The Things That Lurk in the Dark

The jet black monster fell with a tremendously fast velocity. It’s tail had boosted its initial falling speed by pushing off against the ceiling. It headed directly towards us, its pincers reared back while mucus green liquid coated the inside of its mouth.

In response, I prepared to take the predicted hit. I raised my boken above me while my knees slightly bent, in preparation for intercepting the creature. Unfortunately, that was my miscalculation. The night clad beast completely overlooked my presence as it landed directly down on Hina.

They fell down together onto the floor with a deafening thud. Hina, who was caught off guard and with fear running through her veins, instinctively screamed- a scream loud enough to cause me to cringe. Hina struggled against the beast’s abnormal strength, flailing about while she tried to desperately kick off with her legs.

Due to their proximity, Hina could not retaliate fast enough with her fire magic, unless she wanted to damage herself in the process. In contrast, the xenomorph-rip off was undeterred by Hina’s fruitless struggle, as it once again flashed its pincer directly in front of her face while that 5 feet long tail of his flicked across the floor.

Just as I was about to help Hina out, from both sides of the corridor, a series of threatening hissing sounds began to reverberate. As Cielle frantically waved her light around the corridor, hints and brief flashed of those night clad monsters could be briefly seen. They were hunched over, their tails flicking off into the distance while they slowly approached.

“Tsk!” I chided myself, frustrated at the current situation. Having made up my mind, I quickly approached Hina, instructing myself that the first thing I needed to do was get rid of the monster that broke through our ranks. I retracted back the wooden club in my hand, and briefly entered into a batting position.

“Get off of her, damn it!” A low growl escaped my throat as I focused a glare onto the creature’s back.

With a shout, the oak brown edge of my club almost blurred as it zoomed through the darkness, only to hit the monster square in its carapace covered stomach. Their was a bit of initial resistance at first, as the monster’s claws almost drilled through the basement floor, before its body was sent flying to the side.

Unfortunately, it didn’t remain on the floor for long. It quickly regained its footing, balancing itself with the assistance of its overly long tail, before it scampered about as it fled back into the darkness once again.

I helped Hina up, while I glared at the pitch black darkness before us.

By this point, the hissing had grown tremendously in volume, hinting that either more of those things had gathered or that they were getting closer and closer… probably both.

“Guh…” I scrunched up my face as I briefly deliberated within my mind. “Tsk, it can’t be helped- Everyone, get into the first room to your right!”

I practically screamed at the others, just as another one of those things zoomed through the corridor. I was able to dodge by hairsbreadth, just as it went over my head, bearing its pincers and claws in full hostility.

It landed back over onto the other side of the corridor, lost within the dark.

We desperately ran forward. Hina was endlessly bombarding the front with fire magic. The light radiating from her spells illuminated the room briefly, showing me brief glimpses as the monsters either dodged or took the brunt of the force with their tail.

There were about 4 of them in front of us, two were crawling across the ceiling while the rest tiptoed forward. Cher, who was desperately guarding the firecover assistance from Cielle’s skill, confirmed more than 10 behind us. With no other option but to fight, we forced back the ones in front, until we reached the unpainted door of the first classroom.

With desperate franticness, I pushed open the door, only to reveal, another one of monsters guarding the entrance. It hissed low, before it striked out with its carapace tail. I barely dodged the blow by twisting my neck to the side, before I retaliated with a heavy strike to its neck.

It’s legs sort of wobbled as an unearthly squeal escaped its throat. Unfortunately, even with all my might, it did not go down with my initial blow, confirming that these things were much stronger than the cyclops. Right now, with these creature directly in front of me, I was able to catch a quick glimpse of its erratically flashing window panel.

Black Plated Gila - Lv 32

HP: 370/500

It reared its head back once more before hissing out. The hiss was low pitched, and conveyed all its hostility. Its tongue flicked back and forth restlessly, as if tasting the air.

As if brought forth by this monster’s pitch, from within the darkness, the various noise made by the others quickly increased in volume. It got so loud that it was practically impossible for me to hear the others.

I attacked the Gila once more, this time, with a horizontal slash aimed at its temple. A blow put forth with all my weight, I heard a distinct cracking sound even amidst the constant buzzing. The Gila flew head first, to the side of the hallway where it ultimately disappeared within the darkness.

I called out for the others once more, but after noticing that my voice was barely audible amidst all the yelling, I quickly nudged at the girls to enter the room. While there was a distinct possibility that there were more Gilas within this room, being surrounded out here in the murky darkness was an even worse situation.

With Cielle first, then Hina following, the two entered the room, as Cher guarded against an impatient Gila who had started attacking. As expected, due to their level difference, Cher was easily overpowered, the only reason why she wasn’t completely dead was due to her defense focused stat, as well as her continuous usage of her new skill.

Just as the Gila she was confronting reared its tail in preparation to strike, I immediately grabbed the collar of Cher’s shirt, before yanking her back into the room.

The tail grazed her cheek slightly before it helplessly continued through the darkness.

With its prey gone, the Gila reared its eyeless face over towards me, just as its comrades started approaching. Through the dimly lit hall, illuminated by the faint ray of light from the flashlight, I could see numerous monsters. Their tongues continually flickered while their snoutless faces all scowled in my direction.

On instinct, I immediately backed up into the classroom. I locked the door shut, just as I felt the force jumping force of a Gila that had tried knocking down the door.

I hastily looked around the room, my eyes landing on a heavy set cabinet made out of metal. With no hesitation, I knocked the cabinet over, using its main body to barricade the door closed.

The continuous hissing from outside by now was deafening, making it difficult to even think. From within the room, I could see Cher heavily panting as she focused a gaze onto the newly barricaded door. Every now and then, something would try to ram into it, but luckily it stayed shut. The monsters themselves must have low strength, considering how the door managed to hold.

Cielle and Hina were shining the flashlight throughout the room, most likely checking if their were any more Gila with us. I tried calling them over the animalistic hissing that borderlined buzzing, but they couldn’t hear me.

With no other option, I walked over towards Cielle. I lightly tapped her shoulder, causing her to jump up in shock before she ultimately calmed down after turning around and seeing my face. I placed the dagger in my hand behind me before I took the flashlight in Cielle’s hand. I pointed towards, Cher whose health was down to about 30% from the previous encounter.

She nodded, while her mouth slightly parted as if to say something. Unfortunately, the buzzing was too loud for me to make out what she said. Without another word, she walked over towards Cher and began healing.

I in turn, began flashing the light across the room, mimicking Hina as we searched everywhere. We found nothing until our light landed on a rather inconspicuous corner of the ceiling. There, a Gila was quietly clinging, maintaining its silence as its tongue tasted the air.

Even with the light pointed directly at him, it did not react, only silently staring. From this I gathered that it couldn’t see, or rather, it lacked eyes. It was only after Hina shot out a fireball that it moved.

As if instinctively knowing about the burning mass of flames zooming towards him, the Gila flinged itself onto the ground. I followed it with my flashlight as it ran all over the room. It made a zigzagging pattern, weaving in and out of the sparse amount of desks already set up in the room.

Hina in response continually shot fire balls. While it dodged a few, Hina’s indiscriminate barrage landed most of the time, although as a side effect, she did sort of set fire to a couple of desks.

Unfortunately, her strikes weren’t as effective. Their level difference, combined with its thick shell allowed the Gila to survive the majority of her hits. It was at this time, that I entered the fray.

Hidden within Hina’s oncoming barrage, I dashed straight at the beast. I activated [Running Dash], while simultaneously maintaining [Hard Scale], as I tackled the Gila. Upon contact, we continued moving forward until we ultimately hit an adjacent wall. Together we crashed down onto the floor, but I maintained a firm hold of it.

Its frantically wailed while shaking its whole body around in an attempt to escape. Its tail flew endlessly, knocking over burning desks without discrimination.

I pinned down its neck using the edge of my boken. I secured the wooden club underneath my left armpit, as I held it against the Gila’s neck using my right hand. Following that, I groped around behind me for Efhermet using my left hand, before I ultimately stabbed down onto its neck.

As expected, its carapace was thick. Efhermet bounced off harmlessly, although a considerable scratch did leave itself behind. Following that, I continued to run my blade onto its thin neck, feeling my way around until ultimately I found the chink within its armor.

I pressed into that chink, sinking my blade deeper and deeper into its carefully protected neck. At first it wriggled around while a thin spurt of green blood flew from its wound. Ultimately, after I continued to sink my blade into its neck until I felt the resistance of the carapace on the other side, did it finally die.

For a few seconds, I remained in that position- head locking the creature with my dagger firmly embedded into its neck, while I exhaled heavily. After a while though, I proceeded to stand up while I removed Efhermet from its neck.

Confirming it’s death, I turned back around to the others. They were all staring at me in anticipation. Hina and Cielle, while readying magic, had maintained their distance, in fear of accidentally hitting me. Cher, who glanced back behind her, was pushing against the barricaded door.

I tried calling out once more, but again the buzzing made my voice next to in audible. I returned the other’s stare with my own. Although the glare of Hina’s flashlight made it slightly difficult to make them out, I could still see their vague outlines.

I stayed like that for a while, the adrenaline keeping me in place as well as kept my heart pumping. As I prepared to stand back up, suddenly, without warning, a single figure close to the doorway bolted in my direction.

As she approached, I instantly recognized Cielle’s frantic expression getting larger and larger as she continually approached. She mouthed something out, but due to the buzzing I could not understand. Without warning she instantly jumped on top of me. Our combined weight brought me toppling to the floor.

“Wait-what are you doing?!” I tried calling out, but as expected, Cielle did not hear my desperate plea.

Having seemingly given up on verbal communication, Cielle wrestled for my jacket. She frantically tugged at it repeatedly, trying with all her might to pull it off. Of course, given the oddity of this situation, I naturally resisted at first. I honestly didn’t know what was going on, but as Cielle’s face flashed in the dark, illuminated by the ray of light behind her, I felt something was increasingly out of place.

Her expression was scared, frantic, but not for herself…

She continued tugging at the jacket, before she re-focused her attention on its zipper. With a surprising amount of force, she yanked the zipper down before finally pulling the jacket off of me.

I stood there helpless as Cielle hastily threw the jacket onto the floor next to us. Once she had accomplished this, she breathed out a heavy sigh, as she seemingly lost all her power and leaned against my chest. The thin blood soaked red undershirt was the only thing separating me from her.

Hina’s flashlight suddenly swerved to redirect its light over onto the newly removed jacket. It was at this time that I noticed a green liquid sprayed all over it. The green liquid seemingly seeped into the fabric, and as if like acid, my favorite jacket began melting. It started melting around where the green liquid was splattered onto the jacket, but eventually, the acid continued spreading. It kept going and going, melting the majority of the fabric before it finally came to a halt after about half of the back and a majority of the front side of the cloth was now nonexistent.

“...” I stared at the object in shock. Due to the flowing adrenalin in my blood, as well as the rather distracting buzzing that kept going on, I hadn’t even noticed that a trickle of that creature’s green blood had gotten on me.

If it wasn’t for Cielle… there was a possibility that I might have died.

I leaned back onto the floor, while I heaved out a heavy, yet relieved sigh. Cielle was still unknowingly clinging onto my chest. Dues to our current position, she was currently lying on top of me, an indecipherable expression on her face.

As I stayed like that for quite sometime, I noticed that Hina had been actively working to put out the fire she had accidentally started. Using her water magic, once the room was fire free, she immediately began walking to the front of the room, where a black board was recently added on.

Taking a white piece of chalk, she began writing on the board, until eventually, the message, ‘What do we do now?’ Appeared.

I looked at it for a second, before I got up- gently pushing Cielle of to the side for a second- and walked over towards the black board. Since verbal communication was currently impossible, what with the continuous buzzing going on, I replied in turn to Hina using the black board.

‘We have to find another way to leave this room. The gila’s are all congregating outside the door.’

‘How? There’s only one door.’

Upon reading that reply, I turned to look around the room. A new classroom with sparsely decorated desks, and no paint job. As I looked around for any method of exit, I ultimately landed my gaze over onto the wall.

“... That might work…” I spoke out loud, although no one heard.

I wordlessly walked up to the wall. Looking closely, I confirmed that it had been just recently plastered. It still wasn’t reinforced, and was probably still relatively weak. I knocked on the wall, only to sense the feeling of a hollow surface.

Satisfied, I nodded to myself before I walked back over to the blackboard. ‘We can break down the wall that leads to the next room. We should be able to run away before they notice since their currently centered around the door.’

Hina considered this for a while, before she nodded to herself. She materialized her agreement by writing, ‘Okay. That sounds good. Let’s go’

In response to her eagerness, I shook my head. ‘First, we need to find a weak point.’

As Hina read what I wrote down out loud, she tilted her head to the side, expressing her full on confusion.

A simple word came back in response. ‘How.’

Prompted by her inquiry, I walked away from the board and once again stood besides the monster’s corpse. The green liquid that seeped through the gap on its neck pulled over onto the floor, making a faint sizzling sound.

I hesitated for a moment. What I was about to do was no different than what I usually did, but I still hesitated. The obvious reason for my hesitation were the people behind me. The girls. My companions. People that I’ve tried hard to keep this side of me a secret.

In truth, the secrecy wasn’t for them. I didn’t care whether they found my… habits to be disturbing or if they would come to bear disgust for me. I hid- I kept it a secret because I wanted to be a bit normal.

It was a stupid thing, really. I felt that, if my secret was exposed onto others… when it was exposed, I would ultimately stop being normal. Although in retrospect, considering what I normally do, I doubt dissecting corpses was ever normal. It’s just I clinged onto that ideal of normalcy.

It was something I connected with the past. The normal me who kept to himself. The normal me who, despite having normal habits, still hid them as normal secrets. If I lost that little bit of normalcy I clinged to…

Well, it wasn’t really the time to think hard about these types of things. Right now, was a life and death situation brought about by my own hubris and ill preparedness. To fix my mistakes, I was willing to sacrifice anything to survive. Even the “normal me”.

With hesitation nowhere in sight, I plunged Efhermet’s sharpened tip onto the gap in its carapace, as I once again dissected.

For the sake of survival, I dissected.

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