Luke exploded off the edge of the crater and sprinted straight at the regenerating monster.
Up on the rim, Lionel wasn't in any hurry. He tossed the severed arm onto the dirt, crouched down, and used his fingers to sar the black blood across the ground in slow, deliberate runes.
Brando snatched up the M60, snapped the bipod open, and dropped prone at the crater's edge. He braced the stock against his shoulder and opened fire again, sending precise bursts into the monster's head and limbs.
The creature's regeneration was faster than anyone had imagined. It kept tearing chunks of flesh from the deford corpses and gulping them down. Bullet wounds sealed almost the instant they appeared.
By the ti Luke reached it, the arm he'd chainsawed off had already grown back.
The monster didn't take to the air. Its freshly regrown hand shot up and clamped toward Luke's face, confident it could crush the human's skull like an eggshell.
Luke didn't dodge. His expression didn't even flicker.
The claws raked across his shoulder, shredding cloth and skin but stopping cold against the muscle beneath. The monster's eyes widened with genuine shock.
The thing it had dismissed as food and entertainnt possessed a body far beyond human limits.
That split-second of surprise was all Luke needed. He slamd into the monster's chest with full force, driving the chainsaw straight forward.
"Grrrnch! Grrrnch!"
The enchanted blade scread as it chewed through impossibly dense bone. Sparks flew. The monster's sternum gave way in a spray of black blood and shattered ribs.
"RAAAAGH!"
The creature's scream was piercing enough to make ears bleed. Pain drove it into a frenzy. Its left claw lashed out and raked across Luke's face, carving five deep gashes to the bone.
Luke ignored the wounds. He shoved the chainsaw deeper.
The monster's wings snapped open and beat hard, hurling Luke backward. It staggered, staring down at the massive hole punched straight through its torso. Chunks of at still twitched at the edges.
It let out a confused, furious roar.
On the bone throne above, the tribe leader rose to his feet. The triumphant smile had vanished. His greatest weapon was failing against this single man.
Below, Lionel finished the ritual. The runes drawn in black blood pulsed. The severed arm on the ground withered rapidly, drained of all life force.
Lionel slamd his hands together, shouted the final words, and pointed the dried arm at the monster.
"Eat this, you ugly fuck—Flesh Curse!"
The curse hit like a bomb. Every regenerating wound on the monster's body split open again. Fresh pink flesh blackened, smoked, and rotted in seconds, exposing bone and organs beneath.
Luke didn't hesitate. He launched forward once more and drove the chainsaw deep into the rotting chest cavity.
"Vrrrrrr!"
This ti there was no resistance. The blade tore through decaying at and organs like wet clay, flinging gore in every direction.
The monster roared in agony. In a last, desperate move it spread its wings, caught the wind, and launched itself skyward—taking Luke with it.
Wind howled past Luke's ears. The sudden weightlessness made his stomach lurch. The two of them shot upward like a tied-together rocket, the monster's massive wings beating furiously as it tried to shake the chainsaw-wielding parasite off its chest.
Luke locked his legs around the monster's waist and gripped the base of one wing with his left hand to stay anchored. His right hand twisted the chainsaw throttle to maximum.
"Vrrrrrr!"
The enchanted blade howled at a new pitch, churning the creature's insides into bloody pulp. Black organs and bone fragnts sprayed outward, so splattering across Luke's face.
"RAAAAGH!"
The monster scread again, this ti in pure agony. It rolled and twisted violently in the air, trying to dislodge him.
Down in the crater, Lionel looked up and laughed.
"Look at that. They're like two idiots who just learned how to skydive together."
Brando wasn't laughing. He had the M60 trained on the distant black speck, finger tense on the trigger, but he didn't dare fire.
He was terrified of hitting Luke.
"Stop cracking jokes and think of sothing!" Brando shouted.
"Think of what? Cheer him on from here?" Lionel shrugged. "Relax. That guy's too stubborn for death. I bet his na isn't even on the Grim Reaper's list yet."
While they argued, the fight in the sky reached its end.
Luke felt the monster's struggles weakening. Between the curse and the chainsaw, it wouldn't last much longer. He poured every last drop of remaining psionic energy into the weapon.
The chainsaw's roar climbed to a piercing shriek.
"Die!"
With a final roar of effort, Luke shoved the spinning blade upward with all his strength.
"Shhhrrrip!"
The blade burst out through the monster's back, then kept going—slicing cleanly through its torso, shoulder, and neck in one brutal stroke.
The scream cut off instantly.
The massive wings gave one last weak flap before going limp.
A heartbeat later the monster's head tumbled free and fell. Its body followed, spraying blood and viscera across the sky.
Luke let go of the chainsaw and grabbed the remaining half of the corpse—the half still attached to the wings. He clung to it desperately, trying to use the leathery mbranes as a makeshift parachute.
The dead wings offered almost no lift. They only slowed his fall a little and kept him from tumbling end over end.
The ground rushed up at terrifying speed.
"Shit!"
Luke scanned the crater floor for anything soft to land on. The rocky bottom was out. The ramshackle huts wouldn't cushion a fall worth a damn.
His eyes locked on the center of the pit—the huge bonfire still burning, and the massive roasted beast turning on a spit above it.
Better than nothing.
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