The Last Circle-Chapter 12: Warring Beasts

Nameless stood under the arching pillars, hiding close to the wall as he peered around it, watching as the hellbound beast fought off the avian beast. It wasn't clear which side was winning, for both creatures demonstrated an admirable will to live; untold strength; the will to triumph.

He watched with glimmering eyes, amused by the fight. This was his first time seeing the creatures of Hell fighting each other, and needless to say, it was a grand sight.

Nameless studied the beasts, trying to discern any potential weaknesses. He first took his attention to the greater hellbound beast.

Like the others, it possessed red dots for eyes all over its black, furry body. But that was where the similarities ended. In fact, even the similarities had their own notable differences.

For instance, it had at least ten times as many eyes as its lesser versions, and it had twenty arms, rather than the usual nine—ten of which it used to support its own weight. Unlike its lesser, the body was not spherical, but rather shaped much like that of a bear's, with a sharply arched back, and it was at least twice the size. Coiling ivory horns, weathered and fractured, protruded from a small lump that Nameless could only assume was a head, which was the next notable feature.

The lesser variants were, simply put, just a giant furry ball with hands and a mouth weaved into their frame. However, the greater variant possessed a neck, a comedically disproportionally small head when compared to its body and horns, and its fangs were always revealed with its rictus.

Nameless sighed, surprisingly calm. 'At the very least, it has to be a Transgressor... What are its weak points though? It's stronger, faster, bigger... maybe even smarter?'

Perhaps, though he had yet to witness a degree of intelligence amongst the creatures. He focused on the flying beast, able to take notice of more features that he couldn't before.

Its long, sharp, golden beak possessed blood-stained teeth laid inside, easily larger than Nameless himself. If he thought this hellbound beast was big, then this creature was giant, so much so, that he wasn't even sure if it could stand in the wide arena, given that it chose to keep itself airborne. Its talons were graphite black, as sharp as a sword, and could still grab the hellbound beast in one, albeit, it couldn't fully wrap around. Its fiery colours looked like living flame, often glowing and dimming, its snake-like tail was covered in scales that resembled the carapace of a turtle's shell.

Again, he wondered where the weakness lay with the beast, but perhaps there was none. After all, what leverage was there to exploit when he didn't have any means to do so? He lacked a weapon—save for the crude one that was a sharp rock he found on his way here—the Shard of Sin was merely a wannabe cloak, and his [Gaze of the Cleansing Fire] attribute wasn't capable of killing.

'Devil Tier attribute my ass!'

The bell rung, but he was preoccupied with planning how he would be able to kill either creature in the case of neither dying. In fact, it was imperative that he found a way, since the most ideal situation would be him stealing the kill. After all, as far as he was concerned, artifacts were only obtained in one of three ways: Finding them scattered about as ground loot, killing a creature of Hell, or by uncovering a secret... and he doubted finding anymore secrets for a long while.

'There has to be something,' he reassured himself, frowning as he thought hard about it.

But seeing that nothing was exactly coming to mind, he decided to climb once again, wondering if a change in perspective would help.

Surely there was something he could do... right?

Or was he being too ambitious right now? Of course, he could always just pass on the opportunity...

'Shut up!' he told his voice of doubt, wearing a snarl as he struggled to climb with his aching, wounded hands and feet. 'This is your one chance to make use of this situation! You're not giving up!'

Despite the burning pain in his limbs, he pulled himself to the top of the pillars, nearly knocked off by the gusts of wind sent by the avian beast's outstretched wings. Luckily, he was quick to lay low, crawling over to check up on the warring creatures.

Despite the avian beast being the natural predator of the hellbound beast, it was clear that it still struggled in this fight. More often than not, its attempts to grab its prey were useless, since the hellbound beast's strength was more than enough to easily break free of its grasp.

Sometimes, the tides would switch. The hellbound beast would take to the offensive, grabbing the avian beast by his talons and trying to bring it down.

No matter how one looked at it, both sides were wearing each other down, and perhaps that was the opportunity Nameless needed, though he needed a way to enact on it fast.

'But even so,' he held a pensive gaze on the fight, covering his eyes from all the dust flying around, 'I need to be careful even when they're weakened.'

He watched as the hellbound beast suffered many extinguished eyes thanks to the talons, along with a couple arms severed, sent flying off. The avian beast pressed on with its attack, resorting to pecking at its prey with its pointy beak, taking out more eyes one by one.

In a desperate attempt to spare itself, the hellbound beast grabbed the beak with its remaining arms, letting itself drop to the ground as it promptly flipped the strange chicken over its back, slamming it into the pillars behind.

What an entertaining sight.

Although, it did prove interesting to Nameless, seeing that the avian beast was now struggling to pick itself back up. He watched as the hellbound beast relentlessly rushed over, violently slamming its giant arms against the beak, though that still proved largely ineffective. In fact, it even ended up with the hellbound beast wounding itself more so than the chicken, ending up with its own arms stabbed in its frenzy.

At least that answered the question about whether or not the creature was smart.

The avian beast, however, had enough and with one powerful flap, it sent not just the hellbound beast flying up, but also the stone pillars, fully intact. Quickly, it turned over and stood back up, before leaping back to its original spot, more fond of the open area, resuming the fight as the hellbound beast crashed back down into the ground.

But Nameless had his attention grabbed by the flying pillars. He hoped that they would land on either one of the creatures, but instead, and one by one, they stacked atop one another, creating tall towers.

'That's a shame,' so he thought, ignoring the fighting beasts. 'Would've been a lot better if those heavy rocks fell straight onto...'

He paused, raising a brow as he stared at their bases, seeing that they were sturdily set atop as he thought:

'I won't be able to push them down. They're too sturdy... There's gotta be something... Maybe I can throw rocks from up there?'

If that was his next course of action, he'd need a really big rock—something incredibly heavy—to make absolute certainty that dropping it on the beasts would kill them, rather than draw their aggression. But even before that, where would he even find such a rock? All the ones nearby were either reduced to mere pebbles or remained as just one big pillar.

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He ran a hand through his hair, letting the constant roaring and caws fill the silence of his thoughts.

What could he do? What could he do?

A few moments of contemplating passed, and his eyes widened just as his mouth went agape. He had a plan. One that he wasn't sure would work, but he had to try regardless. After all, there was no better plan—or rather, there wasn't any other one to follow.

And so it was that he started running, making way towards the towers of black stone, while the beasts ensuing chaos only grew louder and more ferocious with each second.