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54. Shadow Bind
🕑 Added 2025-02-28 14:00:26 +0000 UTCGravity reasserted itself as the group stepped through the Rift and into the dark forest. It stretched endlessly in every direction, ancient trees reaching upward. The occasional gap in the dense foliage showed the starlit sky and a surprisingly bright night beyond.
Olivia's passive skill [Shadow Vision] allowed her to see clearly in the darkness. She immediately dismissed the blue screen that popped into her vision and continued to scan the surroundings as she and the team pressed forward. She drew both of her daggers and held them up at half guard, ready to respond if needed.
Several yards away, next to a tree trunk, she saw a shadow move. But there was no mana signature there, and she had to question whether it was the gentle breeze moving the canopy overhead or actual movement.
"This isn't right," she muttered as she continued to scan the tree line. The hair on the back of her neck began to stand up, and everything about the situation felt wrong. They'd gone in expecting an immediate ambush after the information Ben had given them, but everything was still.
Pete spoke up, "Anybody see anything?"
"No, nothing," Will said.
"Hold here. Just monitor the surroundings for a sec."
The group moved forward before pausing in their formation and looking in every direction. The area immediately around the Rift was the most visible as the swirling blue light spread out around the closest sections of the forest.
"Keep formation," he called out to them. "Terry, Will—make sure you've got that right side covered."
They held for more than a minute, waiting in tense anticipation. Olivia knew these people and had trained with them for the last several months. The thought of losing any of them in this clearly dangerous Rift had her on high alert.
A branch snapped behind them.
Olivia scanned the area and saw nothing. "There is nothing—" Olivia started to say, but then all hell broke loose on the other side of their group. She realized too late that the sound was just a distraction.
The attack came, and a massive darkness erupted from between two trees. Before anyone could react, it had wrapped around Andrea's torso and pinned her to the ground before quickly dragging her back further into the darkness.
"Andrea!" Will dove out for her outstretched hand, but before he even hit the ground, another shadow creature emerged and ran straight into him and continued its momentum to carry them off to the other side.
Darkness exploded around the group, and a creature lunged at Olivia, but she used her [Shadow Step] ability to get out of the way and neatly sidestepped the beast as it flew by. It landed heavily on the ground right where she had been standing, and she lashed out with the longer of her two daggers, its heavy metal digging into the beast's side.
To her sight, the beast looked to be the shape of some sort of panther, though three times its normal size and with six legs. As her dagger struck its side, a loud snarl could be heard before the back end of the closest paw crashed into her chest and sent her rolling across the ground.
"No!" Pete launched himself forward, and his short sword blazed with mana. Two more of their team, Dallas and Trey, were both pulled into the darkness with startled shouts.
Olivia scrambled to her feet and looked around frantically. At the front of their group, she saw Rylan wielding his greatsword as he deflected a slash from one of the beasts before rolling his shoulder and bringing the enormous sword down onto its neck.
"We need to move," Rylan said through gritted teeth. "Back to the entrance. We can't fight these things. Can't even see where the damn things are coming from."
A shadow lunged at Pete, and even though he brought up his sword, it still enveloped him with its multiple limbs and pinned him to the ground. It started to use its two hind legs to backpedal into the darkness.
Olivia didn't think. She leapt forward and channeled mana through her body, using [Shadow Step] to appear in a tree just behind the creature of the night. She pushed mana into her daggers, and the blades glowed as she slashed at the creature's form. It released Pete with a sound like tearing canvas and skittered away into the darkness, moving more like a spider than a feline.
"Pete, move—"
Something cold wrapped around her ankle, and the world tilted as her feet were yanked out from underneath her. Her chest and shoulder slammed into the ground and drove the air from her lungs. Then she was being dragged backward into the darkness.
"Olivia!" Rylan's voice boomed. She could hear him charging after her as he yelled for Pete to pick himself up and get the rest of the team out of the Rift. But despite Rylan's levels and physical speed, the creature pulling her moved like liquid shadows. Trees whipped past, and she scrambled to keep a hold of her daggers and right herself.
Just as she felt she might be able to sit up and lash at the creature holding her feet, they changed direction sharply, causing her to slide, roll, and sweep into a nearby tree trunk. She felt her consciousness slip away for a moment, and she lost hold of the larger of her two daggers. Cursing to herself, she clutched onto the smaller remaining one and did her best to look at the surroundings as they moved by. She glimpsed the creature's form and saw that it looked similar to the one she'd seen before, like a large athletic feline, but with too many legs and white eyes.
Olivia knew that she needed to think fast, or she would end up like the others.
Her vision swam as the creature dragged her through the dense forest. Just as she was about to try desperately and throw her remaining dagger at the creature, she heard a scuffling rush of movement overhead and a battle cry. The same sound she heard before, of tearing fabric, could be heard again as an enormous greatsword sliced through the creature's limb and thudded heavily into the ground.
The monster let out an roar before leaping back. It landed with a limp, and Olivia felt her leg go wet with black ichor. She scrambled to her feet and could see through her night vision that they were beneath some sort of a hollowed mass of tree roots.
She looked around, and the beast retreated quickly into a tunnel that led deeper into the ground and under the tree. Next to her, Rylan was panting heavily and leaning on his greatsword. "Thanks," she said through her own gasps.
Crouching low, she assessed their new surroundings. It took everything for her to not immediately take off at a dead sprint in the direction that her core was telling her the Rift exit was. The area around them smelled of decay, and if it weren't for the slight pulsing movement of shadows under a nearby root, she may have missed it.
"Over here," Olivia said as she moved over to the prone form in the dirt. Black tendrils were wrapped around the body of a human, and Olivia reached into her spatial pouch to remove one of the backup weapons she carried. It was a simple sword, one of the ones she'd gotten from the team's event, but it served its purpose as she hacked away at the thick, shadowy tendril.
Olivia recognized the man's face. "That's Jakob from Ben's team. He was on the reported list of deceased."
There was another movement to their side, and Rylan moved over to find another victim. She seemed more coherent than Jakob, and when he finished freeing her, she spoke up in a raspy voice. "More… Deeper in… Others."
Behind them was the exit to leave the small den, and in front of her and to the right was the tunnel that led deeper after the injured creature. Olivia looked around but saw no other bodies wrapped in tendrils. "We've got to get them out."
Rylan nodded in agreement and got Jakob up onto his shoulder and started to move toward the exit. He paused and took several steps backward. "Another one of them is coming down," he called over to her.
Olivia thought rapidly and helped the woman up onto her feet. "Can you walk?" She gave a shaky nod, and Olivia turned to Rylan. "We need to move these people, now. I can draw it away and give you a bit of time. You just need to get them to the Rift exit."
"Olivia—" Rylan's voice was urgent, and she could tell immediately that he didn't like the idea.
"Look, I don't think we can fight that thing head-on. The only time I've actually been able to do any amount of damage to one is when it's preoccupied by pulling someone else. In an actual fight, these things have almost double our levels. Let me just distract it and pull it deeper into the tunnels. I think I can [Shadow Step] through its form. It won't expect that. Once I am behind it, just keep running and I’ll catch up to you at the exit."
"That's not—" he stopped and clenched his jaw. He gave a grunt. "Just let me be the distraction. My level's higher than yours. I'll at least be able to fight it off for a second."
Olivia was already shaking her head before he finished the sentence. "The goal isn't to fight it, idiot. It's just to distract it and get you three out. Once you're clear and moving toward the exit, I'm going to be right behind you. You know I'm the fastest of anyone on the team."
There was another pause in the darkness, but they both knew that she was right.
"Fine," he said finally. "Don't make me come back and save your ass again."
Olivia gave a snort of derision before nodding and adjusting her grip on the short sword. "Okay, huddle against the wall there, and as soon as it starts following me down the tunnel, you guys make a break for it."
Rylan hesitated a fraction of a second longer, clearly wanting to join in on a fight. But, without any further argument, he gathered the victims and moved against the wall and crouched down low.
Olivia moved to the other side of the tunnel and took several deep breaths. As quickly as she could, without making noise, she reached into the spatial pouch at her side to down one of her two Agility potions to increase her reflexes and speed for the next few hours.
Damn, I really wish I had taken Alex up on keeping those Swiftfoot potions instead of saying that they could go into the sell pile…
Just as the creature was about to turn the corner and into the larger area beneath the tree, Olivia lashed out with the sword and then with the dagger. In her haste to turn and run, she lost hold of the dagger and cursed in frustration. She looked over her shoulder and almost regretted the decision as she saw the creature's snarling teeth and white eyes as it chased after her.
The deeper she moved, the more that her night vision revealed the den's horrors with each step. Bodies lay against the walls and she could tell that some of them were still wrapped in shadow tendrils, while others… She forced herself not to look too closely at the ones that were actively being fed on by the creatures.
Just keep moving. Keep it following.
The tunnel curved and split, and without giving it much thought, she took the leftmost path. She heard scraping and scratching as the creature began to gain ground. She used [Shadow Step] as much as possible to create more space and travel faster down into the tunnels. Hard-packed dirt and roots held the tunnel’s stable shape on both sides as she ran on for several minutes.
When she felt enough time had passed, she turned around and crouched, gathering mana for a [Shadow Step] as soon as the creature turned the corner. As it did, she activated her ability and stepped through its form, causing a feeling of cold to pass through her entire body. For a moment, she was in pure darkness, and then she was behind it.
She took off as her feet hit the ground, but not before pain exploded in her side as the creature from the night lashed out with its hind leg.
Olivia stumbled and clutched at the deep gash across her stomach. Blood seeped between her fingers, and she forced herself to keep moving. She took the immediate right at every fork and turn, using as much mana as she dared to activate her movement skill.
Blessedly, she reached the entrance to the den and burst out into the shadowy forest. She could see a bit easier as light filtered through the foliage overhead. She began to run once more and felt hope begin to rise in her chest before something slammed into her from behind.
Teeth like ice sank into her shoulder, and she immediately felt the entire arm go numb. Heavy weight sank down onto her legs and pressed into her already aching stomach. She groaned, reached up with her free hand, and tried to scratch at the shadowy creature. It was ineffectual until her hand hit the dagger that she had sunk into its lower shoulder. She grabbed it and tried to stab upward, but before the blade connected, a heavy paw slapped down onto her hand.
The cold in her shoulder began to spread, and she felt her mana being pulled away.
Is this how they feed?
"No," she gasped and tried to wrench herself free. But all of her limbs were pinned down, and even as hard as she tried to struggle, there was no chance of dislodging the large beast. If anything, her thrashing only seemed to irritate it further as its jaws gripped tighter. Her vision began to dim, and she closed her eyes to visualize her mana.
This is my mana.
The thought came with sudden clarity and a fierce will to fight.
I have the shadow affinity. This is my mana.
Her thoughts flashed back to Rylan's use of his aura and Alex’s tight control over his mana, which caused his own aura to be tight and restrained.
Knowing that she was close to death, she decided on a last-ditch plan. Instead of trying to pull back, she pushed out. She forced her mana into the creature that latched onto her and pictured in her mind's eye a needle of her own purple mana diving into the sea of black. She pushed with everything that she had and could sense something begin to yield.
"This is mine," she snarled and shoved more mana into the connection. She could feel a sharp pain behind her eyes and knew that she was past mana fatigue and getting dangerously close to pushing to the point of passing out. But she could feel something now. A dense and thick knot of tangled shadows. She pushed her needle into the knot and began to yank and pull furiously, doing anything she could to loosen it.
She pushed harder, and once she felt the knot beginning to loosen, she moved into a better position and, with all of her mental might, pulled as hard as she could on all the mana. Not just her own, but all the mana touching her own. She reached out with her shadow affinity and yanked.
The teeth of the creature released her shoulder, and it stumbled back with a whine.
A blue window appeared in her vision.
***
New Skill Learned: [Shadow Bind] (Novice - Level 1)
Do you accept? Yes/ No?
***
She accepted the skill and dismissed the window. Slumped against a tree, Olivia looked down at her blood-soaked shirt and pressed her hand tightly to the wound. When she looked up, she saw the creature—her creature now—sitting before her, waiting. Patient. Obedient.
Comments
Jax9d8
Dang! Sick chapter! I was really excited to see some of the integration in other places so this look into Europe is cool! Also, I do wonder how scary this must be for the folks running the operation. These creatures are double the level of the average Earth Awakened it seems like and now, if Olivia makes it back (fingers-crossed), they might have an idea that these creatures might be controlled by an even bigger bad. That's besides the fact that this rift has barely been open and it's already chewed through a dozen people. In either case, spooky!
Corwin
I like that Olivia is growing, but I think the AG will want to send in Alex to take a look at this Rift. Especially after Olivia gets out. Since Rylan didn't have a good showing, and since Rylan is a more physical fighter, they would be inclined to send a Mage in to see if their is a difference. Maybe have Sam come along so the AG can show off healing as well. Elena won't be happy about this, especially after her conversation with Alex. But the connections with Europe and building up a network should be her first and second priority. Maybe have a conference call with Rylan, Alex and Elena about what she expects and is demanding from both of them.
