21 Killing Ben Duke
1497 Words
There were worlds and dimensions that humans had never been to, and there were worlds and dimensions that were yet to be discovered.
One of them was Kramer.
Kramer was a world of deceitful creatures. Aside from creatures that looked similar to earth’s animals, filthy worms were known to be the superior creature living in that world. They were known to mimic a creature, from the way they looked and the way they acted.
Only a few knew about the Kramer world and the creatures that lived there until expert summoners learned the existence of the world recently.
They never show any interest in the world and its creatures because they didn’t have any special powers.
Until they discovered the invigorating blood.
They didn’t think of it as something special, at first, before one of the summoners accidentally mixed a part of the invigorating blood into his drink.
Since then, a tale about Kramer spread dimensions after dimension, world after world. Only a few could get to that world and few knew about the mantra to summon them.
“What was that?” Zack asked.
Peter looked at him. “That’s the invigorating blood, we have to get that,” he said and to his surprise, Ben Duke crouched down to touch the floor as the worms composing his body formed another being.
Before they could see what the worms were about to form, Zack fired the shotgun at the forming worms.
Ben Duke was now mad. He stopped his deception as a human and showed its true form. A bear-like creature. Now that they could see all the worms that it was composed of, Peter grimaced at its unattractive appearance.
It growled at them and made Zack angry that he fired the shotgun two times, putting a hole on its chest.
“Be careful, Zack! Don’t fire at its head,” he said. Ray didn’t waste time and with his sword, he cut the creature’s limbs and watched as it slowly formed again.
“What do we do, then?” Ray asked, grunting at every movement he made.
Peter thought carefully. He wasn’t sure what the invigorating blood looked like, so their big attack must carefully help them get what was inside its head.
He glanced at Zack’s shotgun. Not a good idea. He looked at his flail weapon. Would do enough, but could destroy the invigorating blood as it had spikes.
He saw Ray as he skillfully tried to keep Ben Duke from attacking. He glanced at Medusa’s half-eaten head. An idea popped in his mind.
“Ray, aim for the head!” Peter yelled.
Ray turned to Peter but to their surprise, Ray was kicked to a pile of dried flowers. Peter saw the sword on the floor, a few feet away from him.
He took the chance. He tossed the flail weapon to a side and slid on the floor to get the sword before the creature got it.
After getting the sword, Peter stood to his feet. Zack aimed for the creature’s chest in case the situation got dangerous.
With one swift swing, Peter slashed the head off of the Kramer creature’s body.
The head tossed across the room, and a ball of a clear orb with something of red liquid appeared to be carried along by the worms back to the creature’s body.
The creature had grown the head again, but before the orb could reach the body of the creature, he quickly grabbed the orb from the throng of worms and walked away.
“Is that the thing we’re looking for?” Zack asked.
Peter nodded.
The creature was slowly malfunctioning but the creature still had groups of worms to form into other creatures.
Like before, Zack reloaded the shotgun with gauges and fired at the groups of worms, while Ray continued to s***h the creature. Although they got the invigorating blood, they couldn’t just leave the creature as it could shift into more creatures.
Which, could be their future problem.
Peter stared at the orb for a moment.
The clear orb the same size as a golf ball seemed to be made out of glass, and the blood inside wasn’t a normal one because it had a luminous red glow. Peter knew and he could say that the blood was one of a kind.
When he saw that Ray was struggling a little, Peter placed the orb in his pocket and took his flail weapon to help Ray.
Zack was busy firing the small groups of worms that tried to form small creatures.
Ray was skillful, but it felt like he was slicing through a liquid, only for it to form back to its normal appearance.
Peter used his flail weapon to kill the worms, in that way, there would be fewer worms for the creature to reform again. But he thought it wouldn’t be enough to beat the creature. It would take them hours if not a day to kill every single worm that the creature was composed of.
“Do you guys have any idea to kill this damn thing?” Peter said, knocking off a few worms.
Zack fired his shotgun. “I’m running out of gauge,” he said, off-topic.
Peter rolled his eyes. “Ray?” he looked at Ray.
Ray sliced its head again. “I don’t know. The sword doesn’t work that much, but it’s slowing down the activity of these filthy worms,” he said and stepped into few worms crawling near his feet.
They had to think of a plan.
Now, they had to locate the creature’s weak spot. A spot where a single blow would be fatal.
Peter could see that taking the invigorating blood from the creature decreased the creature’s mobility, so that was one way to know
“Zack, continue what you’re doing,” Peter told him. He saw a bat inside the room and tossed it at Ray. Ray successfully caught the bat and tossed the sword on a side. The sword made a clanging sound when it fell down the floor.
Ray tested using the bat at Ben Duke and it made a great job than when he was using a sword. “That’s a big difference. Should’ve used that earlier.”
They still had to crush the worms under their shoes.
They continued their attacks and so far, they decreased about a foot of the height of the creature. So far, so good.
Peter used Ray’s sword in an attempt to cut its head again. But Ben was slowly reshaping its head again.
“I wish we could do something about the worms,” Peter said.
Hearing that, Zack put down his shotgun and watched the two as he thought of something.
When Ray was preparing and cooking for their dinner, he saw something in Peter’s face. He saw confusion and utter suspicion. So he followed what he was looking at to see what was bothering Peter.
Ben Duke was glaring at the lit of the candle in the middle of the dining table. Ray had lit it before he started to prepare the dinner, he said he wanted to set the mood.
As Zack was thinking, Peter, glanced at him as if he remembered the same thing.
Zack left the shotgun on the floor and left the storage room, only to run down the pantry to look for something.
He looked for a gas can and found it at one of the cabinets there. There was a torch by the kitchen, so he made sure he grabbed that as well.
Rushing upstairs, back to the storage room, he saw Peter and Ray fighting Ben Duke.
Every hit, they stepped onto the worms that warned to come back to the creature’s wormy body.
The floor of the storage room was filled with dead worms and their gooey black innards. Although it just looked like mud, it still didn’t look as pleasant.
Zack walked towards the two holding an open can of gas. He had the urge to burn Ben Duke, to end the worms from forming into something.
Peter saw what he was holding and gasped. “What is that? What are you gonna do?”
Ray looked at him, at the gas can, at Ben Duke, then back at Zack. “Don’t tell me..?” he asked, quite unsure.
Zack didn’t answer and poured a part of gas on Ben Duke.
“Woah, woah!” Peter exclaimed and walked away, as well as Ray. They didn’t want to be poured of gas as well.
Peter looked at Zack’s back. He didn’t expect him to snap like that. Although his idea was great, he still didn’t know it would be best. “Zack, think before you do it,”
Zack came back with a half-empty gas can and placed it behind them. He took his shotgun beside Peter. “Tell me a better idea and I won’t burn this darn filthy creature,” he said.
Peter watched Ben Duke consciously looked at his worm body coated with gas. The creature couldn’t do anything about it.
Zack didn’t get an answer. When the creature looked at them, he lifted the shotgun and aimed for the creature and fired a shot.
He successfully set the worms on fire. But since the shot of the gun had much force, it made few worms thrown at the walls. It should be safe, but the worms were covered with gas and now burning.
Which meant, everything it touched would burn, too.
“You didn’t think you could burn the whole mansion, did you?” Peter asked.
- Writer
