"Ew, what the hell are you looking at, Long? Jesus, I think I'm gonna hurl."
A tall figure with familiar sun-kissed skin sat perched on the edge of Long's desk.
"Let me join you," Long replied, narrowing his eyes as he stared at the illustration in the textbook with undisguised disgust. "Do we seriously have to study this thing next period?"
The boy covered his eyes with both hands, groaning miserably:
"AAA, I'd rather die! You know I have trypophobia! Ugh!"
Seeing the other's exaggerated reaction, Long couldn't help but burst into laughter. That smile blended with the afternoon sunlight streaming through the window frame, so radiant and pure that it silenced the observer, as if they had just witnessed the smile of an angel.
...
"Why... am I suddenly remembering that moment?"
Long murmured in a lazy voice, but a faint, nostalgic smile still lingered on his lips.
"That move earlier was sick."
Lucas's voice rang out, pulling Long back to reality. Unnoticed, the young assassin was squatting beside the monster's mangled corpse, giving Long a thumbs-up in sheer admiration.
Lucas's gaze shifted from the mutilated, unmoving pile of flesh, confirming the monster showed no signs of regeneration. He signaled all clear and slowly walked towards his teammates. Seeing this, Long let out a sigh of relief and followed behind.
As he strode past the massive carcass, Long's eyes were glued to Lia's small figure in the distance. Watching her struggle to wipe the stream of blood running down her chin, his heart clenched with heartache.
But his attention was brutally cut short.
Thud!
A slimy, ice-cold hand suddenly shot out from the pile of gore, gripping his ankle like a vice, refusing to let go.
Long startled and whipped his head down. The scene before him made his scalp tingle.
General Och's thick, warty back skin was cracking open in large patches with sickening squelch... squelch... sounds. From within those raw, red fleshy cavities, dozens of tiny, slimy toad heads, identical to the original, began to poke out.
All at once, they opened their wide, yellow eyes, fixing a hateful glare straight onto his face.
Terrified, Long looked up, seeking help. through his shaking vision, he saw Lucas had already spun around. The teenager's jaw was clenched tight, the twin blades in his hands gleaming, ready to strike.
But it was all too late.
The image of his teammate vanished, swallowed by a massive, pitch-black shadow crashing down.
"LONG!!!"
Lucas's scream echoed back then was cut short.
Dozens of young toads, each the size of a grown man, leaped in unison. They blotted out the dungeon ceiling, forming a slimy wall of flesh before crashing down like a flash flood.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The weight of tons of meat crushed down, burying Long completely within a mountain of raw, slimy flesh, cutting off all connection with the outside world.
Lucas's figure shot forward like an arrow, his twin blades stabbing and slashing frantically into the chaotic mass of flesh. Purple blood from the monsters sprayed out in torrents, soaking him, but the wall of meat didn't budge an inch.
The young toads seemed to care nothing for their own lives. A crazed will for revenge drove them, determined to use their own bodies to drag their mother's killer down to the grave with them.
"Damn it!"
Lucas hissed, his hands never stopping their desperate slashing. He tried to dig deep inside to pull Long out, but it was hopeless.
The toads lay piled on top of each other, forming a dense, slimy mountain of flesh. The mucus secreted from their skin bound the whole swarm into a seamless block, making pulling Long out at this moment seem impossible.
"NO!!!"
Lia's heart-wrenching scream rang out. She rushed forward, raising a hand to cast a spell, but her body had reached its limit. Two streams of blood gushed from her nose, a splitting headache making the world spin. Lia collapsed to her knees, clutching her head in agony.
Seeing Arwen drawing her bow, Lia used her last bit of strength to shove the archer aside, screaming:
"ARE YOU CRAZY? WHAT IF YOU HIT HIM?"
Arwen froze, clicking her tongue in frustration. She immediately tossed the bow aside, drew the dagger at her hip, and dashed straight toward Jack's position.
Jack was hacking away at each toad with frantic but controlled fury. With his strength, a single full-force swing of his axe could blow away this entire slimy pile. But he didn't dare. A cut too deep could cleave Long in two, or simply the shockwave from the blow would be enough to crush the boy inside.
They were racing against death. If they didn't pull Long out immediately, he would suffocate within this tomb of flesh.
"He's still alive, but he won't last long! Hurry up, everyone!"
Lily's voice shouted urgently. She gripped her staff tight, her mouth continuously murmuring prayers. Glowing golden veins appeared on the ground, slithering through the gaps between the slimy toads, running deep inside like lifelines connecting directly to Long.
It was thanks to that light that he had held onto his last breath until now.
The warmth from those glowing veins enveloped him, gentle as a mother's embrace cradling her child.
"Mom..."
The unconscious whisper escaped his dry lips, along with a hot tear rolling down his cheek.
...
"Hey, motherless freak!"
A raspy, mocking voice came from a chubby kid holding a cake, swaggering arrogantly in front of him.
"I just made a wish that you'd get to meet your parents soon, orphan. See how nice I am?"
His flabby face, sagging with fat, smirked maliciously, but that smile vanished instantly as he felt something wet running down his head. Looking up, he saw Liam casually pouring a cup of soda over him.
"That's my birthday present to you. Say thank you, Tung."
Tung scrambled back in panic, brushing the liquid off his head while screaming:
"You son of a bitch! What the hell are you doing?"
Finished screaming, Tung lunged forward, grabbing Liam by the collar. He craned his short neck up to look at him, barking arrogantly:
"Do you have any idea who I am?"
Liam's gaze slowly lowered, cold as ice. He raised an unopened can of soda high. Veins bulged on his hand as he squeezed so hard the aluminum crushed, punctured, sending soda spraying violently down onto Tung's head.
"You're a fat piece of shit."
Saying that, he shoved him hard, pinning him against the wall.
Liam's white-haired silhouette approached. He extended a hand, his voice soft:
"Let's go home."
On the way back, Liam turned and asked:
"Why didn't you beat the crap out of that fat kid? You're not as weak as you look."
Long lowered his head, staring at his feet trudging along the pavement, his voice dejected:
"Today is his birthday... I didn't want to cause trouble."
A soft sigh blended with the platinum hair blowing in the wind. Liam's voice turned serious:
"Do you want to see your mother again?"
Long's eyes widened as he looked up at his friend, fists clenching:
"Of course! I really want to know who they are, I want to ask them so many things... I want to know if they love me."
Hearing that, the corner of Liam's mouth curled up.
"Good. Remember this, you are not an orphan. You have a father, a mother. According to your grandfather, your mother was a woman of great integrity. She wouldn't want to see her son being weak."
Liam kicked a pebble on the road, continuing:
"So, stand up and protect their existence. Eliminate anything that stops you from finding your parents."
Liam's eyes sharpened, cold as a razor:
"Anything that threatens your goal... find every way to destroy it. By any means necessary."
...
Long's consciousness snapped awake.
His eyes stared wide open. Filling his vision was the bloody, slimy roof of a toad's mouth crushing down on his face, along with a putrid stench assaulting his nose.
Liam's words echoed in his head. Without hesitation, Long turned his head, opened his mouth, and crunched his teeth deep into the layer of flesh on the monster's inner cheek.
He frantically tore it apart from the inside like a wild beast seeking a way to live.
Ignoring the nauseating stench, Long swallowed the chunk of raw meat he had just torn off.
Immediately, a shockwave exploded. His heart pounded rapidly, beating so hard his chest felt like it would burst with every thud. His blood boiled, making his whole body burn hot, searing as if being baked in a furnace. Green and purple veins bulged up in a tangled web, twitching under his taut skin.
In that moment, human reason was swept away, leaving only a single primal instinct screaming in his brain:
"SO HUNGRY!"