The glowing exoskeleton of the beetle fractured as its opponent's tentacle crawled up its leg. The beetle was familiar, Lauri had seen something like it before. The imposing presence of the Lucent Guardian crossed his mind, this beetle was similar, although much, much smaller. 'Of course, there's more. So what, the Lucent Drones grow into these things, and then they grow into a Lucent Guardian?'
The back of the lucent beetle's slightly glowing exoskeleton opened, revealing two pairs of wings. Beginning to flutter, the beetle flew – as high as it could – into the air. The tentacle wrapping around the beetle's leg grew in numbers as from the crack in the ground another two pitch-black tentacles burst upwards from a crack in the ground. The second tentacle wrapped around the same leg as the first and the third tentacle began wrapping around the beetle's other leg.
Lauri watched as the beetle's small attempt at escaping was quickly crushed as the thing with giant tentacles pulled it closer and closer to the source of the tentacles.
Lauri hid behind the rock he was using as cover. Having dismissed Lumiscient Helper before he reached the fight in order not to reveal himself, Lauri frowned as he glared into the darkness. 'Why do I want to help that thing, I don't even know what that thing is…' Biting his lip, Lauri slightly poked his head over the top of the rock.
For a moment, Lauri and the beetle's eyes met – well the beetle had six eyes in total, but that's just pedantic – in that moment Lauri thought he could see something in the beetle's eyes, was it, fear? It knew it was going to die.
'I know I'll regret this,' Drawing his blade, Lauri dashed around the rock, racing towards the beetle as it had almost reached the floor. 'Don't worry, little guy, I'll get you back to your people.'
Closing the distance, Lauri managed to reach halfway in a few seconds.
Then he was almost there, another few seconds and-
A spike shot out of the ground, piercing the beetle from bottom to top, the tip of the spike piercing through the beetle's brain. The poor thing flopped dead in the grip of the tentacles. Sliding to a stop, a shiver ran down Lauri's spine as he saw the tentacles close up. It's not that the tentacles were pitch black, it's that they were black. The absence of colour, kind of black.
The tentacles were made out of, shadows? Darkness?
From out of the crack – a large mouth joined the tentacles – the creature's body appeared from out of the tear in the ground. It was strange like a shadow given life. 'But shadows belong to something, don't they?' Lauri watched as the creature opened its mouth, lowering the beetle's corpse into its maw.
The shadow creature didn't seem to have a body, instead, the creature just seemed to be a handful of limbs sticking out of a central point. 'Is this what happens when a shadow isn't bound to anything?' Shaking his head, Lauri scowled. 'Save speculation for later, it's lucky this thing doesn't have eyes. Did it detect the beetle from the light its shell gives off? I'd be worse than dead if it could see…' Lauri's scowl grew deeper.
The shadow creature's body shuddered, a dozen eyes appeared in the inky blackness of its body. Biting his lip, Lauri rolled his eyes.
'And that's the last time I make a comment on the situation…'
Holding his breath, Lauri slowly slid a foot back. The shadow was still lowering the beetle into its mouth, there was no way it would bother attacking Lauri whilst it was in the middle of eating. The moment it finished eating the beetle – the cave's only source of light – Lauri planned on using the darkness of the cave to sneak away.
'Wait a second, surely a creature made out of darkness can see in the dark?'
Jumping to the side, Lauri dodged an incoming attack from the shadow creature. Three spikes erupted from the place Lauri had been standing moments ago. Glaring daggers at the spikes, Lauri's eyes followed them down. A thin strip of darkness ran along the ground, connecting the spikes to the shadow creature.
'Rat bastard,' Lauri drew his knife in his left hand as he stood up. 'What is it with everything and trying to kill me.' Looking at his knife, Lauri tried to think. The knife was clean – the glowing goo Lauri had spread on the knife to guide his way after squishing the Lucent Drone Swarm had not lasted long – it seems Lauri's trip down the river had cleaned it completely. 'Why do I feel so surprised, this isn't the first time I've used this since swimming.' Lauri shivered, he couldn't tell what was worse. The river that had been the death of him, or the taste of that bug meat.
The knuckles on his left hand grew white as they squeezed around the handle of his knife, the fingers on his right hand squeezed his empty palm. "Plan B then!" Charging the shadow, Lauri had to split his focus between watching the shadow's main body and the floor. Lauri had already closed most of the distance before the shadow had killed the beetle – if he had to run from his hiding place behind the rock to the shadow – this might be a different story. By the time Lauri had evaded a patch of spikes from the ground with a jump to the left and another half dozen spikes with a hop to the right, Lauri had reached the creature. Admittedly it wasn't too hard, every time the shadow was going to create something its body shook, giving Lauri time to evade.
Its body shivered, dropping his right shoulder – Lauri threw his body down – a spike shot out of the shadow's body, skewering the space Lauri had just been standing in. Swinging his right fist up, Lauri unfurled his fingers, a bright light emerged from Lauri's palm. Immediately, the shadow reacted to this sudden light – by releasing an ear-piercing screech.
Falling over, Lauri could do nothing but cover his ears as the shadow's scream threatened to make him deaf.
Unable to form a thought due to the noise, Lauri strained against the pain. Looking at his opponent, Lauri slightly grinned despite his current situation.
Having flown out of his palm, Luminescent Helper was currently buzzing around the shadow, every second half a dozen spikes shot out of the shadow's body all aiming towards Luminescent Helper, but due to its size, the small light source was nigh impossible to hit.
Slowly becoming accustomed to the pain, Lauri grits his teeth as he slowly pickes himself off of the floor again. 'I was right, it seems the light that the beetle's exoskeleton gives off isn't strong enough to bother the shadow. So it hides in the ground to avoid anything that can make a bright light, like 'rhino' or Lucent Guardian.'
Swapping his knife from left to right hand, Lauri stepped forward. All the shadow's attention was trained on Luminescent Helper – the source of its pain – leaving the shadow completely unguarded. Thrusting his knife forward, Lauri couldn't help but smile. 'I wonder what rank this Fiend is-' Lauri's knife landed on the surface of the shadow with a dull thud. Lauri's eyes widened, 'How did that not-'
The shadow's eyes darted to glare daggers into Lauri, its body began to convulse. Holding both hands on his knife, Lauri tried to block the coming attack.
Four more spikes erupted from the shadow's body. The first hit Lauri's blade, bouncing away, the second missed Lauri altogether, Lauri met the third spike with his knife – the force of the impact shattered the blade, sending it flying away, and the fourth spike pierced through Lauri's thigh.
Lauri's first thought was pain – Lauri's second thought was horror – the spike sticking through Lauri's thigh began to bend, wrapping around Lauri's leg. Within seconds, Lauri's world was turned upside down as the shadow picked him up off of the ground.
"Ugh, ah." Grunting, Lauri looked down at the shadow as more tentacles emerged from its body, all of them wrapping around Lauri until he couldn't move.
'Oh… So this is how I die…' The shadow's mouth opened wide, growing larger to accommodate Lauri's size. Lauri grimly stared into the void of the shadow's insides. 'Thinking about it, isn't it odd that a shadow needs to eat… Wait, there's no beetle? Did it already devour the poor guy?' Solemnly shaking his head, Lauri exhaled as his head passed through the shadow's mouth, and then his shoulders. Lauri bit his lip, 'I reallyyyy should have made more plans, why was this my first thought, it might not even work- Bit late to be questioning yourself, in the literal maw of the Fiend.' As the shadow's lips passed Lauri's elbows, Lauri squinted. 'This, gods, I hope this is enough.'
Luminescent Helper had been buzzing around the top of the shadow had been left unbothered after the hungry shadow shifted its attention to Lauri. Spinning around in circles, the Luminescent Helper began to glow, not with its pale green light, but with a dazzling light consisting of hundreds of colours more intense and numerous than the colours in the rainbow. Luminescent Helper came undone, unspooling into a mess of hundreds of rainbow strings.
These strings all raced back to their owner, the shadow released another harrowing roar as the hundreds of strings of light ripped through the darkness that constituted its body.