Second Genesis

Grey found himself rushed into the room, brushed in by a strong gust of wind.

BOOM.

The doors slammed heavily behind him, and the sensory overload of it all probably should have made him jump or feel somewhat startled. But that wasn’t what happened. Instead, all he could feel was the burning coming from his arm.

No, it wasn’t focused on his arm anymore. It felt like half his body had been scorched in flames. And as he was there on his knees, barely able to see beyond the blurriness—

He felt it.

Steam rose out from the corners of the Last Goblin’s lips, its rusted sword slightly shifting from its pinned position in the ground.

’Get up!’

Grey bit his tongue so hard he cut through half of it. Blood spurted down his chin, but his vision finally seemed to clear enough to see the shifting boss in front of him.

He grabbed one of his axes from the ground, trying to do the same with the other hand. Every movement of the latter felt like his skin had turned to paper-like leather—somehow stiff and unaccommodating, and yet tearing at the slightest bit of pressure.

Blood poured down his arm, and yet he stood nonetheless.

Grey’s eyes reflected a manic light as the Last Goblin’s head finally rose to meet his own, orbs of flickering green flames flashing.

A pulse of emerald flames shot out from the Last Goblin’s feet, and Grey was forced to jump over the ring of fire, landing on his feet.

His instinct told him to rush forward, but his brain fired warnings at him no less violently than the pain running up his arm and across his body.

SHIIIING.

The sound of an unsheathing sword echoed as the Last Goblin raised its weapon. Its body shook and it leaned forward before sinking into a stance. One foot lunged forward, the other pulled back perpendicular to the first. It sank so low in its attack stance it almost looked like a spring ready to burst.

But the way it held its sword—the rusted edge glimmering in the dim lights—filled Grey with a sense of heaviness and dread...

One he met with a roar.

Grey’s brain was overridden by instinct as he charged forward, two battle axes in hand. If he was going to die, he wasn’t going to do it cowering in a corner.

All the bumps and bruises, all the cuts and gashes, all the burns and flesh wounds... they seemed to become a tonic flooding through his veins.

His brown eyes sparked with red, his hair whipping back as he surged.

And then the Last Goblin suddenly moved.

Fast.

The sword thrust across the remaining distance between them, and Grey collapsed to the ground to dodge. The weapon barely passed overhead, just missing his scalp and taking several strands of his hair with it.

There wasn’t even a chance to attack at the Last Goblin’s legs. Its sword was heavy, but it had a swiftness and grace in using it that was beyond anything Grey had managed with Ray’s. It seamlessly transitioned from a thrust to a downward slash.

Grey had landed on his back and could only block what was coming from above.

BANG.

A wave of déjà vu hit him, but this time it wasn’t a blast from a previous life. Not long ago, he had been blocked just like this by the large goblin. The difference was that that goblin had been on its feet, but him? He was sprawled out on his back against an opponent far more skilled than him.

Grey seemed to awaken from his madness. What was he trying to do? Throw his life away? He didn’t stand a chance against a creature like this.

The Last Goblin’s face was eerily placid, so calm and unbothered it didn’t even look like it was struggling to hold up against Grey’s strength.

It slowly pressed down, its blade pushing past Grey’s guard and getting closer and closer to his neck.

No chance.

No chance.

The words echoed in Grey’s ears as though they were being whispered by a demon.

"Fuck you."

The words came out in an incoherent growl. Grey kicked out, but the Last Goblin calmly checked his stomp. His leg rammed into the creature’s shin and nearly broke on impact.

But the light of madness in Grey’s eyes had returned with full-fledged chaos. He used the shift in the Last Goblin’s posture to roll out from the side it had suddenly become weaker from, directly abandoning his axes.

He lunged and rolled, picking up Ray’s Nexis Suit. When he had been blown in, the axes he had originally dropped had been brought in with him, and the Nexis Suit was no different.

Without the slightest hesitation, he turned to face the Last Goblin, which had already closed the distance. But rather than trying to mount some sort of defense, Grey had turned the suit inside out.

Chi.

Grey tried to dodge again at the last moment, but this time, it didn’t work. The Last Goblin had already become used to his tactics, its skill unlike anything Grey had ever faced before.

It predicted his movements, thrusting through where he would be instead of where he was.

The blade tore through Grey’s stomach and out of his back, its jagged, rusted edges scraping against his inner organs until the hilt pressed against the flesh of his belly.

Grey sputtered, the blood flooding down his chin growing thicker and darker.

"Heh..." he chuckled. "... If I’m going down... I’m taking you with me..."

Grey slapped the Last Goblin across the face with a palmful of gel. Taking a step forward, he wrapped it up in a bear hug, pressing the Nexis Suit in between the two of them.

The Last Goblin frowned, seemingly not understanding the situation. But then came the searing pain.

It began to scream, its head tilting back as it tried to shake Grey off. The canines of its maw flashed, and it even bit right into Grey’s shoulder in a last-ditch attempt, but the madness in Grey’s eyes was insatiable as the burning ran through him as well.

Sometimes you just had to piss on your own grave.