The Lord of Rot

The hare-like creature had already gotten up and started attacking once more. Its ferocious glance was only dulled by the appearance of eight others. Each of them relentless in their pursuit.

Konrad would survey his surrounding, trying to make out which of them would attack next. To his surprise all of them lacked coordination. Some would even jump at the same time, towards the same spot. 

When both jumped, an eerie harmony of snapping joints was heard. Then in the air they would collide, ceasing their attack only for a short moment. 

Konrad would take advantage of the moment and jump back a few feet, trying to avoid the creatures whilst making some room for himself. 

This didn't work how he expected, as some of the hares had already gotten behind him. 

It would jump with the most emotionless face, and moments before it got close enough to bite, its jaw would tear open. 

Konrad would be able to dodge these, but he didn't understand how he was doing it. His body would twist in strange motions. A hare jumping from towards the back of his head, and suddenly his neck would turn around, his feet would bounce of the ground and he would have dodged them all. 

But just dodging each of the creatures wouldn't be enough. Eventually he would get tired, and if he did then death was just around the corner. 

So Konrad attempted to kill one of the hares again. 

After dodging one of the hare-like creatures, twisting and contorting his body like an acrobat. He would focus on the tips of his fingers, and simply drawing his hand like it were a knife or a sword. 

His focus would solely be on his hand, as he had already calculated where the hare was going to be. It required a lot of effort just to keep his attention there, so he took a deep breath, and felt the warmth in his hand. 

It felt like a light, spreading through his arm. He closed his eyes and sliced with his arm. 

Then he saw how the hare-like creature miraculously had been torn in two pieces, pulled apart with a seamless cut. 

Konrad look at his hand, seeing the blood disappearing in the moment. He would feel an intense pain as his body then again contorted to dodge on of the other seven hares still remaining... 

*** 

He must have gotten lucky when he sliced through the hare-like creature. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't do anything but smack the hares. 

It was as though they had gotten both faster and more destructive. If Konrad didn't have the reaction speed that he did, he would have been long gone by now. 

'Seven rabbits left, damn it!' 

It was a difficult situation he was in: if he focused on his hand to be able to kill the creatures, then he would lose track of the creature. If he didn't focus on his hand, he would just smack the creature.

No matter what he did, he couldn't focus on two things at the same time. No person could ever master dual thinking within a few hours time! Even a pianist would need years of practice to be able to split their movements. 

But maybe he didn't need to... 

'How do you only think of one thing...?'

Konrad thought of a solution. One befitting of his naivety. 

"Hand, hand, hand, hand, hand, hand, hand..."

Each time his thoughts strayed from the one point of focus, he would repeat the word hand, and somehow... it worked! 

Konrad was able to solely focus on the hardening of his hand. But... this also resulted in him losing control of the battle... 

He would mindlessly charge towards the hares, trying his very best not to let his thoughts go astray. He would continue to say: "Hand, hand, hand", so as to not smack the hares again.

He held his hand in front of him. The sharp bony protrusions which were able to slice through the heavy hares. Konrad tried his very best to aim at the hares, but they were far too fast to hit directly. 

He almost had to focus on the hares to be able to hit them, they were far too fast. So once one of them got close, he would leap at it, holding his hand in the air above him. Launching it downwards.

He would lose focus only for a split moment. But this was enough to remove to crystallised blades...

However, the mass and warmth had not gone completely... Instead Konrad would hit the rabbit, it would be smacked away in the same way. However, this time it would splat on the ground in tremendous force. Splitting apart like a pancake on the ground. 

'Shit.' 

***

Now Konrad had been able to off about half of them. Some of them were less quick than others, so sometimes he would be lucky and able to slice them apart. Others, who were faster, would be smacked and exploded on the ground.

Konrad felt especially proud of this achievement. Even though the sole reason he was still here was because he couldn't focus on two things at the same time. 

Just before his eyes he saw two of the rapid hares jumping at the same time. The snapping of their joints was just as deafening as before. He would charge at them, focusing on his hand in preperation.

In the moment the hares would intercept in the middle of their attack, colliding with a snap. Konrad would take a left hook at the hares with his hand still protruding the bony segments. 

This segments would not slice the creatures apart. Instead it would enter them through the side--both of them. Once the bony protrusion was inside, both of the hares would stop fighting. It had penetrated their bodies, and so they could no longer attempt to hurt him.

However, once the bony protrusions were inside, their rotting bodies seeming limp, they would explode in the same gruesome way as the bisons had done before. 

The explosion was madness, two of them at the same time going up in a bang. But this time Konrad was a bit more prepared, namely keeping his mouth shut. 

For the first time since seeing these rotting creatures, he saw fear in their behaviour. He had thought these things were completely void of fear and instinct, but he guessed it took about six of their group to perish before they felt a need for fleeing. 

It seemed only like the instincts had gotten duller, not disappeared completely. And as the last remaining hares fled, Konrad growing tired. The fleshy masses left on the ground would begin to crawl like larvae towards him...