The Creatures That We Are-Chapter 1182: Damage Limit

Amusement Park, late night.

It was pitch black. The only light source was the merry-go-round with colorful lights. The upbeat tune it played only compounded the loneliness of the picture in the expansive darkness.

Lovely Lamb sat on a wooden horse, wrapping her hands around the metal beam with a pure smile. Behind her, Dead Pig pushed one of the beams to propel the machine, looking like he was grinding grains with a mill. He had a simple smile on his face.

“Happy, Little Lamb?” Dead Pig asked gently.

“Yeah, happy!” Lovely Lamb responded.

“Then make a wish. It won’t work past twelve.”

“Okay!” The horse she rode on moved up and down. Her clear eyes darted around. “I wish...to find Mom and Dad.”

Dead Pig paused, then continued to push the merry-go-round. “Little Lamb, have you imagined what your mom and dad would look like?”

“Yeah.” Lovely Lamb smiled bashfully. “I dreamed of Mom before.”

Dead Pig chuckled. “Little Lamb’s mom must be pretty.”

Lovely Lamb’s eyes widened. “How do you know?”

“I guess it.”

“Tee-hee, Mom’s pretty in my dream. She pinched my face and did a peek-a-boo... I told Sister White Rabbit about the dream after waking up. She told me to draw it so that we could look for Mom. But I did a bad job...”

“You’re still young,” Dead Pig said. “When you grow up, you’ll make a better drawing.”

“Yeah.” Lovely Lamb nodded earnestly.

Dead Pig continued to push the merry-go-round along, his face beading with sweat and his breaths thickening.

Lovely Lamb noticed. “Stop pushing, Uncle Dead Pig. I’ll get down.”

“It’s fine. Uncle isn’t tired.” Dead Pig lowered his head and wiped the sweat from his face, keeping her from seeing his eyes. “Little Lamb, have you ever dreamed about Dad?”

Lovely Lamb shook her head and said honestly, “No.”

Dead Pig laughed quietly.

After some hesitation, Lovely Lamb cracked a shy smile. “But I imagined what Dad would look like before.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, he must look like Uncle Dead Pig.”

Dead Pig suddenly stopped. The machinery inside the merry-go-round broke audibly, resulting in a blackout. The lights went dead, and the upbeat music crackled into silence. When he looked up, his face was covered in tears.

“Uncle Dead Pig!” Lovely Lamb jumped. “Why are you crying?”

Dead Pig looked at her with heartwrenching pain, saying nothing.

Another beat, and the merry-go-round was gone, leaving the world empty and dark. A weak ball of fire hovered alone between Lovely Lamb and Dead Pig, illuminating their faces.

“Uncle Dead Pig...where are we?” Lovely Lamb suddenly felt a bone-deep chill. “I’m cold. I’m...so scared.”

Lovely Lamb slowly crouched down and wrapped his arms around her. His voice was gentle but weak when he spoke:

“Don’t be scared, Little Lamb... Uncle will protect you... Little Lamb... It’ll be okay...”

“Little Lamb will grow up happy. You’ll find Mom and Dad and lead a happy life...”

Lovely Lamb was going to say something when the pungent smell of blood assaulted her senses. She started and realized that Dead Pig’s large frame, wrapping around her like a protective armor, was rotting away. His arms had lost all skin, the flesh and blood peeling away and evaporating, revealing the bones underneath in several parts.

At the same time, tissues grew anew in an attempt to mend the body, but it couldn’t match the rate of corrosion. freeweɓnovel.cøm

“No! NO!”

Dead Pig was a horror show in man’s form, but Lovely Lamb wasn’t scared of him at all. She hugged him tightly and used Damage Transfer.

“Agh!!”

The tremendous damage being done to Dead Pig rushed into Lovely Lamb. It felt like she was being skinned alive, but in exchange, Dead Pig’s disintegration slowed. His regeneration speed was finally catching up to the corrosion.

“Stop! What are you doing?!”

“Stop, Lovely Labm! You’ll die!”

“Listen to me, Lovely Lamb!”

“Lovely Lamb! Stop! Don’t save me!”

Dead Pig shouted his voice hoarse. He couldn’t push Lovely Lamb away, or he wouldn’t be able to protect her, but he couldn’t stop the fragile yet stubbornly strong girl from taking his damage.

“No...no...”

Lovely Lamb’s skin began to peel away, revealing the red tissues underneath. Although she could absorb a great amount of damage in the short term, she was reaching her limit.

“I will protect you... I will save you... I don’t want to...lose any of you again...”

She bawled. She finally remembered that she and Uncle Dead Pig had been swallowed by the black monster. They were being digested inside Gluttony’s body. If not for the Heavenly Way weakening the monster and Gregor’s Word Game restricting it to some degree, as well as the fact that Gluttony had devoured too much, they would’ve been digested in 20 seconds.

Dead Pig resisted it with his powerful self-regeneration power, but only barely. His protection of Lovely Lamb was fragile and wouldn’t last long.

Lovely Lamb refused to lose another person dear to her. She transferred the damage from Dead Pig’s body without reservation.

Their attempts to save each other postponed their death, but that was all they could do.

Dead Pig cried out, bordering on begging, “Please...Lovely Lamb... Don’t save me... Don’t send me to hell...”

Lovely Lamb could no longer hear him. Her eyes became bloodshot. She had reached the limit of damage storage.

Finally, she slowly let go and pulled away from Dead Pig. Dead Pig no longer had the strength to grab her. Like two people tragically marooned in space, they were going to wander away in their differing trajectories.

In that dying moment, Dead Pig suddenly saw the hope of survival. He seized Lovely Lamb’s hand with his almost skeletal one.

“Lovely Lamb!” he shouted. “Keep absorbing the damage! Keep going!”

“Be strong, Lovely Lamb! You’re going to save me, aren’t you? Don’t give up!”

At the brink of unconsciousness, Lovely Lamb heard him. She slowly tightened her small bloodied hand around Dead Pig’s finger bones.