Looking at the three Spikys slowly encircling him, he somehow recognizes the one which pursues him the day before by his vicious glare full of resentment.
"Sh*tty smart Spiky, you even went searching for reinforcement, you don't play easy don't you! Your higher height, your bigger weapon collection, and stronger attacks weren't enough for me ah! Such a scarred kitty cat !!"
Without any idea how to resolve himself from this mess, Alix chose his only solution, to attack first, but with a battle of wits, which was probably the sole thing he was superior to against this ferocious creature.
"GROWL"
Without waiting for Alix to infuriated him even more, he jumped toward him, his teeth ready to tear him up into pieces, his claws preventing him to escape on each side.
Alix, seeing Death closing upon him made one of the stupidest decision of his life and probably one of the bravest one, but as it said: "Stupidity and courage are two sides of the same coin".
He jumped in front to meet the attack ahead, and it's literally what he did, trying to head bump the furious Spiky which was not prepared for this move at all. In trying to limit its already started motion to be able to touch this small creature, he didn't calculate correctly and the longhorn of the skull protecting Alix's head dived deep in its upper body, piercing its heart.
Shocked, the Spicy let out a mournful cry, not believing what was happening to him. How come such a stupid move could end his life, this creature couldn't even leave a scar on its thick fur. The Spiky collapsed on Alix, full of questions never to be answered and resentment never to be avenged.
Alix was squashed under it, pierced by three spikes, one in his left arm, two in his left leg. "Well the risk was calculated after all, even if I had to die, I would have taken it with me, this damned creature! I 'm sure it didn't know the skull was one of its species, its horns actually the sharpest tool I own. Now its finally over, the two Spikys would probably first eat their buddy and I will come after!"
"YIIIP"
"Well, that's a strange sound for sure! What do they do, I can't move to see them !"
The two other Spikys were actually restless, sad and fearful, not knowing what to do. They were much younger than the one that asks for their help, explaining why they accepted it. There was a strict hierarchy between them and an older one was always more powerful and could kill them easily.
Without waiting anymore, one of the two yelps and started to escape running deep in the tunnels. The second took just a second more to think before imitating his colleague and running behind it as if fearing for his life.
Left alone, Alix took even more time to understand the situation, stunned by what just perspired. "That's totally wasn't expected but thank you, guys! And thank you, my lucky star, I just don't know what I would do without you saving my poor little life each day passing! At this level, it's even becoming slightly suspicious, not that I mind being alive but hey, what are the odds?"
He was very pleased with himself, full of a renewed "Nothing can happen to me" feeling when he noticed he was still nailed to the soil by a big spiky creature, blood streaming down slowly off his wounded limbs. The blood of the Spiky was too flowing out on the horn still impaled in its heart, trickling down on Alix's head.
Licking the blood, an explosion of life force began taking place in his body, making the previously Big Eyes flesh appear as a firefly before a sun. It was stronger than anything he could remember, overflowing his five senses, making him passively ingest this blood.
It was increasing at an alarming rate the healing of his wounds, closing on the spike still inside him. "I must come out of this embarrassing situation quickly or these spikes won't come out this easily when I will pull them out! How to do it..? This thing must weight up to five times a Big Eyes, perhaps like four hundred kilograms. I won't be able to push it with conventional means..."
The situation was dire even if he thought lightly of it, trying to push the creature with his remaining arm, he didn't even make it budge. Not giving up, he started to roll his body over, hoping to reverse the role and to have only to extract him of the three spikes. But they were too deeply embedded in the floor and he just manages to achieve an increase in his pain, tearing apart the wound, making the blood flow out again with renewed vigor.
"Ouch, bad idea, I must drink more of its blood, it could give me more strength to lift this big boy."
"SLURP"
Drinking the dripping Spiky's blood, he could feel the increasing life force coursing through his veins, nourishing his cells as if they were thirsty for years. Slowly the blood didn't flow out anymore, the wound a little clotted, Alix tried again to raise the corpse, with a better result but not enough.
Searching for one of his claws that were not too far from him with his remaining free arm, he tried to cut the spikes to no avail. Even the skin didn't rupture and this position didn't allow him to use all his strength.
Desperately he tried to bite in its flesh, trying eating some but his teeth were not sharp enough to cut it. "Yeah, even if my body was reinforced by eating their flesh, it's nowhere as close as one of a Big Eyes claw.. The only thing that could help me out are the horns on the skull but they are too deep in its upper body for me to do anything with it..."
Looking around for some time, he noticed the already familiar Darkness enveloping them, an idea pop up in his mind. Calming his mind he tried again to mobilize it by willing it into the shape of a sharp tool. Managing to do it was not a small feat but strangely he seemed to quickly have the knack of it obtaining a meter sharp spear, ready to pierce the Spiky's corpse.
Willing it to move, it went through the body without any resistance whatsoever. Making it move up and down he could see there wasn't actually any damage on the skin, as if it was a mirage traversing it. "No problem, I wasn't expecting anything from this anyway, the real thing comes now !"
Instinctively, Alix pulls his mind out of the connection with Darkness, letting it destabilize in the Spiky.
"BOOOOOOM"
An intense explosion propelled Alix against the floor, embedding his outline on it. The spikes that were in him just a moment ago went through him completely, disappearing in the hard soil. The skin of the Spiky protected Alix of the major part of the impact but bits of flesh were everywhere to be seen.
Alix wasn't so much better than the exploded body, his chest had caved in, his ribs were broken and his organs ruptured. "The good news is that it worked, I'm free! The bad one is that I'm in a worst situation than before but it's not as if it's my first time! Time to eat some delicious food !"
Crawling on the floor with aching motions, he started to lick and eat the flesh pieces that were disseminated around him. "Fortunately I'm alone here, no people to judge me... Hmmm so good, this meat is really heavenly !!"
For a good two hours, he recovered most of his lost strength by devouring the Spiky or what was leftover of it. With the miraculous effect of this meat, the Alix wounds had already clotted and some had even closed up allowing him to move with a much better range of action.
"My ribs seem slower to heal, I can't say it's really surprising tho, it's good enough for bones to had already retaken their place of origin! The effect of Darkness was indeed extraordinary, I must learn to control it better, it's a great tool for me to keep my life. This Spiky's meat is incredible too, There was less than ten percent of it remaining but the effects are unbelievable!! I can already see twenty meters ahead in this particularly dark tunnel, I should be able to almost see like on the surface in the main canyon !"
Looking at his body he could see what he didn't before, a little bit of color. Surprisingly, he was covered in green blood and red blood with a tinge of green.
"What the ..? Is it the Spiky's blood that had tinted my blood or is my blood slowly turning like theirs..?" Frightened by this unknown perspective, Alix soon put it aside, deciding he couldn't make things different if he wanted to survive. "If it changes me like those monster, so be it, I don't really have a choice after all..."
Getting ready to depart, he didn't forget to collect the Spiky's bones laying on the floor. Some were destroyed, others pulverized as a testimony of the violence of the explosion. What was weird, and great too for Alix was that despite the power of it, it didn't have a large area of effect, practically entirely contained in the body of this know dead vengeful Spiky.
Putting these bones in his armor and collecting the remaining three claws, he departed, not wanting to be at a place where soon a good number of curious creatures would flow to see what happened.
Walking more and more in the depth of these tunnels, he decided to go deeper, exploring this newfound control on Darkness that he discovered.
The day should be ending soon when he discovered a small dead-end of one of these myriads of tunnels. Looking around, he was inwardly pleased with this place. "It will be much more comfortable than my little cavity, I just have to destroy a part of the passage and it will be closed from the other path. The created screen should unable big creature to pass and should be safer for me."
Not waiting too much, he conjures a ball of Darkness, making it pierce the ceiling situated a dozen meter overhead. Letting it destabilized naturally after having retreated at the bottom of its dead-end, a similar explosion occurred as planned, but with much bigger aftermath. Rocks and stones continue to fall for a good minute after the detonation, covering the splint and shard that were projected at the beginning.
The scree thus formed was much bigger than planned but it was likewise effective in protecting its newfound little home.
Finally resting, Alix falls apart in sleep without any dream. The atmosphere was quiet and eerie, tendrils of black Darkness surrounding his body, sometimes entering it without him realizing it.
The next day was dedicated to inspecting his wound and his newfound weapon. "I would soon have to go out to hunt and to retrieve water, my drinking bones are empty after all these races... "
Looking at the remains of the Spiky, his interest was piqued. "These claws are so much sharper than the Big Eyes' one! I could actually slice a little bit in the stonewall !! My days in this depth are counted, as soon as I can, I will climb up to the surface with these claws! But I'm not really strong enough for now, better consume a little abyss meat before!"
Unknowingly, he was becoming more and more proficient in his survival, and could see, far from him but still visible, the day where he could come out of this terrifying hole. Before he didn't even know if there would come a day he could, his conditions were slowly improving.
"Ok, time to drink and hunt, and after I will experiment with my new found Darkness skill! But before going in this little seclusion I must make some meat's stock to not have to go out too often!"
Walking out, passing behind a gigantic boulder that was letting a small path free from rocks, he quickly found some puddle of water.
Tightening his finger around the Spiky's claws which were a meter long he was thinking of his next course of action.
"Well, I can't miss such a good occasion, with this many in the tunnels, time to try some Bulky's meat !!"