Eli forced his eyes open, vision swimming in blood and haze, ears ringing until the world felt distant and warped.
His breath came ragged, chest hitching, but he pushed past the blur.
And then he saw it.
Not stone.
Not shadow.
A mass.
'A monster.' Eli's heart stopped cold, his fingers clutching Kairo's coat with renewed desperation. Even Kairo's hold stiffened—shock breaking through his hardened calm.
It clung to the ceiling, colossal and nightmarish.
An octopus.
Its body was translucent, its skin rippling like liquid ink smeared across glass, perfectly mimicking the jagged walls of the cavern.
It hadn't been hiding behind stone—it was the stone, its form bending the eye, forcing them to overlook it.
But its disguise failed now.
Its eyes gave it away.
Dozens of them. Circular, glowing faintly, each one ringed in eerie luminescence. They pulsed in unison, like a heartbeat.
And all of them turned, locking onto the hunters below.
