Of That Which Hunts Us

Merry Christmas!

Inch by inch, John wormed his way down the elevator cable, carefully moving one limb at a time.

’One foot… then the other,’ he chanted in his head, as if it would make his movements any more stable or confident.

At first, every creak and groan had nearly given him a heart attack, but, eventually, it seemed as though his brain had decided there was a cap on how much of the fear chemical it was going to dose him with. Now, that anxiousness had begun to blend into the background noise.

With a hefty groan, The Gamer moved down another body length, stretching his legs out as he did so. His muscles ached with discontent at the exertion. On one hand, it wasn’t quite as bad as he'd feared when he began. He guessed that he had his recent investments in strength and endurance to thank for that. On the other hand, he figured that he was only barely halfway down, if that, and he had no idea if his limbs were going to hold out the rest of the way.

With a huff, John stopped his rhythm, wrapping himself tightly around the cable to pause and rest for just a moment, letting some of the aches fade.

Against his better judgement, he peered down, ignoring the vertigo that induced so that he could figure out how far ahead of him his companions had gotten. He knew that they were both faster than him, which, combined with the head start they’d gotten, essentially guaranteed they’d be stuck waiting for him. Unfortunately, he'd passed into the darkest part of the elevator shaft, and so he could see little more than distant silhouettes against the faint red glow of the flare at the bottom.

Frowning, he blinked, reflexively willing his [Unawakened Eye] into action. For a short moment as it appeared, the small amber-gold ring in his eyes briefly shone out into the blackness. Clenching his teeth and tightening his grip on the cable, John closed his eyes, bracing himself for the sensory overload he was used to. It never came.

Prying his eyes open, The Gamer tried to see what was wrong.

The emptiness was his answer.

In his world, using his ocular ability was like diving into the ocean. It was a constant onrush of sensation - the flowing currents of life and mana all around him. In this world, there had been far too much **** for that. There was no color left to immerse himself in - only deadness and grey - like everything was made from television static. Not enough still lived to create the light he was used to.

John sighed, heavily, and shook his head. He didn’t have the time to mourn while the building around him was mid-collapse.

At least the greyscale vision he now had made it quite easy to find his companions - they were the lone sources of color he could see looking down the elevator shaft. Ela was a bright and bubbly blob of shimmering green, worming further and further away at a steady pace. Moira’s well-controlled aura of intense scarlet had stopped moving, which he guessed meant that she’d already reached the bottom.

’And Ela’s closer to her than me…’ he thought, grimacing. ’I’m further behind than I thought. Need to get moving, fast.’

The Gamer looked back up at his hands, adjusting his grip as he prepared to start moving again. Then, just before he let his ocular ability fade away, he noticed something strange. Deep in the darkness, down what he guessed must be the middle floor hallway they were climbing past, he spotted another glow of color.

The pale blue haze was faint and patchy, strained even, in a way that piqued his curiosity. A single line stretched out from it, thrumming with more energy than the rest.

It took John’s lizard brain a precious few seconds to realize what the most likely other source of mana in the building ought to be, but he was too late. The line of mana suddenly condensed into four distinct points, flashing together in a way that reminded him exactly of how his spells worked.

In that moment, as his magical vision showed him four spears of ice flying towards him, he realized that the boss hadn’t fled from its injuries, it hadn’t been beaten back or **** to retreat.

It just hadn’t wanted a fair fight.

And so it had feigned defeat, scurrying off into the darkness to wait for the right moment to try and separate them again.

The first ice spear struck The Gamer’s right forearm, crushing and splitting against the scrap metal bracer he had on. The metal dented, and he thought he felt the bone snap as pain shot up his arm. He yelled, clenching his teeth as his brain scrambled to make sense of the situation. Despite that, he did his best to continue clinging to the cable, trying to get his elbow around one of the steel braids.

John hissed as [Gamer’s Body] began pulling his arm back together. In the split second he had, he willed away his [Unawakened Eye] and activated his [Mana Shield], hoping that might give him the strength to cling on.

A second spear slammed into his shoulder, sparking blue as his defensive spell flashed against the ****. Even though his mana had protected his HP from the damage, the **** of the blow still came through, ripping his arm away from the suspension cable and nearly throwing him off it.

Before he had any chance to try and recover, the third shot nailed him right between the eyes. The Gamer’s neck snapped backwards, painfully, as his shield flared and shattered from the impact, sending little bits of flickering blue all around. He saw nothing but splotches and stars as he recoiled from the hit, thrown completely into a daze in a matter of seconds, now with only his left hand holding him up.

As he fell back, the small working part of his brain decided that it was better to take his chances with gravity than with any more spears, and let even that go.

Relaxing the pincer his legs had on the cable, John let himself tumble down into darkness, one name escaping his lips, “ELAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

Meanwhile, near the bottom

The Bookworm Knight stretched out her shield arm, trying to work out a growing tingle in her muscles. It seemed that, despite how much better she was feeling, she did still have limits. Her muscle-woven suit glowed faintly with green mana as Ela healed away some of the ache. She flexed, her arm trembling with effort for a moment before she allowed it to relax again.

’At least I am nearly there,’ the blonde knight thought, looking down below.

Once she’d gotten in a rhythm, Ela had moved quite quickly down the cable. She was close enough now to clearly see the bottom, barely illuminated by the fading red of the flare in the corner. Moira had hopped off the cable just a minute ago, and had moved to check the doorway John had spotted to make sure it was a way out.

A rattling noise above caught her attention, and she snapped upwards, trying to scan for anything moving in the darkness above. Something blue flickered, distantly, and her heart stopped for a second as she saw John’s health bar flash red in the corner of her vision.

“Moira! Something is wrong!” she yelled, hoping the Warden could hear her.

”ELAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!” John’s voice, calling her name, echoed all around.

While her eyes fluttered around, trying to find anything in the shadows above, her mind was racing. She had to assume he would only be yelling like this if he was falling, but the harsh echo of the elevator shaft made the sound impossible to parse. Was he off to her left or right? How fast was he approaching?

She stretched her arm back out, her suit pulsing with mana as she waited, tense. The Bookworm Knight was just going to have to be fast.

Seconds passed like minutes as she waited, until a silhouette finally came into view - John in freefall. He was twisting awkwardly, trying to level himself out. Blood was running down his face and panic was in his eyes. Then, he saw her. Ela smiled, her suit rippling with power as she shot her arm out to grab him. As best as he could, he shifted again, reaching back to her.

It was good enough.

Ela seized his wrist as he flew by, pouring mana into her arm to absorb the **** of his fall. She groaned with pain and effort, sweating at the sudden pressure on her muscles and mana, but she held firm. The blonde pulled her boyfriend in, causing The Gamer to slam into the cable just below her, where he scrambled to get a grip again.

“I told you that I would catch you,” Ela teased, breathing heavily, concern creeping into her voice. “Are you alright?”

Despite her best efforts to look reassuring, his bloodied face was pale. “It’s coming.”

The Bookworm Knight’s expression hardened immediately, turning to gaze back upwards into the darkness. As the clattering of armor on steel and the echoes of yelling began to settle, she could just barely begin to make out strange squishing and cracking noises. Then, a new crushing sound exploded from on high, rattling the world, and the steel cable she was hanging from began to tremble and slacken.

“What’s going on?!” Moira called from below, running back into the elevator with her hammer and shield drawn.

John grit his teeth, wiping crimson stains from his forehead. “We need to go!”

“Right.” Ela nodded. “Jump.”

“What!?” he shouted, eyes widening.

“We’re close enough to the bottom…” she said. “Trust me.”

Reluctantly, The Gamer nodded, and they both let go of the cable together. Midair, Ela reached down to grab him again, pulling him in close so that she could use the shield on her back to absorb the impact. Behind them, the suspension cable began to twist, shaking oddly. Then, with a shrill, eerie groan, it gave out, severed somewhere far above, sending hundreds of pounds of steel coming down almost right on top of them.

“Moira, watch out!” John yelled.

The Warden nodded, stepping back to the elevator doorway she’d come from, raising her hammer above her head as it began to shine with holy light again. “THE LADY’S LIGHT PROTECTS YOU!”

A thin sheen of radiant gold shimmered around the couple, insulating them from the impact as they collided against the top of the elevator. Ela’s shield screeched as its steel ground against the steel below, sparking faintly as they started to tumble into a heap at the bottom. They rolled until they crashed with a thud on the side, the falling braids of steel clattering down mere feet away.

John landed on top, and scrambled to his feet first, reaching down to help the Bookworm Knight to hers. Together, they sprinted to the open elevator door where Moira stood, waiting.

They cleared the doorway as stone and steel collapsed in a massive heap behind them, spraying dust and debris outwards to blanket the open area they now found themselves in - the previous boss room. Brown and grey dust dueled with fresh white snow at the far side of the room where the walls and roof had been carved out.

’Freedom!’ Ela thought, turning to sprint towards the open side, her companions close behind.

The roof shook again, and a slab of concrete fell from above, crashing down onto the stairway she’d cracked her head on two days ago. One of the room’s large pillars buckled, finally giving out under growing strain of supporting the roof. Dust fell like a blizzard as the group moved as one, **** to escape the oncoming collapse.

A sickening shriek cut through the air, echoing out from the ruined elevator. Ela’s eyes erupted with green light as her innate ability activated.

The blonde saw herself turn just in time to watch the fleshy abomination that had been chasing them pounce from the shadowy cloud of debris pouring out behind them, one sickly, throbbing arm outstretched to grab her by the face. Catching her off guard, it wrapped its elongated talons around her head and smashed her down into the concrete, bashing her skull against the broken tile floor before her companions could react.

Ela blinked, back in the moment.

She dove downwards, off to one side, just as it pounced, calling out to John and Moira that the creature was still following them. Rolling away, Ela nearly bowled her boyfriend over again as she watched the Flesh that Hunts pass through where she’d been just seconds earlier, meaty paws outstretched to try and grab her.

Thanks to her magical foresight, it soared past her harmlessly, flying past the group and out into the snowfall at the edge of the room.

As it stood, she began to take note of how different it was now. It had the same distinctively oversized head and hands, complete with human spines for hair - that was unmistakable, but it was also leaner, with different proportions. Rather than the two gigantic, muscled arms it had before, now most of its bulk was packed in its legs and core. The thin strings of muscle that had held its mouth sewn shut had been ripped off, hanging down and dripping black blood and liquid mana.

Ela watched in equal horror and confusion as the monster’s flesh flowed like water beneath its crumbling exterior, muscle mass shifting between its limbs as it rebuilt itself into a more balanced form. The dried, pale skin, stretched taut over its writhing black sinews, started to tear as it pulled itself up, standing between the trio and the open air.

Then, half of its chest contracted inward, cracking and snapping and spurting blue glowing fluid out. It placed its hand over the wound, drenching its hand in the liquid before swiping a clawed hand in front of it. Every digit left a distinctive trail of pale blue light in the air, energized with mana. Five lines shimmered for a split second before coalescing into another set of small ice spears.

Opening its maw, the creature let out another blood-curdling howl, and loosed its deadly volley.

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