Chapter 82: Darkness (Patreon)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qCcVtfTNj2KAB8sUtqB3JFjjvzxuVb3S-ri0F3AN1xU/edit?usp=sharing

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His side, his leg, his arm, even his face, Cayden fought against the pain that demanded he just lay on the ground and submit, feeling as if a siren was going off in his head. He wanted to listen to that call, to just lay on the ground and close his eyes until the pain went away, but he knew that was a luxury he couldn't afford. The monster was still alive, and would soon be coming for them. He didn't know what he could do about it, but laying on the ground wouldn't do anything.

With clenched teeth and a groan of effort, Cayden pulled himself to his knees, and the siren got louder. A second later, Cayden realized the truth – it wasn't a siren, but the screams of the girl behind him he'd been hearing. He'd forgotten that his [Inertia] was turned down so low, and the impact of the spikes had flung him back into the girl. He glanced back with a painful turn of his neck and saw that a few of the spikes had punched through him and into the girl behind him, and he'd just pulled them free with his attempt to stand, his and her blood staining her robe.

He turned away from the still-screaming girl. He'd done the best he could for her, and there were more important things for him to focus on. Like the monster which, against all odds, still stood in the center of the room.

Cayden and Valeria hadn't been able to take it down, hadn't been able to even get within melee range of the monster. Aside from the few seconds after the chanted skill, his attacks against the cloth tentacles hadn't had any effect. The strongest skill Cayden had ever seen had barely hindered the monster for a minute. There was nothing that Cayden could think to do that could possibly defeat this opponent.

But he'd be damned if he'd let that stop him from trying.

His right arm wasn't following his commands; the spike that pierced through his shoulder must have severed something important, so he awkwardly reached back with his left arm for his backpack to grab a healing potion – only to remember the spike that had torn it apart earlier in the battle. Luckily, he'd never completely abandoned the lesson he'd learned from his early dungeon delves, and painfully dug around under his armor for the extra healing potions he always carried on his person. One was nothing but a shattered mess from the fight, but the other one was whole, and after pulling the cork with his teeth he chugged the healing liquid.

He wasn't sure how much the potion would help; these injuries were much more severe than anything he'd ever experienced before. He thought about pulling out the spikes that were still embedded in his flesh, knowing that it was risky for his body to attempt to 'heal' around them. But he only had the one working arm, and removing them would take time – time he didn't have.

He took a halting step forward, wincing from the pain that shot through his leg after putting weight directly on it. But he didn't allow himself to stop, taking another halting step, and then another. He was half-falling forward with each step, only barely catching his weight before crashing on his face, but it was close enough to a run for his purpose.

He had a few flashing notifications in the corner of his vision, but Cayden ignored them, as he didn't have time to stop and read. The system gave him a cursory instinctive understanding of the contents of each one, and none of the offered skills were what he needed. He turned the entirety of his focus toward the monster.

The chanted skill hadn't worked. From the broken arrows Cayden had seen scattered in various places around the room, Marrianne's ranged attacks hadn't worked. Delaying had worked for a time, but with the princess out for the count and Cayden heavily injured, it was unlikely to work any longer.

The only thing they had yet to try was getting close and personal with the monster. It was a long shot, but it was Cayden's only hope.

The monster was still 'cooling down' after using its spike attack, which gave Cayden the window he needed to close the distance. With its cloth-wrapped body, he had no idea where the monster was looking or how it even perceived its surroundings, but its body was facing toward Cayden's approach – he had to presume it was ready and waiting for him.

Cayden's face twisted into a snarling smile as his limping pace increased even further. He had no real plan beyond attacking the monster before its cloth tentacles reemerged. He'd lost the sword after getting hit by the spikes. And he had no backup, Delphia and the princess' team down for the count or busy saving others.

But that was fine. Their plans had failed. The sword had failed. Everyone else's attempts had failed.

He would not fail.

He jumped over the last pile of rubble that separated him from the monster, stumbled upon landing, and then slashed out at the arm that was raised to meet him.

His claws, so much sharper than any sword or other weapon he'd wielded, met the monster's cloth-covered forearm – and were stopped in their tracks.

Almost casually, the monster blocked his strike and then reached out to grab him. Cayden attempted to leap back to dodge, but his useless dangling arm couldn't be pulled away in time, and the monster's hand wrapped around it like a vise grip. And then, the cloth tentacles reemerged from its wrappings and punched forward into Cayden's chest.

Luckily, the tentacles didn't have as much piercing power as the spikes, so although he spat blood from the impact, they didn't spear through his body. Unluckily, the monster still had his arm in its firm grip as the tentacles punched into his chest. The two forces pushed and pulled in opposite directions, and something gave with a sickening rip.

Cayden went flying back across the room. The arm stayed in the monster's grasp.

Somehow, Cayden landed near where everything had started, and he looked over behind one of the few remaining intact pillars where Delphia, Marrianne, the gorgon girl, and the princess now hid. The gorgon was still unconscious, though it seemed Delphia's ministrations had been effective, as she no longer had a spike in her chest and color had returned to her face. Marrianne's eyes were wide and dilated as she seemed to be hyperventilating in panic, her knuckles white where she clutched her bow. The princess's face was impassive, but Cayden thought he could see a hint of despair in the way she looked off into the distance. And Delphia just stared at him.

He wasn't sure why or how, but the shadows around Delphia's cloak seemed...thinner...than usual, and for the first time he was able to see her eyes under her hood. And even with all the chaos and pain, he was surprised to notice how they almost seemed to glow red in the dark.

"Run," he attempted to say, only to mouth the words when nothing but blood came out. He attempted to stand – to either run himself or delay the monster so the others might escape, he didn't know – but his muscles refused to cooperate.

He was done.

As the monster's tentacles approached his prone form – for some reason now targeting him instead of the whimpering white-robed mage across the room – all he could think about was Tiana, and hope that Elise would find some way to help her be free. He kept his eyes open, staring in defiance at the monster as his death approached.

The room was doused in a sudden inescapable darkness.

"Well, well, well...it seems someone is targeting my students," a voice echoed through the cavern, originating from seemingly everywhere at once.

[Attempted mental manipulation from All are Prey]

Cayden's muscles locked in place as he couldn't even breathe, an overwhelming sense of fear suffusing him, but a moment later the fear dissipated as the darkness retreated and the room was once more illuminated by the dim dungeon lighting.

And between Cayden and the monster stood Instructor Blyre: the head of administration for the academy.

"Don't worry, students. While Jubberops are not quick to die, it is just a matter of time, and we will have you back safe and sound at the academy," she said, a pair of daggers flashing as tentacles were knocked aside with seeming ease.

[Attempted mental manipulation from Guiding Hand]

Despite his better judgment and skill-inspired suspicion of the administrator, Cayden couldn't help the sense of relief and trust that surged through him, his pained body unclenching in the sudden overwhelming feeling that everything would be okay.

And then the instructor demonstrated why that feeling was more than just a false promise brought on by her manipulations. With speed that would leave even Ignar's newest escape skill in the dust, she danced around the monster, the cloth tentacles that had been impervious to Cayden's attacks cracking under just a few of her precise strikes. Cayden stared in awe at the demonstration of what someone who was much, much higher level could accomplish.

"Don't zone out completely," Delphia softly said a moment later as she hovered over Cayden's prone form, examining his wounds with featherlight touches of her fingers. "I think there might be another monster wandering around somewhere."

Cayden tensed at her words, and he attempted to turn his head to look for the reported monster, to no avail. Despite all his defensive skills, his wounds were too severe, and his neck barely flexed under his efforts. The pain which had been pulsing with each beat of his heart was finally starting to go numb, and it felt as if he was looking at the world through a long tunnel.

"Where?" he finally managed to croak out.

"I didn't see it, but I definitely heard it when you first charged into the fight. Had a really weak cry, sounded kind of like a parrot."

Cayden looked at her in confusion, attempting to make sense of her words...and then he noticed the small smile beneath the shadows of her hood.

...she was making fun of his battle-cry.

The random, out-of-character absurdity was too much to handle, and he let loose an involuntary bark of laughter, relief suffusing his body as the world jumped back into focus. And then the pain and exhaustion from his wounds finally caught up to him, and with a smile on his lips, he fell unconscious.

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Delphia cursed to herself as she frantically checked over the mangled body of her teammate.

She'd finally gotten the courage to speak, to say something that wasn't directly related to healing...and she'd chosen to make fun of him. He didn't seem to take offense, thankfully, but still. So, so stupid.

She finished her appraisal of the boy's health, finding that he was doing surprisingly much better than she had expected. Blood loss, internal bleeding, and a bad concussion were the biggest threats to his current survival, assuming the instructor was able to handle the monster, and those were all easy for a potion to fix.

For safety's sake, she double-checked her level of potion-sickness, noting that she was still below her maximum threshold, before she laid a finger on Cayden's forehead.

Some color returned to his skin as her skin paled even more than it already was, and she forced down the cough that wanted to burst free. It hurt, but pain was no stranger to her, and she ignored the impulses of her body without issue. She tossed back a medium healing potion and felt the transferred wounds healing.

The spikes that pierced his chest, side, and thigh, and especially his missing arm, were another issue entirely. They weren't wounds that she'd be able to transfer over and expect to heal with a simple healing potion, but thankfully that didn't seem necessary. She wasn't used to appraising and healing those with such an enhanced vitality, and it presented a weakness to her build; wounds that would be no more than a bother to her teammate would completely debilitate her.

Although she was sure a missing arm was more than a 'bother' for Cayden, she could already see that he was losing less blood from the wound than he'd been a few moments earlier. He was certainly still wounded – crippling so – but he was stable, and there was little her healing skills could do further.

She sat back on her heels and, for the first time since her teammate had gone charging off down the hallway of the dungeon, allowed herself to think. To truly consider what had happened, rather than just reacting on instinct.

She hugged herself as she started shaking uncontrollably.

She'd been so close to death. So, so close. All of them had. She had practically zero combat skills, and the rest of them had already given all they'd had to give. If Instructor Blyre had been just a minute slower, they likely would've all been dead.

She didn't want to die.

It was a startling realization, one she wasn't sure she would've come to a month earlier. But now that she'd had a taste of the freedom so many others took for granted, she didn't want to give that up. And she was so close to making a friend – it would be such a shame if all of that simply...went away.

Yet, for all the danger her decision had resulted in...she couldn't say she regretted following her teammate as he'd charged toward the screams. It had been a stupid choice, one her father would've immediately and loudly declared as idiotic...yet it had been hers. One made for the sake of others.

So as she sat there shivering, occasionally double-checking to ensure the wounded boy in front of her was still stable as more instructors poured into the room and aided Instructor Blyre against the monster...she was content.

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