Darkness surged as the creature lunged.
A blur of jagged limbs. A wailing, inhuman screech.
He barely moved in time. Instinct, not thought, sent him rolling to the side, his shoulder crashing against the stone. The air behind him split apart with a wet snap as the thing's elongated limbs carved through the space where he had stood.
Too fast. Too wrong.
His pulse hammered against his skull. He scrambled back, hands scraping against the rough ground, mind racing to make sense of what he was seeing.
The creature twisted unnaturally, its elongated frame bending in ways that should've shattered bone. Its skin was stretched taut, like something hollow trying to wear the shape of a man. That slit on its face pulsed, widening—was it a mouth? Eyes? He didn't know. But when it shrieked again, the force of it sent a sharp sting rippling through his skull.
Not normal. Not human.
He needed a weapon. Something.
His hand fumbled against the stone floor, grasping at loose shards of rock. The thing moved before he could act.
Another lurching step, and it flickered—one moment distant, the next right there.
His body screamed at him to move, but his mind—his mind had noticed something.
The glow in the cavern—the faint, dying veins of light pulsing along the walls—they flickered when the creature moved. The air rippled.
It wasn't moving fast.
It was bending reality.
A cold chill slithered down his spine. The rules of this place weren't the rules of the world he knew.
"But I don't even remember what I knew."
The thought barely had time to settle before the thing struck again.
It lunged, limbs contorting mid-air, reaching—not slashing, not biting, but grasping, as if it wanted to pull something from him.
He twisted away, barely escaping the swipe. But something was wrong. His vision blurred for a split second—like something had yanked part of him away.
His breath came sharp and ragged. He wasn't just fighting for his life. He was fighting for something deeper, something inside him.
"If it touches me—"
No. He wasn't going to find out.
He moved.
The loose shard of rock in his grip was pathetic as a weapon, but he tightened his hold regardless. A plan formed—not a good one, not a smart one, but the only one.
He lunged forward this time.
The creature didn't react as it should. There was no flinch, no recoil—just that unnatural tilt of its head, like it didn't understand why its prey had suddenly decided to fight back.
He used that hesitation.
At the last moment, he faked his strike—threw the shard past its head instead of at it. The movement made the thing flicker again, its form twisting, shifting as if caught in an unseen current.
And that was the mistake he was waiting for.
He pivoted, bringing his weight down—not with strength, but with desperation. His foot slammed into its extended limb, pinning it to the ground for the briefest second. Enough time to reach out—
His fingers closed around something.
Not flesh. Not bone.
Something cold.
A pulse of wrongness surged through him the instant he touched it.
The creature convulsed.
The wailing slit in its face snapped open wider, its body shuddering violently.
His hand burned. He could feel something twisting inside him—something breaking—but he didn't let go. He pulled.
And whatever it was—whatever thing this creature was made of—came with him.
A raw, electric pain tore through his mind. For an instant, he wasn't in the cavern. He was somewhere else.
A flash of endless darkness. A place without time, without space—a void where nothing existed, and yet something watched.
It lasted less than a breath.
Then he was back, collapsing onto his knees, the weight of something unfamiliar settling deep in his bones.
The creature?
It was gone.
Not dead. Not destroyed. Gone.
Like it had never been there to begin with.
And in his palm, there was something new.
A mark. A brand of ink-black lines burned into his skin, pulsing faintly in the dim light.
He stared at it, breathing hard. His body felt… different.
Not stronger. Not faster.
Just… less empty.
The ringing in his head faded, replaced by a single, undeniable truth.
This place was trying to take something from him.
And for the first time, he had taken something back.
Loud screaming noise can be heard from the distance.
"I have to get out of this place as quickly as possible" He said to himself.
He wondered there for hours, he realised someone is always watching reading every move he makes.
He saw an exit.
"It's time to escape before i become food of these creatures"