OJTTEG-Chapter 34: Because I Want You To Die!

In an instant, the creature manages to latch onto a protruding, solid rock with its limbs.

"Finally found a foothold."

In the darkness, a pair of eyes, now blood-red, fixate on Haunter.

"Roar!"

The creature, almost entirely covered in mud, suddenly flicks its fingernails like bullets toward Haunter. Unable to dodge, he takes a direct hit and falls backward.

"Finally found an opening in your defenses..."

The creature cautiously grips the precious rock, trying to pull itself out with all its might.

"Just a few more seconds... give me a few more seconds and I'll..."

"Rumble!"

Lightning begins to cascade down from the sky, illuminating everything. A figure, like a demon, slowly rises.

Haunter gently pulls the embedded fingernail from his forehead.

"Surprise!" he sneers, forming his hand into the shape of a gun, pointing at the rock the creature clings to, and makes a soft "bang" sound.

The rock suddenly loosens and falls away from the creature's grasp.

"No!"

"Judgment!"

The word spills from Haunter's lips like a verdict, cold and detached, as his rationality completely dominates his physical state.

"You asked me what I want earlier. I can answer you now," Haunter says calmly, looking at him. "I want you dead. I'll make sure those who wish to kill me disappear one by one. From the moment you wanted my life, any chance for negotiation vanished. You can struggle all you want. Each time you try, I'll crush your hope, once, twice, thrice—until you feel utter despair. Do you think killing me once will set you free? No chance."

"Impossible..."

"You've lost." Haunter casually wipes the blood from his nose. "I'll kill you before you manage to kill me."

"Impossible!"

"Do you know why you lost? Because you rely too much on your physical form. You want to devour humans, yet you lack a normal method to do so. Why not just feast on corpses in a morgue?"

"You think transforming into a mysterious creature means you can't lose? Your thinking is so simplistic."

Haunter taunts, without hesitation, delivering the next line.

"Lightning will strike that lightning pipe."

In his mind, the dice spin rapidly, offering a satisfying answer.

50/70.

So much lightning has gathered here that even without Haunter's command, some bolts have already struck the steel pipe in the creature's hand.

"Roar!!!!!!"

Lightning channels through the stainless steel pipe into his body. He thought it would be just a few bolts, but he was wrong.

Countless bolts converge like a thunderstorm, forming a spherical shape around him. Even tossing away the pipe is futile.

"I didn't even need to make a judgment for this ball lightning to appear. My luck is really something."

Haunter holds his nose as a multitude of afterimages dance before him. His head throbs painfully, feeling like it might explode.

Judgments are like blind boxes; you never know how much strain they'll put on your body or whether they'll succeed. Just the act of judging the lightning nearly blew his mind apart.

"Complete recovery only kicks in after death. I need to find a way to kill myself once..."

"But have two minutes passed yet?"

Haunter is uncertain; his phone fell to the ground when he was first taken down. And who would keep track of a two-minute limit in a life-or-death situation? Oh,The Flash maybe check his watch when traveling through time.

If he attempts suicide right when the time limit expires, it truly would be the end of this fiction.

"Boom!"

The figure in the mud undergoes a violent transformation. Ball lightning, a rare natural phenomenon, carries immense energy. When a conductor disrupts its balance, it neutralizes with the surrounding air, releasing its energy.

And who is the conductor? The creature itself.

As the bright white glow of the ball lightning grows increasingly unstable, it culminates in a massive explosion, illuminating everything around.

How much damage does this thing inflict? It seems to reach temperatures of thousands of degrees. No living being could withstand that.

The creature, bathed in lightning, frantically tears at its own limbs, ignoring the mud, clothing scraps, and bone fragments, shoving them into its mouth. Its flesh continually grows thicker, trying to shield against the lightning.

But it's all in vain.

The thousands-degree lightning instantly shreds and cooks its newly formed skin, emitting a foul stench.

Once the chaos subsides, Haunter struggles to open his eyes.

The water in the mud has nearly evaporated, and the nearby sand has been scorched into a glass-like substance. The red glow from the high temperatures still lingers, marking the aftermath of the event.

As for the creature? Who knows where it went—perhaps it has merged with the mud itself.

"This rain is something, isn't it? But it's also freezing," Haunter shivers, slowly approaching the edge of the mud pit. The center of the pit has turned into a dark void, obscuring everything within it. Even in its final moments, the creature had devoured its own limbs in a desperate bid to regenerate its flesh and heart. Such a strong will to survive.

"Can you listen to me properly now?"

"Do you know why I figured out you're Cain?" Haunter begins. "Because when you saw me getting close to Fiona, you decided to challenge me one-on-one."

Cain, having heard of Haunter's reputation, instinctively protected his groin. Yet, Haunter, with his superior maneuvering, managed to get behind him and land a kick between his legs.

"Your reaction was the most amusing I've seen. Your knees bent inward, clamping your legs together instantly. That's when I noticed something was off."

"When a man's testes is hit, there's usually a moment of paralysis, and they instinctively cover with their hands. But you have the ability to alter your body at will, so you reflexively retracted your testes. It was just for a moment, but I saw it. At first, I thought I was imagining things, but the more I thought about it, the stranger it seemed."

"How could there be muscle in that area? How did you retract them?"

The sensation was different!

"And when I shot at your groin, I saw the same reaction."

"The most telling moment was when you locked eyes with Fiona and hesitated for a second. You were stunned."