Rem limped towards the sound of Valdo's voice as he shouted, "Keep your eyes closed and follow my voice!"
Behind them, buildings fell one after another as the monster crashed and tore into them with rage. Its prey had escaped, and it swung its arms wildly and dashed into the buildings around it, its shape slowly disappearing into the growing cloud of dust.
When they'd gone far enough, they opened their eyes and picked one of the tunnels from the many lining the cave's wall.
They sat down after walking some distance from the entrance, far enough that no light could reach them. They layed Niall and Cathan to the side before settling into a loose circle.
"Good thing there weren't other monsters nearby," Doran said. "Or things could've gone a lot worse." Doran said.
"We need to hunt it down, and fast." Valdo's voice tight, devoid of it's natural tone. "If it becomes a Devil, then our fate is sealed." He paused for second before he continued. " Did either of you notice that dark blue coloring on it's fingers? that part was unnaturally hard — as hard as steel." He drew his blade from it's sheath as he spoke, and ran his finger across its dulled edge.
Doran studied his own blade, noting the nicks cluttering the edge and shrugged. "Even if it becomes a Devil, it's still blind, and it seems deaf too. We might still be able to kill even if it advances."
"No, we Can't." Valdo shook his head. "Right now it doesn't have full mastery over it's ability, but once it evolves, it might be able to control multiple people at once while moving. Not to mention that it's blind and deaf precisely because it's evolving." Valdo retorted.
"So what do you suggest then?" Doran asked.
Rem had been listening the whole time, and chose to stay silent. He'd spent the walk trying to work out a way ot make it back alive — whether the monster lived or died didn't matter to him. He just wanted to go back home.
"I might have a plan to hunt this thing down, if my assumption is right..." Rem said, before Valdo could answer Doran, as if he'd been waiting for the question. "But we'll only get one chance at it..."
***
Niall woke first, sometime after Rem had finished laying out the plan. He sat up slowly, rubbing the back of his head, and for a moment thought he might be in the afterlife. that's when his eyes adjusted to the dark around him and he caught sight of Valdo and Doran.
Both were looking at Rem, a mix of shock anxiousness written across them. Niall opened his mouth, about to ask if they really were dead and this was the afterlife. When a scream erupted from beside him.
Cathan yelled at the top of his lungs as he shot upright, swinging his arms wildly as if he still held a sword. "Get away from! Get away!"
Doran was on his feet first, crossing to cathan and gripping his arms to stop him. "It's okay, Cathan. It's okay. You're safe now — we got away from the monster. It's okay."
Cathan kept thrashing, straining against doran's hold
Niall stared in a daze, unsure of what had caused Cathan to act like this.
"Let's move." Valdo was already standing. "If we don't hunt it down in time, we won't have a chance at getting out of here at all. we'll go over the plan as we walk."
***
"WHAT? You want us to go back and fight that thing again — and that's your plan?" Cathan stopped dead in his tracks as he yelled.
"Keep it moving Cathan, we don't have the time." Doran stopped in place as he turned back to look back at him. "Like we said before this is our only chance to hunt it before it evolves."
"Why hunt it? Let's just get out of here!" Cathan retorted.
Doran looked at him for a long moment, then turned away. "Then go. We are hunting the thing that killed Bruinn by ourselves."
As Doran walked, the rest followed. Only Cathan remained standing in place, he looked down at the ground, his grip tightening, as sweat started pouring down his face and tears started rising in his eyes.
"Fine! Let's go die then!" He said as he followed them.
***
They stepped out of the tunnel's mouth and back into the Clochán. compared to the earlier chaos, the whole place had gone eerily silent, broken only by the occasional distant scream or explosion from above ground, that were getting scarcer and more distant as time went by.
As they made their way back toward the monster's last position, they passed new corpses scattered across the ground. They stopped to pick through them, scavenging sharper, sturdier weapons than the ones ruined by the monster.
Valdo looked around at the rest of them. "Are you ready?"
Cathan answered first, hands and legs visibly shaking. He'd searched the corpses harder than anyone and come away with a helmet that covered his face and a shield for his back. "Let's move already and end this."
As they walked towards the monster, there were new corpses on the ground, they rummaged through them, as they picked up sharper far better ones than the ones destroyed by the monster.
"Close your eyes. Doran and I will engage the monster for as long as possible. Wait for the right moment and attack it just like we discussed."
"Open them only when told to, or if either of us stops making noise."
Everyone but Doran and Valdo shut their eyes, following the sound of their voices as the two repeated the same handful of words over and over, keeping the rest oriented in the dark.
When they reached the outer edge of the settlement the monster had returned to its previous spot. It was feeding on the remaining corpses. Unlike before, the dark blue luster had spread further, covering its arms and now its entire midsection as it slowly spread further towards its head and feet.
"The monster is right front of us," Valdo said. "There are no more buildings for it to hide. Stay in helping distance and keep your eyes closed."
Tension spread through the group. Even Doran and Valdo looked tense, despite having already fought this thing once. Valdo took a deep breath, said one last thing before breaking into a run toward the monster:
"We only have one chance. Don't mess it up."