Renota had swiftly and silently dashed to the side of the creature while its attention was on Arin, simultaneously delivering a devastating blow to the creature with his left arm's fist. The moment previous to the instant before his fist came into contact with the creature's chitin skin, his fist was engulfed in a volatile flame— one similarly colored to the amber 'whites' of his eyes. The ignition of the flame seemed to cause immense pain to Renota, with the grimace contorting his face making that pain obvious.
The pain was so powerful that his fist started to curve off-course and away from the creature. However, his burning fist was already far too close to the creature to miss now. Right before his punch connected, a twenty-sided marble figure rolled in the very back of his mind.
'Come on, come on!'
[14]
Renota's perception of time resumed, and his fist instantly collided with the chitin, causing it to fragment and reveal the creature's powerful blue obliques. The chunks of chitin skin making up the contact point flew off, but they instantly turned to ash after spending a fraction of a second inside the amber flame. Renota snuffed out the flame and returned his fist to his guard then quickly stepped back, revealing a devilish burn on the creature's muscle.
The creature stumbled for a moment but quickly regained its footing. The bloodlust tainting its eyes grew tenfold as a disgusting gurgle escaped its drooling maw, adding a new grotesque element to the creature's unbearably terrible song. Arin almost dropped his sword and covered his ears as he was forced to listen to the tune. The song made him feel all kinds of terrible things— fear, disgust, a throbbing headache... But most of all, it made him feel immense anger.
His hands tightened their grasp on the katana as he prepared for the creature's imminent assault.
'That Ishog got lucky with that sneak attack, but he's useless now that the beast has recognized his presence... Whatever, it's not as though I would need help from someone so lowly, anyway!'
Both of Arin's thoughts were quickly proven wrong. Similar to his first defense against the creature, two bone scythes were quickly crashing down, threatening to cut him into quarters. However, Arin was now much more prepared for the attack. Right before he met the creature's blades with his own in a horizontal block above his head, time seemed to stop.
[18]
The creature's eyes were filled with shock when the small and weak pretty boy was meeting its indomitable strength with an almost impenetrable defense. When it looked at the anger filling Arin's piercing blue eyes, its own dozen were all doused with a hint of fear. That fear quickly disappeared while an excited bloodlust replaced it. The creature seemed to get its greatest thrills from slaughtering the most formidable prey. And although its gaping maw was impossible to move or contort in any way, it somehow seemed to be stretched out in a grin. The clicking of its mandibles and the gurgling from its maw increased their pace and volume.
The creature put even more power into its downward strike, causing sparks to rain down on Arin's face, but still his unwavering defense barely showed any signs of faltering.
Once again, something swift appeared at the side of the creature, followed by the ignition of amber flame...
[10]
...which was then followed further by the sound of chitin cracking, and fragmenting somewhat. The burn mark left behind by Renota's punch was less terrible than the last, but it was strong enough to slightly reveal the immense pain hidden behind the creature's bloodlust.
That bloodlust was strong enough to overcome pain up to a point, and that point had not yet been reached.
While the creature was reeling for a moment following the blow, Arin pushed the scythes back and quickly sliced his sword across the creature's body. Right before his sword made contact, time seemed to slow...
[2]
His sword swung at the creature and missed its mark. The creature had staggered just out of range, so his blade cut only air. Besides, even if it did hit... It didn't look like a very damaging slash.
Arin's katana ended up pointed at the ground away from the creature when it the creature regained its focus, quickly swinging at the already-retreating Arin. Had he not stepped back so fast, he would've ended up dead.
'Phew-'
[16]
Renota quickly dashed in front of the creature once it swung at and missed Arin, swiftly delivering an enflamed uppercut to the creature's jaw, sending brown chitin and drool raining down on him. But before the creature could even realize it had been hit, he delivered another blow, this time to one of its arms.
[13]
Then another, to its leg.
[7]
For good measure, he delivered another to the same spot.
[14]
He contined to punch the creature over and over, leaving ghastly burns and powerful cracks all over its body. Slowly, the creature began to regain its composure, but each solid blow Renota landed pushed its recovery back. Renota swung at the creature's now almost fully exposed obliques, ignited the flame, and...
[1]
...completely missed his mark. It seemed that the combined effects of the creature's slow but steady recovery and the constant use of the self-harming amber flame had caught up to Renota. His fist seemed to fly in the air for an eternity, but really everything was happening with moments. The insect brought its scythes down faster than he could ever hope to step away.
To Renota's surprise, he wasn't cut into pieces instantly, since Arin just barely managed to parry the scythes. Arin didn't waste any time and delivered a riposte towards the creature's chest.
[11]
The blow wasn't the most powerful, but it still did its job. The blade had pierced the creature's chest, covering it in blue blood. Its eyes were filled with intense anger, then immense pain, then the expression dulled and the dozen eyes began to roll back. Its arms went limp, but strangely, it hadn't yet fallen to the ground.
Arin closed his eyes and sighed. Arin, who was already running on fumes the days earlier, was now drained of energy. He needed rest, and reflexively started to relax.
His relaxation was interrupted by the sound of the creature's song, its unrhythmic clicking and gurgling more incessant and ear-piercing then ever.
He jolted his eyes open, and he saw that the injured and limp creature was barrelling towards him in a suicide attempt to knock him off the string. He was mentally able to react, but his tired body could not. The full weight of the creature suddenly collided with his body, breaking a few ribs and flinging him to the edge.
The creature was rapidly approaching before him and the ocean was violently raging behind him.
'What do I do... What do I do?!'
As the result of a split second decision, Arin began to hang from the edge. The creature was able to notice that Arin was no longer in its path, but it was far too weak now to stop itself.
So, it just ran off the edge and plummeted to a violent death in the ocean below, clicking and gurgling in desperation before it hit the waters with a powerful splash, then was instantly carried away by the current. Arin smiled.
'Good riddance, you bastard!'
Renota watched the creature fall, then walked over to Arin and let down his hand in order to help him in getting back onto the string. However, at the sight of an Ishogian offering him help, Arin reflexively pulled his hands away and backed up. Which would have been fine... If he was not currently hanging off the edge of a stone bridge about to fall into the ocean.