"Can't you see in the dark?" Alex asked. "Where's the monster?"
"I can't see in the dark. I can pick up strong heat signatures — and that bleeding thing doesn't have one."
They both scanned the shadows, but the Shade wasn't making any more moves. Alex's eyes flicked to the match. It was already halfway burned through. The monster was probably waiting for it to go out completely.
"How much stronger is a Novice 4 than a Novice 1 and a Novice 3 working together?"
"When the Novice 3 is half-dead? My money's on the spook."
I wish I still had Glint to work with. I need to get myself more summons as soon as possible.
"Great. I hate sides with good odds. The payout is always worse," Alex said. "The Shade is scared of the fire. It can also put it out, but it's not getting close enough to us to actually do that."
"I'm a big believer of talking things out, but are you going anywhere with this?" Claire asked tersely. "Because that little match isn't going to last much longer and I don't have another one. You'd best get to the point."
"I don't have one! I'm just trying to list everything we know. Do you know if the monsters can understand us?"
"Never tried talking to them myself. I've got no bleeding idea. Probably not? Most of the ones back in my world couldn't."
"Great. Then it can't figure out what we're planning."
"We don't have a plan."
"I just came up with one. You're going to stab it."
Claire snorted. "Great plan. And how are we going to do that?"
"I'm going to go for the door with my match. When it tries to stab me, I'll duck out of the way — and you take that moment to cut at it."
"And if it doesn't try to go for you?"
"Then we just walk right on out of here," Alex replied, starting to edge toward the door. He really wished that Claire had invested in some slightly higher quality matches. This one was already almost burned all the way through. He couldn't complain, though — it wasn't like he'd brought matches of his own.
The shadows shifted. Alex threw himself to the ground and something whooshed over his head. Claire swung her sword and a loud, otherworldly hiss of pain split the air in the room marking that her blow had been successful.
Alex scrambled back to his feet and tore off another piece of his shirt. Beside him, Claire ducked as a dark appendage whipped through the air where her head had been. The Shade was done waiting around.
I don't know if the monster can actually hear us or not, but no reason to say everything I'm going to do out loud.
Alex pressed the remains of the match to the edge of the cloth scrap he'd torn off. Claire still had the monster's attention, but she was losing ground quickly. Fortunately, the flame caught to his shirt quickly. Fire engulphed the makeshift rag in seconds.
Golden letters shimmered through the air as he stepped forward and thrust the flaming rag forward, revealing a flicker of the Shade. It was really more of an amorphous blob than a being with actual form, but it shrank back from the light with a hiss.
Claire pressed the brief advantage, diving forward and driving her sword into the Shade's rippling black body. It bit deep into the shadows that made up the creature and it screamed in pain.
And, in the brief moment that it was pinned in place, Alex lunged. He slammed the flaming rag right into the center of the monster's body. The fire caught instantly, as if the Shade was made of tar. Alex pushed away from the monster, shaking his hand off as the fire singed it. A wave of heat washed over his face and he felt an arm snake around his neck, yanking him back an instant before the Shade erupted in a ball of flame.
He and Claire both staggered several steps back as fire roiled across the room and washed over the ceiling like a grease fire gone mad. It burned as quickly as it had started, and the room was plunged into darkness just seconds later.
A rush of cool energy flowed into Alex's body and he drew in a sharp breath, stiffening in surprise and delight. It was the same sensation he'd gotten after killing the Shaded Haunting, and nothing quite compared to it. He couldn't quite find a way to describe it other than the feeling he got when he looked in a mirror after going to the gym for a few months and realizing that he'd started to show a little muscle — but magnified by a thousandfold.
The darkness was broken by a tiny flicker of light. A purple-black flame curled up from where the monster had died at their feet.
Claire flopped to the ground behind Alex, letting out a groan. "Too close."
She'd pulled him out of the way of the fire. If she'd been planning to betray him, that would have been the time to do it. It looked like she'd been honest.
Alex scooped the tiny flame off the ground and pulled Glint's Spatial Mirror out, pressing the fire to it. With a tingle and a pop, the energy shot into it.
Spatial Mirror
Stored Energy:
Low Novice Grade (Shaded Hauntling) – 1
Low-Mid Novice Grade (Shade) - 1
Bonded Creature: Shardwalker (Regenerating)
Alex released the mirror and it transformed into a streamer of dark energy that shot back into the box at his side. He then edged over to the door and pulled it open a crack, allowing purple-red light to spill into the room.
"What are you doing?" Claire whispered. She'd gone back to trying to wrap her wound with the bandages.
"I can't see," Alex whispered back. "And as long as we're quiet, we won't draw anything's attention. Do you need help with that?"
Claire glanced down, then grimaced. "Yeah. That might be nice. Thanks. If you could just hold the bleeding thing in place at the top of my shoulder I can do the rest."
Alex walked over to her and crouched, doing as she'd asked. Claire wrapped the bandage around herself several times, then tucked it in on itself and let out a mixture between a sigh and a groan. "Thanks."
/Author's Note///
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