[Eden]
Phantom crawlers.
They were a type of beasts that usually resided at the surface region of abyss gates. With the size no larger than an arm, it didn’t pose as much of a threat to raiders. But there was one aspect that kept raiders on their toes. Where there were crawlers, there was bound to be a crawler queen residing in deeper regions.
A crawler queen shared similar physiques with a crawler. A slightly elongated snout, long arms with short legs, and its body covered with short, black fur. However, there was one notable difference. A crawler queen was at least 10 times the size of a regular crawler.
SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
With a fearful screech, the crawler queen rendered all of us frozen in place. Following its presence was an army of crawlers, appearing from the darkness. Dozens? No, there’s gotta be at least hundreds. What in the…
“DIE, YOU MONSTER!” One of the raiders that fled the further section charged aimlessly at the beast that stood between us and the exit. Flailing arms, drops of tears, a face filled with terror. Even a child could tell this man had lost all hope.
He’s not going to survive- One swing from the queen crawler was all it took. The raider flew across the room, just as the previous had, and slammed into the cavern walls. It didn’t take a medic to figure out that he was dead.
The following silence was broken by yet another screech. A longer, higher-pitched screech. Judging by the sudden activity of all the crawlers that had previously been on stand-by, the screech could only mean one thing. It was a battle cry.
“Raiders, get in defensive formation B now!”
Pyke commanded the raiders, keeping his voice as clear and concise as possible. Nevertheless… His voice… It’s slightly shivering. Why? Where was that utmost confidence from earlier? Are we going to die?
Following his command, the raiders began to form a somewhat ordered formation. They held off the lunging swarm of crawlers, but the real problem was the crawler queen. On every attack, the raider who suffered the brunt of the swing would be sent flying across the room. In fear, the raiders would begin fleeing, causing a collapse in their formation.
As the gigantic beast slammed on a raider carrying a shield, two raiders, each wielding battle axes, swung on its rear. “Ensharpe!” Both of them chanted, and consequently their axes began glowing with a dim white.
The magic-enchanted axes connected onto the back of the queen crawler with a loud thud, and the white glows dissipated right after. “How’d ya like that, ya’ foul beast?!” One of the two raiders exclaimed, proud of his deed. That was, until he saw the damage he had done, or the lack thereof. Both their efforts combined resulted in a mere scratch.
The crawler queen, slightly enraged from the provocation, turned its head around and swung its right arm at the burly raider with great force, tossing him to the ceiling. The other raider stared at her comrade in disbelief, before uttering her last words. “Impossible…”
With one stab using its other arm, it created a gaping wound right at the center of her abdomen.
This sequence broke down whatever remaining order the group of raiders had. Even the one commanding them all, Pyke, showed one clear emotion in his face.
Despair.
As the line of defense broke, even the smaller shadow crawlers started producing their own victims. The defenseless scavengers, in particular, were the target of their aggression.
“ARGHH! STAY AWAY FROM ME!”
“HELP ME! PLEASE! ANYONE!”
I need to get out of here. I need to run.
RUN!
My legs remained implanted to the ground, quaking in fear.
Why… Why won’t my legs move?!
I knew the reason why. I was scared. But more importantly, I was powerless to even save myself.
Finally, the dreaded moment came. A crawler took interest in having me as its dinner and leaped on to me. Despite its small size, the fear factor made me stumble to the ground, and it pinned me to the ground.
“Get off… GET OFF ME!”
I finally had the strength to struggle and throw it off me, but not before it landed a few scratches on my back, tearing up my work uniform.
But the battle for my life had just begun.
More crawlers soon took notice due to my attempted struggle. Finally gathering enough courage, I began to flee from the horde of crawlers dreading to bite down on me. A few crawlers started jumping in hopes to catch up to me, but I was fortunate enough that none of them succeeded in doing so.
Until one of them actually caught up and grabbed my right foot.
I stumbled to the ground, spilling all the contents of my bag onto the ground. Death stared right on me in the form of dozens of crawlers.
Pyke! Where is he?
Hopeless, I cried his name out.
“PYKE! PLEASE HELP ME!”
As I turned to look for him, all hope shattered. The man who I had put my hopes on was running away. I would’ve yelled at cowardliness, if I weren’t in this situation. All I could think of was how to survive.
As more and more crawlers were starting to pin me down, all hope seemed lost.
Is this it? Is this how I die?
I tried to struggle them off, but to no avail. Even if I did manage to shrug one off, several more would just take its place.
I closed my eyes, yet tears kept rolling down.
All strength left my whole body. With my eyes closed, my other senses were sharpened. I could hear all the screams from various people, the shrieking of the beasts. I could feel the cold air breezing on my skin, my blood and sweat dripping to the floor. But most importantly, I could feel the crawlers ripping and biting my skin off.
Another crawler rushed onto me, kicking the contents of my bag towards me.
A certain item rolled to my hands, stopping just as it touched the palm of my right hand.
This… ah. It’s probably the little souvenir the prince left with me. Heh, those kids back at home… They probably won’t believe I talked to the prince.
I wonder what they’re doing now.
Ronald… Peter… Jasmine… Emilia… Mother…
I don’t want to die…
One last stream of tears flowed down my cheeks.
I’m sorry.
With my last ounce of strength, I reached out to the stone, grasping it as if it were my family’s hands. Blood flowed down from the scratches on my arms, until a single drop dripped onto the stone.
Instantaneously, it started vibrating. Alerted by the stone, the crawlers paused their feast. The crawlers… they stopped?
The vibrations grew in magnitude. The crawlers that were happily feasting on me began to scurry away. My right hand, which had been holding the stone, felt warm all of a sudden.
What’s happening?
I slowly opened my eyes, and peeked on my hand. A tiny storm of fire radiated around my arm.
Now I’m on fire? This day keeps getting worse… Wait. Why doesn’t it feel like I’m burning?
The fire kept growing in size, filling up the room with light. I could feel lots of gazes aimed towards me. No, towards the fire spreading around my hand. I tried to stand up, but the pain inflicted from the dozens of crawlers was too much for me to handle.
The flames finally stopped growing, but not before it reached ten times the size of me.
What’s this thing? Is it from… the weird stone?
The flames expanded sideways, forming something similar to arms on each side of its “body”. Slowly, it formed itself into that of a humanoid upper body. As the flames reached its desired form, it began stretching its lower half, targeting the crawlers that were frantically scurrying away.
Is this thing sentient? How in the world…?
The flames, with a mind of its own, swung its luminous “arms” on the crawlers. With each sweep, the horrid beasts that had been the dread of my life mere seconds ago, incinerated in their place.
This stone can summon a fire spirit this powerful?
I gave the stone that I was holding a quick glance. While I was busy being dumbfounded, the fire manifestation spewed more flames from what seemed like the end of its hands. Soon, half of the room was drowning in flames.
Finally, the crawler queen took notice. Judging that it finally met a worthy opponent, it didn’t strike immediately, but rather slowly observed the movements of the flames. The fire manifestation spewed a beam of fire onto the unlucky crawlers. Taking this opportunity, the queen crawler, with one quick charge, swung at it.
The flames died out for a mere second, before regenerating once more to its former glory. This time, however, the flames finally took notice in the queen crawler.
The large beast realized its attempt in killing the fire manifestation was futile, and switched its target. For a very brief moment, as I watched the battle, I locked eyes with the queen crawler.
It was targeting me now.
Only one thing came to my mind. Run.
Gathering whatever was left of my strength, I tried to stand up. But it wasn’t enough. I stumbled back down, barely able to keep my entire body from falling to the ground by supporting myself with my knees and arms. The stone I had been holding onto almost fell off, but I managed to re-strengthen my grip in time.
SKREEEEEEE!!
I didn’t need to turn my head to know what was coming.
As the queen crawler charged towards me, the fire manifestation attached to my right arm used its body to block the queen crawler. While it wasn’t able to physically block it, the heat inflicted on the raging beast was enough to make it flinch.
Visible burn marks appeared on the tough skin that had previously held against the combined efforts of the raiders. The beast that was once thought to be invincible started to seem vulnerable.
Yet, not a single person left alive dared to attack it. It was for a simple reason: fear. Not just fear of the gigantic crawler, but also fear of the fire manifestation that had enough firepower to damage it.
The queen crawler, however, grew more furious from the damage it received. Gazing into its eyes as I crawled backwards, I could see that for its next move…
It no longer had any hesitation to kill me.
Run.
Run!
RUN!
With every ounce of might that I could gather, I finally succeeded in standing up, and began limping away from the monster that was out for my blood. At the same time, the flaming storm extending out my right arm tried to protect me from the beast.
Nonetheless, the queen crawler lunged, with its full strength, straight towards me.
And that was the end of me.
Or it should have been.
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