much like that of a child who had just smashed a prized vase.

It was the look of guilt, mixed with the fear of the impending screaming due to come his way for his errors. Yet his Lord remained quite, simply standing as he kept his eyes on the fight between Cynthia and the Rat King. He didn't even bother to look at Alfie, which sent pangs of pain directly into his heart.

At least with others they would laugh and chastise him, but this failure wasn't even worthy of the Lords attention. Feeling lower than the dirt beneath his feet, Alfie began to quickly scramble together an apology, speaking frantically.

"I- I'm sorry sir. I just wanted to help and when I saw her in trouble I thought that maybe I could do something but... but... I'm sorry. I swear I'll go back, you don't need to worry about me anymore. Thank you for-"

"Can you do it again?"

Cut off in the middle of his rambling, right before he could get to the part of thanking his Lord for saving his miserable and worthless life, Alfie blinked softly in confusion. He tried to process the words he had been slapped across the face with, but no matter how much he though about it he just couldn't understand the meaning behind them.

"Wh-what?"

"The explosion. The fire. Can you do it again?"

"The... fire?"

Alfie blinked dumbly once again before finally letting his eyes drift up from the hole they were drilling into the ground and instead up towards the same fight his Lord was watching. He caught the fight just in time to see Cynthia rip the hanging piece of jaw off before stabbing it into the Rat King's bulging eye.

He winced slightly at the sight of that, unable to stop himself from wondering what it felt like for a brief second, before glancing over the charred flesh on the Rat Kings face. He was about to ask why his Lord was asking such a thing, but his eyes widened as he finally realised the answer before even asking the question.

***

Seth smirked behind the mask as, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Alfie come to the same realisation he had, even if a bit later than himself. Locking onto the connection between himself and his bonded companion, Seth transferred his thoughts down that connection like a telephone wire.

'Omelette. I need you outside, now.'

{Yes Father! We shall show them our wrath together!}

Shaking his head softly at the almost instantaneous response he received, Seth wielded his scarlet blade once again as he broke into a sprint. It didn't matter much that he was leaving Alfie to fend for himself, that was what Omelette was for, to act as a secondary distraction to keep the heat off the fire blaster on the ground.

Plus, it wasn't like he was all alone down there.

Flooding his legs with mana once again, although no where near the amount he used the previous time, Seth launched himself in the air once more. This time, instead of soaring straight at the beast, he leapt diagonally and planted his feet on the side of a building.

His boots left deep indentations in the wall, as he used the building as leverage to get the perfect angle on his target, since the rat was reared on its back legs as it brawled with Cynthia.

Taking less than a second to adjust his angle, Seth burst forward like a bullet, shattering the windows closest to his launch point.

Having learned from his previous mistakes, not only was his angle better this time but his leap was much more controlled. Slashing his sword forward, Seth had no doubt in his mind that he would hit his target this time.

Cleaving through the Rats arm once again, the same he had been pinned underneath and severed previously, the limb fell to the ground once more. However, this time when it hit the ground and began to regenerate, it was quickly surrounded by a thick, noxious green shroud of bovine based methane before being blown to smithereens. All that remained was a crackling bonfire of undulating flesh and tendrils writhing in endless pain as they were burnt to a crisp, never having a chance to regenerate ever again.

But that wasn't the end of Seth's travel, nor the damage he would deal.

With a flick of his wrist, he changed the grip of his blade and plunged it onto the Rat Kings chest. Drawing a deep, long gash across his chest, he used the resistance of the beasts meat to slow his momentum to a halt and exposing the dark abyss hidden within the Rat Kings flesh.

Holding onto his blade for a few minutes, Seth waited as a black shadow swept passed before he was doused in pale blue flames. While the chasm-like gash in the Rat's chest was scorched and seared, making sure it wouldn't close, the azure flames lapped harmlessly at Corvus' body. Even if he had his real body in this situation, the flames would have barely registered as a light breeze never mind the blazing inferno the Rat King was subjected to.

Glancing over his shoulder, Seth laughed softly as he watched Omelette twirl in the air to dodge a wild sweep from the scorched Rat King, before blasting another torrent of azure flames from his maw in retaliation.

He didn't just get bigger after the evolution, after all. Omelette had transcended alongside his master and gained an ability similar to his other parent. While they had flames that would sear the soul, Omelette's flames were subjective. It was simply up to him who it would burn, although it didn't make such a distinction between soul-less beings such as all the poor books that had been turned to ash when Omelette sneezed after his evolution.

However, Now that the wound wasn't going to close on him, Seth hooked his hand onto the seared edge of the gash and heaved himself up. His initial plan was to dive inside and wreak havoc amongst the Rats tender innards, giving Alfie and Omelette more time to burn it to cinders. But what he saw within the chasm of flesh immediately put a damper on that plan, yet despite his plan being ruined Seth couldn't wipe the devious smile on his face.

'Well well well, what do we have here then?'