Heart of Demise.

(3)Greatbeast.(8)

What series of events, I had to wonder, led to a creature of this size being trapped in a container barely twice his?

I backed off, witnessing the beast rise on all fours and scratch the ceiling with his back. Its skeleton jaw unhinged itself, but its mouth was very much as fleshy as everything else.

And of course, then came the obligatory–

**GRAAAAHHH**

A scream erupted that was either loud enough to shake the room, or loud enough to shake me. Either way, it disoriented me, but I quickly regained my focus when I saw the beast move his arm. The beast pulled his arm back across the entire room, but considering how small it was compared to him, he didn't wind his arm too far back. Naturally, his oncoming swipe wasn't very fast.

Except that it was.

I could hardly react. The fact that something so large moved so fast caught me off guard. But, still, I snapped out of it and spotted an opening.

I dashed toward the beast and ducked, causing his palm to just barely miss me. Taking the opportunity, I extended my cleaver and swung it at him– but just hit his mane again.

The bounce of my cleaver made me lose stability for a bit, but I managed to back away just in time for his palm-slam. The water splashed up so far that it hit my face, but I ignored it; a maneless part was right there for the taking.

I extended the cleaver and brought it down. I could hear the weapon tear the hand's flesh apart like it was stuck in barbed wire, and the scream of the beast lead to the quick withdrawal of the body part.

"Hah, alright! Not doing too bad!"

The beast stared at his bleeding hand for a moment before diverting his eyes to me. He stared daggers at me, and I found myself surprised that he had the brains to do that. Then, the sight of his eyes was suddenly blocked by his maw.

"S-Shit!"

The beast, mouth agape, lunged forward. I avoided him by a hair and saw the creature unceremoniously bash his head into the wall. At first, I was happy, but–

**SMASH**

His mane stuck out just far enough, and it sent me to the wall as well.

"D-Damn it... that's hardly fair."

The beast dislodged its maw from the wall, and I did the same with my body, coughing a few times and rubbing my back. I glanced behind me for a second, noticing how obscene the destruction was, and suddenly, I was glad that it was just the mane that hit me.

With that newfound appreciation, I turned back to the beast and ran at its arm.

The beast reacted by pulling it back, though he was quickly stopped by the lack of space. So, I just kept running, changing my target from the arm to the legs.

**SLASH**

A successful hit. The beast roared, and an arm-flailing tantrum ensued. I was lucky enough not to be hit, and all the while, my own hits just kept coming.

The skin was tough to crack. The bone– even tougher. But I kept hacking at this thing's leg like a lumberjack. My arms grew sore, my breaths became heavy, but I never stopped– this opportunity was just too good–

**GRAAHHH!!!*

A roar. I didn't heed it. I just kept hacking and hacking and–

**SMASH**

"...Huh?"

All of a sudden, the victim of my hacking vanished. I stood around like an idiot, looking around me to find the beast gone.

And then... something fell. It made a loud thud, and when I ran to it, I saw that it was a piece of stone. A big piece of stone.

And then another came. And another, and then another, and then I finally got the idea to look at where the damn things were coming from, and saw the Greatbeast hovering over me.