Zone A -- Lowlands

[Katrielle Layton]

Augh, it was like  his torso was on fire! Bendy cringed and toppled back as the samurai made contact, the blade effortlessly plowing through his liquid body and launching him into the now-useless puddle of ink. In the hazy recesses of his mind, the thought that he should reabsorb the puddle became forefront, bashing away any other ideas-- including the ones that urged for him to lose consiousness. His tail flicked back and forth, diving into the abyssal pool. Within a second, the ink rushed back into his body, working to fill in where he was thinning.

Revitalized, he melted into a puddle himself. Claws harmlessly slashed at the air above him as he slithered away. The manbeast gave chase, but claws were neither as long or as sharp as a sword and thus would not prove as effective against the imp's black, malleable body. Realizing that his natural weapons wouldn't work like that, Dust spun around, focusing on assaulting Abyss alongside his demon friend. And judging by the massive wounds she had accrued, the Egg Boss would be calimari if he didn't do anything about it.

Heck, even if he did do something, she'd still probably die.

...So why was he still risking himself for her?

Not even the cartoon himself knew the answer; he didn't have the time to think about it. But if he had the time, then he would've realized that the Mobian was filling the void that was left behind by Boris the Wolf. She was reminding him of older days, back when things weren't so down-to-earth. Even more so, the demon thought of her as a friend.

And because of that, Bendy was about to something that he would've normally found to be stupid. Maybe he would deem it as such when he looked back on that decision later. He pulled himself together, planting his feet into the ground to make sure that he would remain in the same spot during his move. Once he was assured of his solid footing, he pulled back both arms and launched them, his limbs black missiles aiming for the barechested fighter.

To the typical viewer, most would assume that he was simply looking to pummel the man with both fists. But that was not the case. The devil recalled the actions he took within the dojo, specifically the one where he slammed two hanging sandbags against each other. He'd do the same here, only this time, Dust and Shinmen would play the role of the sandbags.

Elastic limbs coiled around his quarry's torso, immediately pulling back before the bestial warrior could react. Bendy, instead of allowing his prey to be pulled all the way back toward him, chose to tug sideways, sending him spinning clockwise in a centrifugal motion. His target dug his claws into the cartoon's hands, and the imp struggled to keep his grip.

Despite the pain drilling into his fingers, he held on tight. He swung Dust around in a wide, sweeping arc, making almost a full turn before slamming his victim into the sword-wielding demon. As the barechested man was behind, flanking the imp, Shinmen had no visual cue to see when his partner had been snatched up. Only when the solider cried out in shock did the samurai realize what was happening, but by the time he turned to attack Bendy, the human sledgehammer was already speeding towards him.

Flesh collided with flesh as Dust was forced to a stop. They toppled over each other, tendons twisting and bones cracking, before collapsing into a little pile behind Abyss. The demon refused to let up, dashing up to the pile and pummeling the duo as hard as he could before they got back up.

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