I peered out at the strange monstrosity before me. A moment after it had arrived it peeled off its face, or what I had believed to be its face.
Underneath was a pale and slightly furry head. It made a strange sound and shook its head as if it were angry.
In its hand was a thin flap of some unknowable material. Perhaps the skin of some past prey.
It sat down and placed its light on the ground. I was surprised that it could remove not just one, but several parts of its body.
I noticed it had begun to eat something, I would have plenty of time to properly examine it from my hiding spot.
()
"Fuck, I'm lost!" Zenick proclaimed for all the dungeon to know. He peered into his map desperately trying to find some landmark he could use to find his way again.
The man had been sent down for reconnaissance in the Barakre dungeon, ahead of the delve team. He was not an experienced delver.
In truth this was his first time going down farther than the first thirty floors. Luckily for him he was a gifted warrior and all the myriad of abominations that assailed him fell quickly to his blade.
By his estimation he was somewhere between the ninetieth and the one-thirtieth levels. His mission had been to reach the eightieth before returning.
He, however, did not have the patience to wait for the rag-tag team. Luara had fallen, and all of the good gods were silent. Not one prayer had been answered in the past twenty hours.
Despite his young age he understood that time was against him and every single mortal in his city, and perhaps the world.
The quest for this dive had been enacted upon the basis that the gods of Gae were believed to live at the bottoms of the dungeons.
Not knowing what to do, the Barakre city council had decided to send an expedition down, farther than any before it. To slay the God of Wrath Gridul who was said to live here.
Gridul was well known as the father of dragons, the single most wrathful race to exist. While not all dragons were outright hostile to the mortal races, most still were. And any slight against a dragon, no matter how small, would always result in bloodshed.
Often in the destruction of entire kingdoms.
Zenick swore again, having finished his meal, and trekked off into the abyss. Hoping against hope that he would either find his way back up. Or find his way to the bottom.
()
After several minutes of astute study, I came to the conclusion that what appeared to be its skin was actually something it draped over its body. Most likely to shore up its lack of scales.
It also held its meal over the light, causing it to smoke and smell in the strangest, but most mouth watering way.
Luckily it ate quickly enough that I did not erupt out of my hole in an attempt to steal away its food.
It stood, glanced around itself, and took off diagonally away from the direction it had come.
Once I was certain it was too far away to either see or hear me in the gloom, I excavated myself from the gravil.
I inspected where it had rested and found it covered in strange scents. With my recent hunt I knew what life smelled like, generally at least. So when I discovered the unique smells of dozens of creatures in the wake of this being.
I was responsibly relieved at having decided to hide rather than fight. But also intrigued. It wasn't a massive creature, perhaps I could follow it and eat what it leaves behind.
Mind set, I begin to follow it, slowly, from a distance more than four times the area that its light could reveal.
After a time it was assailed by a large and scaled thing much like me. This one however was more than five times my size, easily standing at eye level with my guide. It had no wings, but instead had three pairs of legs to my two.
It reared up to strike from the left side, before it had even come close; however, a bright flash of orange light erupted from the right arm of my unknowing escort. Cleanly slicing the reptile in half and gouging the stone beneath it.
I shivered at the raw power the being revealed. It hadn't even broken stride in slaying the threat. Opting to leave it behind.
I was thankful for the meal, very thankful. In the time between meals my stomach had screamed at me in the language of pain that I was starving.
Much time passed like this. The being would walk, and I would follow. Anything that rose up to greet it was summarily decimated in two or fewer strikes.
When the being stopped to sleep, I slept. When it stopped to eat I crawled close and examined it.
Time meant nothing to me except for the cycles of hunger and thirst. But even I could tell it had been a long time. With my senses I was able to tell that the being walked in circles half the time.
The other half it back trekked.
In this time I had grown rapidly. Apparently my extreme hunger had been the result of my body expanding into greater and greater forms.
Already I was certain to be at least the same size as my guide. If not larger.
During one of sleep cycles, after it had extinguished its light, I spotted another. Similar light in the distance.
I knew it would not wake for quite some time so I investigated. Running quickly and quietly until I could see the source.
There ahead of me were dozens more of the creatures ilk. Many wore the same strange accessories as mine. However many wore different lighter and thinner variations.
They were walking closely together, a few thickly skinned ones walked the perimeter, watching for attackers.
I wondered whether they were looking for the one I had been following, it certainly seemed to be lost to me.
I returned to where it had been sleeping and tossed rocks at it until it woke. In anger it started to scream in random directions, waving its scary orange light around.
Once it had spotted the light of what I assumed was its pack, it yelled with a completely different tone and ran off towards them.
I followed, curiously he had been greeted with a barrage of attacks from a thin long furred creature. Even stranger, it did not use its orange light to protect itself and seemingly accept the punishment.
Once all of its close kin had greeted it with their varying levels of anger or.. Happiness. The whole pack picked up to a higher pace and they marched unerringly deeper.
Not once did whomever led the group take a bad turn or back trek like the first had. I wondered whether the first was weak or stupid compared to its kind.
With the marked increase of pace, and vast distances traveled. The creatures encountered grew far stronger and more numerous.
Luckily for me the massive pack I followed drew all attention to themselves with their total disregard for noise or light.
It wasn't until several dozen sleep cycles had passed that I had the opportunity to see one of the strange creatures fight seriously.
A massive multi-mouthed creature with a dozen different legs and fur that stank of decay even from the other side of the herd.
It appeared without warning, falling from above. Crashing slightly to the left of the front of the pack. They reacted instantly.
A dozen of them began to vocalize in unison. Forming a massive translucent shell over the entire group. Several of the thickly skinned ones marched towards it, preparing to go to battle. Their usual calm was replaced by tense energy.
The five creatures took up stance in a line between the shield and the creature. Together they each sparked a light from their arms. The abomination lit its own sickly green light.
For a moment the two sides flared their lights, gauging each other's strengths.
The walking corpse was the first to act. No fewer than two of it's limbs reached out to each of the five beings
It's sickly green for all but a moment consumed their forms, until great orange lights flared from three of them, and pink from two.
The five together overwhelmed the corpse to the point of not even giving a chance to react.
It laid dead, in multiple pieces on the ground.
Curiously, they did not ignore this corpse. Nor did they eat it.
They covered it in the strange dancing light, and once satisfied moved on.
I stopped to inspect what was left of the creature, but there was nothing left but dust.
Many more creatures of similar or greater scale revealed themselves as the column travelled. Not once were one of the strange creatures injured.