Ramsey shakes his massive head, black and red ichor dripping from his numerous wounds. His remaining pulsing red eye fixates on Jayson while the small worm like tentacles from his other socket wiggle around.

  “You,” snarls Ramsey. “I was going to enjoy my prizes in peace, but you just won’t die, will you?”

  “It’s kinda my thing,” says Jayson, twirling his cosmic wood sword.

  Ramsey’s roar shakes leaves from the nearby trees. His body convulses, muscles bulging and skin splitting. The writhing tentacles sprout from his back thicken and multiply. His jaw extends with a series of snaps and cracks, growing to encase new, sharp teeth. Ramsey yells again, thick slobber flying from his mouth, and Mortimer rushes to Jayson’s side throwing his hand up in disbelief.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me. He’s mutating again!” says Mortimer.

  “YOU WILL DIE SCREAMING!” bellows Ramsey.

  He charges forward; his tentacles extended before him like spears. Jayson and Mortimer leap away from Ramsey, and Mortimer rolls to his feet and sends another electrical blast towards the Beast, making several tentacles pop and burn. While this happens, Jayson charges forward, his new leg muscles improving his speed and allowing him to jump higher. He brings his weapon down on Ramsey’s head, slamming the Beast into the ground with an earth-shaking thud.

  Ramsey’s massive body creates a small crater in the damp soil, and his tentacles snap out in all directions, sending Jayson flying into the underbrush. Mortimer darts forward, dodging the flailing appendages, his damaged gloves sparking wildly as he grabs two tentacles, channeling electricity directly into Ramsey’s mutated flesh. The appendages blacken and pop as they are burnt from the inside out, and Ramsey howls, his remaining eye blazing with hatred. He surges upward, catching Mortimer with a swipe of his massive claws that sends the fox tumbling across the forest floor.

  “You’re punks! You’re all punks!” cries Ramsey, tears flowing from his one eye and his layered voice cracking. “You cannot comprehend what I’ve become! I will kill all of you! Then I’ll kill Mr. Exe! And then I’ll kill God!”

  Jayson struggles to his feet, spits blood on the ground, and lifts his cosmic wood sword, the weapon pulsing. “Hey, Ramsey! How are you going to kill God when you can’t even kill a hobo?”

  Ramsey whirls towards him, tentacles writhing. “I will tear you apart!”

  Ramsey charges again, and Jayson stands his ground. At the last possible moment, he activates his weapon’s time distortion field, slowing down everything to a crawl. Ramsey’s lumbering form moves as though it is traveling through molasses, giving Jayson time to dart away from the path and arc his weapon up against Ramsey’s thick abdomen.

  The field collapses, and Ramsey twirls in the air, howling in pain and rage. Ramsey crashes to the ground, and Mortimer latches onto Ramsey’s back.

  “This is for Claribel!” yells Mortimer.

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  He unleashes a storm of electricity that makes Ramsey’s entire body convulse and burn, dislodging multiple tentacles and breaking his thick skin. The stench of burnt flesh and ozone fills the air as Ramsey thrashes, howling and cursing, trying to dislodge Mortimer. Tentacles whip backwards, wrapping around Mortimer and squeezing with crushing force. Mortimer gasps as the pressure leads to his bones creaking, threatening to crack at any second. His vision darkens at the edges, but he maintains his grip, shooting electricity deep into Ramsey’s mutated body.

  “A little help here, Jayson!” calls Mortimer painfully.

  Jayson slams his cosmic weapon against the base of a particularly thick tentacle wrapped around Mortimer’s chest. The appendage rapidly ages and severs with a wet, meaty sound, releasing its crushing grip. Mortimer drops to the ground, desperately gulping in air for his starved lungs, and Jayson hits Ramsey again, sending his massive body crashing through the forest. Ramsey rolls to a stop and pushes himself up, shaking off broken wood and dirt.

  “You can’t kill me! I am evolved! I am perfection!” claims Ramsey, his voices rising to a manic pitch. His mutations accelerate. His flesh bubbles and shifts beneath his skin. New tentacles sprout to replace the severed ones, and bone spurs erupt from inside like grotesque armor.

  Jayson and Mortimer can only watch, stuck between dumbstruck and horrified, and they flinch when Ramsey stomps the forest floor, shaking the earth. His eye locks onto them, blazing with red light while the smaller tentacles in his other socket snap around in the air.

  “I will break your limbs and your spines and rape your girls to death in front of you!” roars Ramsey, spittle flying from his misshapen jaw.

  Jayson and Mortimer narrow their eyes and their muscles tighten. Jayson growls and Mortimer’s fur glows as electricity is ejected from him.

  “That’s it. He’s dying right now” says Jayson.

  “Let’s kill him together,” says Mortimer.

  They look at each other, nod, and charge Ramsey from opposite sides. Jayson’s cosmic weapon trails blue energy as Mortimer’s gloves spark with their last bits of power. Jayson activates his time distortion, slowing the world down around him to give him the moment he needs for a perfect angle of attack.

  “DIE!” screams Ramsey, his voice slow and drawn out in the bubble, and his large clawed hand raised to Mortimer while his mass of tentacles from his other arm stretch to Jayson.

  Mortimer’s hands collide with Ramsey’s massive, mutated hand, and an explosion of electricity engulfs both of them. Their screams of pain and rage travel slowly through the aura, while the electric bolts zigzag swiftly, striking everyone and everything, including Jayson. Jayson ignores the burns and catches a glimpse of Ramsey’s dark fur and red flesh burning away, revealing bones burning and splintering all the way up his shoulder. Mortimer’s battery pack and gloves ignite, and then explode, tearing apart Mortimer’s hands and back in sharp blue fire.

  Jayson evades the slow moving tentacles, and he screams madly as he swings his weapon against Ramsey’s abdomen. The aura explodes, and Ramsey rockets into the air, his black and gray fur rapidly shifting to white and his burnt skin wrinkling as he rips through the air, his scream fading to the night and his bulky mass becoming a shrinking silhouette against the moon.

  The aura’s mist disappears, and Jayson drops to his knees, his heart thumping erratically and his ears ringing. His breathing is ragged, he clutches his aching heart, hot pain torments his body from the electric burns on his arms, chest, and neck. His vision blurs, and he sees Lexanne grinning at him from the trees. She waves, and Jayson flops to the ground, next to Mortimer’s bloodied and burnt body.

  “Hey… Mortimer…” calls Jayson weakly.

  Mortimer is silent, and Jayson turns his head, seeing Derrick nearby, but the eagle hasn’t moved from his tree.

  “Derrick…” calls Jayson.

  A faint shuffle catches his attention, and as his vision blurs to darkness, he sees a pair of bushes moving towards him. He blinks slowly, his hand digging into the wet ground as his heart slows down.

  “Wow… weird…” wheezes Jayson.

  Then he blacks out.