Beneath his shivering pale skin, millions of minuscule black worms etched themselves like tattoos, slowly devouring the man within.
Thump-
Theon's heartbeat.
Twitch-
Theon's eyes.
He was still alive.
Just in a twisted, torturous method.
Behind the harrowed man's head, a bridge of worms connected from the point of impact into his skull.
It burrowed into his brain so simply.
Luckily, before Crude could panic any more, he saw that the bridge of worms was washed away by the torrent of water quite rapidly.
Theon raised his arm crookedly at Crude, forcing the other man to take a few slightly misplaced steps back.
Step-
One of his feet slipped off the edge, almost sending him tumbling down.
Danny held onto him in time, saving Crude from certain demise.
Theon's steps stumbled, and with the lack of control and balance, his body slipped to the side, smashing the infected young man's skull into the wall next to him.
Splat!
From the source of his bleeding skull; hundreds of worms spilt out, overflowing in tidal waves.
Then, Theon slipped off his ledge, crashing down the mountain with brutal screams of agony bellowing from his throat.
A trail of squirming worms was left behind him.
Fortunately, the rain was blind.
It attacked all.
Every minuscule worm flushed down the cloak in the endless torrent running down the cloak from the top like a waterfall.
Cleaning the cloak of the vile presence.
5 remained.
-----
'What the hell is that.'
The dumb cook just died, but Syllian wasn't bothered by it as much as he was by the worm infestation attack.
Once again, Helen was just as unfazed.
'Don't tell me she's purposefully picking them off?!'
It sure felt like it to him, She made sure he led the pack, then attacked those behind him first.
She was taking them apart one by one, until in the end...
"It would just be me left."
'That's too convenient.'
Syllian couldn't assume the best, no, he could only assume the worst.
And the worst would be-
PAH-!
Another miniature tentacle blasted out of a larger one, speeding through the raging winds and rain.
Dodging forward, Danny risked everything and lurched to Crude's section.
Crude quickly followed suit, dashing at Theon's previous location, he just prayed that the worms wouldn't infect him.
Slamming into the cloak, countless worms burst out, surveying the land for their prey.
As for the prey, Danny, he was a few metres away.
The entire line moved with Danny, creating space for the duo at the back to escape the onslaught of horrific worms.
It didn't stop there.
Pah-! Pah-!
Two more shot upwards while slowly pulling towards each other.
Until at the end, PAH!
They ricocheted off the other, switching directions as they sliced elegantly curved paths toward Allen and Danny.
Twisting his body back, Allen avoided it by the skin of his teeth.
But Allen knew that this wasn't it, with his path forward temporarily blocked, and with the path back too perilous to quickly retreat to, he chose the next best option.
Syllian looked into Allen's eyes, and the boy looked back at his.
Then-
Fwoosh...
-he jumped.
Down.
Sliding across the wet surface, Allen endured dozens of cuts and slices as his roll down slowly doomed the boy.
Smack!
Punching his arms onto an incoming ledge, Allen lurched under it, his arms quivering and squeezing with all their strength.
The veins on his forearms popped out, his groans were drowned by the deafening waves.
Up above, Danny was in a similar situation, unprepared for the sudden change in trajectory, he was stuck between a rock and a hard place.
So his decision was the same.
He jumped.
Rolling down the side of the slippery slope, he finally caught onto a section close to Allen's.
Both of them pressed through the agony until they saved their flickering souls.
Crude and Syllian looked down at the two survivors, then looked behind them, at the tentacle-covered dark waters.
Syllian focused on the bleeding and broken Allen, he was alive and moving, but closer to death than ever before.
Not even that perilous night could compare.
...Or maybe it could.
Honestly, Syllian didn't know which was worse.
This or that night of hell.
Helen's palm clenched his tight, she raised her face to his and uttered:
"We need to go."
Looking at the little girl, Syllian earnestly complied, but he couldn't help but look at the two below him.
'Can they make it?'
It was a difficult question to answer, but they had to find the answer on their own-
Fwish!
Crude tactfully jumped under his platform, quickly grasping onto the smaller one beneath him.
"What are you-!"
He looked up at Syllian, "Don't worry about me, go."
Syllian didn't need his instructions, he was planning on doing so either way.
'But what a crazy bastard.'
Crude was scaling the cloak like it was a morning run, casual and unperturbed.
Albeit it was easier to go down rather than up, that didn't dismiss the difficulty of the process.
Syllian didn't let it slow him down though, he rapidly climbed via strict platforms and sketchy ledges.
After the attempt to save Riley his fingers were severely exhausted.
Still, Syllian didn't allow it to get to him.
If he did then the outcome wouldn't be so pleasant.
Fighting through thick veils of rain, and swimming through the disastrous traps of vicious winds, Syllian's pace increased by leaps and bounds.
Unsurprisingly Helen was keeping up with his pace, occasionally requiring a helping hand to bridge larger gaps.
Underneath him, Crude was approaching Danny and Allen.
He weaved past relentless projectiles of infestation, hanging on with pure luck as he jumped between stretches of the cloak without regard for grip on the slippery surfaces and the strength of the bellowing winds.
Miraculously, Crude arrived within just minutes with his body still in one piece.
Allen hesitantly raised himself with blood leaking out of his broken nose, clutching it with one hand, he reached out with the other to Crude.
Crude gripped Allen's hand and pulled him up after a short, but dangerous, struggle.
Danny was next.
Pulling his friend up, the trio sat on a relatively flat section of the cloak.
They couldn't stay for long though, not if they wanted to live.
Helping them up, Crude stared back up.
'I can't take the same route back.'
The only other route-
"Go fast!"
-was about to get swallowed by a swarm of tentacles that didn't fire projectiles.
Dazed and tired, Danny and Allen clumsily followed the man's orders.
Back above, Syllian...
PAH-!
...was avoiding his own projectiles.
'I knew it was too convenient!'
Ducking down, a slimy swarm of worms punctured the torrential rain as they reached out to him.
Twisting his waist, Syllian bent his body at an agonising angle, he felt his innards churn in pain while his bones pressed down on his burning lungs.
As soon as he was about to escape their reach, a clamour of chains echoed through the stormy night.
It locked onto his right hand, preventing him from moving on.
Twisting his head back; Syllian spotted the petite palm clasping him.
If he didn't pull her along with him, he'd be dead.
But.
'Bad!'
Could he pull her with him in time?
Syllian didn't think twice.
He just pulled in the best way he could, the technique was sloppy, but that's all he had.
Experiencing the sensation of getting his arm almost getting ripped off; Syllian reeled Helen in.
His eyes, though, remained on the worms.
'Faster!'
Exerting his limits, he pulled her around the worms, and-!
Smack!
She slammed into his embrace, pushing all the oxygen in his lungs out.
He pulled her just in time and retreated away from the worms; right afterwards the rain washed it away down the cloak.
Syllian used these spare moments to stare down at Helen, but to his surprise, the little girl wasn't looking back at him.
Nor was she holding on to him.
She was silent.
Eerily so.
Confused by her actions, he shook his head and turned to face the lower section of the slope.
Allen avoided a projectile at the perfect moment, his bleeding body was an attractive target to these hungry tentacles.
Danny also wasn't looking too swell.
The lucky survivors were struggling to keep up with Crude, and the man who decided to drop down and save them wasn't doing the best either.
His left arm dripped with blood, but the constant rain washed it away quite rapidly.
Everyone was seeping crimson.
Syllian from his chest; left thigh, fingers and nose.
Crude from his left arm.
As for Danny and Allen, the number of actively bleeding locations was too many to take count of.
Syllian double-checked his progress.
'About 60-70%.'
It wasn't looking good, but the progress made him feel slightly better.
A whimper of a smile laced his bloodied mouth, "I can go home."
Helen twitched in his arms, then looked up at him.
Her dark eyes.
Her face of death.
It coldly gazed into his unassuming, unattractive face.
"Home..."
She muttered at a volume loud enough for Syllian to catch, it wasn't the best timing for interesting conversations though because it was time to move.
The assault wasn't going to end so easily.
-----
"Haa... Haa... Haa..."
It was blank.
Everything.
His peripheral vision had darkened, every breath was as difficult as taking a step, and his violently beating heart struggled to maintain this climb.
'How long left...?'
Syllian had no clue.
All he knew was he had survived a few dangerous attacks, and he was in the midst of surviving another one.
Rolling forward on a perfectly flat part of the cloak, he pulled Helen along, escaping the worms comfortably.
This wasn't his first rodeo.
'What did that saying mean again...? I don't know... The witch bastards used to say that when taking their happy medicine...'
Almost slipping off the edge of the platform, Syllian held himself on the ledge by sheer will and pulled himself up to safety.
Momentarily resting, he thought back to those days for a second, 'Didn't they try to convince that idiot to take some one time...?'
...Idiot was a subjective term.
She wasn't an idiot, not by a long shot.
She was, what was the word...
Helen pulled him out of his dream world, it was time to get going.
Almost stumbling off the edge due to his jelly-like legs, Syllian looked at the three dumbasses below him to make sure they were alive.
They were, barely so, but they were.
Staring past them, at the ocean of tentacles that wrapped around the statue, and then further away, into the rising horizon of dark waters...
Remembering the hell he had been through...
It clicked in his mind.
The word they used to describe her.
Smirking, he was reminded of the way she used to act.
The word fit her perfectly, it rolled off his tongue too.
She was called-
Opening his mouth, he let the rain run into his mouth, drinking it up now that his flask had been used up.
-the Devil.