Trigger Warning — Graphic Violence: This chapter contains graphic depictions of violence that may be disturbing to sensitive readers.
Airi tried to step back, but the sight of intestines spilling from the mangled corpse made her falter. Even someone as agile as she was could not keep her footing on a floor slick with blood and fat.
Her eyes, stretched wide with horror, remained fixed on the crimson stains splattered across her body. Their vivid color stood in stark contrast to her vacant expression. Her heart hammered frantically beneath her narrow chest.
The grotesque spectacle held not only Airi but everyone else in a state of stunned disbelief. Then, after a moment of deathly silence, William’s desperate cry for his lover shattered the stillness.
“Airi!”
He lunged toward her, but something faster—and far more unexpected—burst from the dense undergrowth.
A massive, grotesque monster.
Moving with a speed that defied its hulking body, it bore down on Airi, plunging her into danger once again.
“What is that...?”
Seojun’s voice emerged as little more than a whisper, heavy with disbelief. He blinked hard, hoping the nightmare would dissolve before his eyes.
It did not.
Countless times, Seojun had rehearsed this day in his mind, imagining every possible scenario. Gas Mask. The weapon in his hand. The desolate terrain of the Hamon campsite, practically designed to favor serial killers. Even Monster X, the man-eating creature, had figured into his predictions.
Perhaps, however, he had been too heavily influenced by the visual language of movies.
In his imagination, the monsters had been little more than shabby puppets, killers wearing awkward masks, or dust-covered animatronics from low-budget horror films.
He now understood just how wrong he had been.
He should have spent more time watching films about deep-sea creatures.
The monster was enormous—roughly the size of a small bus—and advanced with steady, menacing purpose. Yet even as it drew closer, its precise shape remained difficult to comprehend. It resembled some revolting fusion of an overcooked octopus and an undercooked omelet.
Its slimy surface gleamed with an unnatural whiteness. Several openings dotted its flesh, apparently serving as breathing holes. Each time they pulsed, a foul-smelling liquid seeped from them, producing a sight nauseating enough to turn even the strongest stomach.
Despite its cumbersome appearance, the creature moved with alarming purpose. Suction cups lined its underside, gripping the earth as it advanced. From the central mass of its body extended numerous tentacles, one of which held a person trapped in its grasp.
Was that supposed to be its hand?
Seojun stared blankly at the figure it carried, absurdly distracted by the question.
The person—or, more accurately, what remained of them—was incomplete. Only the upper half of the corpse remained, its final agony and terror permanently carved into its face.
Then, with one swift motion, the monster hurled the bisected body through the air.
Seojun found himself staring directly into the corpse’s lifeless eyes. Its face was bloated and tinged blue.
The fact that he recognized the expression was anything but comforting.
Even in the darkness, the monster’s aim was flawless. Whether by design or sheer chance, the torso crashed into the cabin. Its exposed organs—heart, liver, lungs, and kidneys—spilled from the open cavity in a revolting cascade.
As a result, the mutilated remains that landed in Bobby’s arms were considerably lighter.
Bobby, however, felt no relief whatsoever.
“AAAHHH!”
Finding himself clutching the upper half of a human body, Bobby let out a scream that seemed to contain all the despair in the world.
He tried to fling the corpse away, but it clung to him—cold, wet, and sticky, like a mass of waterlogged seaweed.
Still, his scream served a purpose.
The raw, guttural shriek tore William from his stupor. He rushed toward Airi, his movements stiff with shock but driven by urgency and desperation.
The monster was faster.
Perhaps its lack of a skeleton allowed it to move with such unnatural speed. One of its sinewy appendages shot forward, resembling an arm, a leg, and a tentacle all at once. It twitched with an almost ravenous eagerness, as though desperate to seize anything within reach.
One thing was certain.
The creature possessed many such limbs.
And Airi, to her horror, was the first to discover what they were for.
“S-save me—aaah!”
A tentacle whipped around her waist and wrenched her into the air.
Airi thrashed in blind terror, her legs kicking helplessly at the empty space below.
“Willy! Willy!”
Her clothing offered almost no protection, leaving the lower half of her body dangerously exposed.
“Airi!”
Before she could fully comprehend what was happening, searing pain tore through her.
The tentacle tightened against her skin, flesh, and internal organs. Blood rushed to Airi’s face as the crushing pressure intensified.
“No! Airi!”
Everyone except Bobby, who was still struggling with the grisly half-corpse, sprang into action.
Christina and William rushed forward. Driven by desperation, William looked ready to attack the monster with his bare hands.
Johan moved as well, pushing Seojun behind him and shielding him with his body.
But Seojun knew that a few fleeting seconds of protection offered no guarantee of survival.
He thrust a hand into his pocket. His bandaged fingers closed around a small, round object.
He did not need to look at it. Its sharp, unmistakable fragrance was enough.
Surrounded by the suffocating stench of death, Seojun allowed himself a single breath.
There was no time to hesitate.
With every passing second, Airi moved closer to death.
Seojun seized the bloodstained axe and set to work.
“Jun?”
Sensing movement behind him, Johan turned. His eyes widened in disbelief.
His reaction was understandable.
What Seojun was doing made no apparent sense.
He was using the axe to cut open...
A lemon.
Seojun met Johan’s astonished gaze but continued without explanation. The fruit split beneath the blade, spraying tart juice across the bloodied metal.
A droplet splashed onto Seojun’s wrist. He licked it away, the sharp, sour taste lingering on his tongue.
“Now, Johan...”
“Me? With this?”
Johan gestured toward the axe.
Seojun handed it to him, seized him by the wrist, and pulled him out of the cabin.
They hurried past the lifeless body.
Past Bobby.
Past Christina.
And finally, past William.
The moment they emerged from the cabin and left behind the warmth of so many bodies, the cold night air closed around them.
From the depths of the lake rose the chilling stench of decay.
As the bizarre events of the night continued to unfold, Seojun’s thoughts became strangely clear.
They were facing both a deranged serial killer and a monstrous entity beyond human comprehension.
That was simply the nature of this world.
No matter how desperately Seojun tried to avoid them or run away, creatures like these would always exist here.
So he would have to make use of whatever he had.
Seojun gripped Johan’s forearm and felt a faint tremor run through the muscular limb.
Was Johan frightened too?
Seojun looked up, searching his face for an answer.
But Johan’s blue eyes met his without wavering.
If fear was not making him tremble, then what was?
Seojun’s brief curiosity vanished almost as quickly as it had appeared.
They could not afford another delay. At any moment, Airi’s spine might snap beneath the pressure.
Seojun pressed a hand against Johan’s shoulder.
“Johan. Throw the axe.”
Johan glanced at the weapon Seojun had given him as though it were unfamiliar. Uncertainty flickered in his eyes, but his grip remained firm.
Then he smiled faintly—a quiet, confident grin that suited him.
“Leave it to me.”
The muscles in Johan’s extended arm tightened. His jaw clenched, and his broad chest expanded with a deep breath.
Then, without hesitation, he hurled the axe with all his strength.
It sliced through the air with a sharp, piercing whistle.
The spinning blade flashed beneath the moonlight.
Seojun looked at Johan and thought:
That is definitely the arm of a quarterback.
Thwack!
The axe tore cleanly through the monster’s limb.
Brilliant purple fluid erupted from the wound, vivid even against the darkness of the night. Glittering droplets drenched Airi’s face.
Ironically, the only part of her left untouched was the section of her waist trapped tightly within the creature’s severed limb.
“We did it!” Christina cried.
The severed appendage visibly loosened around Airi.
There was no time to celebrate.
The loss of the limb meant that Airi was free, but freedom was considerably less appealing when one was suspended high above the ground.
“Ahhh!”
Airi plunged downward, the severed tentacle still wrapped around her waist.
“Airi!”
William rushed beneath her.
He barely registered how unnaturally heavy her falling body felt. He caught her just in time.
Fortunately, Airi’s feet struck the ground first. Unfortunately, the rest of her crashed into William’s collarbone with enough force to send them both sprawling.
Despite the pain of torn skin and battered muscles, William held her tightly.
They tumbled across the ground several times before finally coming to a stop.
“Ugh...”
“Ah... Willy.”
Airi groaned, her voice no more than a strained whisper, and tried to sit up.
A dark ring of bruising encircled her waist, a grim reminder of the monster’s crushing grip.
She was not coughing up blood, which suggested that her internal organs had escaped serious damage. Even so, the unnatural discoloration of her skin made it clear that the pain must have been excruciating.
“Airi, are you all right?”
Christina hurried to her side and helped support her. Airi sagged gratefully against her friend’s shoulder.
While the others gathered around her, Seojun remained apart from them, overcome by bewilderment.
Did that...
actually work?
He stared at the severed tentacle, disbelief written across his face.
He had known that lemons were supposedly effective against Monster X, but he had acted more out of desperate hope than genuine confidence.
Even while coating the axe with lemon juice, Seojun had doubted whether it would make any difference.
No matter how sharp the blade or how powerfully Johan threw it, an ordinary axe could never have sliced through the monster’s limb as effortlessly as a knife through tofu.
Not without the lemon juice.
The sheer absurdity of the result left Seojun feeling hollow rather than triumphant.
A carnivorous monster whose weakness was a lemon?
Anyone wondering why The Murderer of the Bloody Lake had failed needed only to witness this scene.
Besides, Seojun had not sacrificed the precious lemon to save Airi out of simple compassion.
I need to think strategically.
Seojun did not fully understand the distinction between tactics and strategy, but he knew that survival required both.
In an ordinary horror film, tragedy often began to accelerate after the death of the female lead’s closest friend.
In that sense, Airi was a kind of starting point.
There were exceptions, of course, but Seojun chose to rely on the most common pattern.
In a world governed by horror-movie clichés, the female lead’s best friend often had a shorter life expectancy than a pair of ankle socks.
So what would happen if the female lead’s closest friend did not die?
Seojun studied Airi, the protagonist’s dearest friend.
Her right knee was swollen, and dark bruises marred her waist, but at a glance, she appeared very much alive.
Unless the monster’s touch carried some lethal poison or radiation, she was in no immediate danger of dying.
If the lemon’s protective effect, combined with Airi’s survival, could somehow prevent the coming catastrophe...
That would be perfect.