Today was the day. They were finally going to head out into the deadly ruins of the ancient city today. Gwin and Lena both prepared themselves as they readied themselves for what was next. He knew that a single mistake would mean the deaths of them in the horrid city. The gravity of their situation filled the hall with deafening silence, except for the occasional rumbling stomachs.
Sure he was scared out of his wits but there hadn't been a moment since entering the dreamworld he hadn't been scared shitless so it wasn't anything new. He had to stay scared to stay alive. The moment he got overconfident he was dead. They both approached an ancient doorway on one side of the hall and entered. They walk through the darkness for a moment before a split wall filled the hallway with light. Ahead of them the hallway stopped in a pile of rubble and on their left was the exit. Grin prowled through the opening and ducked behind a fallen wall. Elena was waiting in the exit for him to check the area.
'Hm…It's not close…good.'
Their main obstacle today was the fallen abomination that lurked in the streets near their shelter. They had caught a few glimpses of it from atop the meeting hall and managed to chart its patrol from there. It resembled a rotting mass of plants that dragged itself with festering vines each as thick as a grown man and dozens of meters long. If such a horrible creature caught wind of them they were goners. Gwin also suspected it was the reason that they had been able to live in their shelter without being hunted by various abominations. It was quite far today on the other side of it's territory so they could proceed safely…safe-ish. The fallen wall Gwin was hiding behind was part of a fallen building from across the street that had toppled into this side and crashed against the meeting hall. The hall had not toppled under its weight due to its incredible architecture.
This fallen building gave them a path out of the hall that kept them out of sight of other abominations. The building had remained mostly in one piece after falling, creating a sort of tunnel to the nearby buildings. The knot of vines was not the only abomination they had to worry about after all so they wanted to stay out of sight as much as possible. There were countless other fallen abominations wandering the streets; it was just that this part had been made more barren due to the plant abominations presence. Gwin ventured farther into the building to make sure there was nothing hiding it in. He took in a deep breath in through his nose.
'There's something in there.'
Ahead of him the darkness was hiding the figure of a nightmare creature. It seemed they were in luck though since it hadn't spotted them so they could get the drop on it. He could tell instinctively it wasn't of the fallen rank and so he felt that they should be able to slay it. With a couple of hand signals to Lena she approached and readied her blades. She seemed to see something Gwin couldn't and tensed. Gwin got ready as well, he was prepared to do their normal tactic of Lena drawing its attention while Gwin finished it off. Lena's words from yesterday of having to protect him flashed through his mind as he summoned the [Millitia's Steel]. As it settled into his hand the darkness stirred in front of them and a mound of pitch black fur crashed into them. Gwin hardly had a moment to enhance his body with the charapace of the black locust as a black paw raked across his chest tearing through his armor and leaving shallow cuts on his black charapace.
"GAH!"
He was thrown violently into a wall causing it to crumble into him. He burst out of it a moment later with his enhanced legs launching him from up under their weight with some strain. As he emerged another paw came flying towards him which he managed to deflect. He felt his hands go numb from the force as he took in the scene. In front of him was a hulking black panther with several black spines protruding from its body in various places. Its fur was sleek and glossy and reflected the faint morning sun that peeked in from outside. Its eyes were filled with an unquenchable frenzy as it pounced again. Gwin sidestepped its jaws and swung his sword down in an arc aiming to cut its neck. His sword sliced down through the air empowered by his aspect and connected with the feline's neck only to glance off with a loud clang.
'Wha-'
A moment later its long tail swung around and connected with his side sending him skidding across the ground in blinding pain. He felt blood gush from his side and looked down. A blunt attack wasn't supposed to make you bleed was it? Except it wasn't a blunt attack. His side had been thoroughly shredded. His armor and aspect had taken the brunt of it saving him from being cleaved in two but his skin had dozens of cuts on it and several of his ribs ached, likely broken.
Something was wrong here, why was it so lustrous despite it just having been hiding in rubble and dust? He struggled to find why his instincts were drawing his attention towards this detail but he felt it was important. That was when he realized it. He realized why its fur was so glossy despite being an abomination dwelling in a ruined city for countless years. It wasn't because it had a routine habit of cleaning itself but because its fur wasn't fur at all. Upon closer inspection its fur was actually thousands upon thousands of small spines penetrating its skin creating the illusion of glossy fur. They were quite tough as well, given how Gwin's sword glanced off of them.
'Damn! Where is Lena?'
Wasn't she supposed to be drawing its attention? She said it herself that it was her job to protect him but now she wasn't even doing that! His stomach dropped as his eyes met her.
She was dead.
He almost did not notice her corpse because the entirety of her body with the exception of one hand was crushed under an extremely large piece of rubble. Crimson blood spilled out from under it pooling around her palm that faced up. Gwin felt sick. So sick he almost let the panther tear him in two while his attention was on her.
'No! What do I do! Please be alright!'
He was lost as to what to do. He was already heavily injured and now he had lost his only companion in this hellscape. Was there nothing he could do? His sword couldn't even cut its fur. How was he supposed to win? Why should he even win? Was his family so important that he'd go through this hell to see them? Wouldn't it be easier to just die?
He wasn't sure.
He wanted to run away, to run away and never look back. To forget the sight of Elena's bleeding corpse. To forget about the dreadful panther. All of it. He evaded to the side and leaped to the wall to avoid the panther. His dorsal claws dug into the wall holding him in place. He darted away from the rubble Elena was crushed under. The building was far too small to be able to avoid the hulking panther and its protruding spines. Its back was two and a half meters from the ground and its size made it quite hard to evade its claws and deadly jaws.
A boarded and narrow window caught his eye. It was parallel with the ground and there was rubble leading up to it. Fighting in these close quarters was a death sentence. He only had one choice, to take it outside. His focus became concentrated on surviving and winning this fight.
He was full of hatred for this nightmare creature.
Retreating wasn't an option as he darted up the rubble and slid into the boarded window dorsal claws first reducing it to large splinters. He doubted he could escape from this creature and he needed to avenge Elena.
'It's my fault.'
The light of day disoriented him for a moment before he landed in the empty street. A moment later the wall behind him exploded in a rain of dust and pebbles.
Gwin darted sideways to avoid the panther's deadly maw. He skidded to a stop leaving deep grooves in the stone from his dorsal claws before raising his sword to deflect the dangerous and perforated tail.
'She died because…because of me…'
It was too much to bear. The weight of a human life felt impossible to carry. It rattled his mind and made him wish he could forget it all.
'This is just a dream right? A horrible dream. Elena isn't dead.'
He wanted to forget it all, and yet he couldn't.
The image of Elena's corpse and his own failure to alert her of danger burned in his mind with scathing prominence. Gwin's legs trembled beneath him begging him to flee and a cold sweat ran down his pale face as it twisted into a despairing grimace.
His mind was a whirlwind of negative thoughts and emotions. He couldn't focus at all as the world spun and he felt like throwing up.
And then something changed.
Put under extreme pressure most either break or withstand and come out all the better for it. Almost as if realizing something obvious Gwin felt his thoughts clear and his mind be overcome by startling clarity. Under this newfound clarity the world was incredibly simple, there was him and the thing he had to kill and nothing else. Hesitation and doubt did not exist in this world, neither did the expectations of others. It was a supremely simple and honest world, one that Gwin had finally managed to step into. He had achieved combat clarity.
'Is this what Elena felt? Has this been what I was missing?'
He knew what he had to, could do, and would do. He released his grip on the [Millitia's Steel] as it disintegrated in a rain of white sparks and his surroundings seemed to fade away as all of his focus was diverted to his foe.
His physical appearance changed as he was reduced to his most honest self. He took on a narrow stance meant for being quick on his feet and made some distance between him and the panther with several long leaps with his buggy legs. His eyes locked onto the abomination with scathing intensity as he began to undergo a change.
Gwin's legs returned to normal and his skin reddened. Not just his arms though. His entire body went through a profound change, unimpeded by hesitation and his own limitations he used his aspect to the fullest like he never had before. The entirety of his body became red and leathery. His eyes became pitch black and larger. His head changed shape slightly to accommodate the change. His hair formed into two fins on his head and both of his arms exploded into half a dozen blade-tipped tentacles each. He felt his essence drain like a flood from his soul as he strategized his next moves. He gritted his teeth and opened his mouth.
"GRAAHHHHH!"