Ink Stained

09: hiss*

ヒス

Pai screamed as the pain from the pressure of the tail wrapped around her ankle felt like it was crushing the bones to dust. The sound of shattering glass filled the air for only a second before she was forced to stop shooting as she was jerked high up into the air. She stoically held onto the gun.

The Oni snapped its large teeth up at her. A fetid odour rose from its bowels, a stink like that of a rotting army of dead rats wafting up to her. There were three bleeding holes scattered on its forehead, oozing a strange black liquid. Any normal creature should have been dead with three bullets in its head, but the Oni was clearly only hurting from it, and still very much alive.

And very, very angry.

"Pai hurt me." It growled. "Pai, sweet, mine Pai, hurting."

She whimpered in pain as the tail around her ankle squeezed tighter, scales digging in hard enough to draw blood, and she shut her eyes. When she opened them again, through the dangerously large black spots dotting her vision as blood rushed to her head, she saw what could only be described as a grin on the Onihitokuchi's large face, each tooth the size of both her feet, blunt. Even then, when crunching on something hard enough, they looked strong enough to completely grind bone to dust.

She was going to die.

"Pai, sweet, sweet blood, Pai."

Teeth gnashed. Saliva drooled over the edges of the gaping mouth as she was held over it like a string of meat.

Pai angled her aching arms as best she could and pulled the trigger.

The riot of bullets that would have hit the Onihitokuchi right in its massive eye went sideways as the Oni flicked its tail at the last moment and flung her away.

She didn't even have time to scream. She flew through the air, weightless for one blissful moment, before she crashed into one of the crates.

The pain was unlike anything she could imagine. It was like her body was breaking in half, all her organs jumping and squeezing tight together from pain as her back took the brunt of the force. Her head snapped back against the crate, and she could almost feel her skull cracking from the jarring force before she rolled to the ground.

Her limbs ached and burned, and her head was splitting itself apart from the pain of being knocked back so viciously against the crate. The rifle slipped from her hands, clattering on the ground before coming to a stop a few feet from her. She managed to lift her head, slowly, every move sending a screaming torrent of pain through her whole body.

The Onihitokuchi shuffled towards her, every step a thud on the ground, its tail whipping about in a furore, eye blazing down at her with such fierce anger that she was surprised she didn't go up in flames from it.

She managed to push herself to a sitting position, groaning at every move. She whined softly as she pushed back against the crate, pathetically trying to put as much distance as she could between herself and the Oni that was about to devour her. Her hair was matted with blood, stark and deep against the white. Her shoulder blades rubbed at the steel of the crate, the knobs of her spine aching from how hard she tried to press herself into the cold, unrelenting metal.

It hurt. Everything hurt, so bad. Even the tears that slipped down her cheeks when she blinked burned like lava.

"Pai, sweet, sweet, Pai."

She glanced down at the gun, but she knew, even if she made a final, desperate lunge to it, she would never make it. It was too far away, and she was too tired – she was drained, and despite getting shot at three times already, the Onihitokuchi was still ten times stronger than her, and faster, no matter how large and bulky it was.