With the ease of someone moving a rag, the metal table above Loch, that also had the added weight of a grown man attached to it, was pushed across the room. Its metal legs, digging into the softer wood below, created a scraping sound that vibrated through the floor. After moving the table, all that remained was Loch, lying on his back. One hand lay limply to his left side; his right hand was wrapped in chains, which he subconsciously continued to pull towards himself. The sight above him had completely overwhelmed him.
A figure, bearing a striking resemblance to an ordinary man—one that even Loch found vaguely familiar—stood over Loch's prone form. Aside from having two arms and legs, the figure bore little resemblance to a human. The being gazing menacingly at Loch with an almost ravenous look was a creature with truly distorted features. Besides, it being giant in almost every sense of the word. Towering eight feet tall, arms thick as tree trunks emerged from a blood-covered apron and skin as rough as bark. However, instead of the normal tree lines in wood, red lines covered the creature's arms, racing up and down as if someone had peeled the creature's skin and put it back together. Rows of metal staples following the lines appeared to hold the skin in place, but they looked to be under heavy pressure and pulled taut, leaking a dark yellow liquid in places.
Besides the creature's oversized legs and arms bulging with muscles and crisscrossed with odd surgery scars, what was most horrifying about the creature's body was its head. Sitting at the size of a boar, on a thick neck, the grotesque head was a true mismatch of a face. Two enormous eyes, pupil-less, sat below a large bald forehead, stark white with only small veins of blood snaking through them. Even without pupils, Loch knew the creature was staring straight at him. Below the white eyes, where a normal nose should be, was a cleanly cut triangular hole. A black liquid was currently leaking down the creature's face, a sight that terrified both Loch and the squirming Hunter on the table. Its lipless mouth stretched so far in either direction that the face appeared split in two. A row of triangular jagged looking teeth filled the open mouth. Bits of unchewed meat were seen between the teeth, amidst dark blood stains. A steady flow of foul-smelling saliva leaked from its mouth, dripping onto the floor near Loch, completing the nightmarish image.
The room was as silent as a graveyard, with even the restless Jack perched over the doorsill, sitting as still as a statue. Loch, almost without thought, began pulling on the chain connected to the table again, leading to soft metal to metal tinkling sounds to leak out. The sound caused the lipless beast that Loch could now see, the missing Butcher Mr. Kapers, to let out a wet sounding growl. The beast gasped for breath, each respiration a struggle. Loch had the distinct feeling that the creature was staring at him like a piece of juicy meat. He knew true hunger, and this creature radiated starvation.
Before Loch could regather his bearings and think straight, a large bulbous hand reached down and covered his face. The creature's thick fingertips dug into Loch's face and skull, lifting the skinny boy as if he were as a broom. As the creature lifted him, Loch instinctively grabbed the hanging hook beside him. With feet dangling in the air, and seeing through the gaps in the beast's fingers, Loch came eye to eye with the creature and, to his further horror, watched a long serpentine tongue slither out from the creature's mouth. The bottom of the tongue scraped along the sharpened teeth and left bleeding gouges in the already deformed flesh. The tongue's tip reached through the beast's fingers and licked Loch's cheek, the stench of its saliva almost making the boy hurl, as the creature let out a satisfied growl. Clearly happy about the taste of what it saw was its next meal.
With Loch lifted higher and its head tilted back, the lipless creature appeared poised to swallow the boy feet first, like a snake consuming its prey. Feeling himself being raised and seeing his future as a midnight snack coming to fruition, Loch's life and death instincts kicked in and, without further chance of thought, he swung the hanging hook in his grasp upwards.
Loch intended to hook the creature in the eye, but because of his poor angle and upward movement, the hook ended up lodged in the creature's nasal cavity, securing the catch as it pulled upwards. The creature shrieked in pain, reacting instinctively by tossing aside the source of its torment; much like someone dropping something incredibly hot. Loch felt his body fly through the air, and because of his not exactly strong grip, the hook was left inside the creature's nose hole, while his body went careening into the small hallway. The creature's casual throw was incredibly powerful, sending Loch's small body tumbling end over end across the wooden floor until his head hit the counter, stopping his momentum. With a loud cry of pain, Loch's vision blurred, and he felt like everything went black for a moment. The sound of repeated high-pitched squawks brought his mind back to wakefulness after a few seconds. Perched on the counter above Loch, Jack called and beat its wings frantically, looking down. Sending several of its precious midnight feathers falling.
The lipless creature, still standing within the backroom, clumsily grabbed onto the hook stuck in its face and pulled it out with a fierce tug, making the curved hook rip out a chunk of flesh on the way out, leading to the nose hole now being even wider on one side. One huge hand covered the damage part, as black blood gushed out between its sausage-sized fingers. With its white eyes even more bloodshot, the creature roared in Loch's direction. The sound was so loud it caused the boy's already ringing head to pound even more, as he lifted his right hand to cover one of his ears and groaned out in pain. The roar from the creature was so loud that several dogs in the neighborhood began to let out barks in retaliation and waking a lot of the residents from several streets over. Just after the angry cry of the creature, the sound of a bunch of heavy chains hitting the floor followed by an angry man's bellow echoed out in the room, "Time for round two, you abomination!"
In Loch's blurry and wobbly vision, he could just make out the figure of the creature standing near the door way, turning to the left side of the room after hearing the Hunter's rage filled shout before two blackened scaled fists smashed into its chest with the power of a sledgehammer, causing the lipless abomination to smash into the wall, leaving a large dent and sending bits of wood chips flying everywhere. Loch felt as if the butcher shop tilted to the right slightly after the impact. Due to only seeing half of the room through the open doorway, Loch couldn't see what happened after the lipless abomination righted itself and charged towards where the fists came from with another roar. Several sounds of heavy collisions rang out before Loch saw the table still with some of the chains wrapped around it get thrown against the wall, with such force that its metal legs were stuck in the wall.
Feeling truly terrified, along with a body screaming in pain, Loch's eyes began to fill with tears as bile rose in his throat. Not being able to witness the current progress of the fight was causing his already fried nerves to go in overdrive. He limply sat with his back against the counter, without the energy or capacity to do anything but simply try to breathe. The Hunter's cursing and loud bellows along with sounds of impact were the only thing letting Loch know the fight was still in progress. "Soil it! If I had my cane, you would be ripped to shreds already, you ugly freak!" After another cursed-filled shout, the Hunter's battered form was seen getting thrown across the room and near the open doorway, as he rolled over and over. Eliciting out pain filled but quiet grunts. The Hunter looked up from his position, face first on the ground, and saw Loch, with them both making eye contact. Loch suddenly felt his vision become a little clearer, and he tried his best to give the Hunter an encouraging smile, which was wholly ruined by the blood leaking down the side of his head.
Seeing the torn up and terrified form of the skinny boy, the Hunter couldn't help but grit his teeth so hard that blood leaked out of his gums before a crazed look came over the man's face as he roared out almost as loud as the lipless creature, "Run boy!! Get the bloody hell out of here!!" The Hunter's current arms were both completely transformed into their beastly form, with scales reaching all the way to the man's shoulder and hands ending in clawed talons, the previously smoky grey tendrils that surrounded the Hunter earlier appeared again. After his bellow, they seemed to darken, as if someone had dropped a bucket of ink into water. Their jellyfish-like movements grew erratic and looked to be elongating and enlarging at a rapid rate, filling the room and leaking down the hall.
Unknowable to Loch or even the Hunter, the tendrils made their way to Loch's dazed form and, as if falling under a weird suction, they were dragged towards Loch's wrapped up left arm at a rapid rate. Disappearing, as if the withered arm was swallowing the inky substance. Choking down some blood that welled up, the Hunter clawed deep furrows in the floorboards to steady himself. Heart pounding, he used his last bit of energy to get up, adopting a low, catlike stance before launching himself out of sight with a snarl.
As Loch heard those oh so familiar words shouted at him, scenes of a smiling woman telling him to run filled his vision once again. With tears now pooling his vision, the image still appeared crystal clear. Loch's previous shaking form became still and his chin came to rest on his chest as if he had fallen asleep, while his heavy breathing became even rougher, like he was suddenly fighting a heavy fever. Jack sat above, began to fly around in circles, cawing frantically at the sight. It's beady eyes appeared to be filling with a liquid of their own. The bird came to an abrupt halt, however, as something deep within its bird bones stirred.
Now floating just above Loch's still form, Jack's feathers plumed on their own as it silently gazed down. The subtle connection the bird had with Loch, the one that always made it feel as if they were more than just companions but a family, resonated from deep within its bloodline. On instinct, Jack let out a caw towards Loch, but to it's surprise it received a clear bird's call in return. This one felt as if it shook the room, piercing and painful but filled with an unquestionable majesty. If Jack had the capability, his eyes would have bugged out at the sound of the noise and the following scene. The inky smoke that had gathered around Loch's wrapped arm swiftly traveled past his shoulder and towards his stomach. Where it gathered in a swirling mass, looking similar to a set of dark storm-filled clouds. The only witness to the bizarre event, Jack, saw something else deep within the gathering storm. Partially covered by the smoky mass, a silhouette of a mighty beast appeared, with wings stretched wide covered in bolts of flickering blue lightning. The cloud covered figure raised it's mighty beak into the air and let out another cry as if waking from a slumber. Pronouncing to all lowly creatures its dominion over the world. Sparks of lightning began to emit from all over Loch's unconscious form, travelling up and down his body, lighting up his skin from within before congregating into one large lightning bolt that struck at the gathered storm clouds in the center of Loch's stomach. With a scream that was awfully similar to a bird's caw, Loch's still form shook like a rusty engine starting up after a long time of inactivity.
Suddenly, as if in a daze, similar to a sleep walker, Loch, with heavy-lidded eyes, stood up on shaky scratched and bruised legs. The storm cloud, now hidden within his stomach, was firing tiny bolts of lightning through his nerves, subsequently filling his whole body with wild energy but also radiating severe pain throughout his organs. Loch took one shaky step and then another, as he walked down the hall toward the back room and the fight that was quietening down. Halfway there, he stopped abruptly and bent down, his hand reaching out to pick up a handful of iron chits that had fallen out of his pocket when he was tossed across the room. Clenching them in his right hand. The simple act of bending nearly caused Loch, in his weakened state, to collapse face-first, his vision blurring once more. Another bolt of lightning shot out from within himself, traveling up his spine and firming his body. Loch instinctively grabbed the wall with his injured left hand for support—an action that would have been unbelievable to him when sober, since his left arm responded normally, without delay. The most abnormal part, besides the sudden functioning of his left arm, was that his left hand's nails dug into the wall with utter ease. Leaving deep scratches in the plaster as he made his way down the wall on stumbling legs.
Just as Loch arrived at the doorway, he turned to the left side of the room stiffly, as if a robot. On the left side of the room was the Hunter lying on his back. He was currently pinned by a giant boot placed on his chest that was pressing down, causing the man's eyes to bug out. His two arms had reverted to normal human arms again, as he was currently clenching both sides of the torso-sized boot and attempting to lift it with all his strength. The sight of the swaying and half-closed eyed Loch, caused the Hunter's exhausted face to turn pale, as he franticly roared, "What are you doing you git!? Get out... Argh!" before he could finish, the creature used his distracted state to put even more pressure on his chest, with even sounds of cracking bones to leak out and accompany the man's pained screams.
The lipless abomination was also not doing very well at that moment, one of its muscle-bound arms was missing, looking to be ripped off from the elbow, with bits of flesh hanging limply, while black and yellow liquid was liberally falling out of the wound and making a small puddle on the already filthy floor. Loch didn't hear the Hunter, as in his head, he was currently seeing and hearing an entirely different scene. With a roar of his own that sounded more like a snarl from an injured animal, he cried out, "I can't run again! Not again!" Loch launched towards the abomination who had his back towards him. In Loch's eyes, though, he wasn't running towards the abomination only seconds from killing the Hunter, but was sprinting across a grass field toward a woman with large dimples and the shadowed form of a figure behind her with a raised clawed hand. With all the strength he could muster, Loch leapt through the shadowed form and found himself on the abomination's back, digging his left hand's sharpened fingernails straight through the creature's huge shirt and into the soft flesh underneath.
Either due to surprise or the pain of Loch's claw-like left hand digging into his back for purchase, the abomination let out a spittle-filled roar and stepped back, lifting its foot from the gasping Hunter and attempting to use its only arm to grab Loch. A cry of a bird heralded the arrival of Jack, as the bird swooped down and clawed at the abomination's milky white eyes, giving Loch, who was now scrabbling up the large abomination's back, a chance to reach the monster's head unmolested. Once Loch was positioned higher on the monster's back, he held tightly to its shoulder as the creature swung wildly left and right. Even while getting thrown wildly around the room, Loch dug his left hand's nails as deep as he could. In the pause between the abomination attempting to use its remaining hand to reach for Loch, he managed to get his right arm around the creature's large head, tossing the fist full of iron chits into the open lipless mouth. The action appeared odd, as the small coins couldn't cause the monster's gigantic mouth any issues, considering its sharpened teeth as well, which it was currently using to chew on the bits of iron with ease, cracking them into tiny pieces.
Even though the weird action of the little boy didn't cause the abomination any true pain, it clearly enraged it further, as it swung around even more wildly, even spinning in circles, while still attempting to use its one arm to grab Loch from its back. Although the creature thrashed violently, Loch's foggy thoughts began to sharpen. He held on with his left hand while his right desperately fumbled for his pouch. After getting a firm grip on the pouch and not being able to open it to reach its contents, Loch ripped it off instead and shoved it into the roaring beast's mouth to join what was left of the iron coins. Like an animal instinct it couldn't control, the abomination bit down at anything that entered its mouth. The sound of glass breaking suddenly came out of the enormous mouth, swallowed swiftly by the sound of something melting, while a noxious gas rose out of it's mouth. The abomination that was flailing wildly came to an abrupt halt, as if frozen, while sounds of sizzling and bubbling came from its mouth even louder as the seconds passed.
Even though Loch couldn't see what was happening, the noises and smell filling the smashed-up room, told him everything he needed to know, as a large grin grew on his face before he felt himself losing consciousness along with losing the feeling in his left hand. The Hunter, who was staring up at the abomination, had his mouth gaping in clear shock as he could see everything currently happening to the creature's mouth as it was currently facing him. Even though he wasn't an Alchemist or a Man of Gears, the Hunter felt he was quite knowledgeable and could guess what Loch had thrown into the creature's mouth, but was still shocked nonetheless, as he thought, 'Clever little sprout. That's a seriously strong acid.' The tiny bits of iron in the abomination's mouth were currently melting, turning into a thick liquid, before it ran down the creature's throat, burning its flesh and searing the soft tissue throughout its mouth.
The abomination emitted a roar like a pig's scream, spewing blood and flesh from its mouth as it thrashed around the room, viciously tearing at its mouth with its remaining hand. Tearing up its tongue and teeth with no regard to the damage it was doing to itself. Due to Loch's arm losing its feeling, he lost his grip and was soon flung to the side of the room, landing against the wall with a heavy thud, as he finally slipped into complete unconsciousness, even though a small smile was still present on the boy's lips.
The sight of the boy hitting the wall and collapsing limply jolted the Hunter from his stupor; his eyes narrowed, revealing a predatory glint as he drew on his last reserves of strength. With one hand shifted into its beast form and his legs trembling, the Hunter sprang up, sprinted towards the engrossed abomination, and forcefully jammed his claws into its substantial chest, piercing it like a drill. The Hunter, clutching the enormous heart in his talons, sneered down at the motionless monstrosity, "I said I'd rip your heart out, you hideous beast! Grunting, the hunter retracted his clawed hand, the huge, ichor-soaked heart impaled on his talons, leaving a gaping hole in the monstrosity's chest. Along with a fountain of all manner of different liquids and slimy substances pouring out, the creature made a strangled gurgling sound before it fell backwards, slamming into the floor with a heavy bang. Seeing the still form of the monster, Jack dove towards Loch's also still form and arrived next to the boy's head, letting out caws of worry.
While the Hunter, panting in exhaustion, stood there with his hand still wrapped around the grotesque heart for a couple of seconds, heavy metal-clad footsteps approached from the front door. With loud but quick steps, two heavily armored knights, wielding their weapons high, came storming into the back room before freezing at the sight before them. The one in front, who was currently wielding a giant battle axe and had it positioned above his head like he was about to chop something in half, let out a choked cry, "What by the Great Trunk is that thing?"
The hoarse and tired voice of the Hunter caused both knights to turn their close faced helmets in his direction as he complained, "You two tin can twats are late." After he finished, the Hunter squeezed the Heart in his grip fiercely smashing it into a pulp with a very loud squish noise, that caused the two knights to take a subconscious step back, while the knight in the back whispered, "Fiend Warped. Mother Earth bless me."