Kapitel 60: Slayer Extermination (3)
{PLEIADES POV}
Roaming through the cave, while trailing behind a considerable distance from the rest of the cohort, I kept glancing back, a gnawing feeling of dread and foreboding creeping into me.
Clenching my hand continuously, I scoffed and looked down to the right. Regis walked right beside me, stuck to me like a tail, scared i'd wonder off and go back to the shadowy tunnel.
Smiling, I looked ahead and saw the cohort moving farther with each step. The reason I wasn't in the front, when I should have been, was because there was another person with a good scouting aspect.
Usually, Sunny would be going around with his shadows, relaying all the information he got back to the front, but now that there were more people, it was no surprise that one of them could do well in that department.
My guess was that Nephis wanted to keep me and sunny in the back for a reason.
If she didn't, she would have spoken up, but she just let me be here. And I was aware of her plan, of course—just leave me in the back to attack the hunters if they decided to act up.
I was content with this, of course. So what if I played into her plan? She was already doing everything I wanted her to.
Stuck in my thoughts, I was brought out of them when I heard a faint... humming?
At first, it was only faint and barely audible. Then, the more we walked, the clearer and louder it became.
I was just about to speak up when I finally understood what was being hummed.
The humming began to shift, words bleeding through the melody like whispers from a dream—or a nightmare.
The voice was low and silken, yet it carried an edge of something ancient, something wrong. Each word hung in the damp air, resonating against the cavern walls and sinking deep into my chest.
"Hush now, child, don't you cry,
Shadows watch with a hollow eye.
The stars are gone, the night is near,
Leave your dreams, I'm waiting here."
The melody twisted, the notes climbing higher before plunging into a chilling refrain.
The voice was neither male nor female, its tone warping with each phrase, as if spoken by many mouths at once.
Chills ran down my spine as I looked ahead. To my confusion, not one of the cohort members reacted. Feeling something brush against my leg, I looked down to see Regis.
Regis's fur bristled as he stepped closer and bared his teeth, his body tense.
"Close your eyes, the dark will call,
Hear its song and heed its thrall.
Beneath the stone, beneath the sea,
Your soul will rest; come, follow me."
My breath hitched as a wave of cold rippled through the air, prickling my skin.
The voice felt alive, not merely echoing but emanating from everywhere and nowhere at once. Regis pressed harder against my side, his teeth bared, but even he didn't dare growl.
The words continued, growing softer but no less unnerving, like a whisper brushing against my ear.
"Hush now, child, don't you stray,
The hollow calls to steal your way.
Step by step, and breath by breath,
Find your peace within my death."
I staggered slightly, the weight of the song pressing against my mind like a tide pulling me under.
My free hand shot out to steady myself against the cavern wall. The damp stone grounded me, however briefly, against the oppressive melody.
Regis's voice broke the spell, his tone tight and low. "We need to move. Now."
I nodded, swallowing hard. The lullaby wasn't just a song—it was a beckoning. Whatever was singing it wasn't content to remain unseen for long.
Ahead, the cohort had stopped and looked back at me, their expressions strange.
Some looked at me as if I'd done something wrong, while Effie looked as though she was done with my shenanigans. Kai raised a brow, but Nephis analyzed my expression.
Seemingly understanding, she drew her sword. I didn't react to that. Instead, I closed my eyes and let the area around me fade into the background.
Focusing intently, I felt the faintest amount of bloodlust aimed at me due to the passive effect of Decryption.
Opening my eyes wide, my hand gripped the kord. In an instant, I spun around and, with all the strength I could muster, threw it straight toward the source.
Gliding through the air with a whistle, it seemingly stopped in midair as if it had lodged itself into something. A spurt of violet blood rushed forth.
Abruptly, the lullaby was cut off with a shrill scream of agony. Around the kord, the invisible shape of a humanoid creature was revealed.
It was almost three meters long and tall, with skin as white as paper clinging to a strange exoskeleton.
Its face had six eyes on each side, like a spider, and instead of lips, its entire jaw was laid bare for the world to see.
The creature's lower body consisted of a tail that connected to a large stalagmite hanging from the ceiling. Through its stomach, the kord added some nice color to the otherwise drab creature.
Not wasting a moment, I activated Caster's aspect. In an instant, I was in front of the creature.
The creature's grotesque form loomed over me as I stared at its nightmarish features. Its six eyes glinted with malevolence, black and unblinking, each one pulsating faintly as though it had some malevolent intelligence.
Its body spasmed slightly, struggling against the pain from the kord lodged in its torso, which still dripped with thick, violet blood that hissed and steamed upon contact with the cavern floor.
For a brief moment, its jaw, with its horrifying array of mismatched teeth, clicked together in a grotesque rhythm, as though attempting to bite something unseen.
A deep, guttural noise emerged from its throat—a chilling blend of a growl and a screech, reverberating through the cavern and causing the stalagmites above to quiver ominously.
The lullaby's haunting melody echoed faintly in my ears, even though the creature was now silenced.
It wasn't just a song; it had burrowed deep into my mind, as though the tune itself were alive. My grip on the kord tightened as I prepared for whatever would come next.
"Everyone!" Nephis's sharp voice rang out from behind me, snapping me into focus. "Stay alert!"
The creature writhed, its clawed hands reaching out to pull at the kord embedded in its stomach, but it hesitated, likely knowing that removing the blade would make it bleed out faster.
Instead, its gaze locked onto me with feral intensity. A strange, guttural noise escaped its throat, the remnants of the lullaby twisted into what could only be described as a mockery of language.
It spoke—or tried to.
"Huuuuush... chiiiild..." The voice was ragged, torn by pain, but the words dripped with malice, each syllable stretched unnaturally. "Doooon't yooouuu... craaaave... rest?"
Gripping the kord tightly, I held onto it with both hands, crouched down, and slashed upward, splitting the creature into two from the middle.
Hopping to the side, I ducked as the creature's corpse fell to the ground.
[You have slain an Awakened Monster, Cavernous Stalker]
[Your soul Shines even Brighter]
With the creature's death, a high-pitched ringing consumed my head, sharp and unrelenting.
I groaned, gripping the sides of my head as pain nullification warned me of all the pain i should have felt. A moment later, Sunny's voice cut through the chaos, sharp and frantic:
(Pleiades! Pleiades! Do you hear me?)
I gritted my teeth and steadied my breath, trying to regain focus. My mind felt like it had been clawed at, an invasive echo lingering in my thoughts.
The irony of my supposed immunity to mind-based attacks didn't escape me.
"Damn it," I muttered under my breath. "Why is this happening now?"
Shaking the disorientation from my mind, I planted the kord into the ground and leaned on it like a cane.
[Agh, yeah, loud and clear. Damn, I hate mind attacks.]
Sunny's voice came again, more urgent and rushed than before. (That doesn't matter! Look ahead—everyone's getting attacked!)
My eyes snapped forward as I processed the words. Regis stood in front of me, his stance low and defensive. His fur bristled with primal aggression, and his tail lashed like a whip.
Before him stood more of those grotesque creatures, their pale, skeletal forms hissing and recoiling slightly as if the wolf's presence was holding them at bay.
A quick scan of the cavern revealed the full extent of the chaos.
The cohort was scattered, each member locked in battle with their own monstrous assailants. The air was thick with the clash of weapons against unnatural flesh, the hiss of the creatures, and the shouts of my the humans.
Sparks flew as blades met hardened exoskeletons, and violet ichor splattered across the ground with every strike.
Effie fought with a terrifying grace, her spear a blur of motion as she drove it through the abdomen of one of the creatures. The thing shrieked, trying to twist away, but Effie's stance didn't falter as she yanked the spear out and thrust again, behind her cassie stood, not being able to do anything but to point her staff at any noise.
Not far from her, Caster moved like a bullet, his armor glinting faintly in the dim light as he darted between two attackers. His strikes were calculated, aimed for the gaps in their grotesque exoskeletons, even as his face betrayed no hint of emotion.
Liarus, though older and seemingly wearied by the earlier journey, held his own with sheer brute force. His shield slammed into one creature with enough force to send it reeling, and his mace swung down in a crushing arc to crush its head.
Through the chaos, Nephis stood like a beacon of control, her silver armor shining faintly in the eerie light as she dispatched a creature with brutal efficiency. Her blade moved with precision, carving through her foe before she turned to assist another.
Kai, whose attackers were threatening to overwhelm him, flew into the air and shot arrow after arrow towards each enemy, making them more of a pincushion than terrifying monsters.
The sight of everyone struggling snapped something awake inside me.
"Regis," I said firmly, gripping my kord tightly and standing straight. "Stay close."
The wolf growled in response, his white eyes glowing faintly as he crouched low, ready to lunge.
The creatures hissed and recoiled slightly, their unnatural forms twitching in hesitation, as if sensing the shift in my resolve.
And then, without warning, one lunged forward, claws outstretched and aiming for my throat.
My kord met it mid-air, slicing through its wrist in a clean motion before I spun and delivered a crushing kick to its midsection.
The creature let out a shriek of pain as it crumpled to the ground, but there was no time to celebrate. The others surged forward, emboldened by the attack.
In the backround i heard the chilling sound of rushing footsteps, looking back i watched as a horde of shadowy creatures burts forth, their intent to kill clearly aimed towards me.
'Oh, more company? GREAT!'
Next Chapter: Slayer Extermination (4)
A/N: Hello everyone, i hope your doing great today, and i hope you enjoyed this chapter, these next few chapters will be a bit longer since i have more free time.
And there's stil ltime to leave comments and to win the two bonus chapters.
See you guys tomorrow and happy reading :).
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