Chapter 10: Mackus, The Lord of Failure
"OH FUCK!" Dane cried as the bull monster that was once Mr. Mackey charged at them. The new kid quickly grabbed Butters and Kenny and jumped out of the way, Craig did the same, running toward one of the edges of the arena, hoping that Mackey wouldn't try charging at him and fall into the red abyss below. Said bull-monster stopped his charge and abruptly jumped toward the boy, his arc curving toward a landing that would crush the foul-mannered student beneath his new heavy form. Craig nimbly dashed out of the way, leaving Mackey roaring angrily in a puff of smoke. He then glared at Dane.
"WAY TO SAVE ME YOU ASSHOLE!" He yelled.
"Hey I can only carry two people! Plus I figured you would dodge it!" Only the first half was true, Dane was acting fully on instinct in that moment and grabbed the two closest to him, though he wouldn't let Craig know that for fear of making him angrier. "Besides I think we have a bigger problem! What the fuck is happening right now, anyway?! Is this normal for him?" Dane asked, looking toward the two nearest to him.
"(While he does get pissed when we do stuff like this, it had NEVER been on this level, and even then I don't think he could've done this before. Either something's possessed him or he's using some sort of supernatural thing to finally punish us. Regardless we need to defeat him. Got any ideas, Dane?)" Kenny answered, looking at him intensely, as was Butters. This was something they had never encountered before, sure, they'd been in plenty of dangerous situations, but most of the time they tricked their enemies into losing or had done something else to make them lose, or hell sometimes they just let what happened happened, they had also fought other kids. But this was different. This was a full-blown monster that wanted them dead. What were they supposed to do? Both were truly afraid for their lives.
Dane too had never dealt with something like this, and was also afraid but he managed to keep a clear head and glared at the monster as he had emerged from the cloud of dust and was now headed towards them. "I'll keep him distracted, you guys search for the utility room the hall monitors mentioned, there's bound to be something there that can take this thing down-" Before he could finish Kenny slapped him. "You idiot! That didn't work last time! And this WAY worse! We need a plan that's less suicidal!" Before they could start debating, the Mackey monster roared and charged at them. Everyone yelped and ran out of his path, narrowly avoiding getting crushed. The trio were now split up, with Kenny and Butters to its right and Dane to its' left.
The monster fixated on Butters and Kenny, preparing to smash them with it's fist, raising it high in the air. Before the monster could bring down though, Dane threw his cattle prod into the Mackey monster's eye. He then jumped onto Mackey's head and grabbed hold of the punishment tool, turning it on and electrocuting the monster, who screamed in pain and tried to grab the child, but Dane had already jumped off and was beginning to run away. Mackey turned towards him and growled as he ripped the cattle prod out of his bleeding eye socket and crushed it in his hands, his eye regenerating nearly instantly. He then roared and charged after Dane.
"Run! Find the room! I'll be fine!" The new kid yelled as he narrowly dodged a punch from Mackey. The two were reluctant, how could they leave a friend alone with such a terrible beast?
"Don't worry, I got his back."
The two jumped and turned to see that Craig had walked over to their side of the arena. "I owe him one for rescuing me, plus I want revenge on Mackey for all the shit he put me through. You two go and find the utlity room, we'll be fine." Craig then drew his wooden daggers and ran toward the monster. Reluctantly, the two remaining boys ran in the opposite direction. They soon reached the northern edge of the arena.
"(How the fuck are we supposed to find the ultility room?! There's no way off this thing!)" Kenny complained, looking around at the other chunks of the school that had gotten sucked into the void with the boys. There weren't any stairs or ladders to connect these stolen educational chambers. Just as the two began to lose hope, a deep, rumbling voice cut through their thoughts and filled their heads.
"Do not give up yet, netherborn and ill-fated child. I shall light the path for thee so yon allies need not perish." As soon as the voice finished, a fiery emblem was burned into the ground near where they were standing, a staircase made of molten metal materialized and led to another floating fragment of the school. "Go forth, and find the tools to smite thine enemy!"
Needless to say, Butters and Kenny were confused.
They were shocked out of their confusion when Mackey roared. The two looked over and witnessed Craig rapidly stabbing of Mackey's unprotected arms with one of his sharpened wooden daggers, causing blood to stream of it. Dane meanwhile was hammering his face with punches while standing on top of Mackey's head. With another roar Mackey spun around with the speed of a tornado, shaking the two boys off. Dane landed shakily, but managed to stay on his feet, breathing heavily. Craig wasn't so lucky, landing in a heap of the western side of the arena and nearly falling off. He scrambled to his feet and faced Mackey, his eyes burning with defiance. The bull man glared daggers at him, his anger reaching new heights. Craig spat to the side. "What, you thought killing me would be that easy? C'mon, Mackey, you know me well enough by now to know I wouldn't go out like a bitch. I can take whatever you can dish out." Craig then brought up his right arm and placed his folded left arm under it, then brought it down to face in front of him, brandishing his middle finger. "SO COME ON! GIVE ME YOUR BEST SHOT BITCH!"
Mackey released a roar that would make a lion cower and charged at Craig, who stood ready with his daggers. As Mackey got closer, lowering his head to impale Craig with his horns, the rogue jumped up onto his head and stabbed the wooden knives into Mackey's eye sockets, deeper than Dane did with his cattle prod. Mackey howled in pain as his vision went dark. Craig then snapped off the handles and jumped off of Mackey's head as the transformed counselor screamed and thrashed about. kicking up dust.
"Huh, guess we don't need those weapons after all." Dane said as he, Kenny and Butters then began walking back to the arena.
"YEAH! HOW DO YOU LIKE THAT YOU BIG HEADED FU-" Craig began to taunt, but before he could finish, Mackey sharply turned his way and released a sound blast from his mouth, knocking Craig off the arena and into the face-filled abyss below. Mackey then sniffed around and locked his eyeless gaze onto them, growling as the wooden blades in his eyes began to burn away from the red energy now crawling across eye sockets, mending his damaged flesh and disintegrating all foreign matter.
"Shit...okay, you two go! I'll distract him!" Dane said, walking toward Mackey, who glared at him with his still-mending eyes and got ready to fight, his body shaking with angry breaths and steam-like air coming out of his nostrils.
"DANE!" Butters cried and tried to go after him, but Kenny grabbed his shoulder and gave him a stern stare.
"(Relax, he's got this. He wouldn't do this if he didn't think he had a chance.)"
Butters looked down and looked up at his new friend, then ascended the smoldering staircase with Kenny. "He's right, Dane's got this for now. I'm sure he'll be fine."
"WHAT AM I DOING?!" Dane asked himself as he walked toward Mackey. "I HAVE NO PLAN, NO BACKUP, AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, NO WEAPON!"
As the distance closed between them, Dane began to sweat, Mackey's eyes had almost completely healed and once they did, he would most likely turn Dane into paste within a matter of minutes, then probably hunt down his friends. He had to think of something that would buy them time and keep himself alive. Looking around frantically, he took note of the floating fragments of the school all around them and came up with an idea...but it was one hell of a gamble.
The two were now only a few apart from one another and Mackey's eyes were alomost completely healed. Dane got into a fighting stance and waited for Mackey's first attack.
By the time he reached Dane, the counselor's eyes were fully healed, he now gazed upon his new prey and snorted, a grin forming on his face. He then drew up his arm and prepared to smash the boy, he then brought it down, smashing the ground beneath and sending up dust clouds. When they cleared, Mackey expected to see a puddle of gore, but instead he only saw a crater where Dane once stood.
"OVER HERE!"
Mackey turned around and saw Dane running away, toward the edge of the arena. That little rat must've slipped between his legs when he was preparing his attack! The bull-man roared and charged after him, determined to not only kill him, but EAT him so Dane's putrid existence would have no trace except in his excrement!
"OH SHIT! OH SHIT! OH SHIT! IT LOOKS LIKE THAT ONLY MADE HIM ANGRIER! I HOPE THIS WORKS!" Dane thought frantically as the he neared the edge of the arena. Once he was right on the edge, he jumped off, closed his eyes, and prayed he was right...
When he felt the impact on the ground he opened his eyes, he had landed on one of the fragments, just like he planned.
Well..."plan" wasn't the right word, more like guessed and prayed to god he was right, and he was, turns out. "Alright, now I have more room to run from Mackey, speaking of which, where is he?" Dane looked around and didn't see him anywhere. "Huh, guess he didn't jump like I did, he probably didn't think I was stupid enough to jump off the side of the arena." Dane then grinned and went to the edge of the fragment. "HA! Serves you right you big headed wimp! Even when you were a monster you couldn't even compare to a ten-year old!"
Just as he finished a huge roar sounded from below and a red beam of light emerged from below, breaking the arena above and shattering it into even more pieces. The red light then exploded and covered the pieces, as well as Dane's landing place and several other larger fragments nearby. They then rearranged themselves into what looked like a road, with a large fragment placing itself behind Dane's landing place as the starting point.
"What the fu-" But Dane was interrupted when a huge stuck landed, with exhaust pipes sticking out of the engine and curling to face out the sides of the front, spewing clouds of smog. It also had green paint job with sharp, black designs that reminded Dane of a string of mountains. Emblazoned on the grill was the word PUNISHER with a bull's head with horns serving as the U. Mackey was inside, steam rising from his nostrils in clouds of smoke, rivaling the exhaust pipes of his vehicle. Dane immediately broke into a run, causing Mackey to roar and hit the gas, chasing Dane down the new road.