The portal spawned them onto a cracked floor.
Tony rolled twice before stopping, palms scraping against rough gravel. Theo hit the ground hard beside him with a loud grunt. Zach stumbled forward, barely catching himself. Teri and Olivia collided, falling in a tangle of limbs. Cecilia landed on her knees. Aveline remained upright for a second longer before her balance gave way.
The portal snapped shut behind them with a low, hollow thud.
The sky above them was a bruised violet, streaked with faint veins of dull light. The land stretched outward in broken ridges and jaggedness, as if something enormous had clawed at the world and left it unfinished.
Tony pushed himself up first. "Is everyone okay?"
A series of strained responses followed.
Theo squinted at the horizon. "This isn't the cave."
Silence settled in as they all take a moment to observe their surroundings.
"We will have to start working together if we're to make it out of here." Zach muttered, recalling the incident and riot that happened at the platform. Feeling a little bit of guilt for having had to push Marielle out of the way. But brushes it off as survival instinct.
"Yeah, how about we introduce ourselves and trying not to leave anyone behind again." Tony said.
"I'm Tony Anderson." He introduced himself as others follow suit.
They all finished introducing their self and silence filled the air. Each person waiting on who would have the idea of where they were and how to get out of here.
They slowly lose their focus, taking a moment to survey where they were again.
"Uhh," Teri whispered.
She was already trembling - not from fear, but something else. Her head tilted slightly, as if listening to a sound too distant for others to hear.
A voice echoed in their head. "Survive".
The word were not loud. It was low and faded.
Olivia swallowed. "You heard that too?"
Her words was met with silence. They didn't need to answer.
A shadow moved along a distant ridge.
Then again.
Then it stepped fully into view.
An Umbra.
It descended the slope slowly. More massive than that which Harvey and Grant defeated. Its fur dark as extinguished flame. Its eyes burned with a low ember glow. Each step was deliberate. Its claws left grooves on the floor.
The umbra moved.
Like a speed of a traveling bullet. Vanishing.
One second it stood twenty meters away.
The next.
Tony's body lifted off the ground.
The impact came before he even saw it. A claw slammed into his chest and sent him flying backward. He hit a stone hard enough to crack it.
Pain exploded through his ribs.
But something else happened too.
The force didn't just hurt.
It stayed
It pulsed under his skin like compressed thunder waiting to be released.
"Where is it?" Cecilia panicked.
Teri's breathing quickened. Her pupils dilated.
"Its right there, I can see it," she whispered. "It's circling and measuring us."
"How?" Olivia snapped.
"I don't know. I just... Its right there."
The umbra lunges at Zach.
"Behind!" Teri screamed.
A little too late.
Claws tore across Zach's side.
But Theo manages to land an heavy hit on its side. Sending it flying, crashing into a boulder.
Zach fell to one knee, blood splattering across the floor.
Tony forced himself upright. The pressure in his chest increased. The more he held unto the energy the more his body would be crushing at the point of impact.
"Where is it now?" Tony snapped.
"It's lunging towards you MOVE!" Teri screamed.
Tony didn't move. He surged the energy into his right fist.
He roared and drove the fist forward.
The impact exploded outward in a visible shockwave.
The umbra was sent flying back several meters, skidding on the ground.
Tony stared at his trembling hands.
"What was that..." Theo asked.
Zach coughed, looking down at his bleeding side.
The blood didn't drip normally.
It lingered.
Hovered.
His eyes widened.
The droplets trembled in the air before him, responding to something unseen.
He raised his shaking hand. The blood rosed with it. His pupils turning red as he displayed this power. His wound clotting unnaturally fast.
Cecilia stared. "Zach..."
The umbra stood again.
Slower. Wary. Its movement now visible for everyone to see but still fast as a jaguar.
Olivia stepped forward hesitantly. "If we're going to die, we do it fighting."
"I'm not dying here," Aveline muttered, rolling her eyes.
The umbra sprinted, lunging at Olivia.
Aveline grabbed Olivia and blinked out of the way. Teleporting them ten meters behind the umbra's sprinting path.
"What did you say about dying?" Aveline chuckled with a smirk on her face.
The umbra continued on its path towards the next person.
Theo swung his fist as the umbra lunged at him.
The impact sends the umbra skidding through the floor.
Olivia focused.
She didn't know how she knew what to do.
But she did.
She reached toward the umbra's shadow.
The dark outline stretching beneath it suddenly hardened - as if an anchor pinned it to the ground.
The umbra's body strained forward. But resistance dragged at it.
"Now!" Olivia gasped.
Zach stood.
His blood twisted in the air, shaping into a thin, jagged blade.
He didn't hesitate.
He grabbed it and drove it forward.
The blade pierced through the umbra's ribcage.
The beast roared, thrashing wildly.
Cecilia thrust her hands forward. Building a sonic wave.
She focused and blasted the sonic wave away, striking the umbra's head.
The air distorted violently.
The umbra's body fell to the ground as its head had been ripped off cleanly by the sonic blast.
Silence filled the air.
The umbra twitched once.
Then stilled.
The air reeked of iron and scorched stone.
No one moved for several seconds.
Tony dropped to one knee, gasping. "That hurts." Checking his chest to see if he was badly hurt. Only to meet small bruises.
Zach staggered as the blood blade dissolved, flowing back into his body through his nose. His eyes turned normal.
"What are we?" Olivia whispered.
"Alive, that is what we are." Theo responded.
Teri exhaled slowly listening to the horizon. "There's nothing else close. For now I guess."
Aveline blinked twice experimentally, jumping between two points not further than ten meters away from her original point. Twice in succession causes a little dizziness and would take few seconds for her to recover her full composure. She murmured to herself. "Short distance and can't teleport in succession without getting dizzy."
Cecilia looked at her hands. She could still feel the energy of the sonic blast settling. She swayed. "It kind of takes time to build. It will mostly be useful for finishing strike."
They stood there - breathing heavily as they try to figure out which direction to go.
"Any suggestions on how to navigate our way around this... this place?" Theo muttered.
"We will need to get a better view of where we our to suggest where we head to next." Tony suggested.
"What if we broke into groups to survey which direction is best to take?" Zach said.
"We could cover more ground and find the best way to an exit... If there's any." He added.
"What if we run into another of that beast? Would we be able to face them?" Olivia responded.
Their head tilted towards the direction of the dead umbra.
It wasn't that easy defeating it as a large group. They could barely see its movement at first.
Series of murmuring followed, disagreeing with the thought of breaking into smaller groups.
"We will all move as one group. But which direction are we heading?" Tony asked.
Teri looked around. "The beast came from north of where we are. Maybe that is their habitat and we'd have to avoid facing more of them."
They all nodded in agreement as she continued. "That leaves us with west, east and south."
"Maybe we heard south. Opposite of where the beast came from." Theo suggested.
Cecilia replied. "Shouldn't we at least put it into a vote?"
"Wait, what if the beast was returning home and we just happened to be on its way?" Aveline asked.
They all felt frustrated. Dismay written over their faces.
"This what ifs isn't helping. Lets just pick a direction and move." Zach sighed.
They all reluctantly agreed and voted to move east. Towards the riverbed.
They moved.
The terrain shifted gradually into jagged formations resembling massive ribcages poking out from the ground. Torn banners hung from broken spears, their symbols long faded. Skeletons half buried in the dust.
"Seems we are not the first to be here." Theo muttered.
"This place is something," Tony murmured.
"It looks like a graveyard or some kind of battlefield." Olivia replied.
They crossed a dried riverbed of dark crystal. The shards reflected their distorted faces.
Aveline stopped suddenly. "Do you see that?"
Ahead of them layed bodies of umbras.
Freshly torn apart.
Tony crouched beside one. "The cuts looks clean and precise."
"Were they killed by the others?" Cecilia whispered.
Zach studied the wound patterns. "Whatever or whoever did this is strong and efficient."
Theo looked toward the distant horizon.
Through the pile of bodies. "Do you think we should follow the trail?"
Teri closed her eyes, expanding her senses outward.
The air grew heavy the further she reached.
There was something there.
Waiting.
"I don't know," she said slowly.
"But we will have to find out sooner or later if it's a friend or foe."
Silence settled over them.
Around them lay the corpse of umbras.
Ahead of them - an unknown entity they were yet to face.