Donny had been running for hours. His lungs screamed with every breath, his legs burned with fire, and his body felt like it was unraveling. The shadow hands lashed out behind him, attacking as he fled, but the monsters were relentless. Adrenaline surged through him, keeping him upright because if he slowed down, if he fell, he would die.
But his body couldn't keep going.
His pace faltered. Each step was a battle. The monsters were gaining.
Then, with one final push, his foot met empty air.
He looked down.
Beneath him yawned a vast ravine.
Donny plummeted, his body limp from exhaustion, his thoughts fractured. The wind howled past him. His eyes flickered open and shut, dancing between lucidity and unconsciousness. His heart slowed to a dangerous rhythm. The flying monsters followed, diving after him, while the others stopped at the cliff's edge.
In freefall, he could barely react, yet somehow, instinct moved his shadow hands. They swung wildly, lashing out in chaotic arcs. But even they began to falter, going idle as Donny drifted deeper into the darkness of his mind.
A monster dove in close, then pulled away suddenly, confusing him. Then he felt it.
A cold pull on his back.
Water.
He was underwater.
But by the time he realized it, it was already too late. His strength was gone. He let himself drift into the void.
Donny stirred.
Half his body lay submerged, the other sprawled on solid stone. Gasping, he dragged himself free of the water, every muscle screaming. Pain surged through him constantly, overwhelming.
"I feel like I'm being crushed by a hydraulic press," he muttered hoarsely, "but my body refuses to just smoosh into blood and flesh. It's like it's prolonging the pain just to spite me."
He collapsed onto the cold stone floor, too broken to move, lifting his head just enough to glance around. He had landed in a pocket of the ravine, a small, isolated ledge enclosed by high walls. Behind him, the river roared on.
He lay there for what felt like half an hour, barely breathing.
Then he heard it.
A violent swish of air from above.
With great effort, Donny rolled onto his back.
The flying monsters had found him.
"Just give me a fucking break..."
One of them descended, gliding toward the pocket. Donny forced his battered body upward, his limbs trembling. He couldn't fight. He could barely move.
Still, he dragged himself deeper into the crevice.
When Donny woke, it was impossible to tell how long he'd been out, but it felt like at least a day.
The moment he stirred, he heard it: a constant, grating noise echoing from above, claws scratching against stone, something moving, searching.
They hadn't given up.
Something was still trying to get to him.
Donny sat up, leaning against the wall.
How do they keep finding me?
He raised his left hand and stared at the golden marking in his palm.
Wait… didn't this turn black before? Does that mean?
He extended his hand, willing the shadow arms to return.
Nothing happened.
"So it's limited," he said aloud. "Or maybe… it fades when I'm unconscious? I don't know. I need to experiment."
His voice echoed dully in the stone pocket.
With effort, Donny stood. His body still ached, but the pain was duller now, manageable.
He approached the wall and began climbing, slowly, carefully. Eventually, he reached the small tunnel again and crawled back through it.
He emerged into the same rocky pocket as before, only now…
Donny's eyes locked on a massive white creature across the ravine. It had six legs, a segmented, upright torso, and two thin, spiky arms ending in razor-sharp claws. Green, muscular mandibles twitched beneath a pair of menacing red eyes that glared straight at him.
His heart skipped a beat.
The moment the creature noticed him, it lunged. Its mandibles clamped down on Donny's arm, yanking him from the tunnel like a ragdoll. He skidded across the shallow water and slammed onto a flat boulder in the center of the ravine.
Donny sprang to his feet, sword already in hand.
The beast didn't hesitate. It charged with blistering speed and slashed at him. Donny raised his sword just in time, blocking the blow, but the impact hurled him across the ravine, tumbling into a shallow streambed.
He groaned, rolling to his knees just as the creature leapt after him and began to stalk forward.
"Damn... this thing's strong."
Donny rushed in, sword raised. The creature met him with a powerful claw swipe. Donny ducked under it, twisted his body, and drove his blade into the monster's chest. He dragged the sword upward in one brutal motion, slicing all the way through to its neck.
The beast collapsed onto its side, twitching violently.
Donny yanked the sword free and reached into the open corpse, pulling its soul free.
"Now, how the hell am I gonna store this?"
Moments later, Donny stood over the skinned carcass. He had crudely fashioned a bag from the creature's hide, its mandibles acting as a clasp to keep it shut.
Slipping the soul inside, he glanced around and noticed a dark opening in the ravine wall.
"Not like I have a better option," he muttered and walked toward it.
The tunnel was long and jagged, the stone walls cold and colorless. After a while, the passage began to slope upward.
At the top of the incline, Donny spotted something: a red slug, the size of a dog, oozing along the path.
He slowly drew his sword and crept forward.
Without warning, the slug unleashed a blast of fire. Donny dove to the side, narrowly avoiding the searing heat, then leapt up and cleaved the creature clean in two.
"Hmm... I wonder…"
He touched the slug's corpse. The golden coin in his palm shifted, glowing a deep crimson.
Donny extended his hand. A short-range burst of flame shot out.
His eyes lit up.
"Now we're talking."
He tossed the slug's soul and carcass into his makeshift bag, then continued upward.
At the top, the tunnel opened into a large cave. Along the stone walls were shallow hollows filled with pulsing larvae.
"What the hell…"
As Donny stepped forward, the larvae began pouring out of their nests, swarming the ground.
Donny blasted a wave of fire, incinerating most of them, then rushed the survivors and carved them down with his blade.
"Ew. This is disgusting…"
Grimacing, he slit open each larva and pulled out its soul fifteen in total. Once he finished, he moved deeper into the cave, only to find a dead end.
Great.
But then, looking up, he saw a narrow opening high above.
"Oh."
He climbed slowly, pain stabbing through every limb. At the top, he pulled himself up and froze.
An entire pack of the six-legged monsters stood waiting.
Donny looked down.
If I jump, I'm dead…One option, then.
He tossed his soul-filled bag aside and raised his left arm.
The monsters stopped.
Why did they?
One suddenly charged. Donny prepared to fire a burst of flame, but the creature veered to his right and slashed with its claw. He barely managed to block the strike, the force slamming him into a wall.
Pushing off, he lunged and drove his sword into its head.
The beast collapsed.
The rest of the pack charged. Donny extended his arm again, and once more, they avoided it, keeping out of its direct path.
"What the hell?"
They began flanking right. Donny took off toward them, then suddenly stopped, spun, and extended his left hand.
They're avoiding it… they know to stay out of its range. I can use that.
As they tried to flank again, Donny dashed to his right and sliced through three of them in one swift movement.
The others hesitated.
Donny kept going, cutting down another four. The last few charged, and before they could reach him, he let loose a wide burst of flame.
They burned to ash.
Donny stood in the smoke, smiling widely.
"Looks like I've gotten stronger."
He began carving up the bodies and extracting their souls. As he reached for one, his fingers brushed its eye. The coin in his palm glowed a brighter red, more orange than before.
Donny staggered slightly as his vision shifted.
Wh-what…? Oh… I see.
Glowing symbols began to appear on the bodies around him, faint traces showing weak points, and a brilliant glow highlighting the eyes.
So that's how it looked when it was on my hand… And now… I can see their names too.
He glanced back at the corpses.
"Cavern Mantis…"
Donny walked to his bag and dumped the souls inside. Then he reached out and touched the dead slug again the coin shifted, now glowing an orange-red hue.
Donny kept moving, the cave tightening, the air colder. Another cavern mantis dropped from the ceiling with a shriek. It lunged. Donny didn't flinch. He side-stepped, let it rush past, then swung hard, chopping through the back of its neck. Its body twitched. He yanked the soul out and stuffed it in the bag. No time to breathe.
Further in, two came at once. One from the wall, the other from a crack in the floor. Donny grabbed a chunk of jagged rock and flung it at the closer one's eye, blinding it. It screamed, thrashing. He ducked the second one's swipe, rolled under its legs, then jammed his sword through its stomach and dragged it upward until it split.
Donny ran and jumped at the one he blinded, it was still on the ceiling, then he cut its head off.
"You guys are pretty easy to read once I fight enough of you," Donny said with a large smirk on his face
Another came at him, this one bigger. Didn't rush, just stared. Cautious. Smarter. Donny held still. They circled each other. It pounced, but Donny ducked and slashed at its leg. It shrieked and kicked him, sending him sliding across the floor. Donny stood, limping, chest heaving. It came again. He baited it, waited, then dodged left and shoved his sword clean through its eye as it passed.
He kept moving. Kept fighting. Every few steps, another. Claws, shrieks, blood, bone. His bag bulged with stolen souls and ripped-out eyes. His body screamed for rest, but he didn't stop.
Not here.
Donny kept going. His legs ached. His wounds burned. But he didn't stop. Every bend in the cave held another screech, another ambush. More cavern mantises dropped from the walls like roaches. He didn't even flinch anymore. Slash. Burn. Crush. Take the soul. Move on.
He kept switching tactics. Sometimes he'd bait them into narrow gaps, slice their legs off one by one. Other times, he just lit the entire tunnel ablaze and walked through smoke and corpses. His hands shook. His eyes stung from the blood, the heat, the exhaustion. He chewed on dry meat from his pocket just to keep upright.
One mantis dropped and tried to skewer him with both claws. Donny kicked its leg out, forced it down, then drove his boot into its head again and again until it cracked open. He barely blinked. Just moved on.
Eventually, the walls widened. The tunnel opened into a massive chamber, dimly lit by cracks in the stone above that let in a faint green glow. Donny stopped at the entrance.
Four figures stood across the clearing, bigger than the rest. Thicker limbs. Longer claws. Their skin wasn't the pale white he'd seen before; it was pitch black, like scorched stone. But their mandibles were still that sickly green, and their four eyes glowed a deep, menacing red.
Donny tensed. His grip on the sword tightened. These weren't normal.
One of them tilted its head, and the four moved in unison, slow and confident.
"Yeah," Donny muttered, "some variety, huh? I was getting bored, so this is a nice change of pace."
He crouched, opened the bag, and touched the mantis' eye he'd taken earlier. Instantly, the shift hit him. His vision sharpened, yellow lines crawled over their limbs, pulsing across joints and necks. Weak points. Soldier Cavern Mantises.
He let go of the eye and touched the fire slug instead. Warmth rolled down his arm like a wave. The heat buzzed in his fingertips.
The first one lunged. Donny sidestepped and slashed across its midsection. It twisted, swiping with two claws. He ducked, rolled, and fired a short burst of flame into its side, catching its leg.
It screamed but didn't fall. Another charge. Donny didn't flinch. He touched the eye again, saw the glowing weak spot on its chest, then dropped low and rammed the sword into it as it passed over him. Clean kill.
The other two moved in at once. Donny backed off, switching back to the slug, palm flaring with fire. One mantis leapt straight at him. Donny raised his hand and torched its face midair, sending it crashing down, screeching.
He switched to the eye, targeted the right one's elbow, and dashed in. The blade struck clean. The mantis reeled. He didn't give it time to recover. Flames again. He burned a line across its back and kicked it over.
The final one circled wide. Smarter. Donny touched the eye again, watched it flicker with exposed points all over its shoulders and legs.
He moved quickly. Darted in. Slash. Flame. Touch. Switch. See. Strike.
When the last mantis dropped, Donny stood in the center of the cavern, chest heaving. His sword dripped. His body ached. But he was still standing.
He looked down at the bag, resting against his side.