Kaelen had been walking for what felt like hours beneath the dead yellow sky, the brown grass whispering against his legs, Sprite a warm weight on his shoulder. The lance of light in his bow had faded after the Harvester attack, and he had not tried to summon another.
The thing that rose from the grass ahead of him was not like the Harvesters. It was powerful. He could feel it in his bones, in the way the air thickened around it, in the way the dead yellow light seemed to dim in its presence. It had no true shape, a mass of brown and grey, shifting, flowing, with mouths that opened and closed across its surface like wounds breathing. Eyes blinked into existence and vanished, scattered across its bulk like stars in a sick sky.
The system flickered:
[Hostile Detected: Swallower – Unranked Dungeon Boss]
[Threat Level: Severe.]
[ Recommended action: Run.]
Kaelen ran.
The Swallower moved faster than something its size should have been able to move. It flowed across the grass like a wave, mouths gaping, the sound of its passage a wet, sucking noise that made his stomach turn. He could feel its hunger, not a metaphor, but a physical pressure against his skin, a pull like hands grabbing at his clothes, his hair, his mana.
Sprite hissed, claws digging into his shoulder.
The ground beneath Kaelen's feet turned soft. He looked down. The brown grass was dissolving, turning to mud, and the mud was moving, flowing toward the Swallower, pulling him with it. His bare feet sank, he stumbled, caught himself, pulled one leg free only to have the other sink deeper.
No, he thought. Not like this.
He raised the crystal bow, he pulled the string. The amber on his neck flared, and a lance of light formed ,smaller this time, thinner. He released.
The lance struck the Swallower's nearest mouth. The mouth screamed, a high, thin sound like a knife on glass, and collapsed in on itself, but two more mouths opened where it had been. The creature kept coming.
Kaelen's feet were knee-deep now. The mud was cold, thick, and it pulled. He dropped the bow, grabbed for the daggers at his belt, and drove them into the ground in front of him, using them as anchors to keep from being dragged forward. The crystal blades sang against the earth, vibrating with a pitch that hurt his teeth.
Sprite launched from his shoulder, flew toward the Swallower, and bounced off its side like a pebble thrown at a mountain. The creature did not even notice.
He felt his hand burn and the mark of the sovereign glowed, he then felt as if something was drawing the little mana he had and guiding it towards his hands, his hands burned an he instinctively lifted his had and power bust forth from his hand instead of attacking like normal mana does it did something Kaelen had never seen. It began devouring the beast.
The beast was screaming clearly feeling pain but Kaelen knew it would not last long the sovereign had drawn power from him and he did not have much power. He tried pulling his legs but they were still stuck.
The swallower had slowed and Kaelen noticed that it's size had decreased but it was still moving clearly unwilling to let its prey go. It was angrier than before and it started flowing.
It stalled and changed its form to a river and flowed towards him.
This is it, Kaelen thought. His arms were shaking. The mud was at his thighs. The Swallower's nearest mouth was close enough that he could smell its breath rotting meat, old blood, something sweet and wrong beneath.
Then a crack tore open the sky.
It was not a wound like before. It was a rift a vertical gash in the dead yellow air, its edges burning with golden light that pushed back the dungeon's grey yellow. The hum beneath Kaelen's skin spiked, so sharp and sudden that he gasped, his vision whiting out for a single, eternal second.
Someone dropped through the crack.
They landed between Kaelen and the Swallower, boots-first, the impact sending a shockwave of golden mana across the grass. The mud beneath Kaelen's legs froze the pull ceasing.
The Swallower screamed.
All its mouths opened at once.
The figure standing before Kaelen was tall, broad-shouldered, dressed in dark leather and a coat that moved like smoke. Dark hair, pale eyes that reflected the golden light of the dying rift. He simply stood there, and the Swallower began to retreat.
It fled, flowing backward across the grass, its mouths closing one by one, its eyes blinking out of existence. Within seconds, it had vanished over the horizon, leaving only a trail of flattened, blackened grass and the fading stench of its passage.
Lysander turned.