Chapter 28: Claws of Midnight
The creature's scream still rang in my ears like shattered glass when Emily exploded into motion.
Her silver ponytail whipped behind her as she drew her blade in a single fluid arc, aura flaring bright silver. "Stay back !" she snapped, voice cold with command. "I've got the first one."
She met the plummeting Shadow Lurker head-on. Her sword flashed upward in a perfect Severing Gale, the wind-infused edge slicing straight toward its chest. The impact was deafening, steel on something far harder than steel.
Sparks flew like forge embers, and the creature was knocked sideways, slamming into a jagged rock wall. But it didn't bleed. It didn't even stagger properly. Its inky black skin rippled like living oil, absorbing the force. Emily's eyes widened for the first time since I'd met her.
"Tough bastard," she muttered, already spinning into a second strike. This time she poured more aura into the blow, her blade glowing with a sharper edge. She drove it downward in a vertical chop aimed at the creature's neck.
Again, the metallic clang echoed through the ravine. The lurker's hide held firm, only a shallow scratch appearing before the skin knit itself back together in the dim light. Emily was forced to leap back, breathing harder now.
"Skin like forged demon steel," she growled, frustration bleeding into her tone. "Even my best cuts barely mark it."
I was already moving to join her, Anki raised and humming with violent energy, the Soul Anchor mark in my chest pulsing hot. But before I could close the distance even three steps.
Another scream tore from above.
A second Shadow Lurker dropped straight down from a higher ledge, claws extended like curved black blades, aiming right for my throat. Its red-slit eyes burned with hunger. I twisted on instinct, body flowing like water. The claws whistled past my ear, close enough to slice a few strands of hair from my blindfold.
In the same breath I countered, Anki slicing upward in a clean arc toward the creature's exposed shoulder.
Clang!
The sound was pure metal on metal. The lurker had crossed its own blade-like claws in front of its shoulder at the last instant, blocking my strike perfectly. Vibrations jolted up my arm, but I held Anki firm,no backlash, no disarm.
The creature landed in a crouch, hissing, its oily skin glistening under the faint starlight filtering into the ravine.
Two of them now. And they moved like they had fought together before.
Emily was already re-engaging the first one, her blade a silver blur of strikes. She tested angles, thrust to the eye, slash across the knee, overhead smash, but every hit rang the same metallic note. The lurker's hide refused to yield, its claws raking back at her in vicious counter-swipes that forced her to dodge and weave.
I pressed my own attacker, Anki singing through the air in rapid Echo strikes-assisted combos.
Each clash produced that same frustrating clang. The creature's claws weren't just sharp, they were reinforced, edged like living swords. Sparks flew every time steel met claw. Anki's voice flared in my mind, urgent and sharp.
Liam,these things are bonded to shadow essence! Their skin is hardened by whatever roots them during the day. We need to find the weakness before…
The first lurker suddenly broke away from Emily with impossible speed. It blurred straight toward me instead, claws slashing in a wide arc meant to force me back. I parried, the impact jarring my shoulders, but the distraction worked perfectly. In that split second when my focus was split between two foes, the second creature moved.
It didn't charge me. It switched places with the first in a ripple of black mist, shadow swapping like liquid night. One instant the first was in front of me; the next, the second was lunging at Emily from her blind side.
She spun to meet it, but the creature spat something small and sharp, a single needle-like a dart of concentrated shadow venom, straight into her exposed neck before she could fully turn.
Emily's eyes widened in shock. "What the hell?" A small trickle of black liquid ran down her throat. Her aura flickered, then stuttered. Her sword arm slowed by half a beat.
That was all they needed.
The second lurker, now fully switched, grabbed her by the waist with one clawed hand while the first kept me pinned down with a relentless barrage of claw strikes.
Every parry rang metallic. Every counter I tried was met with perfect blocks. The creatures were buying time, working in eerie synchronization.
"No!" I shouted, aura surging as I tried to break through. Anki screamed in my head: They're taking her! The poison, it's paralyzing her meridians!
Emily struggled, her silver hair whipping wildly, but the venom was already spreading. Her legs buckled. The second lurker let out a triumphant screech, then hurled her over its shoulder like a sack of grain. Black mist exploded around them both, cloaking their forms. The first creature gave me one last mocking hiss, claws still raised, then dissolved into shadow and reformed beside its partner.
They were already retreating deeper into the ravine, Emily's limp body draped across the second lurker's back. Her sword clattered to the ground behind them, abandoned.
I stood frozen for half a heartbeat, chest heaving, Anki's hilt burning in my grip.
The metallic echoes of our brief clash still rang in my ears. Emily's arrogant voice from earlier echoed too, Don't slow me down, but now she was the one being carried away into the dark.
The first lurker had distracted me just long enough.
The second had poisoned her with that tiny, precise spit.
And together they had switched places and kidnapped her before I could stop it.
Rage and cold focus warred inside me.
Anki's voice cut through the storm: Liam, we chase now. Night is their domain, but the abyss is stronger than their tricks. Move!
I didn't hesitate.
I snatched Emily's fallen sword with my free hand, its weight unfamiliar but better than nothing, and sprinted after the fading black mist trail.
The ravine swallowed me deeper, the stars above disappearing behind jagged cliffs. Two Shadow Lurkers. One poisoned outer-sect girl. And me, blind but bonded to an ego spirit that refused to break.
The mission had just turned into a rescue all because of her foolish arrogance.