Anomaly

Episode 10- The Red Crow; Part 2

The idea of an argument between a group of people wasn't that hard a concept to understand. One person or group of persons has an idea and a method of approach on said idea, an opposing person or group disagrees with said idea and/or the method or approaching said idea. A verbal debate ensues and, if it went rather well, an agreement is made between the two parties. Or they diverge away from each other to pursue their own goals. Or the arguing becomes physical. Usually in an argument it's the latter of the two outcomes.

"We are not leaving him there!"

This argument was a rather heated one, but at least it hadn't progressed to violence yet. It was a topic that had arose the second Corvin and Jackdaw had found themselves on the rock island not too far away, and Evals had been the one to bring the idea of hoisting the sails on the ship and just leaving the two of them there. Flora had immediately denied the very concept of such an act, and this had been the catalyst for the heated argument.

"That psycho is trying to kill us, lady!" The dog argued, pointing towards the island. "Can you really blame me from wanting to get away from those freaks as fast as possible after all of that!?"

"They're not freaks!" She yelled at him, the anger clear in her eyes.

"Corvin had his goddamn head blown in half and walked it off like it was nothing! A goddamned tentacle grew out of it!" Evals screamed back. "They both stabbed each other through the chests and their response was to have a conversation over it like it was nothing!"

"You'd be surprised how normal something like that is for Corvin," Keith muttered, walking to Flora's side. "But she's right. We aren't just going to leave him there."

A notable vein began to grow on Evals forehead. "And just why can't we leave them there?"

"Because Corvin is going to win," Keith said simply.

"Oh really? Really?" Evals let out an incredulous bark. "And just how do you know that?"

"You haven't known him for as long as we have, Evals, so I understand how you would be so confused. But there's something you don't realize about Corvin." His eyes turned towards the small island, a stalwart expression on his face. "If there's anything in this world Corvin is terrified of, it's the idea of being alone. He's done things to avoid that fate you wouldn't believe, and he would rather die die than suffer through that. He knows that Jackdaw means to kill us, and, as far as Corvin's concerned, that means he's fighting for his own life. Because Corvin truly believes that his life might as well be forfeit without us."

It gave everyone around them pause, and for some it was a disturbing implication. The idea of somebody so strong having such a mentality almost seemed childish, but to Flora, it made perfect sense. Corvin had ever only been alone for a few hours at most, and she had felt in those memories the dread in sadness it brought on him. It was a feeling he never wanted to feel again, and the only way that would happen is if they all died. She knew that Keith was right in what he was saying. She knew because the memories Corvin had given her had basically confessed the truth.

"That's not exactly the most solid of reasons Corvin will win," Eric interrupted. He was currently leaning against the wooden railing of the ship while looking at the group. Kathrin was by his side, and was switching between casting worried looks at the group and antsy looks at the island. "Corvin may be fighting as if his life depends on it, but so is Jackdaw. We all heard Corvin say he was going to try and kill him."

"Well, Corvin also happens to be a cheater," Keith added. "I know he doesn't seem the type, but after you've had a few conversations with the guy, you realize what kind of fighter he is." Most of those conversations had been hypothetical situations made purely for the effort of alleviating boredom during their journey in the wilderness, but the point was still standing. "The guy's got no sense of honor whatsoever. If anything, he prefers fighting dirty to fairly. The only reason we haven't seen anything like that so far is because everyone we have seen him fight has just been so, well, below him, you know?"

"And I think it's safe to say Jackdaw would use a similar fighting philosophy, Keith. The two of them didn't seem too different in that regard," Eric reminded. "They seem rather even, unless there's something else we don't know."

Keith remained silent at that. As much as he hated to admit it, it was a sound argument. He just hoped the odds were in Corvin's favor on that hunk of rock.

"Look, we aren't going to get anywhere arguing. I say we put it to a vote," Evals suggested. "I'm in favor of leaving his crazy ass there to fight that crazier ass."

"And I vote we stay," Flora said, crossing her arms. "Corvin has never left us before. We can't just do it to him."

Keith waved his hand. "You know my vote. Corvin'll come through for us."

Mike shuffled towards Evals side, flinching at the glares some of the others gave him. "I-I just don't think it's worth the risk," he admitted. "We don't know if he'll win, and if he doesn't, well... we'll die. I don't want to die."

"At least some people are talking sense here..." Evals grumbled, trying his best to reassure his friend by patting him on the back.

Natani was soon to follow Mikes example and stood next to the two, a firm look on their face. Keith gawked at them for a moment, but soon regained his composure. "Natani? Why?" he asked, a hurt sound in his voice.

"Because staying behind to see which one will win is the most stupidest thing I've ever heard," the wolf claimed. "The fox is right, we don't know which one is gonna win. And if the red one wins, we're all dead."

"And if Corvin wins?" Keith argued. "You'd rather leave him stranded on that island than take a chance?"

"Of course I would! I don't even like him!" The wolf yelled. "Ever since I've met him it's been nothing but glares and threats! I feel like every single time he looks at me he's trying to weigh whether he could kill me and get away with it or not!"

"You haven't exactly done anything to try and fix that," Keith said. "The entire time we've been on this ship you've avoided him like the plague, Natani."

"He might as well be the plague!"

"After everything he did for me on the islands!? After everything he did for me!?" He pointed as his eye and ear, shouting, "I'd still have a crooked ear and a bad eye if it weren't for him! I wouldn't have my home back if it weren't for him!"

"I'm not changing my position, Keith." There was a hint of finality in those words, and the wolf's eyes didn't falter in the slightest at Keith's words. "I hope this doesn't change anything between us, Keith, but I don't want to die. And I really don't want you die just because Corvin bit it."

"... I see. I understand," Keith mumbled.

"Um..." It was Maddie's turn, and she looked back and forth between the two groups with uncertainty. She finally decided to go to Keith's side, her ears flatted against her head and eyes downcast. "Corvin's a really nice person," she said. "He stood up for me and spent some time with me. We really did have a lot of fun together. I feel like he won't let a mean person like Jackdaw hurt his friends. And he's super strong since he managed to complete the Trials without any kind of formal training whatsoever!" She looked up fondly at Keith, her tail wagging behind her. "Plus, General Keith says he has faith in Corvin and that he'll win! What kind of soldier would I be if I didn't put faith into my own general?"

"A very foolish one, for putting blind faith into him, at least." Those words had come from the new member of the group, who had situated himself with the group opposite of the one Maddie had chosen.

"Keith, do you even know who that is?" Flora asked.

"Huh?" He turned his head towards her. "Oh, Lynn. Yeah, he's my... adviser, I guess. I've known about him for awhile now."

"So why didn't you tell any of us about him!?"

He shrugged. "You all seemed busy and I forgot." He turned to Lynn, a scowl on his face. "Care to explain yourself, Lynn?"

"I only act in the best interests of my general," he stated. "The first and foremost of those interests would of course be his survival. Leaving them on the island presents the best chance for your survival, not to mention the survival of everybody else on board. I'm sorry, general, but I cannot condone staying here."

Keith sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Fine, fine. I get it. What about you two?" He looked towards Eric and Kathrin, the only two who had yet to pick a side. Everybody else looked at them as well, causing them to shrink under their gaze.

Eric was the first to speak, clearing his throat in the process. "I'll be frank. I'm quite torn here. If it were a month ago I would have decide to steer this ship away without any hesitation if it meant keeping the crew and Kathrin as safe as possible, and that's still true." He let a heavy breath out, readjusting his glasses before continuing. "But, I've gotten to known Corvin. He's decent enough that if he were to ask me to trust him on a matter, I would. Yes, at times he can be rather... eccentric and reclusive, but he has proven himself to have a resolve to put his life on the line for us."

"But the safety of everybody else is still a major concern for you," Keith summarized.

"It is," he confirmed. "So I'll leave the choice to Kathrin."

"... What?" she started, blinking at Eric in shock. The others followed her actions and did the same.

"You've always had a good sense for these types of things, Kathrin," he explained, "and I trust you more than anybody else on this ship, so I'll leave the decision to you and follow along with that choice. I can't make it on my own. I'm too split."

"I... see." She gulped audibly, looking nervously at the two groups staring her down. "Well... I haven't really talked to Corvin all that much, and I feel bad for never approaching him much just to talk. But when we first met, he seemed nice. A bit weird, but nice." She rubbed her shoulder nervously before continuing. "But then he did all that stuff for Keith. He seemed really broken up when we shunned him after he told the truth about himself. He's fighting right now just to make sure we don't die." And it was with those words that she walked over to the group in support of Corvin, letting a long breath out as the choice was made. "He cares about his friends. He cares enough that he's on that island right now putting himself through who knows what for us. It'd be wrong not to put some faith in him on return."

"Well that settles that." Eric walked besides her, wiping the sweat that had dripped on the lenses in the process. "Four want to leave Corvin. Five want to stay. The numbers don't lie."

An angry scowl upturned on Evals face, who was in lead of the opposing group. "Yeah. I guess they don't."

"You were the one who proposed this in the first place, Evals," Keith reminded. "Don't get upset at a group-majority decision you should have known was doomed to end in your failure in the first place."

"Well, the vote is stupid!" Evals threw his arms up in anger, shouting, "this entire thing is stupid! We're all gonna risk our lives over a guy who-"

Whatever Evals had to say, whether it be an insult to Corvin or something in defense of his position, cut short when the entire boat was rocked with enough force to send most of those on it tumbling to their feet. It thankfully only lasted for a few moments, and everybody had risen to their feet as quickly as possible to see what had caused the disturbance.

Flora and Keith were the first ones who rushed to the edge of the boat, the rest following afterwards. It wasn't hard to see what had been the cause for the disturbance: large waves were hitting the side of the boat, and it didn't take much effort to track the waves visually to the stone island. It was there that a sight caused all viewing to be stunned into silence, as a large, black mass flooded with red light began to grow there, one exuding enough pressure due to the transformation that it might as well have been generating a powerful wind. Corvin was visibly in front of it, but he was barely a dot in comparison, which gave credence to the mass's size. It was when the mass stared to take shape and the first gargantuan limb became recognizable did a sick feeling come over those who were watching the spectacle.

"Oh no..." Flora whispered, fearfully tightening her grip on whatever she was grabbing hold of. All the others had a similar reaction, whether out of fear for Corvin or out of sheer terror due to the knowledge that the two on that island just over yonder were capable of such a thing.

"So..." Evals muttered, his voice barely above a whisper due to the fright running through his body, "do you still think it's a good idea to stay behind?"

True fear wasn't something Corvin had ever felt since the change. Fear was supposed to be irrelevant now, since there wasn't anything in the world that could hurt him. Any damage he sustained could be repaired. He couldn't get sick. He was supposed to be physically stronger than anything else. He couldn't feel physical pain. The change had wiped away any need for fear, and the closest thing he ever felt to it these days was merely worry for his friends. Unlike him, they could die very easily.

What he was feeling right now, however? In the presence of something that had every intention of breaking his body, and had the actual means to do so unlike every single other person he had met that possessed the exact same intention? Well, he remembered what fear felt like, and this wasn't it. It was pretty close, though, and he hoped it didn't show on his face.

The thing Jackdaw had transformed into was a colossal beast that towered over Corvin, roughly about forty to fifty meters in height. It was bipedal and roughly humanoid in shape, thought the fact that its entire body was a pitch black with red, glowing fissures scattered around arms, legs, and torsos made it difficult to give it any kind of real description. Its head was likely the most grotesque part; the head was more akin to a lip-less reptile's head made to be the shape of a humans head, rather than an actual human head. Bald and lacking any distinct features say the nose, mouth, and large, red eyes staring down at him. Honestly, it seemed more like a nightmare than anything else.

The worst part was Corvin vaguely remembered something like this. When his original body had been overwhelmed by the virus, he had turned into something resembling this thing. He always figured it had been a extreme reaction to the turning process, and had been a unique one-time experience. He never knew it was something that could be gained and transformed at will, and even worse he didn't know how strong the transformation was. He didn't know if he would be actually able to defeat something like this.

He felt something smash into the ground near him, and quickly turned his head to find that Jackdaw had slammed one massive fist into the ground only to then slide it towards him. Corvin barely had enough reaction time to will a black, armor-like carapace to form over his body to protect him, and no sooner did the completely blank visor snap over his face then the fist collided with his body.

He tried his best to counter it, firmly planting his feet in the ground and holding two hands out to catch the fist. All it served was to have the fist push Corvin's body back, his feet leaving two trails as they were dragged through the stone. He eventually lost his footing and hit the ground, sparks flying off of his armor as the fist continued to drag him through the stone. He felt the fist push upwards, and felt his body tumble uncontrollably through the air as his body smashed through pillar after pillar of stone, finally lodging itself in a rather large column of stone.

His body lodged quite deeply into the stone, Corvin could only cough violently, half of his plate covering his face falling away along with a torrent of blood, revealing a single eye beneath the helmet. That eye widened when Jackdaw's shadow fell over him, and he was given no opportunity to move as a massive fist pounded right into him from above, caving him into the ground. Another fist followed that one, punching the same spot. And then he did it again, and again, and again about a dozen times before he scooped up the spot he was in and violently threw it on the ground. The large handful of stone scattered away when it hit the ground, along with Corvin's battered and bloodied body.

He shakily got up, his twisted limbs and broken bones snapping into place perfectly in seconds while his armor remained shattered with pieces falling off here and there. He had no time to fix it, as yet another clenched fist was sailing directly towards his body. So, knowing he had no time to dodge as the fist was coming too fast and the armor slowed him down, Corvin did the one thing he could think of and multiplied the amount of muscle in his right arm, a second layer of black material covering it as he met the large fist with a punch of his own.

The two fists met, creating a concussive shockwave that blew away any debris any debris around them. Corvin had closed his eyes in anticipation once his fist collided with Jackdaw's massive one, fully expecting his arm to be caved in from the force despite its enhancement. Amazingly, though, he didn't feel it be damaged at all. If anything, it felt as if it hadn't received a single scratch. He tentatively opened his eyes, shocked to find that his muscled arm had been able to match Jack's goliath-sized one.

Curious at this, Corvin dug his fingers into the hands middle finger and took hold of a handful of tendons. Jackdaw tried to pull his arm away, but Corvin was surprised to find that his enhanced arm had enough strength to keep a hold on the tendons and stop the arm from pulling back. It was a strange sight to see, and even stranger to Corvin since he was experiencing it. An arm that size should have had many times his musculature, which meant it should have been vastly stronger. Even though he had muscled his arm up to a point where any more muscle would weigh it down, he still should have been weaker. So why were the two arms a match? Corvin's mind whirled with the possibilities, and he soon arrived to the answer as soon as he started pondering.

The armor fell away from Corvin, revealing the blue clothing beneath. Corvin looked up at Jack's massive eyes, a smile on his face. Then he laughed. He laughed and laughed, a sick glee in his eyes as he tightened his grip on the tendons in the massive finger. "Oh, Jackdaw! I understand now!" He yelled, his voice raised high enough for Jack to hear him. "A body this big would require an absurd amount of biomass to make! You must have had to cut some corners when making that body on the fly, didn't you!? The biomass in that body is spread so thin that you were barely able to make a working musculature system for it!"

As he said this, all five of the fingers clutching the tendons sharpened into gleaming blades, all five digging to the center of the hand and slicing their way out of the hand, every blade connected to a thick, black cord that ended at Corvin's wrist. The blades twirled around each other, going in and out of the hand as they rapidly made their way up the arm and into the shoulder, effectively sewing themselves into the arms. Once they reached the shoulder, smaller blades popped out of the cords that linked the blades to Corvin, blades numerous enough to cover the entire lengths of the cord.

Corvin pulled. Hard. All at once the corded blades tore themselves out of Jackdaws arm, receding back to Corvin while the arm fell to the ground in a useless, shredded wreck. Jackdaw roared, a roar loud enough to shake the very island as the blood that was once in the ruined arm showered onto the ground below him. The roar was interrupted when a large, diagonal slash appeared on his chest, causing more blood to spray from the large wound. Corvin watched from a high rock formation next to him, right arm converted into a blade, before leaping across Jackdaw's body to another rock formation, making another slash in his body in passing.

"This form of his... it's completely useless." Corvin soon set into a rhythm of leaping across Jack's body, creating huge slashed. The entire reason he shed the armor was because of this; while offering great protection, it inhibited his speed dramatically. And now without it, Jackdaw was barely able to keep up with Corvin, and was soon reduced to uselessly flailing around as Corvin carved into his body again and again. "Our bodies can only store so much biomass at once. It's a protective measure to ensure we don't take an excess amount of biomass into us when we consume other beings, because otherwise we'd be too weighed down by the mass. This makes it so we have a set limit of mass we can store." Jackdaw became lucky and managed to make contact with Corvin, but he was able to merely bat the fist away and continue wearing the large body down. "That limit was reached on the basitin islands, when Jackdaw consumed all of those guards and Laura. And even with ninety percent of my biomass, he was only able to cobble this thing together. The biomass is stretched out so precariously that he's not nearly doing as much damage as he should, and receiving too much in turn. It's large and clunky, barely able to move. He's little more than a walking target at this point. He's struggling so much just to hold that form he can't even regenerate his wounds, and he likely doesn't even have the mass to do both at once.

"So why?" One of Jackdaw's feet was severed, causing him to fall to his knees as Corvin continued slashing away. "Why would he possibly make such an inefficient form to fight me? Was he hoping to intimidate me into stopping? Using it as another way to try and convince me to see things his way?" He shook his head, his body spinning in the air as his blade severed the uninjured leg at the knee, causing Jackdaw to kneel closer to the ground. "No, that can't be it. He knows he already failed in that regard. So why? Why do something like this?"

Jackdaw's remaining arm shifted into a large blade, and attempted to cleave Corvin in half as he approached him. Corvin managed to easily avoid the blade due to its slowness, however, and he managed to sever the last limb at the shoulder. It fell to to ground as Corvin dashed to another pillar of stone, one that was conveniently placed in front of Jack's head. "Well, it doesn't matter," Corvin though as he raised his blade to Jackdaw's face. "He'd done. He can't continue fighting like this, not in this state."

It was almost a relief, in a way. He had been so worried, but it appeared that Jackdaw had made a large error. And Corvin was ready to capitalize on that error, and, with no hesitation at all, lifted his blade in order to finish Jackdaw.

But then something happened. It started with the red fissures on what was left of his body glowing intensely. Then his body began to expand, as if it was bloating. Corvin was at first confused by this, but then he saw that the mouth on Jackdaw's head had done its best interpretation of a smile. This along with the other signs was enough to clue Corvin in on what Jack was trying to do, and immediately tried to get as far away as possible. His efforts were fruitless, though. He didn't even get his feet off of the ground before Jackdaw's body burst open in an explosion of blood and viscera. The outward force produced by his body exploding may as well have been compared to a large bomb.

Atop the mast of the ship that kept those watching the battle on the island (with all of them having been reduced to horrified looks and mouth-opening awe at the display in front of them) sat a single, sharply-dressed man who also looked at the carnage taking place on the island. With it being the hour it was, the sun beat down directly on his head, and because of the hat he wore atop his bald head his face was obscured by its shadow. What was visible, however, was his red-slit eyes as he studied the devastation the two on that island were causing to each other.

"What a shame. What a terrible, terrible shame that it came to this." These words were said at about the same time Jackdaw's body self-destructed, the explosion creating a cloud of red mist that covered the entire island. "I'm sorry, Alfred. It seems not even this was enough."

A rift opened in the space behind him, blue light flooding out of it. The man with the red eyes stepped through, having seen enough. The rift closed behind him, leaving no evidence he or the portal had ever been there, and those below where he was were too enraptured by the spectacle before them to ever notice his presence.

A massive explosion tended to cause sever damage to a person's senses when they happened to be right next to said explosion. In Corvin's case, almost all of his senses had been destroyed in an instant. The pressure crushed his eyes, the explosion blew out his ear, the force tore away most of his face, his bones were crushed, and his organs liquefied. It was times like these that he thanked the fact that, while he felt enough to know all of this happened, he couldn't actually feel any pain as a response to this. He might have been screaming in terrible agony otherwise.

And then all of that damage healed without a moment's notice, with his body looking no worse for wear. He laid doubled over on all fours, hands and knees on the ground, wondering why he was seeing himself on the ground. It was then he realized that there was still large amounts of leftover viscera from Jackdaw's body, and that the explosion had somehow scattered the enormous pieced around Corvin in a circle. A veritable wall of flesh, as it were, and one whose circle was nearly as large as the island itself, and one high enough Corvin couldn't even see the top of the ship anymore. And because of this wall, most of the blood that had flooded from Jackdaw's body had been kept in by the circle, making it so Corvin was now standing in a ring of destroyed meat filled with enough blood that he couldn't see his feet past his ankles. Blood that was shining brightly at him due to the sun being directly above him, and of course there wasn't a cloud in the sky to obscure it.

Most would have likely screamed in shock from the sight. Corvin wouldn't have blamed them, as it was a grisly sight to see. He didn't have any reaction to it at all whatsoever. If anything it was a new experience to him that had him mildly surprised, but surprise soon regressed back to boredom of it due to the over-saturation of red.

To Corvin's curiosity the blood seemed to flash an even brighter red for a moment, and then receded back to its deep crimson. Corvin looked forwards to the other end of the ring, and to his great annoyance and disbelief he saw Jackdaw kneeling down in the pool of blood, a single hand under its surface. He was back to his normal body, one Corvin could hardly see due to his blood-red clothing blending in so well with the bloodied ground and walls, but otherwise looked unharmed. He stood up, tilted his neck to the side to release an audible crack! before stepping forwards.

Corvin sighed. He was hoping the explosion would have killed him, but then again he wasn't too surprised at him being alive, let alone fine. "If that was your entire strategy, Jackdaw, then you have let me down." Corvin walked towards the center with an equal pace to Jack's, face blank as his right arm shifted into a blade once more.

"If I had any feelings, Corvin, you would have hurt them dearly by now." Both of his arms shifted to claws, and his slow gait didn't lose a single step. "You can't imagine the experience of somebody very close to you trying to kill you without good reason. Oh, wait." A corner of his mouth turned up. "You would know that better than anybody, wouldn't you?"

Both rushed forwards at each other, splashing a trail of blood behind them as they locked their bladed limbs against each other. "When will you grow up?" Jack wondered, wrapping his claws around Corvin's blade. "It's sad, you know. Trying to replace your dead family with friends because you can't get over their deaths. Even sadder that you decided to sleep with the girl you substituted your sister for."

"So what?" Corvin kicked Jack in the chest, sending him sliding backwards. He didn't get the chance to right himself before Corvin dashed in front of him, slashing him along the chest and sending him falling backwards once more. When he tried to get up, Corvin stomped his foot onto his face, keeping him pinned as he repeatedly stabbed him in the chest over and over. He finally dug the blade deep enough into his chest to lift him off the ground and throw him to the other end of the pool, his body splashing down into the blood.

Jackdaw stood up from the ground, shaking his head at Corvin. "You never did tell them what I did to Laura. You didn't even tell the where we're actually from." Corvin saw the blood from the pool rise up into Jackdaw's chest, flooding into the wound as he used the blood to heal himself. It was gone a second later, looking as if nothing had happened to the chest in the first place. "And right after you promised them all to be so truthful, too. Didn't take you that long to lie again with that whole 'Laura's ghost' business, hm?"

"So what!?" A bladed tendril sailed towards Jackdaw's head, originating from Corvin's other arm. Jack just grabbed the appendage midair and pulled on it harshly, causing Corvin's body to fly towards him. Afterwards his arm grew in size, notably his fist, as he increased the amount of muscle in it to an absurd degree. He attempted to punch Corvin when he was close enough, but due to the fist being so heavy it was more of a slow flail. It had the same effect, though, as a miniature shockwave resounded off of it once it collided with Corvin, his body flying into a wall while the appendage Jack held snapped from Corvin's shoulder.

Corvin rose, the blood under him being fed into his body to repair any damage. There was a small amount of irritation floating around in him, and it was all due to Jackdaw's words. Even if they were true, he still disliked hearing them for whatever reason. But the ire soon faded away after a few moments, and Corvin soon replaced his missing arm with a clawed one.

"Well?" Jack asked. "Are we continuing?" His answer was meant with Corvin dashing towards him at unbelievable speeds, cutting both of Jackdaw's arms off in the process. He just rolled his eyes, the blood below him flowing into the wounds to create new arms which he used to crush Corvin's legs. The same process applied to Corvin.

This was the process it had turned to. They didn't even bother dodging each others' blows, as there was little point. Any limbs lost was quickly regenerated after consuming the blood they fought in. Any blood they spilled replenished the pool under them. It had turned into a grisly cycle of them cutting and crushing various parts of the other's body, and that body soon regenerating without issue. So yes, dodging at this point was a non-beneficial option. They both discovered the focus needed to even attempt such a move was better spent on dismembering the other, but, as time went on, it proved to be a futile effort.

And they both made quite an effort at injuring each other. Their bodies were a blur as they moved around each other, their arms almost never consistent as they changed weapons in the span of seconds. Sparks would occasional fly in random directions from blades meeting, shockwaves would periodically disrupt the pool of blood from fists meeting, and the walls would sometimes be scratched from a bladed whip missing its target. And the honest truth was that they didn't know how long this process went on. Couldn't have been more than an hour seeing as the sun was still visible in the sky, but it felt too long for it to have been mere minutes. And frankly, both of them didn't care about it at all.

But Corvin did eventually see the futility in the fight. The environment they fought in was set up almost perfectly to keep the fight going indefinitely. There wouldn't be an end to this until one of them just flat out gave up, and Corvin knew that Jackdaw would never give up in his goal. As for Corvin, he couldn't afford to give up. They couldn't exactly move, seeing as the ring almost completely encompassed the island. Corvin had entertained the idea of destroying a section of the wall and allowing the blood to drain out, but dismissed it as soon as he thought of the idea. They were far too thick for him to make any actual progress in the time he could buy from dismembering Jackdaw.

So then. That left only one option in order to end this stalemate. And he would have enacted on it had he not felt his entire body be pushed against the wall.

He gagged briefly, looking down at the massive blade that had impaled him through the chest and stuck him to the wall behind him. He immediately recognized the particular blade, and realized it was the same blade as the one Jackdaw had made during his phase as that giant creature. Jack must have fished it out from the walls and thrown it at him when he wasn't looking.

He felt a weight land on it, and looked up at Jackdaw walking slowly towards him on the thin edge of the blade. "If we're being honest here, Corvin, you don't even like half of the people on that ship. If fact, they annoy you so much you'd rather just kill them and be done with it than suffer months on a boat with them. Oh, but then the ones you actually care about would be horrified and never look at you the same way."

And there was that strange sensation of irritation again, causing him to shout "SO WHAT!?" once more. His fist collided with the flat end of the blade, shattering it and causing Jack to fall into the blood. Corvin then pushed himself off of the remains of the blade, falling onto his feet without taking his eyes off of Jackdaw. And afterwards he punted him across the pool, making sure to put as much force into the kick as he could without snapping it off.

Jackdaw collided into the wall at the end of the pool, his body bouncing off and falling down. He was only able to rise to his feet before he felt something go through his right shoulder and pin him to the wall he had just bounced off of. He looked towards Corvin, noticing one of his arms was missing while the other was turned to a blade. The missing one was soon replaced by a clawed arm, which he used to tear off his own bladed one. Corvin threw the severed arm at the same time Jackdaw figured out what he was doing, and could do nothing to avoid his other shoulder from being impaled and pinned to the wall.

It was then Corvin decided to do something that, in hindsight seemed like a bad idea, was the only thing he could think to do: he started to consume all of the blood they were standing in. Tendrils extended from his body to spread over the entire pool, the blood being soaked up and consumed into them. It appeared as if the entire ring was being drained of blood, and the tendrils fed the blood into Corvin's body. A body that he felt become heavier and heavier, as the action of just standing began to become a difficult task for him due to the sheer amount of biomass his body was accumulating.

Soon enough the ground around them was without a drop of blood, and all that was left to see was the gray of the rocks. The tendrils receded back into Corvin, who almost fell down due to the sheer amount of weight the biomass was exerting on him. He did try to take a single step forwards, but he found that doing so only caused his foot to sink into the stone. He felt his body try to force the excess biomass from his body to get rid of the weight, but Corvin forced himself to keep it all in. It wasn't without effort, though. He felt like he was holding a door closed and that on the other side of that door was an ocean's worth of water in a small room. He supposed those limits existed for a reason after all.

"You blind fool. Ya know, Corvin, there are two reasons why doing what you just did is probably the worst mistake you've ever made in your life." Corvin looked up to see Jackdaw standing a distance away from him, arms crossed as he gave him a displeased look. Yet, despite Corvin being highly immobile state, he didn't try attacking. He just stood there. "Reason number one: you can't move for shit like that," he said. "There's literally nothing stopping me from just jumping over to the ship over there and killing everybody."

Corvin would have retorted if he hadn't noticed something peculiar. All the biomass he had stored in his body felt... off. He felt it writhing withing him in a way he had never felt it before. It was churning in him too fast and violently, and it was growing oddly hot forever reason.

And then a tendril of pure biomass involuntarily shot out of Corvin's back, eliciting a cry of surprise from him. A sense of worry began to grow in him as well as a sick feeling when the biomass within him only churned and swirled harder while the heat increased. His body began to shake on its own, and tendrils began to slither all over his body.

"What... what's happening to me?" It was probably the closest thing he had felt to pain since the change. As if every single bit of biomass within him was trying to force its way out of his body, like every single cell within him was rebelling against him. It was an almost excruciating experience. "Why does... my body... my body is..."

"And that right there is the second reason." Jackdaw held up his own hand, tendrils twirling from his fingers. "Amazing thing, the ability to manipulate biology at will. You can do all sorts of things with it, after all. Like forcing cells to self-destruct." He turned his head to the side to avoid another tendril of biomass that shot from Corvin's body. "In case you didn't realize it by now, I booby-trapped all of that blood."

"Y-you... what...?" Corvin groaned, just as three more strands of biomass popped out of his body.

"What, you didn't notice that small flash in the blood right before we fought?" Jackdaw asked. Corvin's eyes widened when he did indeed remember such a thing. "So you did. Great. That was me inserting every single cell in that blood pool with information from my own cells. I mutated them to explode if enough of them were grouped together in a small enough space at once. And fortunately for me you couldn't possibly process all of those cells at once and override that coding due to the sheer volume of mass you consumed. In layman's terms, I just turned you into a bomb."

More and more strands shot from Corvin's body, who fell on the ground groaning as his skin started to ripple and boil. "You're not the only one who likes tricks," Jackdaw continued, "and I told you that I didn't teach you everything. This was my entire plan that was concocted in case you managed to get me on this island. You destroying that giant form, the ring around us being made from me blowing up, you consuming all that blood, all of it. And you fell into it so beautifully." And with that, he leaped into the air, gliding past the walls that surrounded Corvin.

And Corvin, for his part, could only scream. Scream at Jackdaw for the trickery he played, scream in pain as his body began to tear itself apart, and scream at himself in frustration for falling for such a thing. And that was all he could do. Because the second Jackdaw disappeared behind the walls of flesh Corvin's body exploded.

Jackdaw hummed to himself, surveying the devastation around him. He was fortunate to have been able to jump behind the walls before the blast went off, otherwise he would have been caught in it. They were gone now, though. The explosion had blasted them away and into the ocean, where they were now being dissolved. All Jack saw left of them were giant plumes of steam billowing up from the ocean where they fell in.

He shrugged. They served their purpose, after all. They managed to seal all that blood in and force Corvin to consume it all, and they managed to seal Jackdaw from Corvin exploding.

And speaking of Corvin, there he was in the center of the island. Kneeling on his knees and unable to move. His legs were a shredded, bleeding mess, and that was the best part of his body. Both of his arms were gone along with most of his upper torso. There was almost no flesh to be seen, and absolutely no organs. There was more bloodied bone than actual flesh, and even then half of his ribs were missing. His head was even worse; no lower jaw, all the flesh, muscle, and hair blow away away to reveal nothing but a bloodied skull, and his left eye socket was the only one that had an eye in it. It truly was a pathetic state, and one Jackdaw knew he wouldn't be able to recover from immediately. All of biomass had just been blow away, after all, which meant he couldn't regenerate any of those wounds.

"I tried to warn ya, Corvin. I tried to tell you fightin' me was a bad idea. Now look at yourself." He gripped what was left of Corvin's throat and raised his ghastly body into the air. He could resist. He didn't have any muscle left to move. "I didn't want to do this, you know, and I'm sorry that it came to this. I really am. It would have been so much better if you would have just listened to me. But it's fine. Now I can consume you and kill those on board. Those so-called 'friends' of yours." His remaining free hand turned into a claw, sunlight gleaming off of the blades as he poised to strike.

"Once you calm down, Corvin, and finally see some sense, I'll give you back control of the body. And then things can go the way they were meant to. Living whatever way we see fit and being happy without being burdened by others. Just the two of us, forever and ever, you and I."

A/N- It's weird that I always have literal speeches planned out for these author notes but by the time I get to them I have almost nothing to say. Maybe it's because I just want to finish the thing and post it. Who knows?

Anyway, look, a gripping cliffhanger with tension, probably the only one this story has been able to produce so far because Corvin was able to just steamroll through every single threat effortlessly. The story is going in a direction where there will be less of that, believe me, and what that means is up to your own interpretations. You'll just have to wait and see.