No excuse this time.
/////
Kali landed back on the ground with a heavy thud, failing to catch herself with an arm that wasn't there. Kali's eyelids fluttered open, opening to reveal a dark, dirt-formed cave. Her eyes were fogged and glassy as she scanned the room, that was until she felt a dryness in her throat and a burning in her lungs. She coughed harshly, her eyes shutting tight as dry, rasping gasps barked from her parched throat. Her cracked lips had a split, forming just slightly to the right of the middle of her lip, a crimson droplet of blood accumulating from the wound. She tried to wipe the blood away with her left hand, but the appendage never arrived to clean her of the metallic liquid.
She could clearly feel her muscles twitching, along with her shoulder twisting to move her upper arm. She glanced at her arm, the light indigo skin, twisted, scarred, and forever ruined as it came to a spiraling stop at a sharp-looking bone spike. The spike was a glistening, spotless ivory, having had acid melt away the flesh around it. The bone was mostly smooth, some indents covering it in random spots.
Her muddled mind still didn't process what she was seeing, so when she tried to twitch her non-existent fingers, muscles contracted and pulled on areas sealed in scar tissue, and nerves shrieked in pain, pleading and warning her to stop. She tried to, but the action set off a chain of dominoes — actions and reactions — each causing new, fresh waves of agony to roll over her.
The pain was constant, creating more and more spasms of muscles that led to dead ends, pulling on pained, tender flesh. She whimpered and cried and lost herself in the awful sensation of an unstoppable loop of torture. Then, with a single sentence, her muscles froze, and she felt herself wishing that she could just continue living with the torture.
"Kali, are you okay?" A barely worried Eodum asked.
Just as her muscles froze, so did her blood. An icy feeling seemed to fill the room, yet cold sweat ran down her back. Eodum. It was Eodum. Her spine tingled, her head ached, remembering the scene of Eodum felling Ksilisab with all the brutality of a true monster, but the cold, mechanical, unfeeling, and calculating eyes of an assassin. The all-consuming blackness of its fur threatened to swallow her psyche and never spit it out. The white eyes seemed to peer into her soul, and she could only shiver before its gaze.
She took a loathing peek at the source of the voice, hoping it was a hallucination that had spoken to her. It wasn't. There were Eodum's glowing eyes, brighter and larger than the stars which lined Eodum's coat. The lights were all she could see, the rest of its beyond-pitch-black body melted into the shadows, even if they were darker than the very things which were the absences of light. There was that monster, her nightmare, Eodum.
*****
Eodum had watched Kali writhe in pain on the ground for half a minute before speaking up. When it did, it observed her as she came to a complete stop. Her skin moistened with sweat as her breathing picked up. It morphed into its humanoid form as to appear non-threatening to her, and from its higher vantage point, It could see her eyes staring off into space.
Her chest raised and lowered, rapidly picking up in pace. Her eyes slowly slid to look at Eodum. At the moment, it was dark out, so it was quite dark in the burrow. If Eodum would've preferred, it could have become unnoticeable. As Eodum wanted to make proper conversation with Kali, it decided to not be stealthy, letting the glow of its eyes and the spots all over its body shine in the dark.
Honestly, Eodum was unsure of how to feel about its new evolution. The evolution came along with a plethora of skills, but Eodum's stealth had taken a heavy blow. Its fur and skin now glowed, and the effectiveness of hiding in the shadows had been drastically reduced. Eodum's skills could still hide them pretty well, but against something higher level? There was a limit to how far [Presence Detection Alteration] and [Void Body] could take it.
Eodum thoughts continued on as it watched down on Kali. At this point, she was shivering, eyes shut tight, tears squeezed out from fear. She curled up into the fetal position, waiting for what she thought was a sadistic monster wanting nothing but death to kill her. Eodum asked the question again, this time walking closer to her, "Are you okay?"
No response.
Eodum wasn't sure how to handle this. Kali wasn't responding, and Eodum hadn't wanted to scare her more. Eodum was aware Kali was afraid of it, but for the life of it, it couldn't figure out why. Eodum was strong, but she was too. She was honestly quite powerful as she was able to hold her own against Ksilisab for quite a while. Eodum didn't know why she was scared, and that was quite the problem now.
… Or was it?
"Stand." Eodum demanded, putting as much force behind its tone as possible. At the same time, it activated [True Fear]. If she was already afraid, then this should compound itself with her terror.
She flinched at the noise but held as still as possible.
"Stand." Eodum demanded again, this time putting more power into the skill and its voice, "Now."
This time, she complied, fear overwhelming her senses and forcing her to compile. She buried up, wincing in pain at muscles spasming all over, but she forced her way through the pain as she stood at attention. Proper posture, hand and stump at the side, she looked ready to follow all orders given to her, forced by complete fear and terror. A smirk crawled across Eodum's face, white, sharp teeth impossibly shining in the darkness of the burrow. This makes things easier.