Chapter 369: Creature Beneath The Pulse
Chapter 369: Creature Beneath The Pulse
Black ichor hit the water and hissed. The hum under the stream stuttered, then dropped an octave. Whatever was waking up didn’t like being hurt.Kyle didn’t wait. The hands were still rising, more fingers than joints should allow, reaching for him, for Elara, for the pulsing fruit above. The planet’s red veins throbbed once in his peripheral vision, like Kraken itself was watching.
[Shadow Energy: 1000/1000,] Snow reported, clipped and fast. [Demon Energy: 2500/2500. Sixty seconds before that thing fully surfaces. Make it count.]
"Copy," Kyle breathed. He shifted his weight, planting his left foot and letting the Abyssal Talon Manifest take over his right. Shadow poured down the limb, reshaping the Aegis-V boot into a clawed, jagged thing. The air around it bent, heavier. +50% defense on the leg. +15% movement speed baseline. He’d need both.
The first hand lunged. Kyle sidestepped, but sidestepping was loud. The water splashed. Another hand rose to fill the gap. He was outnumbered and exposed, and Elara was five meters behind him on bare stone.
He couldn’t fight like this. Not hand-to-hand with dozens of targets. He needed space. He needed control.
"Shadow Walk," Kyle whispered.
His body didn’t fade so much as it *thinned*. Light passed through him wrong. The Aegis-V plates went matte black, edges fraying into smoke. His shadow stretched, detached, and sank into the stream bed. Cost: 100 Shadow Energy. Remaining: 900/1000.
The hands swiped through where he’d been. They found only rippling water and a cold outline of mist.
[You’re untargetable to anything with lower Will,] Snow said. [But it won’t last if they hit you with area effects. Move.]
Kyle moved. As a shadow he slid under the stream’s surface, the viscous black water parting around him like he wasn’t there. He shot toward the cluster of hands at the center, where the hum was loudest. That was the source. If he could disrupt it, the rest might collapse.
He surfaced ten meters away, materializing behind a cluster of three hands. They hadn’t even turned yet.