Page 3260 -- CCLXXVI.

It wouldn't stop moving, though. Meal was tough. Needed to be softened up more.

Vomit would do it. Flaming acid.

Mrgh. Something wrong. Stomach hurt. More than normal. Where claw go? One missing.

He bit down harder. Wanted crunch. Rrgh. No crunch. Why no crunch? Mouth hurt. Why hurt? Why not numb? No sense making.

Rrgh! Frustrating! Bite and thrash! Meal not stop moving!

Agh! Rrgh... Ooh...?

Spinning. Not right. World stretching. No sky. No ground.

NO! ENOUGH OF THIS MADNESS!

Grigozo?

Darkness.


Chapter Two Hundred Seventy-Six: 'The victor's dilemma...'
Click to display entire chapter at once -- (mobile link)

Hector couldn't stop panting. Or sweating. Or questioning how he was still able to move, considering how absolutely awful he felt, right now.

But the fight seemed to be over. Finally.

Fucking finally.

Even now, staring at the gray, smoldering husk of Banda's twisted, dinosaur-like form as he lay there on the ground, Hector was hesitant to believe that this dude was actually, truly dead.

It had happened rather suddenly, after all.

It was nice to be on the ground again, at least. For a brief period of time, Hector had started to feel like he was getting the hang of aerial combat, but he sure hadn't been feeling very good about himself toward the end there.

What an insane mess that had turned into. He was already reliving it and still not really understanding what the fuck went on back there.

Banda Toro just went nuts.

Quite literally, apparently.

'So?' said the amorphous blob of a reaper in front of him. 'Do you... accept my surrender? I've released his soul, as you can see.'

At least one of Hector's thought processes was in a total daze.

The enemy reaper had given up. Just like that. He'd melted out of Banda's body and started shouting at Hector, begging for his life. For mercy.

After all that craziness. Some of the most demented shit Hector had ever witnessed--which was saying a lot, at this point.

And this was how it was ending.

Hector had to think about this one. He didn't want to throw out a dumb answer and then have to go back on his word later after realizing just how dumb it had been.

But at the very least, he could tell that the reaper wasn't lying.

He could sense it. Banda's aura. Or the lack thereof, rather.

Banda Toro was no more. The giant corpse in front of him was empty.

And yet, that wasn't enough. Hector wanted to be more than sure. This aura thing was still new to him. He didn't want to have too much confidence in it. So he'd already called Garovel over.

But it was probably going to take the reaper a while to get here.