Nightblade (Darkest night)

A towering, slick shape burst from beneath the rubble, one of the inhabitants of the desolate ruins, driven mad by the subterranean collapse.

The blind, eight-limbed beast had been trapped in the upper fissures.

Its pale, hairless hide was torn and dripping with black blood.

Spurred on entirely by instinct and blinded by rage, it let out a wet, screeching roar that echoed off the cliff faces, its massive, scythe-like forelimbs snapping directly toward Sye’s throat.

Valerius and Sye remained still even as the creature advanced at a frenetic speed.

Its chitinous joints rustled eerily, emitting a disturbing sound that bounced off the walls, thd echoes of which coalesced into a haunting dimminuendo of sound in tandem with the sloshing of jagged debris shifting down the mountainside.

Sye casually moved forward to intercept it, his movements carrying an inhuman grace to them.

His eyes narrowed, a hint of dark amusement flickering in their depths.

A moment later, the creature abruptly accelerated.

"Full of unexpected surprises are we now..."

A moment later, the scythe-like limb struck the air and where Sye’s throat had been a fraction of a second earlier, then changed direction violently falling to the ground.

​The stone shattered on impact, spraying jagged shards of slate across the ledge.

But. Sye was already moving, his body twisting mid-air with effortless, predatory grace. He landed several feet back in a low crouch, his dark eyes wide, nostrils flaring as he absorbed the beast’s raw, erratic momentum.

It was massive—a pale, blind abomination dragged from the dark bowels of the Zeregran ruins by the collapse.

Torn flesh hung from its hairless hide in gray ribbons, leaking thick, foul-smelling black blood that hissed where it dripped onto the frozen stone.

"What an ugly freak..."

Driven mad by the crushing pressure of the earth and the suffocating terror of the subterranean collapse, it lunged again, its remaining six joints clicking in a frantic, sickening rhythm that echoed off the cliffside.

Raven circled left, her shadow slipping along the jagged edge of the rockface, looking for a weak point in its chitinous plates.

As it turned out, Sye didn’t need the help.

As the creature drove its second scythe downward, he ducked beneath the arch of the blow, the wind of the impact whipping his dark hair across his face.

In one fluid motion, he drove a short blade directly into the soft, unarmored joint beneath its primary limb.

The beast let out a wet, ear-splitting shriek, thrashing wildly. A back-swing of its heavy, armored flank caught Sye across the chest, sending him skidding backward over the loose gravel.

He dug his boots into the dirt, halting his momentum instantly, his breath coming in short, sharp hitches.

"I take that back," he said, his lips curling into a dark grin.

"You’re ugly and stubborn."

The abomination was dangerous, fast, and frantic but still—it was just a beast.

​Valerius hadn’t moved.

​The Lord of Moreus stood like a statue at the edge of the abyss, his fingers still white knuckled around the hilt of his broadsword.

The creature roared, its multi-jointed body spinning toward Raven as she darted in to sever a tendon on its hind leg, but Valerius barely seemed to notice the battle unfolding a few feet away from him.

Deep down, beneath the heavy silence of the shattered mountain, his mind remained trapped in the abyss.

He kept listening.

Waiting.

His Angel had been right. Trying to forcefully break through the mountain was guaranteed to trigger another rock slide.

In the event that happened, Morgan’s would forfeit smothering the small chance that he was still alive.

It was quite frustrating.

He continued searching the silent stone for a heartbeat, a whisper, a trace of the youth who had plunged into the darkness below.

He strained his superhuman hearing to its limits, his gaze fixed on the dark rock beneath almost as though his golden eyes could pierce through them.

"Morgan..."

​A short distance away, the creature, blind and maddened by the pain of Sye and Raven’s strikes, suddenly pivoted.

Smelling the poignant, unyielding presence of the tallest target on the ledge, it let out a gurgling roar and lunged directly at Valerius’s blind side, its remaining scythe raised to cleave him in two.

​"Valerius!" Angel cried out.

Sye’s eyes widened at the abrupt change in the creature’s trajectory then narrowed, his lips twisting into a rueful smile.

As the scythe descended, Valerius’s left hand shot out with terrifying, blinding speed.

His bare, leather-gloved palm caught the razor-sharp edge of the giant limb mid-air.

​The sheer force of the impact created a shockwave that blew the surrounding dust flat, but Valerius didn’t yield an inch.

His boots remained planted on the ground.

The pensive expression on his face didn’t change as he turned his attention to the frenzied creature.

"Sye, this isn’t the time to be playing games..." he murmured.

​With a cold, effortless twist of his wrist, he shattered the chitinous limb like brittle glass.

The beast shrieked wildly, its wickedly mandibles snapping around frantically.

Valerius stepped forward, drawing his broadsword in a single, fluid arc, in the same motion and thrust the blade straight through the creature’s pale skull.

​The steel bit deep into the stone.

The ground beneath cracked from the force of the blow sending seismic remor through the already collapsing mountain.

The force of the strike generated a shockwave that blew Raven off her feet, sending her flying through the air.

Valerius didn’t even turn his head.

She gasped blindly grasping at tge air but Sye was already there, smoothly snatching her out of the air and setting her on her feet.

The creature shuddered violently, its eight limbs locking up before going entirely limp. Heavy, black blood slowly pooled around Valerius’s boots.

​He pulled his sword free with a practiced flourish wiped the dark residue against the beast’s pale hide then sheathed it, throwing one last chilling glare at the creature’s corpse.

​Silence returned to the Zeregran Peaks, heavier and colder than before.

​Raven let out a slow, ragged exhale, wiping a smear of black blood from her cheek.

"Mind giving a little more warning next time you decide to play anvil?" she muttered, though her voice was noticeably an octave higher.

​Valerius didn’t answer. He turned back toward the ledge, his eyes sweeping the desolate, shattered rockface.

A jagged fissure suddenly split the solid stonea small distance away from Valerius’s boots.

He took a step back, calmly assessing the extent of the damage. The mountain was breaking open again.

"Val, we need to go..." Angel said quietly.

Valerius offered her no response, calmly staring the expanding crack with an unreadable expression.

The fissure widened with a sickening crunch, a cloud of fine, pale dust puffing upward into the freezing air.

​Then, a hand emerged from the darkness.

It was a human hand.

​The skin was scraped raw, coated in gray dust and dark, half-congealed blood. The knuckles were split to the bone, the fingernails torn away, but the fingers flexed, digging desperately into the sharp edge of the broken slate.

Raven’s eyes widened slightly, her breath hitching in her chest.

Angel’s mouth dropped open in surprise.

Another hand shot up, grabbing the opposite lip of the crack.

A moment later, a shoulder buckled its way through the narrow gap, followed by the top of a head with matted, dark hair slick with sweat and dried gore.

​With a agonizing, wet groan Morgan Thane dragged himself out of the earth.

​He flopped face first onto the cold, hard rock of the newly formed ledge then promptly passed out.