FVN Chapter 35: Onyx
Chapter 35: Onyx
Alex darted after the nameless monster with Claire hot on his heels. Neither of them dared to all out sprint as they slipped back down the alley and into the shadows lining the edges of the main street. As much as Alex wanted to get his hands on the monster’s powers, he wasn’t trying to get spotted by a City-Eater Centipede while he was running around like an idiot.He caught a glimpse of a shadowed back darting down an alley in front of them, but the monster wasn’t moving nearly as fast as it had proven to be able to. It seemed that his target was equally as cautious. A certain unfortunate cat and a tentacle had shown him why. The monsters in the Mirrorlands were no more friends to him than they were to each other.
Alex stepped into the alleyway and Claire raised her sword behind him, squinting into the dim light. They got there just in time to see the monster disappear down a street leading off to their right, behind the top half of a barrel that floated in the middle of the alley like a decapitated head.
They both ducked under the barrel and followed after the monster, just barely managing to keep it at the edge of their vision. It darted down another tight turn and they followed after it, turning a corner and stepping past a crate to find themselves staring at the main street once again.here was no room for failure. A single bad step would be the end. He could feel the Snapper’s breath on his back and the crackle of energy racing across his skin. The click of the monster’s feet thundered around him and its mandibles scraped the walls just behind his desperate steps.
Alex burst free of the alley and into the rubble covered clearing. He flung himself to the side, landing on a jutting stone and letting out a hiss of pain as it carved across his back. Energy popped and thrummed in the air above him. Alex skidded a foot before he managed to shove himself upright, spinning to look up.
A crackling pink portal snapped open overhead and the Snapper burst free from within it, its mandibles split wide open to reveal the twitching innards of the monster’s mouth. It was so close that he could practically see the monster’s last meal. Wide, onyx black eyes of an insect burned with fury and the overgrown millipede chittered as it bore down on Alex.
The ground exploded. Alex flailed as he was launched through the air amidst a spray of stone and dust. He curled into a ball, covering his head as best as he could just moments before he crashed into the ground.
The world tumbled and spun around him. A heavy stone carved into his arm and slapped his arm into his face. All air was driven from his lungs as he crashed into the wall of a building. Chunks of rubble pelted him. He kept himself curled for a moment longer before daring to lift his hands away from his face. Developing bruises throbbed across his body as scrambled to his feet, ignoring the blood dripping from lacerations along his arms.
A massive tentacle had burst from the ground and wrapped around the Snapper, which had coiled around the monster in turn. The ground trembled beneath Alex as the millipede tore into the tentacle with its many pointed feet, ripping deep into its bulging flesh.
Alex’s mouth tasted of iron and dust. He swallowed amidst his ragged breaths, then staggered back for the exit. The earth bucked and heaved as the Barbacle started to pull its true body out from beneath the ground. More tentacles erupted from beneath the rubble-covered square, but Alex had no plans of sticking around to find out which of the massive monsters would win the fight.
He slipped into the alley, nearly tripping over his own feet as another powerful tremor ripped through the earth with enough force to bounce him half a foot into the air. Alex caught himself on the wall and coughed a mixture of blood and dust into his palm. He wiped his mouth with the back of a sleeve and continued on, only pausing to glance up at the sky above and ensure there were no City-Eater Centipedes watching before making the trip across the street.
It only took a few moments for him to make it back to where he’d killed the hooded monster. The creature’s body was missing, but a black fire crackled gently in the place where it had fallen.
Low Grade Initiate (Echo Wraith)
Alex grabbed the flame and scooped it into his mirror without wasting a second. He stepped into the alley that he’d left Claire in — and nearly tripped over a corpse.
A Corpse Burrower’s body, this one considerably smaller than the one he’d fought together with Claire a short while ago, laid ripped to shreds in the alley. Claire stood behind it, blood dripping from her arms and her sword clutched in her right hand. The body of the Echo Wraith lay at her feet.
“You survived!” Claire exclaimed between heavy breaths. She wiped her mouth and swallowed before nodding down to the bodies at her feet. “This thing heard the fight and came looking for a free meal. Killed it. Thought you might want this thing’s body. Where’s the big creeper?”
“Fighting the Barbacle back in the clearing,” Alex replied as he walked over to her, some of his breath slowly starting to return as his adrenaline relented. “I don’t think the fight is going to be pretty.”
“You clever bleedin’ shit,” Claire said, a grin tugging at her lips. “You got ‘em to fight each other?”
“The Barbacle ignored the last weak monster in the area. I figured it would see the Snapper as a bigger threat and meal than me. No reason to assume monsters don’t get rewards the same way we do,” Alex said. “Bigger challenge, better reward.”
They were both silent for a second as they fought to catch their breath. As Alex braced his palms against his knees, he paused. Something glistened on the Echo Wraith’s thin, dark chitin wrist.
An onyx bracelet.