"And what if I told you,"
I said, my voice dropping into a low, cutting edge that sliced through the silence.
"we might have to fight one here...something even stronger than the one you faced before?"
Aartki's eyes darkened, a shadow passing over his expression.
"Then I, no, we, both of us will kill it."
His words rang with grim certainty, the kind that didn't allow for hesitation.
A smile tugged at the corner of my mouth. "Perfect."
I pivoted slowly, each step deliberate, the weight of the graveyard pressing in on my back.
My hand lifted, finger extended like a judge passing sentence.
It pointed at Finn.
"Then… you," I said, my tone sharp as steel, "you are not Finn, are you?"
The figure froze, then faltered.
Its body shuddered like a marionette pulled on the wrong strings.
The face that was supposed to be Finn's twitched violently, eyes rolling, mouth contorting.
Confusion bled into horror, features stretching and collapsing in ways no human skull should allow.
"How… did you… find… out?" it rasped, voice cracking, the words dragging like broken glass through a throat.
Each syllable came apart, distorted, as though a dozen mouths were trying to speak through one.
The skin around its jawline peeled back and twisted, sliding down its neck as if it were melting wax.
The familiar frame no longer fit its face, what stared back at us was grotesque, fractured, and wrong.
Before it could fully transform, Aartki plunged the shovel deep into its torso.
The Shyaraith shrieked, limbs snapping at impossible angles, twisting backward and sideways like broken machinery.
Its hair tendrils lashed outward, seeking a target.
I ducked, forcing the air around me to solidify just enough to deflect most blows, but one slid past, grazing my cheek.
Pain flared, sharp and biting.
Aartki spun behind it, driving the shovel in a horizontal arc.
The creature wrapped itself around the metal, tightening its grip, then slammed a claw at him.
He twisted just in time, letting the strike glance off his shoulder.
I changed the ground beneath us into a slick liquid. The Shyaraith staggered, its momentum faltering.
It lunged again, claws and tendrils snapping.
I compressed the surrounding air into a tight, solid barrier, forcing some of the strikes aside.
Aartki ran full tilt, scaling nearby debris like stairs, his shovel swinging unpredictably, striking limbs and torso alike.
Its tendrils whipped past me, some tearing leaves from branches, others gouging shallow trenches in the soil.
I slammed into its trajectory, redirecting a set of lashes midair.
Aartki landed behind it, striking its torso again.
The Shyaraith screamed, phase lunging into a mist, reforming above us.
I stomped down, compressing air beneath me into a solid platform.
It collided, staggering, then twisted, slashing at both of us.
Aartki lunged, striking midair, but the Shyaraith slammed us both to the ground.
We hit hard. Soil exploded around us.
Branches snapped. My ribs ached, my side burning where a tendril had grazed me.
Aartki groaned, partially embedded in a tree, but he had liquefied most of the impact, leaving only bruises and scrapes.
I staggered upright, blood mixing with dust and saliva.
We glanced at each other, both breathing hard, pain flaring through every joint and muscle.
It shrieked again, towering over us, limbs twisted, tendrils flailing.
I wiped blood from my mouth, shaking my head to clear it.
"This time, it won't survive," I muttered through gritted teeth, straightening slowly.
Aartki nodded, cracking his neck. "Then let's finish it."
I took a deep breath, feeling the fight settle in.
And then I remembered the law about information particles.
I crouched, scanning the Shyaraith.
When two information particles meet, they first attract.
But past a certain closeness, they repel.
The stronger mass displaces the weaker violently.
I concentrated the info particles around my legs and feet.
Repulsion.
I jumped higher than the trees, soaring above them.
As I faltered midair, Aartki did the same with his fists, striking the Shyaraith and launching it upward at high velocity.
To kill its momentum, I solidified the air beneath me.
It struck like a roof, and I slammed my punch into it, sending it hurtling downward as I fell.
Before hitting the ground, I solidified the air around me again, bracing, then pushed off, jumping even higher due to the repulsion.
We repeated it, again and again, each strike timed perfectly, the creature spinning uncontrollably, limbs twisting, tendrils thrashing uselessly.
Each collision, each rebound, exploited the repulsion of concentrated info particles.
Finally, as it rose once more, I aimed for its midair arc.
Aartki held it steady with his concentrated fist, keeping the trajectory controlled.
I slammed my leg down, focusing every particle in my limbs.
The force hit like a cannon, rocketing the Shyaraith downward with tremendous velocity.
It crashed into the ground, scattering soil and splintering branches in all directions.
It lay twisted, body contorting unnaturally, tendrils quivering uselessly.
The repulsion had done its work.
We staggered slightly from the force but held our ground.
Its torso was pierced, limbs bent at impossible angles, tendrils flailing weakly.
"Do you know how to put an end to this fucker?" Aartki asked, his voice taunting.
"That's the field I've always liked to excel at,"
I commented as we concentrated our information particles, around our hands and fists.
Timing it perfectly, we plunged into the gaps in its torso, through the wounds Aartki's shovel and my strikes had created.
The particles flowed into the creature's body, threading along the corrupted lattice of its own info particles.
Immediately, it began to shudder, convulsing violently.
I could feel its internal structure destabilizing, the negative energy it fed on rebelling against the foreign information particles we were forcing inside.
Aartki's strikes kept its limbs spread, holding it open, while I worked my way along its torso, directing the concentrated flow.
It shrieked, a sound like metal tearing through mist, each cry echoing off the trees.
I punched a fist into its side, letting the info particles surge in.
Its skin warped unnaturally as the particles infiltrated, unbinding its twisted threads.
The Shyaraith tried to twist, tried to lash with tendrils, but each motion only opened new channels for the particles to flow.
Its shrieks grew weaker, the unnatural geometry of its body beginning to collapse inward.
Its shadow hair flailed once more, then stiffened, rigid.
I could feel the core of its vengeful energy unraveling.
With one final concentrated push, we forced every thread of info particle inside, collapsing its structure completely.
The Shyaraith let out a final, echoing wail, then disintegrated from the inside out, its body unraveling into a cloud of harmless, inert info particles that dissolved into the air.
Silence returned.
The forest held its breath, the only sound our heavy breathing.
I wiped blood and sweat from my brow and glanced at Aartki.
He exhaled, brushing the dirt from his hands, a faint grin on his face.
"We… actually did it," he muttered.
I nodded, eyes still fixed on the fading particles.
"It's over," I said quietly. "This one won't rise again."