Chapter 349: Overwhelmed
Laz felt like if he made a mistake, he was dead. As Azeban charged at him again and again, Laz was barely able to fend off the razor sharp claws and powerful jaw but dodge, ducking, weaving, and throwing himself around like a rag doll. The last time he had treated his own body this way was when he was being chased by his uncle shooting at him with rubber bullets.
Laz had never felt so close to death before.
There had been times when he had walked the line, but at those times he had been simply walking it on his own. Now, it was like he was constantly being pushed towards the abyss and only by sheer will and a bit of luck was he still alive.
Any arrogance Laz had due to having previously fought god like characters and lived was out the window. This one was going to kill him if he didn’t do something and soon.
As Azeban came forward again, he swung his hand downward, causing his claws to cut deep ruts into the stone paved ground. Laz again had dodged to the side but this time swung Sever with a back handed motion as he turned away from the Raccoon god. When the weapon ended up striking it’s claws, a small bit of claw was chip away, something the raccoon barely noticed.
But Laz did. He had only done that as a reaction, knowing that the attack would barely phase the creature. While the sword could normally slice through steel like a hot knife through butter, Azeban’s energy naturally coated it’s body as though it was doing so on instinct. Due to this, even if Laz scored a direct hit with the blade, it was barely leaving a scrape.
’The claws huh?’ Laz thought to himself.
Laz’s energy was was at it’s peak as his core was working to it’s limit to allow his body to keep up with the movements of Azeban’s. While the option was there for Laz to imbue power into Sever and use that to attack Azeban, if it failed to make a difference, that would just be more energy Laz would waste. And right now, every little bit was what was keeping him alive. Instead of just going all out on a maybe, Laz needed to way to wear out this beast so that his attacks would have meaning.
As such, seeing as how he was able to cause damage to the creatures claws with a minimal amount of power on his part, he finally saw a way to win.
If he could live that long.
"MOVE IT YOU IDIOTS! FIND THOSE HUMANS AND KILL THEM. BUT YOU’D BETTER SAVE SOME FOR ME!!!" Azeban yelled out to the now frozen members of his army. All of them had sense Azeban’s transformation and had reacted the way any animal would when faced with a predator in an overwhelming situation; They had frozen up.
Hearing their leader yell at them and feeling the pressure from his words, the animal’s again began their charge towards the girls who had also just woken up from the mental effects of the Raccoon’s attack.
"Keep going and kill them all!!" War encouraged her sisters, no longer caring if she gave away her position by yelling. Things had spiraled out of control but as long as Laz was still fighting, they wouldn’t give up no matter what.
While the barrage of grenades continued with ammo rapidly depleting, Laz was still being flung around by Azeban.
"Ha Ha. Is this all you foolish humans have to fight us with? This pathetic bit of strength? How did you ever become more than just our food? Obviously I have been sleeping for too long. But now that I am awake, I shall have have first choice when it comes to you yummy snacks on legs. In fact, we can keep you here within this caged area, a ready meal for when we want one. Yes, my minions can go and bring lots more yummy humans here so that we will never run out of food or have to bother to keep on the move. In fact, with a stable food farm, I can recruit even more to join my army. And once we are strong enough, you human’s will again be nothing but food to us." While the Laz was busy fighting and barely keeping the Raccoon at bay, the Raccoon actually had enough left over to think about what it wanted to do next. With a quick kick to the rib cage, Laz was sent flying away while the Raccoon seriously put some thought into what he would do next.
"Of course I can’t go out like this. If I draw too much attention to myself, I’ll never have a moments peace with which to raise my cattle. Hmm... no telling if there aren’t stronger ones out there somewhere. And since they did have the ability to be the dominating force in this land for so long, I can’t assume all of them are going to be this weak. I guess for now, I can only kill everything here and start building things up slowly. After all, I’m sure I’m not the only thing threatening them right now. As long as we don’t stand out as the biggest threat, we should be ok," Azeban pondered out loud, not knowing that everything he was saying was being recorded by the few cameras that were still operational in the area.
And his words were stirring a massive commotion in the people who were watching it. Many of them were calling the police, thinking that this would do some good. The more powerful were contacting people they knew in the armed forces to urge them to take more drastic action sooner. And a few, a very select few, were wondering if the infected human punching bag was going to be able to turn this fight around. Everyone else who was watching had already lost all hope in him doing anything, even if they did recognize him from before.
Laz stood up, seeing that the Raccoon was distracted after having written him off. Laz spared himself a quick moment to notice that the girls were still ok even if they were being surrounded. Currently though, he was the one that was in the most danger and that actually made Laz feel a little relieved.
While Laz’s body was wracked by pain, it hadn’t been hurt to the point that it would affect his fighting ability. Instead, all of the cuts were shallow, nothing was broken and for the most part, he looked worse than he was. It was clear to him based on the Raccoon’s actions that it no longer considered him a threat. So instead of charging for the beast, Laz just started walking towards it at a slow, measured pace.
Azeban, sensing Laz’s approach, woke up from his ponderings and smile, the several rows of teeth showing clearly even in the rain drenched evening.
"I had almost forgotten about you, my prized dinner for this night. Come, come. Work that body till you can no longer move it. It will be far more tender that way." Azeban laughed, thinking how useless this human really was while waving Laz forward.
Laz weakly picked up his sword and swung it at Azeban, the blade bouncing off it’s body with a thud that clearly had little power behind it.
Azeban laughed.
Laz swung again, this time hitting it’s claws as though he had swung low and missed his body. The corresponding clank was enough for Laz to confirm just how weak the claws had gotten from being his constant target.
"Ha ha ha. There is nothing left to you. Come come, hit me again. Let me see the despair in your eyes when I finally clamp down on you and rip your head off."
Kennedy’s hand was gripping the arm rest so tight that the wood beneath it had broken and splintered. The others expressions ranged from angry to hysterical as they watched on, refusing to turn their heads from whatever happened.
No one knew when Laz’s next action would be his last.
Of the millions of people watching, only Laz still believed in himself.
As such, Laz acted like he was on his last legs and practically fell, pushing the sword into the creatures claws which it had jabbed into the ground like a buried sword. The only difference this time was that there was a large portion of his energy imbued into the blade.
Crack!
As Laz expected, when he fell, the sword cracked the already strained claws of the beast, causing them to break apart like glass as the sword took them all out with a careless swing. Just as Azeban’s eyes went wide with shock, Laz, having fallen forward on the pile of broken claws, suddenly grabbed one and frantically pumped his black fire into it before stabbing it right between the Raccoon god’s legs.
"SSSSCCCCCCCCCAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKAAAWWWWWWWWWW!"
It’s screamed rend the night as it’s own claw was pierced into it’s groin with all of Laz’s strength. Just as the claw started to break apart from the abundance of black fire, Laz swung his entire body around on the floor of claw glass, ripping apart his hand and arm in contact with the ground while jamming Sever into the now open wound. Perhaps the sword was too weak to break it’s skin, but with a hole already there, the much sturdier sword covered in black flames with a purple edge flew directly into the opening and ripped into the creature going upwards, all the way to the hilt.
Had someone been able to look in the Raccoon god’s mouth, they might have seen the point of the sword sticking up through it’s throat.
Although Laz didn’t want to let go of the blade, Azeban started thrashing around and striking out, giving Laz no choice but to retreat.
’It’s not dead yet?’ Laz thought to himself while watching the beast bleed out, the entire while glaring at Laz.
"You.... fucking.... piece.... of.... food...."
Laz almost wanted to ask where the creature had learned the word fucking but decided not to right now.
While Laz stood there, Azeban started puking up blood as the still energized sword tore up his insides. He was also bleeding from his groin in a rather nasty demonstration of what it would look like it a tube of tooth paste was squeezed from the middle and it came out both ends.
Even Laz hadn’t expected this to work so well. In truth, he had no idea that it’s claws would be it’s own weak point. While they may have been sharp to the extreme, it was obvious that there was something innately wrong with them to have been so sharp and yet have been able to shatter so easily.
The fact that no one knew, not even Azeban, was the proper way to use his own claws. Had he been using them like Laz used his sword, injecting energy into them, they never would have been that brittle. But like everything else in the world at present time, beasts and humans were changing far faster than they could personally keep up with. Evolution would normally proceed in a very finite way, promoting the strengths of creatures while killing off weak links. But when a creature changes far faster than they can adapt to, even if they become super powerful, there is no way they can have time to fully learn everything about themselves. Instinct can only carry one so far.
Furthermore, and this is the real kicker, Laz just got really lucky. Not that he would ever admit to that.
As Azeban’s body lost strength, it began to fall to the ground, it’s eyes losing the hatred within them. Just as Laz was trying to decide what to do next, Azeban spoke.
"You... are... strong. Smart... To the... victor... goes the... prize. I hope... I can live... as a part of you...." He said before his head slumped down.
’Live as a part of me? What the hell does that mean?’ Laz asked himself, not understanding.
*Save his body... and eat him.*
A long forgotten voice sounded in Laz’s head, one of sugar, spice, massacre and ice.
"A’RUYA?"
