The creature's final, pitiful scream echoed briefly, then faded into the eerie quiet that followed. The air, once thick with tension and danger, now felt oddly still. Blackened ichor dripped from the remnants of the tentacles, staining the grass beneath our feet with dark, viscous pools that smelled of decay and corruption.
"Got the kid?" Liang Yu asked, her voice calm as she wiped a splatter of the foul substance from her robes, the pungent scent lingering in the air. She moved with the ease of someone used to cleaning up after battles, her demeanor composed, almost too casual given the chaos we had just fought through.
"Yeah, but..." I glanced down at the boy in my arms. His small frame had gone completely limp, his head lolling against my chest as if he'd collapsed from the sheer intensity of it all. "Looks like he passed out," I muttered, shifting him slightly to get a better look.
