The sound of clapping was heard in the dark cavern, Phil who just evaded the web that Vicky shot out was in a tense mood, and he was confused about how he was discovered since he was very careful about his actions.
A figure slowly came out of the darkness and was smiling sweetly at Phil, her face filled with an innocent expression that can even melt a cold heart; she longingly looked at Phil, her eyes wanting him to stay with her forever.
"Big brother Phil, you came back."
Her voice was sweet and Phil was mesmerized for a moment, but something that was attached to the back of the girl broke the joyous moment, the clacking of her spider appendages as they hit against each other was quite audible inside the large cavern. Phil stiffened up seeing the pointed edges of the appendages that can even skewer a man, even he who had some inhuman powers now do not want to test how sharp these appendages were.
The air was still and tension was on the rise, Phi glanced at the exit and saw that it was blocked by a thick amount of webbing; he reached towards Annie and carefully shielded her from Vicky.
Vicky slowly walked towards Phil dragging two of her spider legs behind her making a scraping sound audible inside the large cavern. Phil cringed; the sound of the scraping was amplified due to how the cavern was structured.
The distance between the two was slowly shrinking; Vicky was nonchalant on her actions convinced that Phil would not escape the second time. Phil on the other hand was in a tight spot, he was consulting with En on solutions to escape his current predicament.
'Any solutions En.'
'I suggest frontal assault. A war of attrition between you and nightmare origin will only end up with you losing, as time pass we will be closer towards the abyss, and the stronger the nightmare origin will be.'
'How about escape.'
'Escape is not an option if your objective is to save the girl, but if you leave her behind, then you can escape and return to the plains of sleep.'
'Are you kidding me? How about hiding inside the shadow then?'
'No. By estimates, if both you and Annie hide inside the shadow, because of how low your energy reserve is you can at most hide inside for a minute only.'
'Are there other options you can tell me?'
'Yes, if we go by your original plan by making Annie a dreamer, then we will have higher odds of winning and destroying the nightmare origin. Although this will depend on Annie's talent to become a 'Lucid Dreamer'.'
'Dangit.'
Vicky and Phil were now 20 meters apart; she stopped walking and stared at Phil who was shielding Annie from her view. Her smile slowly turned into a frown.
"Big brother, why did you leave Vicky? We were having so much fun playing together. But you left me behind, you even stole Annie away from me."
She looked intensely at Phil's eyes.
"Even now, you are thinking of running away."
Suddenly, using her spider appendages like a spring, Vicky pounced in Phil's direction.
"Run!"
Phil hurriedly carried Annie in his arms, as he rushed towards the exit. Seeing Phil's decision Vicky smiled and was laughing maniacally.
"You can't run away from me!"
She followed after Phil but matched his speed; Vicky knows that Phil could not destroy her web since she saw him trying to break it before when he rescued Annie. She just wanted to prolong the chase and watch as despair slowly paint Phil's face, she drooled at the thought of Phil pleading for her mercy as she slowly devour him.
Running towards the exit that was blocked by a web, Annie wanted to warn Phil about what was ahead.
"Big brother the..."
But before Annie could finish what she wanted to say. The feeling of Phil stumbling down overwhelmed her, the thought that everything was over, came briefly on her mind as she saw the ground getting closer. Vicky saw Phil stumbling as well, she wanted to laugh at how clumsy he was when suddenly Phil disappeared from her sight, and she was momentarily confused about what just happened.
Shaking because of rage, black smoke oozed out of Vicky, her voice started to change and she screamed in anguish. She could not believe that Phil had escaped once again. Running towards the location where Phil just disappeared, she started digging using her spider legs and stopped when she had dug about a meter deep without finding Phil.
She hacked the web into pieces sensing that Phil was not inside the large cavern anymore, screeching she ordered the distant spiders to look for Phil and to report to her if any of them finds him.
Meanwhile, Phil who deliberately stumbled and entered inside the shadow was clutching Annie afraid that he will accidentally let go and cause an accident. He dove about 10 meters deep and turned around, both he and Annie looked up and saw Vicky raging and proceeded to dig the place where they disappeared.
Phil kept on looking at his quickly depleting energy bar, once he sees it go lower than 10 he would reach inside his pockets and eat an egg.
Phil had already eaten 2 eggs when Vicky went out of the large cavern, he sighed and relaxed since he would be in dire straits if Vicky did not go out since he did not have an unlimited source of eggs.
Exiting the shadow, Phil was back inside the large cavern, he saw that his energy was quite low and proceeded to eat another egg. He was now left with a single egg he sighed since it was the only lifeline he had left.
Staring at Phil with awe, Annie had many questions but Phil stopped her, Phil proceeded to look for a quiet corner and explained to Annie how to become a 'Lucid Dreamer' so that he could control her dreams and defeat Vicky once and for all.
"Just try and follow what I'm about to tell you, Annie, you have the power to defeat Vicky and return to the real world."
Phil stared at the little girl who he just noticed back in her normal height, because of the series of events that happened he just noticed now. Annie nodded at Phil and tried to concentrate and follow what Phil was saying. She closed her eyes and furrowed her brows; she tried imagining a small ball for now, since Phil thought that starting small would be a good idea.
Phil sat down to recover his energy; he waited for Annie to have some kind of result and prepared himself for the upcoming battle.
During his time waiting, Phil observed that his energy refills 1 point every 10 minutes without him using it. Currently, he had 10/20 after eating the previous egg and it rose to 11 during the time he was teaching Annie how to become a 'Lucid Dreamer'.'
An hour and a half passed his energy bar were back to full, Phil stood up wanting to stretch when moments later he could feel pressure coming out of Annie. She stretched her right arm out and opened her hand, a white ball was slowly manifesting floating on top of her open hand, at first, it was transparent but as time passed the ball was slowly turning into a corporeal image. Annie furrowed her brows having difficulties in fully manifesting the ball, she took a deep breath and concentrated even harder, seconds later the ball stopped floating and fully manifested on Annie's hands.
Annie opened her eyes tired but nonetheless, happy that she succeeded in manifesting a ball; she looked towards Phil wanting to hug him when suddenly the whole cavern shook.
Like a magnitude 7 earthquake, the cavern shook for a few seconds. Annie stumbled and fell while Phil was concerned about what just happened. Phil asked En as he helped Annie up.
'What just happen?'
'The girl's control over the dream is being strengthened making the nightmare origin's influence unstable. Prepare for battle Phil, the nightmare origin is heading your way, she had sensed Annie's awakening into a 'Lucid Dreamer'.'
Phil told Annie what had just happened and that Vicky is coming their way.
"What do I need to do big brother."
"I want you to think about happy thoughts and transform them into a blinding light and smite Vicky with it."
Annie nodded; she started to recall the happy memories she had when her mother was still alive. Phil then carried Annie and hid her in a hard-to-notice corner so that Vicky won't attack her; he then hid near the entrance and prepared for an ambush.
'En, how do I strengthen myself just like the time I ran towards the exit?'
'Feel the power inside your stomach first, after that control it, so that it will move towards your desired body part you want to strengthen.'
'Can I just strengthen my whole body?'
'You can but it will quickly deplete your energy.'
Phil concentrated and easily controlled the energy since he had felt it before when he wanted to escape. He then distributed it to both his legs and his right arm ready to deliver a heavy blow once Vicky enters the cavern.
5 minutes later, Phil could hear rumbling. Vicky was madly running towards the cavern with a mass of giant spiders following her. She was livid that Phil had escaped and was confused about how he did it, but when she felt her influence over the dream had become unstable she was filled with rage and sensed where Annie was hiding she was even filled with more rage when she discovered that Annie did not leave the large cavern making her efforts on looking for them useless.
She entered the large cavern and screamed in anguish when suddenly something heavy hit her chest, her chest cracked and she spat out black blood, she flew backward into the wall of the cavern with a loud bang creating a large hole because of the force of the impact, the giant spiders stopped on their tracks confused on what just happened.
Phil was breathing heavily, his right arm was aching his energy was at 1 point. Using his left arm, he reached inside his pocket and took the last egg, and directly swallowed it.
Phil recovered a little and stared at the hole in the wall of the cavern Vicky made when Phil punched her, he thought that he had done it and everything was over when suddenly the sound of slow footsteps was heard.
The sound was quiet but Phil could hear it loudly, it echoed inside his head as he prepared for phase 2.