NOTE: this part of the story takes place 7 days after where Ren is currently at the time. Sorry for the random time skip I'll come back to Ren after this little thing is done.
Anyways hope you enjoy :)
The moon glowed an eerie orange that blighted the sky with fear.
Across the cobblestone pavement, Lloyd strolled across the burning moonlight toward the city gates. All around him, soldiers rushed up to their places on top of the city walls and loaded their guns. The two wardens guarding the city gates stepped aside to let them pass. They stepped down from the grass into the jungle canopy. piles of red leaves scattered across the mud, like dark pools of blood. Images of ravens appeared on top of bamboo branches and disappeared like fog on a cold day. In between every direction the thundering footsteps of spirits and ghosts came beating by.
Lloyd's right hand melted into a shifting orb of biomass and then split into a hydra of serrated jaws. On the other hand, a bright burst of shadowflame singed into a tome plastered with dark pink leather with an amber gem embedded on the cover surrounded by demonic runes. The thundering footsteps echoed louder and louder with trees shaking on end. Behind the huge mahogany trees, they could see dark spindly limbs peeking through the underbrush and the orange glow of nightmare fuel. Lloyd slowly stepped toward the impending danger as the legions of harvest ghosts shredded through the bushes and faced them dead in the eye.
Several dozens of splinterlings stalked toward him, with possessed scarecrows hopping behind like crucified corpses. In the center of the legion stood a huge mourning wood, branches twitching and face grinning with despair. Lloyd quickly steadied his body and in a flash, bolted toward the spirits, the ground behind him peeling over.
The splinterlings lunged toward them, clawing and biting furiously. The jaws on his arm hooked into them and ripped half of all of them in a matter of seconds, all the while the mourning wood was lobbing acidic blobs of pumpkin guts. They then bolted toward the scarecrows, ripping away at the mannequin figures like a pack of rabid dogs. Right after the scarecrows were nothing with torn cloth and cotton, the mourning wood summoned a hoard of hellhounds and poltergeists. They hunted in dark fashion, trying to pull on Lloyd's limbs and dismember him, while the poltergeist tried to pace rocks and tree thunks into them.
(*SLAM*)
A boulder was thrown right toward their body, sending Lloyd flying away from the hounds and into a tree, the rock smashing and breaking through his chest. The jaws immediately formed a giant claw and threw the gigantic stone aside. Lloyd snapped open the tome as swiveling scythes of beast magic flew out between each page. The razors slashed through everything in its path until there was nothing but finely cut pieces that drifted away into nightmare fuel. The mourning wood didn't fret at all, just snickered in pleasure and began to fire more wood debris.
Well, that hurts...
Lloyd healed the hole in his body and jumped over the withered tree. It began to swipe at them with its hexed arms, trying to seize them in the air. Lloyd hopped and swung over the tree and ripped down all its arms, all while the jaws slowly beat the woods in half. Shrieking with fury, the mourning wood slammed its branches down and swung them over the canopy. They quickly latched tendons onto the nearby trees, hanging him in the air like a fly stuck within a web. They unhinged their pair of jaws and a blinding beam of shadowflame rushed out like a strike of lightning sent by the gods. The beam left a sizzling streak of fire over the mourning wood's face that eventually set the entire tree on flame. The tendons slung Lloyd toward the burning tree, using their arms to pry open his burnt face, and broke the bark in two.
Lloyd stepped down from the fallen corpse and readied himself for more. Splinterlings jumped out of the trees as a stampede of more hellhounds and poltergeists came rushing out. The jaws on their hand retracted and out came a long chain of flesh lined with rows of teeth. The chain rallied the spirits together and punctured through their bodies in a line, followed by another set of beast scythes. They blew another beam of shadowflame that split the ground into halves, alongside burning everything down by the eldritch blaze.
The spirits did not care. They seemed unaware of the imminent carnage facing them directly in the eyes and still ran right into their deaths. Lloyd became intrigued by their behavior. They tried to kill them as gruesomely as possible, splitting them in half with their bare hands, but it did not affect any of them. Another mourning wood crept at them, which was fried by another shadowbeam and hacked in half by the chain.
Suddenly, a large thud rattled down in the distance. Lloyd turned behind and searched for the noise. A flock of parrots frantically flew out of the area as another thud slammed down. They swung up a branch and spied above the blanket of greenery. Only several meters away, a tall stalk of bamboo slowly collapsed down to the ground. The swift noise of a blade swung through, and two more stalks fell down. A deep, sadistic laugh echoed out and peered into their souls.
I know that laugh...
From the understorey arose a harvest demon like none other. Its head was a rotting pumpkin carved with 3 different faces, a nightmare fog reeking out the eyes and mouths. Warts and infested orifices bled through the gourd's skin, along with vine wrappings that hung its head down by its decayed body that levitated in the air. A bloodstained, purple tattered cloak was draped down the spirit's body with long arms made out of forest trunks and vines sitting underneath. Both of the spirit's arms were bound to an iron sickle enchanted with nightmare energy. The pumpking's mangled grin sharpened as it threw its sickles toward them.
The blades easily cleaved through anything in their path, beheading trees and stalks of bamboo while they slash with insanity. Lloyd tried their best to evade the swings, dashing onto branch after branch, throwing beast scythes every chance they got, which little by little loosened the vines.
(*sNAP*)
One of the twigs broke through the weight and sent Lloyd falling down. They quickly kicked off their shoe as a storm of bloody jaws ripped out their foot and locked onto a sequoia trunk. The ropes swiveled them around the thick pillar, giving Lloyd just enough force to catapult him toward the Pumpking. They retracted the jaws back and landed a straight kick down the Pumpking's first face, squishing it down to bits. It became shunned and began to tumble in the air for a few seconds before its head twisted around to show a more ghoulish face.
The sickle blades became enflamed with burning harvest magic. Each sway of the demon's arms created a mirage that spawned a replicant of the sickles made out of magic, which spun and homed at Lloyd. Their hand shifted to a large slab of flesh with quite efficiently blocked the flaming sickles down. The Pumpking, however, became quite amused by this. It dug its sickles down the barrier and began to stab it with joy before it broke down. The loose chunks of muscle rained down on Lloyd and gave the Pumpking just enough distraction to cleave them right down the middle, from head to chest.
Lloyd squirmed below the branches and into a mudded clearing in the forest, motionless. But only after a minute they stood back up, the two halves of their body dangling from their legs. Lloyd twitched their arms up and simply pushed his head back together, the skin and tendon binding back together.
(*cough*)...so...that's how you want to play?...fine.
A streak of hellfire struck their hand and out emerged a trident made of hellstone rods bent together to resemble a demonic hand. Brimstone slags were forged on the hilt and guard and engraved with infernal runes that spelled out N. Lloyd spun it around and seized it, the metal burning away at their hand. They crouched down and leaped all the way up to the Pumpking, streaks of shadowflame drifting out their eyes. The Pumpking looked in confusion and instantly regretted it after the trident fired a spark of inferno and burned down all the vines of its arms like the wick of a bomb. The loose trunks declined and broke free of the scythes, making the Pumpking limbless and defenseless. The thing twisted its head around once more, showing a surprised face as it tried to flee.
Oh, no you don't.
Lloyd jumped on top of the Pumpking and cut the vines attaching it to its head, causing the Pumpking's pumpkin to spin away with Lloyd on it. The head spat out rows of fireballs while they tried to climb up to the front of the face of the demon. The fireballs stuck to their skin but barely stung at all. With one simple jab, Lloyd pierced the trident down into the Pumpking's mouth and fire another inferno spark into the head.
(*BOOOOOOM*)
The implosion sent Lloyd flying away into the trees while pumpkin guts and burnt vines flew out forth.
Happi rlly late Halloween lmao
