The howl tore through the courtyard like a blade.
It wasn't the same sound as before — this one was lower, almost guttural, carrying an edge of fury. The air itself seemed to tighten, and the fractured light above dimmed just slightly, as if the sky itself wanted to listen.
Martha's grip tightened on her spear. "It's angry now."
Seth's eyes swept the ruined walls. Shadows bled across the stone like ink in water. The Stalker was near — too near.
"Good," he said, voice low. "Maybe it'll stop playing."
The sound came from behind them, impossibly close.
"Left!" Martha barked.
The Stalker erupted from the wall like a nightmare tearing through paper, its claws outstretched. Seth's body moved before thought — a burst of light from his hand exploding against its face. The creature recoiled with a distorted hiss, landing on all fours several meters away.
The shadows around it writhed violently. It was bigger now. Or maybe the light just wasn't touching it as much as before.
"It's adapting," Seth said flatly.
Martha gave him a sharp look. "And so should we."
The Stalker moved again, faster this time. It didn't vanish — it was simply too quick for the eye to follow. Seth barely sidestepped the first slash, feeling the wind of its claws against his cheek. Martha's spear thrust toward its ribs, but the Stalker's body twisted unnaturally, sliding past her attack to rake its claws across the ground where she had stood a second earlier.
Dust and stone exploded into the air. The force behind that strike could have taken her leg clean off.
Seth raised his hand, gathering the light — but then paused, eyes narrowing as he looked at the broken courtyard around them.
The walls were shattered but high enough to cast long shadows. The Stalker loved shadows. It lived in them.
So what if the shadows weren't there anymore?
"Martha," he said sharply, "stay on me."
"What—"
"Just do it."
She didn't argue. She shifted closer, spear held low. The Stalker paced along the far edge of the courtyard, eyes fixed on them, its pale glow like distant moons in a black sea.
Seth took a slow breath and let the light flow. It wasn't just a burst this time — it spread out from him like a slow sunrise, pooling along the ground, seeping into the cracks between the stones. The air shimmered faintly as the golden glow expanded.
The shadows shrank.
The Stalker froze, claws curling into the dirt. The oily blackness that had bled from its feet pulled back like retreating water. For the first time, Seth saw hesitation in its movements.
"Keep it looking at me," he murmured.
Martha caught on quickly. She shifted her stance and began moving in a loose circle, forcing the Stalker to track them both at once. Her spear twitched in small feints, never striking, always pulling its gaze away from Seth just long enough for him to work.
The courtyard was brighter now. The light wasn't just pushing shadows away — it was changing the battlefield. The Stalker had fewer places to vanish, fewer pools of darkness to use as cover. Every time it tried to melt into the gloom, it found nothing but warm, blinding radiance.
It hissed sharply, the sound almost like metal scraping glass.
Then it charged.
Seth was ready. He pulled the gathered light upward in a sudden motion, shaping it into a thin vertical wall directly between them and the oncoming Stalker. The creature slammed into it at full speed, recoiling as if it had hit solid steel. The glow rippled outward from the impact, throwing a wave of heat across the courtyard.
"Now!" Seth shouted.
Martha didn't hesitate. She darted around the glowing wall, her spear a silver blur. The point drove deep into the Stalker's flank, sliding between the jagged plates of its twisted ribs. Black fluid sprayed across the stones, hissing where it touched the light.
The Stalker shrieked — a piercing, inhuman sound that set Seth's teeth on edge. It thrashed violently, tearing the spear free and spinning toward her with claws wide.
Seth broke the wall.
The light collapsed into his hand and flared outward again, this time as a focused beam that slammed directly into the Stalker's middle eye. The creature reeled back, clawing at its own face, its shriek rising to a fever pitch.
"Keep pressing!" Martha called.
Seth moved in alongside her, the light in his palm pulsing like a heartbeat. She swept her spear low, forcing the Stalker to jump back — directly into Seth's next strike. The beam hit its chest, and the cracks in its blackened skin widened, spilling more of that foul, steaming ichor.
It staggered.
For the first time, it looked less like a predator and more like a cornered animal.
"Almost there," Martha panted.
But the Stalker's pale eyes burned brighter. The air grew heavier, the light around Seth trembling as if something unseen were pressing back.
"It's not running," he realized.
The Stalker bent low, its claws digging deep into the ground. The shadows at its feet began to swirl violently, not retreating this time — gathering. They rose around it like a storm, curling into shapes that twisted and broke apart too fast to understand.
Martha's eyes widened. "Seth—"
The shadows exploded outward.
It wasn't an attack — it was a cover. When the smoke-like darkness cleared, the Stalker was gone.
Seth's head snapped toward the wall just in time to see the faint shimmer of something climbing — no, moving along the vertical surface like water running uphill.
"It's going high," Martha said quickly.
Seth's jaw tightened. "Then so do we."
He ran for the nearest intact section of wall, the light building in his legs this time. With a single leap, he hit halfway up, his boots finding shaky purchase on the cracked stone. He caught the top and hauled himself up in one smooth motion.
The Stalker was already there.
Its body was hunched, three pale eyes burning in the gloom, claws hooked into the broken parapet. The wind caught the long tatters of shadow that dripped from its limbs, making them sway like dying flames.
It hissed at him — not the playful, testing hiss from before, but something sharper. Meaner.
Seth didn't wait. He pulled the light into both hands this time, letting it run between his fingers until it felt like molten gold. He struck forward, shaping it as he moved — a spear of light, sharp and blinding, aimed straight for the creature's heart.
The Stalker twisted away, but not fast enough. The spear grazed its side, carving a burning line through its flesh. Black ichor poured from the wound, splattering across the stone and sizzling where it landed.
The creature screeched, launching itself toward him with terrifying speed. Seth dropped back, catching the ledge with one hand as the Stalker's claws slashed through where he had been standing.
He let himself fall, twisting mid-air. The light in his hand burst downward, slamming into the courtyard below. When he landed, the glow spread outward again, reforming the illuminated battlefield he had built earlier.
Martha was already moving to rejoin him. "Tell me that was enough."
"It wasn't," Seth said, eyes on the wall.
The Stalker's silhouette reappeared at the top — and then another one beside it. Smaller, but no less wrong.
Martha's knuckles whitened on her spear. "It called for help."
The new figure stepped fully into view, pale eyes glowing faintly in the fractured light.
There were two now.