Nyx surged upward, her tail lashing violently behind her as she drove herself toward the surface. If she could just break free of the water—just reach land—then whatever hunted her might hesitate, might falter. She didn't truly believe it would abandon the chase, but even a creature of the depths would be forced to follow her onto terrain less suited to it.
So she swam.
Upward. Desperately. Relentlessly.
Toward the light.
She was almost there when something wet, long, and revoltingly slick coiled around her waist tightening instantly and yanked, making the world lurch.
One moment she was reaching for the sunlit surface, fingers outstretched toward salvation—the next, she was dragged violently backward, hurtling into the dark below.
The light above fractured, then dimmed, then began to vanish entirely as the depths swallowed her whole. Nyx twisted, clawing at the thing wrapped around her, trying to pry it loose, but it held fast—unyielding, like a living chain. No matter how she struggled, it did not loosen. It only pulled.
Deeper.
Colder.
Until the shadows themselves seemed to breathe.
And then, She saw it.
The creature loomed within the gloom, its shape emerging slowly, horrifically, as her eyes adjusted to the darkness.
It was massive.
A grotesque, bloated toad, easily three meters tall, its body glistening with slick, diseased moisture. Its skin sagged in places, rotting and split, oozing foul fluids that drifted like smoke in the water. Patches of decay pulsed faintly along its sides, as though something beneath the flesh still lived and writhed. Its webbed limbs ended in elongated claws, each one curved and sharp like a saber.
And its eyes—those same yellow eyes—burned with a warped, almost knowing hunger.
Its tongue—long, sinewy, and glistening—was wrapped tightly around her, drawing her steadily toward its gaping maw. Rows of jagged, unnatural fangs lined its mouth, twitching faintly as if eager to close around her.
What does it take me for… an insect?
She chuckled inwardly despite the grim predicament.
As Nyx was dragged within striking distance, She shifted, and the darkness erupted around her form.
It did not spread—it unfurled, bursting outward in a storm of shadowed particles that churned and writhed like a living void. It cloaked her entirely, a tattered, nebulous shroud of black that frayed at the edges and swallowed the dim light whole.
For a brief moment, She vanished within it. Then the darkness peeled away, what emerged was no longer human.
A massive serpent uncoiled in her place, stretching to nearly twelve meters in length. Her scales, a deep, lustrous purple, shimmered faintly even in the murk, while her eyes burned with a cold, luminous blue. Two sleek, azure horns curved back from her head, cutting clean lines through the water as she moved.
Nyx of Arel'thor in her true form.
Even now, with the toad still larger, still looming—Something had changed. The water itself seemed to recoil.
The creature's tongue, once taut with control, faltered for the briefest instant—and that was enough.
Nyx twisted sharply, her elongated form slipping free from its grasp with fluid precision. The moment she broke loose, she did not retreat.
She struck.
Her body surged forward in a blur, coiling around the toad's thick neck, constricting with sudden, violent force. Her fangs sank deep into its flesh, piercing through slick skin and rot alike as she drove venom into it.
Then she released. Her body flowed backward through the water, keeping distance now, her glowing eyes locked onto the creature as it writhed.
The numbness was spreading faster. She could feel it. Time was running out.
But now—
A faint, cold satisfaction stirred within her.
She had tasted its game and returned the favor. Now it was only a matter of which of them would succumb first.