In The Abyss As A Toon Character

The air around them seemed to thicken with tension, and Dante's instincts quickly raced to the borderline; his senses tried to calm him down by whispering to him one thing while his intuition frenziedly screamed another thing.

The presence of Kaiden Katley was like a paradox; there wasn't any type of threat, yet the lack of a threat is what sent him into a hyper-focused state.

¿ ¿ ¿ ¿ ¿ ¿ ¿ ¿ ¿ ¿ W R O N G ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

Katley, with an unhurried grace, began to unwrap a piece of paper. After finishing this, she stretched her arm with paper in hand. "Can you sign this?" Her tone sounded assuring, like that of an old friend.

Without a second thought, Dante stepped forward, his leg tensing like a coiled spring. In a burst of speed, he quickly kicked off the ground, sending a cloud of dust into the air.

He used the floor to bounce back and sent a powerful kick with at least half of this strength at Katley's position to test the waters in this strange situation.

Mid-motion, he began to consider 'perhaps it was an overkill', but his kick seemed to slow down as it got closer, and for the first time since he got in this new body, he felt his muscles painfully rippling with an exhausting effort.

His kick eventually stopped, being "suspended" by an invisible force and, like a drop into an ocean. There was no shockwave, no impact, and not even a hair moved in consequence by the air; it was just a cold void where his strike should have connected.

He landed lightly on the ground, with the muscles still shuddering from the spent force. "What the...?" he muttered, bewildered by the lack of any reaction.

Though his attempt to land a blow was useless, he took advantage of the momentum to spring back towards his friends. In a swift motion, he reached out to grab them, planning on teleporting everyone to a safer place.

But as his fingers reached out to grab Su Yuan, they met the same invisible barrier. His momentum dissipated into nothing, and all his kinetic energy evaporated into thin air.

Katley stood there, with her face adorned with that serene smile, still holding the paper. She exuded no intent to fight, merely watching with a kind of detached curiosity.

"What are you trying to get?" Dante demanded, with his voice tinged with confusion, "We sense something off about you, but it's like... it's like nothing."

Katley analyzed her and took what appeared to be an item out of the inventory, "That sixth sense of yours is impressive," she remarked almost casually. "It even pierced the first layer. Reminds me of someone, but I can't say it in this place." She held out the paper again, inviting her once more, "But! Maybe if you sign this, I can explain everything to you."

Ignoring the paper, Dante continued doing whatever he could. Now, knowing that it couldn't be broken by force, he tried another thing. He knocked on it like a door, and it worked.

*Knock* *Knock*

Now it felt solid, so he decided to try and punch it again, and the thundering sound of his fist hitting the barrier reverberated like a hammer on steel, loud and ineffective.

Katley walked slowly towards Dante, saying with all the calm of the world, "That's interesting, to say the least... but still useless... I'm not stupid enough to reveal my ability to you. You might actually have a way to counter it if you knew the ins and outs, so have fun trying to pop it off."

Dante, refusing to give up, kicked the ground again, sending another curtain of smoke into the air. This time, Katley's composure slipped for a fraction as her lips tightened in nuisance. "I'm trying to be friendly with you," her tone slowly began, bordering on a more irritated one. "I want to be patient, but you're making it very difficult. Can you just sign this before things get out of hand?"

Instead of trying to punch the air like the last time, Dante decided to make a needle from thin air, shooting the projectile with just his fingers.

Katley's eyes tracked its course, and for a moment, she dismissed it as 'inconsequential.' But soon, she regretted having done that; as the needle approached, her expression gave a U-turn.

The sound of popping bubbles echoed as the barrier absorbed the attack; with a quick, graceful movement, Katley leaned to the left, dodging the needle by a small margin.

"Wow..." she murmured, with slight surprise in her tone. Her eyes met Dante's, and for the first time, there was an emotion: a glimmer of pity. "I don't think you understand," she said softly. "The difference between us is not something you can just close with tricks and gags, and look, I don't want to kill your friends nor make you suffer before inevitably finishing this, but this is your decision."

Dante's breath caught in his throat. Katley's expression wasn't arrogant; it was a pity. Genuine pity. Not the kind meant to mock you down, but the one that you feel when you empathize.

Not even giving him room to think a way out of this, Katley abruptly said out of nowhere, "Skin, & bones."

Dante's legs unexpectedly stopped moving, feeling a paralyzing and painful sensation across every inch of his essence; his senses appeared to tell him that his skin and bones were forcibly ripped from his body, but that didn't make sense.

As he processed this information, his face slammed into the ground like a soft, pliable gelatin. His form liquefied into a grotesque pink puddle, with his facial features swirling in a desperate fight to maintain any coherence as the rest of his body struggled to stay like that and not tangle with other parts of the body.