Hunter X Hunter: Grounded

Chapter 59



Title: Moder...



….
-Sub POV-



I look at the purple gaseous lifeform in front of me. It tilts its head to the side. "IA?"

I don't even try to figure what it is as a giant earth hand appears behind me and it slaps the creature down.


BOOOM!!!


The Octopus Tiger that we are on top of yelps at this and tries to shake me off. It even starts to roll in the ground, but I and Karla jump off it. 



But as we do so, I see a grotesque creature in front of us. It has the body of a deer with bone spikes along its spine, and instead of ahead, it has the upper body of a headless man. Its size was about twice my body, which in comparison to the Dark Continent creatures it is nothing special.


It has a foul Aura around it, even the centipede didn't have such a foul Aura. It was 100x worse than it, it turned towards me.




"I… can… see… you are... part of me…" Says the creature, its voice raspy as if it hadn't drunk anything for a thousand years. It then looks at Karla. "You are not… BECOME PART OF ME!!"


Its loud screech makes the grass turn dark and each blade of grass turns into dark worms. They seem to ignore and instead charge at Karla. 


'Why wouldn't he go after me?' I wonder, but I don't waste time as I conjure <Giant Golem> the giant golem immediately punches towards the grotesque deer.


Booom!!!


My golem immediately combusts into dust, it is instantly destroyed, there was no time for it to regenerate at all. The grotesque deer just looks at me. 

I use Gyo and see the Nen in this monster, immediately I notice that it has the same corruption Nen as the centipede. 


'He must have some kind of relationship to it. And by saying that I am under his control, it must mean that it can sense that I am under the effect of the Centipede's.' I analyze the situation quickly and decide that retreat from this situation is the best.


Burst!!


But suddenly, I feel the right side of my upper body disappear in an instant before I can even react. I only saw a shadow of movement.


But I just pull out Angel's Breath to heal myself. The deer looks at this intrigued, and suddenly I feel something inside me react as black flesh seems to appear all over my newly regenerated body. 


But I immediately stop the advancement of the dark flesh as it starts trying to envelop the rest of my body.


I conjure another Giant Golem but instead of attacking, I use it to grab me and Karla, the latter who is fighting off the hundreds of thousands of dark worms. 


Immediately the golem throws us as far away as it can at full power. Karla too sees what I am trying to do and uses her bandages to make a makeshift parachute for both of us. 


"Karla, glider!" I yell at her as I see that the deer now has wings and is flying towards us at breakneck speeds. 


I use my <Dirt Cheap> ability to make the foundation of the sturdy glider while Karla uses her bandages to fill the empty spaces. Immediately we abandon the parachute and get in the glider.

As we glide past a forest, a serpentine dragon made of plants comes out of it and tries to swallow us. I look at Karla and nod, we let go of the glider and we drop towards the creature's mouth. 


Karla then surrounds us with bandages like a cocoon and after that, I use my Nen to make a hard exterior of the cocoon while at the same time the hard exterior and the bandages have another layer of soft dirt between them.


….
-Karla POV-


I am terrified at this, I do not know how Sub can keep calm in a situation like this. Honestly… my mind is already in disarray, but my body all moves by itself as it follows Sub's orders.



I can sense his En enshroud us as he senses what is going outside. I am curious, but I don't ask him. Instead, I try to calm my panicking heart. I don't want Sub to think that I am scared…


"They are fighting now." Says Sub with a scheming smile on his face. "Seems like the serpentine dragon is strong, but the deer seems stronger. Both have extreme regeneration too. The fight will last long… so we have a chance to escape."


Can we though? What if as soon as we get outside of this dragon's body, they both decide to attack us? 

My worries are countless, but I don't voice any of them to Sub. I know that he too is stressed out, even if he appears calm. No one wants to die after all. So this is the only choice we have.


"Do you have any idea?" I ask with a steady voice, acting calm like always… hiding the terror inside my heart.


"Yes." Answers Sub confidently. "I just need to get a certain someone else inside of me on board with this."



…
-General POV-



Sub smiles at Karla to reassure her that everything is okay. He closes his eyes and goes inside his mind, his mental space, something that has now become easier with every time he does it.

.
Inside, it is all dark and just a coffin is in there with wooden stakes running through it, though out of the lid of the coffin are some centipede legs wriggling about. 


"Oy, you bastard, time to pay rent for staying here," Sub says, casually walking towards the coffin and removing the stakes. Immediately the centipede monster comes out and stares at Sub right on his face.


"Sheesh, you are scary~" Sub mocks in a light tone. As chains appear and tie up the centipede. "I want you to tell me something."


The monster doesn't say anything for a couple of seconds and then finally it speaks. "I will not help you fight that creature."


"Hm, is it because that is the deer-thing is the main body?" Asks Sub, surprising the centipede. The slight function of its aura is all Sub needs as a confirmation. "Don't worry, I won't kill it…" Then his smile turns malicious. "I have something else in mind, so better start spilling any information that you have on it."



The centipede doesn't say anything and its human face is calm. Sub smirks at this. "Good, let's see how long you can last then."


As he says that, spears, acid bottles, salt, knives, chainsaw, nutcracker, and countless tools of torture appear around Sub. 



….
….
One hour later and the centipede's screams ring out in Sub's mental space. He has a gleeful smile on his face as he looks at the now bloody centipede as purple blood comes out of it. 


"I -I… already told you everything l know…" Says the centipede, tired. Along the torture, Sub discovered that while in his mind, he could enhance someone else's sense of pain. Initially, the centipede didn't feel any pain.


"Hm?" Sub is covered in its blood. "Oh, I am not torturing you any longer. I am just trying to see how your body works. You also have a physical form that mirrors this one right?"


"Yes… I already told you that." Says the centipede, its voice dull. Not even having the will to be angry. It never understood pain till it started feeling it. It didn't have expensive dealing with it, so it was quite easily broken.


"Good, good… now let's see. The giant centipede is the aftermath of another infected creature. You are a copy of it, so where are your genitals?" Sub is curious about this. This centipede was tormenting him mentally till recently, and he doesn't like something else inside of him. Especially another intelligent being, so he plans to break the centipede into a drooling mess. He has quite the experience in torturing, he was tortured a lot as a child in this body, so he learned it professionally. 



….
Another hour passed and on the outside, the serpentine plant dragon was breathing heavily as it fought the deer who seemed to not be tired at all.


Boom!!


Suddenly, the dragon is pierced from the inside and a fleshy warrior appears, it has fleshy armor and bat-like wings. 


Fwosh!!


It immediately starts flying away, the deer sees this and it also chases after it. The deer's flying speed is faster so it almost instantly catches up to the man…




….
A/N: Soon the Dark Continent arc will be over.