Page 76 of Darkening Truth
Movement to my left has my gaze darting in that direction. Although I keep my body still, I allow my gaze to track the creature moving through the darkness.
I can’t see much, no defining features, but I do know that it’s huge, and that it probably wants to eat me.
It moves in complete silence, which for such a big creature is extremely impressive and makes it so much more deadly.
With a suddenness that I’m barely prepared for, it attacks, launching itself at me, and suddenly I can see it as clear as anything despite us still being surrounded by murky darkness.
Two heads, teeth as big as my arms lining the snarling snouts, as twelve eyes, six on each head, watch my every movement. I would be willing to bet that it doesn’t know that I can see it.
It towers over me, big enough that it could easily eat me in two bites. Its body is covered in spikes, sharp and deadly looking, and so black that whatever little light is around it, they seem to absorb it completely, darker than a shadow.
Perfect for living in the Void.
It hisses, a long, wailing sound, that instantly puts me on edge. I jump backwards as its jaws snap in my direction, determined to take off my head. My axes sing through the air as one of its giant talons heads in my direction, and it screams in pain as my axe slices through it like butter.
I seriously hope that it’s not one of those creatures where even their blood will kill you because I’m covered in it.
Fortunately, I don’t feel any burning or stinging, so I’m going to take that as a good sign. I can’t do anything about it right now anyway. Apparently, this fucking thing is intent on killing me. This time, it decides to use its tails, plural, because of course it’s got more than one, and of course it’s very good at using them in order to maim me.
As I jump over one of the tails, swinging with my axe and slicing it, pissing it off more, it occurs to me that I need to end this as quickly as I can. I don't want the sounds of our fighting to attract more of these creatures.
It’s still distracted by the slice in its tail, and I creep closer, but it recovers quicker than I could have predicted, and I end up stumbling, my hand flying out to steady myself, as I make the mistake of touching the spikes that cover the creature, and I hiss in pain as I feel it burn.
I yank my hand back, jumping out of the way.
My magic immediately starts to heal the area, but it’s taking longer than it should, and I am now down to fighting with one hand, my non-dominant one, of course, and I’m covered in creature ichor that may or may not be harmful to me.
Yeah, I’ve had enough now.
It’s time to end this.
As I continue to dodge and dive out of the way of the various tails, heads and talons intent on ending my life, I weave together a spell, one that is strong enough to pierce through its chest and pull out its heart or hearts. I’m not risking it having more than one, and all I do is piss it off by only grabbing one.
I’m building spells into the main spell to incapacitate it, to stop its magic, and to freeze it in place. I then decide to add an extra one to disintegrate the hearts once I have them, just in case. This is a creature that I have never come across before. I don’t know how it works, I don’t know what it is capable of, and because of that, I won’t take any risks.
If I’m being honest, I have no idea if the spell I am building is going to work. I’m running on pure instinct right now.
After another close call with its tail, I gather my magic and launch the spell at the creature. The threads of it weave together in the exact way that I had envisioned, and within a few moments, it has been executed perfectly.
I watch in shocked fascination as the creature's hearts, there were three, burst free of its chest, and it immediately freezes, its eyes rolling back into its heads as it drops to the floor with a thump heavy enough to shake the ground.
I guess it was its magic keeping it from making a noise.
The hearts themselves are bigger than my torso. They’re huge, and I don’t think I quite appreciated just how big the creature was.
The hearts explode into glittering dust, and I simply stand there and study the beast as I slowly put my axes back on my back. I have no idea what kind of creature I’m looking at. Even though now that it’s not trying to kill me, I can get a better look at it.
One thing is for certain though, it is living and hunting in the Void.
Killing it took a lot of magic, more than I would have thought possible, and if another one were to appear now, I know that I wouldn’t be capable of taking it down.
It’s been a long time since I have had my magic this drained. My father, or I guess not father, whoever the fuck he was, used to drain my magic regularly. I got used to fighting without it, but this level of exhaustion feels more than that somehow.
A sound behind me has me spinning around, readying my tired magic and my axes appearing in my hands in preparation.
“You killed it,” the familiar voice of Laikynn mutters, the shock evident in his tone.
“Laikynn, thank fuck it’s you. I didn’t want to have to fight off another one,” I reply, lowering my axes. “I don’t think I have it in me to kill another one of whatever the fuck they are.”
