Everyone goes silent, eyes wide, almost bulging from their sockets as they stare at the two fallen fighters. No one dares to speak. No one breathes. The only thing left standing is Enkindle, hollow and looming, ascending back to the ground.
Agnar is frozen, rigid as stone, locked in a brutal struggle with herself: rush to save them or keep fighting.
'It's not…' Carnage moves, pain detonating. 'The end.' He grunts, staggering to rise, his bones shifting under his weight.
Ernest snatches the potion from Flor, surging to Carnage. "I'm on my way! Agnar, you focus on the beast!"
"On it." She steps to the other fallen sword, picking it up as she faces the enhanced Enkindle. "Oh great warrior mothers, the ones of the past and the ones of the future, heed my prayer; allow me to cut down this foe and claim my spot amongst you." She advances fearlessly.
'If he's coming to me with the potion.' Carnage ponders, tilting his head to meet the withering Nuru, clenching his slowly disintegrating stomach.
"Him!!" He grumbles out at Ernest.
"What?" Ernest stumbles to his side, readying the potion to pour it into his mouth.
"Give it to him." He shifts his mouth away. "Forget about me."
"But—"
"Give it to him." He orders.
Ernest searches his eyes for a moment. "Okay." He surrenders, swirling to his feet.
Carnage halts him. "Have you learned of anything?"
"No, nothing of importance. The only undisclosed information I got was something called Crimidle DoT (High)." He elaborates.
"...alright." He lets go, and Ernest rushes to Nuru, maneuvering around Agnar and Enkindle as their battle begins. "What could that be?"
.
.
Agnar is the first to rush in, dual swords at her chest, taking the formation of an X as she closes the distance. The beast meets her mid-pursuit, its claws crashing against his blade in a screech of metal.
Her teeth clench, muscles surging with newfound life as she hacks out, shoving it back. She blitzes after it, already winding up for another strike. It vanishes.
Its speed turns erratic, impossible to track as it leaps from the floor to the walls nonstop before it reappears high above, claws latched into the ceiling. Cracks spiderweb outward. Stone groans, then gives way, collapsing down toward them as the beast slowly corrodes some into drifting dust.
Her calves burn as she pumps herself up and down, bolting herself up into the air. From one falling debris to another, she climbs up. Enkindle spots her approaching and falls to reach.
The glimmer encapsulating her threatens to deactivate. "You are not allowed to leave me." She urges, and it regains its glow, becoming brighter, veins stretching down her neck to her arms and legs as she barrels past her limits using sheer willpower.
<
"For once!" She trades attacks. "I finally believe in myself!" A flurry of slashes fills the air. "I am... enough!"
Stone turns to dust, clothes and skin dematerializing. Amidst the relentless attacks, Agnar's sword rakes across the surface of the skinwalker's core.
「Enkindle's Health: 199/200」
The depths of the void swallow them all whole.
'After all of that…' Carnage thinks, the weight of it pressing down on his chest. 'We only brought it down one percent?'
Silence answers him. Not the kind that follows victory, but the kind that comes before something worse.
Defeat.
This wasn't a fight from the beginning; it was a sentence to death. An unwinnable battle.
"One?!" In Agnar's hesitation, Enkindle responds with an attack, sending her crashing to the floor. Her eyes receded into her skull, her consciousness slipping.
'Maybe... Maybe I'm really not enough... Is it because i'm not a man?...'
'Think Carnage...' He vomits up blood as he wobbles to his feet, looking at the hovering Enkindle as he looks down at him, unscratched, a behemoth of a beast compared to their feeble, broken frames. 'Is this it? It can't be... I do not accept this outcome...'
'What did you expect? To win?' A question slithers into his inner thoughts.
'Yes. I wanted to win to prove my worth.'
'We are not worthy. Deep down we know it's true.'
'I am! I was a—'
'A god? We've heard this before. Who were we before that?'
'I was... I.' he thinks, but nothing submerges. 'I don't know.'
'Who were we before power? Answer me!'
'I do not know!'
'Weak. You are weak.'
'I am not weak! Who the hell even are you!'
'I am you, and you are me. If you do not see yourself as weak, show it. Do you wish for our centuries spent in hell to amount to nothing?'
'Of course not.'
'Then think. I SAID THINK CARNAGE! Use what the supremes could never take away from you.'
'What is it?'
'You brought down empires. You've slain gods that were more powerful than you. You've wiped creatures from the minds of humans.'
'Yes, using the power given to me by the book of fables.'
'Yes, the book did have a part to play. Nevertheless, to do that, you needed something the gods feared the most. You used what your mentor has always praised you for: Your intelligence.'
'That's not true. How can it be intelligence when I can't trust my own mind anymore?'
'Believe in yourself. The only person who should deem you worthy is...'
'Is who?' The voice doesn't answer. 'Who! Answer me!" He repeats, but there's nothing, only his own voice echoing through his mind. 'Forget it... I must think...!' As he replays everything from the beginning, it all suddenly, like a puzzle, snaps into place.
He plants one foot ahead of him, then another, and another, and then bursts into a sprint, despite his ill, wounded body's protest.
Enkindle screeches, yet in their minds, it translates into words. "Playtime's over; it's time to feed!"
Carnage presses on, only stopping when he's next to Ernest. He snatches the empty bottle from his grasp and pivots. Enkindle is already there, talons outstretched. They pierce straight into his body with a violent jolt, tearing through muscle and sinew.
Carnage doesn't falter.
He twists, spinning with the momentum, lifting his hand up and flicking his wrist, throwing the bottle to Flor.
"Flor!" He shouts, capturing her attention, and with luck, she catches it. "Make the poison potion!"
'I understand it all now... It all had a purpose.'
Agnar moves from behind, blood trickling from every inch of her body. Even as her very atoms unravel, she wraps her blade around its neck, yanking with all her strength, muscles screaming with the effort.
'During our walks, Flor talked more about the games of her realm. Its mechanics, and how it seemed like she was a part of one right now with the systematic-like panel and the matrix and data-like qualities.'
Carnage clamps onto its arm, his decaying muscles straining around the talons, forcing them to lock in place. The beast thrashes, but he doesn't relent.
With a deliberate inhale, he activates his ability; the air around them shimmers, energy warps, and tendrils of power latch onto the beast, constricting.
<
"I didn't know that would work! For now, we only need to spare some time for Flor to complete the potion."
"Yes." They all agree.
'Using the limited knowledge of game mechanics said by Flor, I came up with two possible meanings for DoT: Damage over Time or Death over Time. As for (High), it likely coincides with either probability or severity. Either way, both interpretations work in our favor and should give us the upper hand. The only thing we can hope for now is that it's the right poison.'