The monster hiding in the shop behind us leapt out of the doorway, and unfurled. It was a monstrosity of broken wood, gnarled branches, and bone. It resembled some kind of human skeleton twisted into a scarecrow, which had then been mixed with a tree. Its branches stretched towards us like the gnarled fingers of a lich.
I looked around us with my soul sight. Souls were converging on us like wolves that had found prey. There were already half a dozen monsters nearby - and I had a strong suspicion that they were just the start of the horde.
I said.
We ignored the scarecrow tree and started running. It was killable - but we didn’t have time.
Then, the ground beneath our feet quaked and shuddered, nearly throwing Valeksi off of his feet. I grabbed him right as he nearly fell, and helped him right himself.
Valeksi growled in frustration, and transformed into a wolf, which seemed to help him maintain his balance. A moment later, Kexley did the same, even as the ground beneath us churned and bubbled like a pot of soup.
A different sensation penetrated into my bones, like a parasitical concept. This one was fainter - but it was much harder to fight back against. It felt like something was watching us. Something, and hungry, and slippery, and ancient. For a brief moment, the sheer weight of its gaze paralyzed me.
Instinctively, I knew that the guardian was now watching us.
My other companions froze for a moment, before I managed to shrug off the paralyzing effects. Another bubble of pavement burst right next to me, nearly knocking me off my feet, but I managed to catch myself before I got knocked over. I took a handful of water from my dress and splashed it at my companions, which seemed to jolt them out of their own stupor. A looked behind us.
The massive tree behind us had nearly caught up to us while we were paralyzed, and the other monsters were drawing closer.
We kept running. We rounded a corner, and in front of us, I saw two massive stone serpents wriggle their way out of the ground. They leapt at us. Before they made it halfway to us, Sallia beheaded both of them with deft cuts. Their bodies both exploded into viscous black goo. Sallia wasn’t quite fast enough to dodge one of the sprays of goo, and I barely managed to teleport it away in time.
The wall I had teleported the black goo into hissed and bubbled like tar, before it melted into nothing.
More monsters in the distance roared as we kept running. I felt it again. Something cold and ancient looked at me, and the weight of its gaze pressed upon me like an anvil weighing me down. I managed to fight off the alien sensation faster this time, and then splashed everyone with water again - but even though I had regained my senses, I was getting frustrated. This thing’s constant interference was making this a dozen times harder than it needed to be.
Another monster sprang out of a wall. Anise fried it with a fireball before I could even properly see what it was.
Then, I felt something else hit me. This wasn’t just an attack from the conceptual side of reality. It felt like something had wrapped itself around my neck, and started burying itself into my heart and lungs. As much as I didn’t need to breathe in the Market, I still felt a strange sense of desperation and fear suddenly flare up in my mind.
Something was wrong.
I staggered, and gasped for air that I shouldn’t have needed.
shrieked Felix. I had no answer for him.
Sallia picked me up and kept running as I tried to figure out why I felt like I was being strangled to death, even though nothing was touching me and I shouldn’t have needed to breathe.
I flicked through my unusual forms of sight. Through soul sight, I saw something. It looked like a miniature bat, and I couldn’t see any physical form to it at all. It was ripping into my neck, and tiny little bits of essence were pouring out. I shuddered, and tried to hit it with an extinguish. My extinguish passed through it like it wasn’t even there.
I gritted my teeth, and unleashed a second extinguish. This time, I forced the eldritch half of me to pull on the power of hope, and made extinguish touch the little soul bat.
It instantly died.
I immediately checked our surroundings, and saw five more creeping up on us. I unleashed five more extinguishes.
Slaughter: Kill a Soul Eater for the First Time, Kill a Soul eater for the Fifth time
Influence: Contributed to the defense of the Market by an [extremely negligible] amount.
Achievement +2,000, +4,000, +2.0
The Achievement was negligible - far more horrifying was the knowledge of what I had just killed. In hindsight, however, it was obvious.
How would a prepared, competent enemy deal with transmigrators? What was the most effective way to prepare for people who would come here, desperate to stay alive?
Naturally, the best solution was to prepare a wide variety of highly specific, situational attacks - including soul-based enemies that normal transmigrators might not be able to fight off at all.
I said.
Sallia helped me get back on my feet, before I started running with my companions again.
asked Valeksi.
I yelled into the communication bracelet.
After that, I swapped my vision back to my soul sight. I immediately noticed another soul-eater trying to sneak up on Felix from literally underneath his feet. I hit it with an extinguish, and grunted in exhaustion.
My eldritch half didn’t have enough strength to maintain this for long.
Another minute passed, as we continued running for our lives. Sallia, Anise and I kept most of the threats off of us, and I started to relax. The main guardian hadn’t interfered again, and no other major threats had attacked us.
Then, the major guardian twisted beneath us, and reality burst like a balloon.
Concepts themselves divided, shook, and rent themselves to pieces. Stone around us cracked. My limbs also cracked, as bones popped like sizzling oil in a frying pan. My companions and I screamed as a concept weighed down reality itself, like a mountain itself had simply dropped on us. I coughed out light, and then nearly collapsed as a wolf leapt around a corner and bowled me over. Its fangs sank into my neck, before Anise managed to tear it to pieces with a blast of wind.
I flooded everyone with a wave of healing magic. My bones and flesh reknit themselves, and I pulled Valeksi’s paws up a moment later. Then, we kept running. Another wolf popped out of a shadow - this time, I caught a faint flicker of some kind of spatial distortion. This time, I caught it in time, and killed it with an extinguish.
Slaughter: Kill a Snow Hunter for the First Time
Influence: Contributed to the defense of the Market by an [extremely negligible] amount.
Achievement +1,000, +4.0
It was followed up by another wolf, but Anise bashed it away with a barrier. We didn’t even bother finishing it off as we continued to flee. A projectile made of stone whizzed next to my head, but I redirected it with a portal. I didn’t even see what had launched the projectile, and I didn’t have time to check.
Finally, we reached the edge of the inner district of the Market, where I felt some of the weight of that ancient, crushing gaze recede from us. I could still feel it watching me - but it was less powerful. That wasn’t enough to make me feel safe.
We kept running. And running. And running. Fortunately, the tide of monsters and the strange, conceptual attacks stopped once we reached the edge of the inner district, and while we ran into a few skeletons and other monsters outside of the inner district, their numbers weren’t any higher than usual. Still, we kept moving, just in case whatever had nearly killed us launched another attack once we thought we were safe. It wasn’t until we had spent half an hour sprinting away that we finally stopped fleeing.
that?> hissed Kexley.
I said, as I tried to stave off the mixture of pain and exhaustion. that had flooded my system.
My companions shuddered. We had survived, and we could even consider this a successful outcome. But we were still no match for the guardian. We had to grow strong enough to fight that thing - and we only had two years to do it.
Author’s Note:
Today, in the author’s note, I’ll tell you a horror story.
Yesterday, I was feeling grumpy and irritable because the stitches from my surgery keep poking me, and so it hurts. I figured I would go find something fun and lighthearted to read to cheer myself up. I decided a comedy book would fit the bill, so I looked around for a while and found one I thought would hit the spot. Then, I got to a funny part of the story, so I started laughing.
And then! And then! Laughing stretched out my cheek a little bit, which made the surgery site hurt!
Comedy books are terrifying T_T.
Even more terrifying… is that I learned absolutely nothing and kept reading afterwards. Ahem. Maybe the real problem here is me.
My mouth hurts T_T. Bleh.
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