The chthonian insect advanced. Slowly at first, as if expecting a rebuke, then fast when none came.
Starkie was the first to react, wielding a branch like a quarterstaff, pointed at the beast's centre of mass. Jun grasped her hand-axe close, while Josef rifled through his bag, presumably for something to defend himself.
Avakian desperately looked around for something to use as a weapon, but came up short. The branches were all either too long for him to use effectively, or were too light to be used as a weapon.
He racked his mind for a solution while Starkie faced off against the beast, despite being larger and heavier he was at a major disadvantage. The beast was disproportionately strong for its size, and its exoskeleton was tough enough to glance off any of Starkie's jabs or swings.
What would Kamatie do? That wasn't a good line of thought, Kamatie would already be scraping this thing from her boot heel.
What would Chiros do? Instantly bisect it probably, that also wasn't really an option.
What would Ellian do? Avakian thought back to yesterday, when she had frozen a marble in the air. He didn't think she used any equipment or tools for that, there wasn't any reason why he couldn't do the same thing.
He had made his decision.
"Starkie! When I give you a signal, bait it towards me!" He shouted.
Starkie made a noise that vaguely sounded like an agreement, and Avakian got to work.
He looked within himself, to the Void that permeated his everything, and then tried something he had never tried before. He tried pushing the Void within his body.
His cells immediately protested, stubbornly holding on to every drop of Void like a miser hoards gold. He protested harder, waging war on his very body to save it from inevitable destruction.
After what felt like hours but couldn't have been more than a few seconds, the Void began to flow. Avakian created pathways for it, coalescing the Void near his sternum, then directing it towards his palms, where he started to shape it into a familiar glyph.
The rune he used was the same kinetic actuator he had discovered yesterday in class. He had no idea if it would work, he had no idea if it even COULD work, for all he knew it was impossible to use runes like this.
Josef briefly glanced over at him, before double-taking at his strange movements. To an outside observer it looked as if Avakian was enacting some strange dance or martial art.
"NOW!" He yelled, as he had almost completed the rune, lacking one more component before it would be fully functional.
Starkie was in a bad way, his stave was in two pieces, and he had multiple gashes on his arms from blocking the creature's forelimbs. Even more insidiously, his clothing and flesh had begun to dissolve from where the monster's tentacles had touched him.
He limped over to Avakian as Jun distracted the insect by throwing rocks and sticks at its weaker flank. As soon as Starkie was out of the line of fire, Avakian drew the final line, leaving the rune complete and interconnected.
Almost immediately the effect took place; the area around the bug was pressed down upon by an incredible force, squashing it into the dirt as if under the thumb of God.
Incredibly, even this wasn't enough to kill the insect for good, it still lay there beneath Avakian's spell, squirming and screeching even as its bones were crushed. Avakian was getting increasingly worried, as he could sense his spell's Void reserves gradually draining.
Luckily for him, Josef had not been idle, he walked up to the trapped beast - carefully keeping out of the crushing spell - holding some kind of tubular contraption.
He held the thing at arms length, before pulling a wire on the back. After a short delay in which Avakian was terrified it hadn't done anything, the device started to release a lengthy gout of orange fire.
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The bug was obviously less resistant to fire than it was crushing force, as after a dozen seconds it lay in flamy, blissful silence.
"Don't suppose we get any extra credit for this?" Avakian joked, as they all stared at the burning corpse.
Unfortunately he didn't get to witness his group's reactions, as he quite promptly passed out.
---
He woke, paralysed by an immaterial pain that seemed to radiate from every molecule in his body. Trying to open his eyes yielded nothing, they felt like they were glued shut.
"Damn this is... Not ideal!" He thought frustratedly.
"Am I alive?" He croaked, to anyone that might have been listening.
"Yeah." He heard a familiar voice. "Unless of course, we're both dead and this is the afterlife."
"That you, Starkie?" He asked the voice, his eyes still shut.
"Yep. Hell of a fight midgit. Hell of a fight. I ended up being pretty useless huh?" He chuckled self-depreciatingly. "Maybe it would've been different if I had a sword, but I dunno."
"No way, Starkie! You saved us, if that had been me fighting it I would've died." Avakian chided.
Starkie thought for a moment.
"Yeahhh... Yeah! I'm pretty awesome aren't I!" He cheered up almost instantly.
Avakian chuckled, before falling asleep yet again.
---
He slipped out of his fractured sleep to the sound of a door being closed, he managed to open his eyelids this time, his vision a blurry mess of shapes and colours.
As his vision was adjusting a man with metallic golden-brown skin entered his peripherals. He tapped a drip on Avakian's right side, and then gave him a once over.
"You're lucid?" He asked in a peculiar, lilting accent.
"Lucid-ish." He replied.
"Good. I am Doctor Kornovakalgium, you can call me Dr K, most struggle with my name." He informed him distractedly.
"What happened to my group?"
"You're all fine." The doctor reassured. "Josef and Junice sustained only minor injuries, Richard was injured badly, but will pull through. You got the worst of it."
"How is that possible? That.. Thing didn't even get near me." He questioned, confused.
"Oh, you did that yourself. Casting cantrips using your vital Void repositories tends to do that." He told Avakian calmly. "It's the magical equivalent of cutting your own arm off and beating your enemy to death with it."
"This is the part where I'm supposed to inform you how stupid it is to ever even try something like that, but honestly... If it's stupid and it works, it isn't stupid." He sighed. "I'm told the incident you were in was an unnatural occurrence, and strange circumstances justify strange solutions."
The doctor leaned over Avakian, and his eyes finally focused enough to get a proper look at the man.
What he originally thought was bronze skin, were actually thousands of tiny metallic scales that caught the light rather beautifully. The doctor lacked a nose or any hair on his head, begetting a rather alien appearance.
"Unnatural occurrence? I'm guessing those things aren't natives here." He muttered.
"Not at all!" The doctor looked offended. "I've spent my whole life in the 74th Fold and only once have I ever seen a true dæmon."
"That's what they're called then? Dæmons?" Avakian confirmed.
"My people call them that. There are countless names for the beings of the Void. Dæmon is simply our word for monster." He explained, tipping a viscous black liquid into Avakian's drip.
Almost immediately he felt a sudden and rapid relief throughout his body, tension being swept away and being replaced by a contended humming from his muscles. He swore to himself he would never take not being in pain for granted.
"Aaahhhhhh." He sighed blissfully.
"Better? That's all the serum I have unfortunately, you'll have to make do until you feel well enough to take one of the crystals Kamatie gave you." Dr K apologised.
"You know Kamatie?" Avakian asked.
"Only in passing. She contacted me since I'm one of the only doctors in the city that specialise in treating people with... Abnormal biology such as ourselves." He explained. "You're lucky I got to you when I did, a few more hours without Void exposure and you would've suffered permanent brain damage."
"Cool." Avakian replied thoughtlessly. "...No, wait! Not cool! I could've died?! Why didn't anyone warn me against doing that?"
"Well.. " The doctor looked awkward. "I assume because of how unusual your condition is. There are a few species here that are reliant on the Void to survive, but they are drilled from a very young age to NOT do exactly what you did."
"Ah." So it was another problem that arose from his lack of education.
"Anyways, I have to finish treating your friend. You should be discharged at dusk, try to rest as much as possible; no exercise for at least 3 days, and Avakian?" He waited for a response.
"Yes?"
"Do not, under any circumstances, try to shift the Void within your body. If you deplete your reserves even once more, I don't know what could happen."