'Shit, why isn't he getting up?'
Something twisted in Rhys's chest, mostly fear, and the fire seemed to dim in response. Another kid was about to be torn apart by a terrifying monster, with him standing helplessly as a witness on the side.
"It's like the subway all over again."
Rhys hadn't yet dealt with the trauma of almost dying a gruesome death that day. And he wasn't entirely sure that he would have survived if it wasn't for the Abyssal zone that swallowed him whole.
His chest tightened as if an invisible vice had clamped down, each breath slow and rapid. Panic surged without reason, a primal fear screaming that something was wrong, that he was dying, even though he wasn't. His thoughts scattered, slipping through his grasp, leaving only the crushing certainty that he had to escape.
The flame died out completely, slipping from his control as panic overwhelmed him.
Rhys clutched his chest, trying to calm himself down with deep, rhythmic breaths.
'What am I doing? A kid is about to die on my watch.'
The creature raised its limbs to strike. Lenny was going to die if Rhys didn't do anything.
Without thinking, Rhys lunged forward, picking up the dagger he dropped earlier as he moved. The creature's attention remained fixed on the fallen Lenny, giving Rhys a brief opening.
"Hey!" Rhys shouted.
The monster twisted its distorted face toward him, multiple eyes blinking in asynchronous patterns. Rhys swung the dagger. The blade connected with one of the creature's reaching limbs, barely slicing through it. Dark ichor sprayed across the rocks, but the appendage remained intact.
The creature's horizontal mouth split wide in a silent scream. It whirled toward Rhys, abandoning its attack on Lenny. Six limbs lashed out simultaneously in a coordinated assault that Rhys couldn't possibly evade.
"Duck left!" Lenny shouted, struggling to his feet.
The blow had stunned him temporarily, but now his Aspect was kicking in, his body already beginning to adapt.
Rhys hesitated, instinctively wanting to roll right instead. That split-second of confusion cost him—two of the creature's claws caught him across the shoulder and chest, tearing through his clothes and into flesh. Pain erupted along his torso, hot and immediate.
"I said left!"
Lenny growled, now fully upright, his transformed body moving with renewed purpose.
"I'm not used to taking orders from a kid!" Rhys shot back, clutching his bleeding chest.
The creature capitalized on their discord, its body undulating as it positioned itself between them. They were now separated, forced to fight the monster from opposite sides.
Lenny darted forward, his blue-glowing blade a blur as he slashed at the creature's hindquarters. The monster responded by twisting its segmented body unnaturally, coiling around itself to face both opponents at once. The motion was so alien, so wrong, that Rhys felt nausea rising in his throat.
Lenny darted to the right, blade in hand.
"Hit it when I hit it!" he yelled.
"What part?!"
"Any part! Just do it!"
The creature lashed out again, this time focusing its primary assault on Lenny while sending two secondary limbs toward Rhys. Lenny ducked and weaved, his adapted form giving him preternatural agility, but even he couldn't avoid all the strikes. A claw caught him across the face, opening a gash that leaked dark blood.
At the same moment, Rhys swung from behind—but missed. The creature had already recoiled. He managed to evade one limb but took a glancing blow from the second. The impact sent him stumbling backwards.
"Timing, Rhys. Timing!"
Rhys wiped the blood from his cheek. Frustration and an ever-growing sense of dread bubbling in his voice.
"Try giving a countdown!"
The creature, sensing their disharmony, pressed its advantage. It positioned itself in the centre of the narrow corridor and reared up, revealing a previously hidden maw on its underside—a circular opening ringed with needle-like teeth that began to rotate like a drill. From within, a viscous fluid sprayed outward, coating the ground between them.
Where the liquid touched stone, it began to sizzle and smoke. The acrid smell of dissolving rock filled the air.
"Don't let that touch you!" Lenny warned, leaping atop one of the smaller monoliths to avoid the spreading pool of corrosive fluid.
'Yeah, I can see that!'
Rhys scrambled backward, the acid spreading between him and Lenny, until his shoulders hit rough stone. The monster had deliberately herded him toward the alcove's dead end, cutting off any path to Lenny or the exit. He was trapped.
"Lenny! I'm trapped over here!"
The boy's eyes narrowed as he assessed the situation.
"I don't know. Try using your Aspect or something."
"What's fire gonna help me with here!" Rhys shouted back, his back now pressed against an unyielding stone.
'Okay, think.'
Rhys began desperately scanning through recent memory for something. Anything. Then…
'The hollow.'
The creature lunged toward Rhys, its drill-mouth spinning furiously. With nowhere to run, Rhys raised his arm instinctively. He concentrated on the strange energy coursing through him, trying to push it outward.
For a terrifying moment, nothing happened. Then, just as the creature came within striking distance, a black flame erupted from his tattoo in an explosive blast. The force caught the monster squarely in its spinning maw, causing it to reel backwards with a shriek of pain.
The pool of corrosive liquid caught on fire, enclosing both the serpentine creature and Rhys in a cage of pure black conflagration.
Lenny seized the opportunity to leap from his perch directly onto the creature's back. His blade plunged deep between the armoured plates, but the monster bucked wildly, throwing him off before he could strike a vital spot.
Lenny hit the ground hard, leaving his weapon stuck between the armour plates. The creature rounded on him immediately, multiple limbs pinning him down while its head lowered, the human-like face contorting into something even more horrific as it prepared to finish him.
With newfound speed, Rhys charged forward, leaping over the pool of corrosive fluid. He landed directly on the creature's segmented back, mimicking Lenny's earlier attack. His crude blade sank deep between the chitinous plates, piercing something vital.
The monster reared back in agony, releasing Lenny from its grasp. Thick ichor poured from the wound, but the creature wasn't finished. It thrashed violently, throwing Rhys off while sending his blade flying to the ground.
He landed awkwardly, his ankle twisting beneath him with a sickening pop.
The creature turned, its many eyes fixed on Rhys. That moment of distraction was all Lenny needed.
With his blade still lodged in the monster, he had retrieved Rhys's dropped weapon and now charged from behind, driving the crude blade deep into what appeared to be a nerve cluster at the base of the creature's pseudo-human head.
Lenny tossed the blade back to Rhys, who thrust upward with the silver dagger, catching the creature under what passed for its chin.
The blade sank deep, causing the creature to emit a sound unlike anything Rhys had ever heard—a high-pitched keening that seemed to come from everywhere at once, reverberating through the stone corridor with such intensity that small fragments began to rain down from above.
The monster convulsed, its limbs flailing wildly. Rhys, despite his injured ankle, managed to roll aside as one massive appendage crashed down where he had been lying.
Rhys and Lenny shared a determined look. No words needed. It was time to finish this thing.
Lenny didn't hesitate. With a battle cry that belied his youthful appearance, he scrambled up the thrashing creature's back, retrieving his blue blade from where it protruded from the monster's underside. In one fluid motion, he yanked it free and then brought it down with all his might on the junction where the hideous human-like head met the segmented body.
The blade severed whatever vital connection existed there. The creature's movements became erratic, uncoordinated. Its limbs twitched and spasmed as Lenny continued to hack away, face set in grim determination, each blow precise and devastating.
With a final, gurgling shriek, the monster collapsed, its body folding in on itself in a way that defied the normal laws of physics. Within moments, what had been a massive, terrifying entity was reduced to a twitching heap of chitinous plates and leaking ichor.
Lenny stood atop his vanquished foe, chest heaving, his transformed appearance slowly reverting to that of a boy. He looked at Rhys, who was slumped against the wall, breathing like he'd just sprinted through hell.
"That," Lenny said, flicking blood off his blade, "is why you follow my lead."
Rhys lay back against the stone, the black blaze in their surrounding gradually receding as the immediate danger passed. It ate away at the last of the creature's acid. His ankle throbbed painfully, and the gashes across his chest burned as though the wounds were filled with fire.
"Next time," he managed to reply, "Maybe we should actually discuss a strategy before jumping into the fight."
To his surprise, Lenny's face split into a genuine, if tired, smile.
"We won't have any time to strategize in Tartarus. Think of this as a practice run."
'Practice run, my ass! We both almost kicked the bucket.'
"You better adapt quickly."
Lenny offered a hand.
Rhys took it.
"That's your Aspect, not mine."
"Come on," Lenny said, helping Rhys limp forward.
"We need to move before something worse smells the blood."
As they moved away from the battlefield, Rhys couldn't help but wonder what could possibly be worse than what they'd just faced. Given Lenny's grim determination, he suspected he would find out all too soon.
As they limped forward, the tower in the distance shimmered. It was closer now, and impossibly tall.