Nobody moved, not even his cousins. The battlefield was quiet, and Blake was paralyzed. He was suddenly reminded of the dream he had the night before — It came to him clearly at the sight of this creature — He knew, without any doubt, they were the same type of creature, just that this one was slightly smaller, though still bigger than all of the chaos hounds — And even more imposing.
"Gods…," muttered a horrified Achlys in awe and terror. "A Chaos Sphinx….One of the Chaos Realms' greatest predators and agents of chaos…That one has to be at least at the Tier B stage, with Tier S bloodline ability at least, based on this aura…".
"For it to be here…," Cimon murmured to himself, almost incoherently. "It doesn't matter, though. Our mission remains the same...".
The creature observed the three teenagers, as if they were prey. It let out an ear piercing screech. Then it attacked.
Cimon met the charge head-on before anyone else could caution him, spear in hand and pointed at the creature.
"Cimon, wait!" Achlys tried to caution, but she was too late.
Using its powerful tail, the Chaos Sphinx knocked Cimon 10 meters away, flat into a tree, unconscious or dead. Blake wasn't sure, but he wasn't moving after falling into a crumble onto the woody ground and Blake was hoping the former. Both Achlys and Blake was looking at the beast in horror, as it had one shotted their friend, effectively decommissioning Cimon from further aiding them in their fight.
Eventually, Achlys gripped her scythe, her hair burning furiously in anger, her resolve steeled. She turned to Blake. "Blake, run! I'll hold it off."
Achlys didn't wait for Blake to answer. She turned towards the charging monstrosity and, long scythe burning with an aura of purple energy, she charged at it, ready to cut it to pieces, or die trying.
She reached the creature, leaped onto its back, but was thrown off before she could jab her scythe into its spine. The creature — the chaos sphinx — seemed even more pissed that such an insignificant insect had managed to get onto its back — It sneered in disgust as it gazed at Achlys, its clawed paw raised to strike Achlys' groaning figure.
Blake watched, helplessly, as the creature was about to tear apart his friend, unable to move, paralyzed in terror. Then a whistling sound of something sharp and narrow sounded, and Blake looked up to see a spear flying into the creature's raised paw.
Blake turned to see Cimon, barely standing, halfway conscious, charging at the beast. He was the one who threw the spear.
The creature could only wince, as it tried to rip the spear from its claw. Achlys used this time to drag herself from under the creature. By the time the creature had managed to dislodge the spear, Cimon was already upon it. He picked up the spear from the spot it was thrown aside, carelessly by the enraged sphinx, and leaped onto its back, evidently trying to do what Achlys couldn't.
But the creature was ready this time. It used its left wing to fling Cimon away. It then used its tail to whip Cimon from the air like a baseball bat, causing him to slam into the nearest tree with a BANG!. He remained unmoving this time.
Achlys, up again, her hair fire barely burning, weakly now, wielded her scythe, inching towards the chaos sphinx, beaten and battered and worse for wear, but determined.
Before she could attack though, the creature was upon her, using its front claws to disarm her, ripping her own scythe from her grip, then using its tail to wrap around Achlys' throat, choking her, sneering.
Blake watched this, helplessness and horror spread throughout his body, the creature turned to Blake, its eyes locked onto him, as it continued to choke a purple-turning Achlys. It was ready to kill the both of them.
Soon, it won't matter if his cousins were dead or alive, because they'd both be dead anyway, with him eaten first, from the looks of things. Fear paralyzed him to spot, as the sphinx slowly stalked its prey, Achlys, a deep violet color, being dragged across the ground via its tail, following it.
Eventually, the creature began charging, full speed at Blake. And, as the creature charged him, he put his hand up to cover his head in a meager attempt to shield himself, preparing himself, mentally, to die, because he knew there was no way his feeble arms would be able to shield him from such a charging monster. And…
But the attack never came. The death blow never came. He was still standing, he'd slowly realized, as he opened his eyes, perplexed. When he did, what he saw brought shock to his entire being.
A sphere of inky, black shadows surrounded his body, protecting him from the jaws of the creature trying to gnaw his face off. The energy felt like shadow — it felt like darkness — and it felt ancient and primal. An energy of pure darkness and shadow, Blake was amazed.
He instantly knew that it obeyed him, somehow. It was like a subconscious realization his mind provided him with. The darkness was his element. Shadow was his domain. And night was his territory. Somehow he knew this to be true,
As he came to himself, he looked to the nearly blue-faced Achlys, and willed the sphere of shadowy darkness to cut off the Chaos Sphinx tail. It immediately obliged. It turned into a sharp, whip-like shape from the sphere and sliced the beast's tail clean off.
The beast screeched in horror, whimpering back at the loss of his tail. It soon recovered itself, though, glaring at Blake in such fury, Blake was sure if looks could kill, he'd be dead by now from its glare alone. Steam expulsed from its nose like an angry bull in the winter. It was prepping a charge.
But Blake was not giving it any chance to do so. It was like something came over him. He felt power beyond anything he'd ever felt before. His vision cleared even more than he'd ever felt and a will he'd never known made itself known from the depths of his subconscious/ He thrusted his hand forward,, and, to his and the Sphinx's surprise, the Sphinx's shadow began acting up, separating from its main body, before turning into shadow of its former self, solidified and inky black, and given three dimension, this new creature was only slightly weaker than its former master. It had white flaming eyes, and a tail that worked, unlike its red counterpart, whose tail was only then beginning to regenerate.
The original creature, realizing that it'd has lost, was beginning to fly away, when the new Shadow Sphinx leaped at it, swinging its tail to wrap around it, before bringing it to its mouth, where it took a huge chunk of its face and ate it, swallowing it whole. It slowly cannibalized itself on its former master, chomping on it while its heart still beat, and became more and more solid and stronger in the process. Eventually, it swallowed the remainder of what was left of its red counterpart, slowly landing before Blake, who was dizzy and ready to pass out.
As it bowed its head to its new master, Blake managed to smile his bloody teeth, and get out a few words. "Luminaris Estate… my friends..".
And Blake fell face first into the creature's mane, barely registering its softness before falling deep into his own unconsciousness.