One Piece: Madness of Regret

3 abomination left. 

One on my left leg and the remaining two on my right leg. And all three of them look out of reach. One is even near my ankle.

Chances are I would not even be able to reach the bugger. Or even worse, trying to yank the bugger off could potentially harm my hand even more or destroy my balance leading to a fall on some pointy 'gravel' behind me. I could get a head injury or get into a coma or possibly be brain dead and easy prey for the bugger to feast on.

Would you look at that? I am scaring myself shitless. The worst thing that could happen is I die. The best thing that could happen is I yeet the buggers off of me and my legs don't get damaged any more. Just like life. You lose, You have lost the hunger game. You win, You can again participate in the hunger game. 

A never ending cycle. 

But as a wise mercenary told me. 

Maximum Effort.

You need to give your maximum to the cause, whatever the hell that cause is. In my case, it would be the buggers. 

And I got three remaining. 

Lets start with the easier one. The one on my left leg.

I got a hold of the bugger and Color me surprised, This one got a lot more pointy edges. And as they say you make do with what you have. I grabbed the pointy edges. I could even feel it piercing my skin, drawing blood. A deep breath and I yanked it off. 

And it flew like a fairy to somewhere behind me. I would have loved to look behind to get an accurate description but my neck sure wouldn't allow it. I might have pulled some nerve of it. It still hurt while arching my back. But a man gotta do stuff to not lose his itty bitty life.

The left leg is cured of the bugger. I could give a sigh of relief but I still have half the work left and my hand is bleeding. Though the blood coming out was less than I thought. Maybe the edges pierced only the muscle part or something. I don't know. 

I really should have studied medicine. It would have at least helped me have more accurate guesses of my body. But, no doctors are overworked. You have no time for family and you get to cheat a lot.

I really should have studied to become a doctor. 

Good thoughts aside, Let's focus on the right leg. It is comparatively harder to yank the two bugger out. If had my right hand functioning, I could yank the bugger off like plucking apples from a tree. But no, I need to use my left arm. 

God I hoped my arms were a lot longer. Still I managed to catch the sixth bugger or at least the edge of its shell with only my fingers. And judging by the nat 20 on my bad luck. It of course had to be the pointy edge of the shell I grabbed. a little more blood and a wound at place where I can easily die of infection. A perfect fucking nat 20, bitch.

I pulled on the pointy edge and goddamn it felt like gripping the blade part of a sword for my fingers. It was a stubborn brat. It didn't come off. I could even feel my fingers slipping. I know if I let go now then I would have to do it again. I would rather not. I must make it in one try. 

I had to.

I moved my fingers around the pointy edge and goddamn it hurt. It had more spikes. Fuck it was like a spider having hair to allow a better grip on its prey. The edges had a better grip on my fingers than some sticky dough. I could feel it. 

How? Because of the pain I am feeling. And because I pulled my fingers back because of instinct and they didn't come off at all. Still stuck to the bugger which is stuck to my leg. 

Pulling this bugger is going to give me a lot of pain. But, a man gotta do what he gotta do. 

So, Fuck the pain. I started to pull the bugger off my leg. Its whole body was flying with just its mouth attached to my leg, still munching, gnawing.

A deep breath and I pulled it. 

The sixth bugger came out. 

I could see the bugger attached to my finger cause of his pointy edges. I flicked my wrist. Not working. I did it a few more times. Come on man work. The bugger might be some kind of ancestors to spider cause its clinging to me more tightly than MJ did with Peter.

Flicking my wrist in the air did me no good. Leaving me with the painful option. Flicking my wrist near the ground. I flicked it making sure the bugger shell hit the ground and it hit but it didn't come out. And from the pain I felt in my finger, the edges went even deeper. 

Again and Again I tried I hit the ground with the bugger still there latching me more and more. looks like flicking the bugger into the ground didn't work. Its not like I could make the bugger move itself. 

Or could I?

Times like this really make me wish I had both of my hand functioning.

So I brought the bugger close to my leg. The part that was getting eaten by the first two bugger. I could feel its legs squirming with excitement. Just hovering over the open wound, I could see it clutching the flesh with its leg. Come on, Pull. Pull yourself off my finger. 

Then I completely lowered it to the wound. Its mouth sinking in the flesh. After few small pull, I could feel it have a strong grip on the wound. I tried twisting my fingers from the edges. A 360 spin on the edges, A pull and push try. I could feel it loosening. 

Making sure it was loosened just enough. I yanked my fingers off and Give me a suit of armor and call me ironman, It worked.

Sure, I could see some chunk of flesh from my finger missing. But it worked.

I really can see the bleeding. Not the time to check on it. 

I still have one on the right leg knee while the pointy edge one on the left leg upper thigh. I could see some chunks of my finger still on its edges. It really is starting to piss me off. 

After a lesson on pointy edges, I am in no way catching it near that edge or any noticeable edge. So I surveyed it. I could see it had smaller spiky edges on its front and back. It should make a good place to catch this bugger. 

Holding it from the front and back. I pulled it. Looks like it was taking a stronger grip than previously. And a few more tries later with an even bloodier wound. I pulled this one off.

And I flipped it on its back along with the four of its kind. 

Now, only the knee one is left and its a lot farther than I can expect. I moved my torso along with my arm just to reach the bugger. Was it from my injuries or simply because I was not flexible I could only touch its spiky pointy edges? 

This one is even harder to pull than the previous ones. Too far and a less than optimal grip on it. I mean I at least touched its pointy spiky edges but its not like I had enough of a grip to pull it. 

Let's just think. I can see the bugger near my knee. And from the angles of its lying the mouth should be near my knee, I think. If the bugger could eat bones, then my knees are pretty much gone. But do scavengers like this that primarily focus on flesh even eat bone? I mean the previous six of them feasted on my flesh and muscle. 

So is it idk, a pariah to its group? Or, an adult version of it that can eat and digest bones. 

God, I hope its a pariah. And I might have some supporting claim for it. Its five little friend flipped on their back. The mouth was straight up one of the most disgusting thing I had ever seen. And I had seen many things. Something along the line with 1 cup.

They had small teeth but 3 pair of jaws. Or at least that was what I could see. Three!. As far as I know eels had only two pair of jaws. It really is getting a bit Alieny for my liking. 

All that talks aside, the small teeth no matter how many pairs of jaw they have aren't suitable to eat bones, from my understanding. So either its eating the flesh near my knee or is a pariah who was kicked out from eating the fleshy part of my leg.

God I hope my knowledge from Animal Planet and National geography is true. And if its true. I need bait. Feels like bastard fishing. Ahh nostalgia!

Since the bugger eats flesh I need flesh as bait. I could use the bugger as bait but I don't know if they are cannibal or not. Even if they are chances are they won't go all cannibal until they finish the easier meal, me. Beside, I don't have the time to observe and make scientific discovery.

I need bait and I could see it. My wounds left by the buggers. This is going to hurt me. Going to the bloodiest wound. I could see chunks of flesh just falling out of the wound. I grabbed some of my own flesh. I slowly pulled and found it was still attached. I left it as it is. 

Fuck man, why am I hesitating? Just pull the bloody piece of flesh and make it a bait to kill this bugger. I mean I risked myself to just be bait to an literal komodo dragon bastard. I could surely pull some flesh from my wound to make a bait. 

If I fail, its just death, a slow one but just death. 

Fuck it. I will one up myself. I need to pull a muscle for my bait. 

My fingers ran all over my wound clutching anything that was muscle. And I think I found one on the upper left leg thigh. I pulled it it was broken on one side a courtesy of the bugger. Then, I pulled it. Around 10-15 cm long muscle strip. One end of it was still attached to my leg. I needed something sharp to cut it. 

The bugger with the sharp spiky edges. I grabbed it from the front and back. And taking a deep breath, I started cutting the attached end of the muscle. It was raw, It was rough, It was gritty. I never was thankful to not feel my legs. But now, I might have been. 

But after a few hundred of slashes to the muscle, it came off. Damaged but usable. 

I kept the spiky edge bugger back to its original place. Flipped upside down to rest under the sun. 

Now that I had a bait. I had a job to finish. 

Clutching one end of the muscle I hurled one end to the last bugger side. Just like fishing. You need patience or you need a better bait. 

I waited for some solid minutes. It didn't work. A better bait it is. I dipped the muscle into the blood for my wound making it as bloody as I could. Then I started fishing again. 

Oo, I can see this bugger coming towards my bait. And when this bugger clutched onto my muscle. I waited. I didn't want a prey to run away now, did I? A solid minute later, I knew this bugger was chewing and grabbing on my muscle like drake with kids. I pulled the rod and a little too hard in excitement and in madness. 

I could see the bugger along with the bait flying somewhere back and me falling onto 'gravel'. 

Then, Lights out.