Giriko stopped the roaring rotation of his chains and came to a screeching halt in the middle of a clearing.
The sudden silence rang in his ears. He panted, trying to catch his breath, the priest's words put on repeat in his head.
Arachne is dead. Arachnophobia has fallen.
The prick had sounded so damn confident, but his utterances made no sense. No, no, they couldn't have lost! Not so quickly, not so easily. It wasn't an option. The priest just wanted him, Arachnophobia's most dangerous warrior, away from the battlefield. Yeah, that made sense. The dirty liar had tried to make him panic and he had almost fallen for it. Stupid Giriko!
What should he do now? He glanced around and quickly got his bearings. He was in the middle of the forest and judging from the sound and light of explosions in the distance, the battle with the DWMA wasn't over yet. There was still a chance for the tides to turn. He decided to go back to the headquarters and find out what the hell was going on.
He should go on by foot, now. Stealth wasn't his forte but he certainly wasn't dumb enough to alert everyone around of his arrival through his chainsaw's deafening noise. He took on a quick step and headed straight for the Baba Yaga castle.
First he had to find Arachne and call her out on her treason. She would merely smile, scold him for his lack of trust and produce a satisfactory explanation, as always. Why would she had risked killing him, her most faithful servant? It was probably some kind of dumb misunderstanding. And hopefully Arachne would provide him with a good target for his rage. And if she didn't – he would still find someone to crush. After everything he went through today he had earned himself a nice bloodbath.
Inside the chainsaw the bloodlust and anger rose, filling every inch of his body. His breathing fastened, fists clenching spasmodically. He had to find out who was responsible for firing the castle's cannons on him and his troops. And then - he was gonna kill them! Slay them! Shred them!
He first would kill the creepy kishin and finally get rid of the unease he was feeling since Arachne brought it back with her. Who cared if it was supposedly a god? Even god skin wouldn't resist the lethal rotation of his third gear. Asura would be reduced to bloody pieces within minutes.
And then he would kill that old wanker, Mosquito – neatly sever his ugly head from his body, top hat and all. He'd been dying to do that for way too long. Make a purple fountain shoot out of his wrinkled neck.
And then, finally - the little DMWA priest who dared to pretend Arachne was dead – oh yeah, he'd have much fun killing him. How a single individual could be so annoying was beyond him. The headphones, the pretty fresh face, the superior grin, the arrogant speaking style – it was like all of his features were created with the sole purpose of putting Giriko on edge. And that he hadn't been able to beat him in a one-to-one combat not once, but twice, only made it worse. But next time the chainsaw's blades would cut right through him, yeah, dismember that juvenile body and expose his guts for the entire world to see. The gory fantasy summoned a mad grin that crept up Giriko's face for the first time since his fight with the priest. Yeah, let's gut that little whore - that was a good plan, a good plan. His long strides quickened.
Giriko should have paid attention to his surroundings, he really should have because he had supervised the installation of most of the booby traps around the Baba Yaga Castle and the freshly ploughed strip of ground could have tipped him off easily enough – but he didn't, walked straight forward and on the bomb.
And the world fell apart in a fulminant blast.
...
pain
...
everything hurt
...
"Speak of the devil, he's waking up. Seems Justin won the bet."
"We can't be sure of it yet, it's too soon to tell. Let's hope the bastard doesn't pass the night – one problem we'd be rid off."
"I don't think so - he's a big, tough guy, I'm pretty confident he's gonna make it. We'll have to deal with that asshole a bit longer."
...
pain