The Man-Beast squirmed in her grasp as she flew, which was making it impossible to keep a hold of, as they streaked across the night sky. With only one hand, which in turn only had two fingers, Belladonna was limited in her options.

Her hand was once more around its throat, this time making sure to keep her hand away from the mouth, as she kept the savage Man-beast at arms length. But without stunning it with a variety of punches, it had full awareness and control of its hands.

Instead of attacking her arm, which would have been the smarter action, this Man-Beast operated on pure feral instincts, which meant the target for its claws was her face. Belladonna winced, pulling her head back with every swipe, just barely avoiding the claws, but there was nothing she could do about her chest.

Over and over its flailing feet slammed and kicked into her ruined torso, its foot catching right in the still healing gashes, and sending shocks of pain through her body every time. Every kick felt like getting stabbed in the ribs with a cattle prod turned up to max. And that was with the pain reduction.

If it was real, there was a high chance she could have easily passed out from shock. She just hoped that all of this pain was worth it, and that her flaring light show would draw the attention of whatever guards remained, so that they would actually come and help her. Even if just as her second course.

Out of no where, there was a small stabbing pain in the back of her hand, more than just the regular pain she was feeling throughout her body, as the crystal that was usually on her other hand - the hand she no longer had - sprouted from the back of her remaining hand.

It immediately pulsed, blaring a notification in her face that Belladonna barely had a chance to read, before a clawed hand swiped through it. She pulled her head back, enough to stop it from stabbing into her brain, but still felt the claw slicing through her face and ripping out her eye on the way past.

Letting out a scream of pain and anger, Belladonna gritted her teeth and angled herself downwards, sending them both crashing into the ground. By a miracle, or sheer force of will, Belladonna kept hold of that throat with just her two fingers as she dragged the Man-beast through the dirt until they finally stopped.

Her vision was split in half. One eye seeing clearly, the other mixed black and red. But that was enough.

Swiping the blinding notification out of her face with her stump arm and cast [Shade Claw] on the remaining arm. The claw burst out of Belladonna’s finger and pierced straight through the Man-beasts throat where she held it. It let out a choked gasp, before Belladonna yelled again and ripped her hand back.

Its throat tore open, spraying hot life-wine across Belladonna’s ruined face, as the crimson delight poured from the gaping wound like a red waterfall.

Belladonna immediately lunged forwards with her mouth wide, sinking her teeth into its throat and starting to guzzle down the blood gushing out with every choked gargle, like she was some frat boy shot gunning beers.

Once she was healed, she would finish this thing off and go help Beans out, to even his fight out. The moment the blood touched her tongue, she could already feel its effects starting to take effect and-

Belladonna immediately pulled away in disgust, staggering away from the Man-beast before hunching over, as she violently hacked up the blood that she had so eagerly drunk, until she forced herself to vomit.

Her throat was on fire, and she had never tasted something so rancid and putrid before in her life. More than that, she could feel her body physically reject it, her wounds actually getting worse in those brief seconds she had been drinking, instead of healing as if her body was attacking itself in some twisted attempt to undo the damage that blood was doing.

Hacking up the last of it, Belladonna wiped her mouth and clutched at her side, which had opened up the wounds that it had previously healed. Her eyes, filled with confusion and a hint of fear, turned to the Man-beast laying on the ground, spasming as it gargled on its blood.

That was, until the wound across its throat started to heal.

The blood waterfall cut off, and the wound rapidly stitched itself back together at a rate even faster than Belladonna’s own. It was like the zipper of a coat, closing up in the span of a second, as it stopped spasming.

’W-what the hell are you...’ She stammered her mind, as the Man-beast started to sit up again and locked its hungry eyes on her.

Belladonna flinched, staggering back and raising her hand in an attempt at a defensive stance, her breathing wheezing and strained, her body feeling heavy and utterly exhausted as her veins were filled with more adrenaline than blood at this point.

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[ALERT! BIO READING EMERGENCY DETECTED! BIO READING EMERGENCY DETECTED!

EJECTION IN 3 SECONDS!]

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A new notification blasted into Belladonna’s face, the text box flashing bright red as an alarm sounded in her head. Her eyes widened in horror as she read over the words, before they promptly rolled into the back of her head.

Like a puppet whose strings had been cut, Belladonna went completely limp and collapsed to the ground as her mind was ripped from this body.

The Man-beast rose to its feet, licking its lips eagerly as it eyed up the defenceless morsel. It didn’t think if this was a trick of playing dead, or what had happened. It didn’t care, nor think at all. All it knew was hunger, and it lunged forwards to satiate that hunger. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

***

Valerie’s eyes snapped open as she tried to gasp for air, but instead liquid poured down her throat. A fresh, warm liquid with a metallic tinge.

She quickly sat up, turning over in her chair and collapsing out of it. She slammed into the ground and sprawled across the floor, as she hacked up blood for the second time in five minutes. But this time it was her own blood, and it wasn’t the only thing on the floor either.

Clumps of white dotted the pool of crimson, as Valerie’s eyes widened in horror as she saw her teeth filling the puddle. Then the pain began.