Sophia felt odd trying to avoid the fight with something that would keep pursuing her. She really wanted to get it over with, but at the same time she didn’t know how dangerous the Hungering Spark was. The people at the Registry certainly seemed to think it was dangerous enough to keep everyone inside. The right decision was probably to delay the fight and try to prepare, if possible.
Not that Sophia really expected it to work. It seemed more likely that their preparation would make a fight easier instead of avoiding it. She certainly wasn’t going to avoid one if she could take the Hungering Spark by surprise.
The storm arrived faster than Sophia estimated. The notice that they’d entered the Domain of the Hungering Spark was no surprise when it arrived at the same time as the first real rain. Sophia dismissed it and triple-checked their preparations. They were insufficient but they were also all they had time for. They had time to hobble their horses under a tree and move away from them, but that was about it. If they’d tried to get the tent up as well, they might have managed it, but the tent wouldn’t protect them against this storm.
Instead, Taika created an illusion of a tent. It looked warm and comfortable from the outside, but it did nothing to actually protect them from the rain. Sophia wore her new cloak; it was really too warm for the day, but anything was better than getting soaked if they did manage to avoid a fight. Sophia had no doubt they would end up wet if they had to fight, but that would be worth it.
Dav’s healing beacon was already set up and he was ready to summon a Fire Bud if Sophia grabbed the Hungering Spark with Root Grab. He waited in the false tent with Sophia. They could see the horses, in case they turned out to attract the Hungering Spark’s attention, but they really expected that it was hunting Sophia.
Amy and Taika were a little ways away, “sheltering” under an illusion of a tree in a spot where they had a good view of both the tent and the hobbled horses. While there were a number of trees around, Amy was happier with Taika’s illusion; with an illusion, she could stand inside the apparent tree and she didn’t have to guess which direction the monster was coming from to be hidden. Dav needed to be near Sophia in case the Hungering Spark went after her, but neither Taika nor Amy had any reason to get near it.
Sophia’s dragons rested in a pair of trees in the other direction. She couldn’t command them, but she was fairly certain they knew she’d summoned them for battle. They both seemed serious, watching the area instead of flying into the air to play as they had the first time he summoned them.
Several minutes passed after the rain started and Sophia started to wonder just how long they should wait. She’d overlooked something important during her plans, hadn’t she?
How long should they wait? It stayed over Casterville for two days; what if it decided to stop over them? She’d assumed that if it didn’t see them, it would keep going and be gone quickly, but what if she was wrong?
She was about to send the question silently to everyone else when a crack of thunder sounded like it was right next to her. Sophia turned towards it and saw intertwined red and green lightning strike the ground. It hit again and again and quickly began to form a shape.
Descent [https://i.imgur.com/ocbAcJs.jpeg]
It was far too close for Sophia to assume it was a coincidence. She watched as the creature that had to be the Hungering Spark solidified in front of her. Her guess was confirmed by a clear mental shout of “That’s him!” from Taika.
The Hungering Spark looked like a creature made of black muscle fibers and lightning, humanoid but only if a human was made purely of black lines. There were clearly no bones, but somehow it still held its shape. Small bits of white lightning flickered across its body, while green lightning crackled from its hands. A single red light glowed in the center of its face like an eye. The only portion of its body that seemed both colorful and solid was an odd red cylinder that filled a hollow in its abdomen and seemed to continue up into the chest area.
Lightning crackled around the Hungering Spark. Sophia watched its head move from side to side. The single bright red light in where a cyclops’s eye would be brightened and dimmed as it searched the area. Its movements were almost mechanical, with very little wasted motion.
Solid [https://i.imgur.com/T9wFoUe.jpeg]
“Where are you, Bright Spark? I can smell you,” a voice echoed. It had to be the Hungering Spark’s, but it sounded more human than Sophia expected, smooth rather than crackling with lightning. “I want to taste you. You smell delicious, do you taste good?”
The red fleshy cylinder in its belly seemed to bulge, then more of it descended from above and it became clear what it was: a tongue. It was long and thin and narrowed as it went until it was nearly pointed at the tip. As it reached its full length, lightning crackled from the tip of the Hungering Spark’s tongue. It moved weirdly slowly, slow enough to be seen, and changed colors as it went. A cloudy haze formed behind the lightning; Sophia couldn’t tell if it was smoke or simply because of the glare, but it was quickly clear that the light sparking off its tongue was brighter than the lightning elsewhere on the Hungering Spark as it shone through the darkness.
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
Sparking Tongue [https://i.imgur.com/wybr2GK.jpeg]
The lightning seemed to twist and turn, seeking all around the Hungering Spark. Sophia didn’t see any reason to wait; if it could smell her, it wasn’t going to leave until it found her. There was no protected city with a significant number of stronger people searching for the creature. There was only Sophia, Dav, Amy, and Taika; the horses were not going to matter in a fight. Sophia hoped the creature would ignore them.
Sophia started it off with her Offensive Illusion Field. She couldn’t see anything, but the Hungering Spark certainly seemed to.
Its tongue swung to the left, past where Sophia and Dav hid, and seemed to throw even more lightning. “There you are! Oh, and you taste good. Yes, resist, bring your power to the surface. Fighting will make you taste better.”
Sophia shivered internally. There was something deeply troubling about listening to something talk about how she would taste when it ate her. She saw Dav’s Eldritch Fire Bud appear under the creature’s feet and carefully prepared her own weapons. Amy waited, in line with the plan; they wanted it firmly fixed in place before she began to attack.
Roots surged out of the dirt and glowing purple branches appeared from nowhere as Sophia’s Root Grab and Dav’s Eldritch Anchor closed around the monster at the same time. They wrapped around it and halted its movement for a moment.
An arrow from Amy scorched through the area where its tongue was without slowing at all. Sophia blinked; that wasn’t what she expected. Maybe Amy hit the lightning instead of the solid tongue?
Sophia’s roots were the first to fail as the reason Amy’s arrow missed suddenly became obvious: the Hungering Spark was moving. Sophia could see its legs in front of the roots as it twisted and slid towards her. Dav’s Eldritch Anchor held for only a moment longer, then lightning seemed to solidify in place again.
The Hungering Spark stared directly at the illusory tent they hid in. “I smell you. You fight me, you hold me, but you cannot hold lightning. I will always escape and singe you, cook you, eat you.” Its head shifted left, then right, before turning back to the tent. “You must be there, you must.”
Its presence thinned a little, then it reached up with a hand and unleashed a torrent of green lightning that filled the area in front of it with sparks bright enough that Sophia had to look away for a moment. When she looked back, it hadn’t moved but the lightning had returned to playing around its hand instead of covering the area. It looked insubstantial, filled with lightning, but the tongue still looked as solid as ever. Unfortunately, it also looked agile.
It slashed through the same space with its other hand. “No matter how many others you throw at me, I will sear their flesh from their bones and eat their sparks but I will not become full. I always hunger. Always. And you will feed me!”
Sophia used her Animated Blade to throw a Force Bolt at the Hungering Spark. She expected to see it splash on the Hungering Spark’s shield, but it didn’t. The Force Bolt continued straight through the Hungering Spark’s chest. It was pure luck that she’d aimed it down a bit. The Force Bolt barely touched the Hungering Spark’s tongue after passing through its body, but the effect was still obvious. The tongue dropped away quickly, uninjured but clearly moved. The Force Bolt disintegrated, its energy spent on the Hungering Spark’s shield.
The Hungering Spark roared wordlessly. Its tongue whipped out and closed around air, then seemed to pull it back into the cavity in its chest. Sophia assumed that meant it was still caught in her Offensive Illusory Field, but it didn’t seem as effective on the Hungering Spark as it was on Amy and Dav.
Sophia quickly shouted into the shared mental communications link, “Hit the tongue! It stays solid while the rest isn’t!”
That was the moment Sophia’s dragons decided to strike. Her dark Overcharged dragon raked its claws through the Hungering Spark’s insubstantial head with no effect, while her brightly colored feathered dragon spat wisps of colored light at the back of the Hungering Spark.
It recoiled when the light hit it, staggering a step forwards and hissing in either pain or irritation; Sophia couldn’t tell which. “Your people taste of nothing but memories but your magic sings of power,” the Hungering Spark called out. “Spicy but delicious, I can taste you all around me.”
It spun and seemed to taste the air right behind it, where the dragon started. Its back seemed to be leaking multicolored lightning, the same lightning its tong gave off, but only in tiny sparks. When it didn’t find anything, it spun back around. “Hiding and fighting, Bright Spark, the more you struggle the better you will taste.”
Sophia hoped the sparks emerging from its back meant the dragonfire hurt the Hungering Spark. She wasn’t sure damaging its tongue would be enough to kill it; they needed a way to affect the rest of it. Her main attack passed right through it and so did Amy’s arrows. It was affected by spells meant to hold it a little, but they didn’t last; it could simply step through them. So far, the only thing they had that definitely affected it was illusions and Sophia was pretty sure that was only delaying it, not stopping it.
An arrow hit the shield around its tongue, followed by another. The third was stopped by a sudden wall of lightning, then the Hungering Spark was two steps closer to Sophia and Dav. It was like it had ridden the lightning it created to block Amy’s arrows, then somehow left the lightning behind to form a solid wall protecting it from her. “I see you where you hide, bright and shining, hidden only by wood and cloth. Wood burns and cloth tears, both taste of ashes and soot. You taste of light and strength. I will not share your power, I will take it as my own!”
The sky seemed to darken as the Hungering Spark spoke.
Sophia glanced up. It wasn’t just an illusion; clouds gathered above them ominously. The Hungering Spark was about to try something Sophia didn’t think she had any way to deal with.