Warped

Chapter 43: Jesse

"Jesse!" Lukas's call rattles as I pull myself away from the blissful emptiness and back to the pounding resonating from every freshly squeezed organ and splattered muscle. "Jesse, are you okay?"

A whine leaks through at the question, most of my organs- heck, most of my body- whimpering in newfound bruises and tenderness. I give an attempt to move, but my bones throb from the crash into the ground. Even with the monster strengthened limbs, I think I broke a rib or two. I can't really tell with everything pulsing in the same tune of agony.

Claws scrap against my leathery skin, clutching at my very sore shoulder and tugging at it. I grit my teeth, flashes of pain and anger burning through the tiredness. But I did my job, that beast has a few nasty slashes in it. It'll go down soon, I doubt-

"C'mon Jesse." Lukas tugs at me again, my fury glaring at him, only to whittle away at his groggy words that are still so desperate. "We need you, that thing is too much for us. We need you. We can't lose. Please, Jesse, don't let them win."

For a spilt second I saw my friends in the grasp of that nightmare, struggling but helpless. My heart roars and a snarl blasts out of my mouth, fury burning away all the pain as I push myself back to my feet. How dare these demons try to pull us back into hell! They are nothing! They don't get to do that! I'm not letting them!

I raise my head, stopping to curse my eyes when I only see the fuzzy image of that winged brute. I claw down into the depths of my mind, grabbing at every part of the monster I've kept buried, screaming at it to wake up. I wasn't strong enough when I didn't use all the monster, I'm not making the same mistake.

I blink, strength and fury radiating from the once throbbing limbs. My eyes lock onto that devil, burning into my mind, and a roar rips from my mouth. All my rage poured into it, bellowing my hatred to the demon. Wailing out a death match with it, sealing it in the sky and earth. Booming out defiance to its strength, that I am the stronger one and I will beat it to a pulp.

The beast shrieks, tossing a body aside and snapping up in the air. I bare my teeth and sprint at it, gravity lessening and skin thickening. It screeches and flys to me, scaly arms outstretched to slash at me. But play time's over, it's time to kill a devil.

I force gravity to surrender its control, leaping way above the demon. A cry of confusion pops from it, wings quickly pushing down for upward lift. I face it head on, straining my talons out, and let gravity rip me down. One wing folds up as the beast tries to dodge. I screech in triumph when my talons tear into the unfurled wing, clawing to get past the thick scales to rip through the membrane.

The beast roars and spasms, flinging me off. I quickly force gravity off me again, stopping a mere foot above the air before letting myself drop. Enraged pain shrieks blare through the air, above the screams of the battle, furiously flapping its wings to properly land on the ground. I growl and smirk when I see blood drip from my talons. I couldn't tear all the way through the wings, but Mr. Dragon won't be very graceful in the air anymore.

We stand facing each other, every second I glare into his twisted purple eyes I get that more furious, enraged that he could think to even-

Wait. . . his face, there's something familiar about it. It mostly scales, but-

The beast roars at me, charging on all fours. I snarl at myself and sprint to him, rearing back my arm to slash him. Heat thumping with my sight sharpened and locked in on that wretched demon.

I jump to the side, my talons only slightly tearing at the scales before the wing thrusts out. I flop to the ground, springing up and bury my talons past the scales and into his soft organs.