Elian's eyes widened as the creature lunged at him. Jin's body moving in mid-air and his arms spread wide to the front. His mouth gaping unnaturally wide.
The leap was too fast for a small boy.
"HAAA!!!"
With a shout of panic, Elian swung his sword.
The steel hit his flesh.
The impact sent the boy's body flying sideways. It crashed into the stone floor with a heavy thud and rolled. His imbs folding in grotesque angles.
But even as it hit the ground, it began twitching again. The monster was still alive.
Elian backed away, his breath fast. He glanced around the chamber.
There was no exit or path anywhere.
He turned to the narrow hole again. The body wedged inside it was still there, stuffed deep into the stone.
He grabbed at it then pulling it hard, but it wouldn't budge. It was jammed in too tightly, blood-dried and stiff.
He then heard a slick wet sound scraped behind him.
Elian spun around.
Jin, or what remained of the boy was rising.
The creature's head hung at an unnatural angle, the neck nearly severed. His skin torn, his veins split, and his spine became more visible.
But the body moved just fine. Its eyes blinked. The second mouth twitched with hunger.
That's when Elian understood that the head wasn't the weak point of that thing.
He clenched his jaw and picked up his sword again, standing tall. His grip was firm now.
There was no choice.
If he wanted to get out, he had to kill this thing.
The tendrils behind the Parasite began twitching. The black and slick and pulsing tendrils curled and aimed at him.
Elian braced himself.
Back in the slums, the education he received was so little.
They taught names of monsters but not how to fight them entirely. The city didn't care to invest in kids from the gutters of the slum. The teachers were poorly paid, uninterested and rushed to get the job done.
However, the nobles had tutors, nice weapons, and combat drills for their children.
Elian had only scraps, instinct, and his grit.
And now, face-to-face with a creature he barely understood, he had to figure everything out by himself.
He took a breath and forced his thoughts into calm. His vision sharpened.
The parasite lunged again. Its tendrils were slicing through the air.
Elian also swung his sword and the battle began.
His blade cut through some of the tendrils but others still got through. A sharp tendril slashed his ribs. Another grazed his thigh. He felt pain burst through him but nothing fatal. He still able to stay standing.
The creature came at him with fists next. It moved like a human now, trying to punch and kick him . But the strength behind the attacks wasn't overwhelming. Just strange and pretty fast.
Elian dodged, deflected, and then with a roar he slashed through one of its arms.
The Parasite howled and fell back. But the tendrils lashed again.
Elian gritted his teeth, ducked one of the tendrils then rolled under another, and he finally managed to close the distance.
Then he slashed across the creature's chest.
The cut opened deep and inside the torn flesh, he saw it. A small, pale blue orb that pulsing.
That was it.
Elian knew it instantly that it was the core. The parasite's real body.
He gripped his sword, screamed from his gut, and charged forward.
The tendrils whipped out to stop him, slicing his shoulder, ripping into his skin, but he didn't slow.
He moved through the pain and fear.
And with one final thrust, he drove his blade into the glowing blue light.
The parasite let out a final twitch as Elian's blade pierced the pale pulsing orb within its chest.
Then its body spasmed once and collapsed.
Its limbs went limp, the second mouth stopped twitching, and the dark tendrils behind it slumped to the ground.
Elian pulled his sword free with a wet sound and stumbled back as the creature's body began to dissolve.
The flesh melted into a puddle of thick black sludge, releasing a sour and rotting stench that flooded the chamber.
Elian grimaced and covered his mouth and nose, but he'd smelled worse in the alleys of District 13, so he endured it easily.
Without wasting a second, he turned toward the hole again before anything appeared.
The corpse jammed inside was now just a lifeless obstruction. Elian grabbed its stiff limbs and pulled with everything he had.
After the fight his muscles strained, his breath heavy, and after a few long seconds the body slid out and slumped to the floor with a thud. Revealing the narrow tunnel behind it.
Elian didn't pause. He crouched down, and took a deep breath to steady himself.
The space looked tight and miserable, but it was the only way forward.
He pressed himself into the hole, sword still gripped in one hand and his other hand used to pull himself forward through the stone passage.
It felt like crawling through a coffin. The walls scraped against his arms and shoulders. The stone cold and damp and the air thick like wet cloth.
Time stretched in his mind as his heart pounded faster.
A voice whispered inside him:
What if there's no end? What if he's trapped? What if he dies right here, buried in rock and forgotten?
He gritted his teeth and pushed the thought away.
He kept moving one pull after another, ignoring the sharp edges and the creeping harrowing feeling in his gut.
Then, at last, after what felt like an eternity, his hand hit open air.
Elian pushed harder and finally dragged himself out of the tunnel, gasping as he pulled his chest free and rolled onto solid ground.
His light flickered, lighting a vast open ruin.
The stone beneath him was smooth and ancient and carved with broken symbols.
Massive pillars with the height of towers stood in a loose circle around the space. They glowed faintly under the fractured, colorful sky above.
Elian stayed still for a moment, his eyes wide, chest heaving.
He had made it. Now he had found something that maybe will lead him to a Relic.
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