FALTER

CHAPTER 19: No matter how much you get hit.

As Mr. Green rushed down the street, preparing to attack his daughter, Falter leaped forward to match his pace. When they were face to face, the father pulled back his monstrously large right arm for a punch aimed directly at Falter, who crossed his arms to shield himself from it. Still, the impact was strong enough to knock the wind out of him momentarily, but there was no time to catch his breath. Another hit was headed his way but this time Falter locked his arms for a punch, too. Both of them shot their respective arms forward, leading to their punches meeting each other in the middle. The resulting shockwave erupted throughout the environs, causing every window in their immediate radius to shatter.

Shards of glass shot through the air like bullets. Rachel covered her head and screamed, causing a lull in the fight ahead of her.

"Rachel, RUN!" Falter yelled as he defended against the frenzied strikes from Mr. Green.

The monster roared in response, giving Falter his first good look at what had become of the man.Most of his upper torso was covered in a greyish black mass, which jutted out at random places as inorganic shapes. It almost seemed artful, shiny black rectangular peaks covering his body in an intentional pattern. Any semblance of beauty, though, was marred by what had become of his head, which seemed to have overgrown and split in half. A second, smaller head, which was the source of the roaring, poked out f rom the newly formed valley. It barely resembled Mr. Green, whose visage was instead relegated to a permanently screaming statuesque face, split right down the middle. His right arm was also covered in the black material, which was overgrown as well. It reached down to the ground and ended in a large claw-like shape. A single overgrown nail served as the main weapon of impact. But what horrified Falter the most was the very obvious extra limbs sprouting all over his body. There were smaller arms connected to the same shoulder as the disproportionate arm, and these were much closer in size to a human. His other arm was still normal; seemingly, the mutation had not reached it.

Overall, the theme for this monstrosity appeared to be 'multiples': A head forming between the split face, multiple arms on the right side and the numerous black stripes decorating his body.Matching Mr. Green's arm had come with consequences: Both Falter's radius and ulna bones were shattered in the blast. As he waited on his Drive to heal the injury, he parkoured over the destructive right arm. Taking advantage of the asymmetry, Falter started using his legs to kick away at Mr. Green's weaker side, his left arm flailing weakly to defend against the strikes. For an ephemeral moment, Falter felt a rush of power in his leg. As he delivered a kick, sparks exploded from the point of impact. The black material underneathe boiled and bubbled and dripped to the ground. Before he could process his surprise, Mr. Green wailed in pain and turned around. Using his right arm as an extra large whip, he used it to spin right around, and with the speed and power of a tornado, used it to hit Falter in the chest.

"OOF!" Falter cried out at as he flew across the street and crashed through the wall of a house. The woman inside screamed before realizing who it was, at which point, she rushed forward to help but Falter shot his arm out in warning. She halted to a complete stop.

"St-" The man wheezed inside the helmet. His lungs were barely working after the whipping he just received. "Stop! He's outside!"

As if on cue, another scream rang from outside. The adrenaline pumping through Falter reached a new high as he ran outside with a newfound panic. Outside, he saw Mr. Green bearing down on Rachel, who had her arms raised in defence.