The Flesh Traders’ broken, stooped husk stood before Jaeger and Kaeleth; the pair were wary after hearing the slaver’s proclamation of revealing himself ‘fully’. So when the man suddenly rocked to a rigid at-attention stance, the pair readied their weapons.
The uneasy standoff lasted until the cracking started. It started with a single sound that rang loudly in the silence; then it began to happen like a clock. Crack, crack, crack. One after the other, the sounds started; in sync with that, the man’s head turned. With each crack, the head would turn. At the fourth crack, it was chin to left shoulder; at the eighth, its chin was directly above its spine; at the twelfth, it was chin to right shoulder; and at sixteen, it returned to its original position.
“Should we strike? It seems to be stuck in some clockwork pattern; this may be our only chance.” Having recovered, Kaeleth moved to Jaeger’s side and gave back his powder horn.
Jaeger took the horn without a word and continued watching the non-human Flesh Trader.
The cracking stopped, and the slaver’s head started to tilt backwards, a quiet process… at first. Once it reached a natural human’s limit, it emitted a loud snap and abruptly crashed backward. All the while, the head had been making its moves, while the rest of the body hadn’t shifted in the slightest.
“No. Whatever it’s doing, I think if we attack, we’re only helping it. If this thing is like the ones I know of, it’s about to abandon this body, and it wants an audience. If we interrupt, it might exit more aggressively.”
“More aggressive than that?” Kaeleth said, gesturing to the body, which had started to shake and stretch as though something were trying to get out.
“Yes, now get ready. When it finally shows itself, we’ll be facing something much different.”
Kaeleth shook her head but stored her weapons and retrieved new ones. Two matching thick swords, the same pair that she’d used to save his life, and then threaten it, all those months ago. His gaze was pulled from her when she gasped, turning his head, he saw what startled her.
From the mouth of the head, at least twelve fingers had emerged, gripping the lower and upper jaw separately. With a slow wrenching motion, the fingers pushed the jaw open, and they didn’t stop at the jaw’s limit, breaking the bone apart, and they didn’t stop when the skin started to stretch, instead pushing harder and ripping it. The hands, the palms of which appeared as the jaws tore past the skin, kept pushing the jaw until they were just past the Flesh Trader’s shoulders.
Watching Jaeger’s mind started to hurt at the impossible physics before him; the jaw should have simply fallen at this point, the strips of skin and muscle attached to it were not enough to actually hold it. Instead, the two jaw pieces simply stayed up, as though they’d opened to a natural point. He heard a sharp intake of breath from Kaeleth and knew she was experiencing the same thing he was; neither of them was attuned to whatever magic was causing this, and simply observing it was hurting them. At this point, all thoughts from Kaeleth about preemptively attacking were gone; instead, all she could do was watch this backwards abortion.
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Finished rearranging the jaw, the hands now stretched out, slowly revealing gore-encrusted arms. Once the elbows were free, the arms gripped the jaw and slowly pushed the rest of itself out of the body. As more and more of it emerged, the Flesh Trader’s ‘human’ body started to lessen. It didn’t deflate or lose any visible weight; it lost something more vital. As though the essence of a person and a body were being taken from it.
Soon enough, a gore-covered figure stepped free of the deflated body in the same manner as one steps free of a mud puddle. Details such as color, skin type were hidden beneath the blood and viscera, but general details were clear. The figure before them had a stooped posture, most likely from the enlarged arms that rested on the floor, even at its impressive size. It stood half again as tall as Jaeger, and maybe as wide as a long sword, with a head that was best described as arrow-shaped. Yet its proportions were off, it was too skinny for its size, and even just emerged, Jaeger could tell it couldn’t really stop moving, with its jittery micro movements. It reminded him of nothing so much as a humanized mantis, even if it had hands instead of blades; a fact he was thankful for.
The figure stretched, contorting its body into shapes and forms that revealed its alien nature; for nothing with bones could bend or flex in the ways it did, not without breaking most of them. Returning to its upright position, it emitted a sound that resembled a sigh, but in the same manner that a fake smile resembles happiness.
“Ah, this is much better. That form was so… restrictive.” The thing blinked its insect-like compound eyes, momentarily bathing the room with its ghastly inner light. Jaeger could practically feel the eyes scan over him and Kaeleth. “Hopefully, you two will be different.”
It flickered forward, arms swinging inwards. Jaeger brought the Darkblade up to block the blow, while Kaeleth met it with her swords held in a cross pattern. The blows were strong enough that Jaeger was thankful for the Impervious trait in the blade. He barely held his own and was surprised to see that Kaeleth riposted hers in an easy-looking fashion, drawing no more than a slight mark across the blood-drenched arm; he’d always taken her as a speed fighter, not a strength one. It was only as he saw her arms blur with a faintly visible aura that he realized she’d used magic to enhance herself.
Seeing its attack so easily rebuffed did nothing to deter the Flesh Trader, who simply drew its arms back and pounced forward. It shot forward, using its arms to thrust its legs forward and aimed itself at Jaeger. The speed of the attack caught him off guard, and the Flesh Trader slammed into him, wrapping its legs around him tightly.
“Usually I try to take things slow and enjoy myself, but needs must.” The thing said. Then its mouth unhinged, opening wider and wider.
This close, and being held like he was, Jaeger could see the otherworldly details of its body. It didn’t seem to have skin so much as a light layer of some hard bone material. As the creature’s legs squeezed his middle, its mouth opened, and he considered his death, he noticed a few things. First, its head was almost like an insect’s, but off. His mind filled with images of this world’s giant insects, and some were close, but none were this… fleshy. In direct contrast with its body, its head was fleshy, or at least stretchy. Jaeger came to this conclusion as he watched its mouth stretch open as wide as his arm was long. Second, it had too many teeth, but in numbers and kinds. He saw a myriad of teeth, most of which didn’t belong in the same kind of mouth.
As the mouth came ever closer, his only thoughts were ones of impatience. How long was she going to make him wait?
