The lump of spikes and spines lumbered towards me, intent on making me its prey. I staggered backward, it flailed at me, I sidestepped, but I wasn’t quite fast enough, my arm grazed by one of its tentacle, its texture as rough as sandpaper despite looking as smooth as glass. It shredded the skin on my right forearm; the wound mostly shallow and small, the damage only bad near the elbow where it had taken a chunk of my skin out. It bled, bled like crazy. My mind felt like it was swimming through sludge, my body moving through instinct, my head not keeping up. I didn’t have the strength or speed of these demi-humans. The feeling of fresh blood oozing out of me made me feel faint.

I remembered something in that foggy mist of my brain, a long thin sword, the edge scarlet, a blade of blood. Could I do it? I remembered the attempt that I had made to go home. The failure to do so. What were the rules? What had I been missing? The creature flailed but then stopped as the sick sound of something plunging into it echoed. An arrow had become planted in its body; followed by a bolt.

Lizz, the bunny woman whom I had rescued, held in her hands a bow, an arrow being pulled back, she nodded to me and said something that I couldn't hear before letting off another shot. Next, to her the human with the crossbow was setting another bolt, its tips dripping in some fluid.

But even with that distraction it still didn’t amount to much. It lumbered at me flailing like crazy, after the first few shots it ignored the arrows.

“HUnGrY!”

It growled. My hand by this time had become soaked in blood, my numb fingers only feeling the slick texture and pulsating warmth, its heat reminding me of something as if breaking down a mental wall. I could remember something, a feeling of something else, something that felt right, how could I have forgotten? I could feel an almost alive sensation coming from my blood; a sentient intelligence; A warmth filling my body, the itching stopped, a buzz in my brain replacing it; a mental high the reward for awakening it.

“Be one with me, Daniel.”

It spoke to me, the voice of an angel, the voice of a lover, those tantalizing words rang inside me, engulfing me in its desire. I reached out I wanted to become one with her, affirming her, physically saying yes I stretched out my hand and from my outstretched hands' blood started coming out, defying gravity moving with a mind of its own, I could feel it, sense it. I grasped at the blood like a lover, and from it a blade came out, rushing out like a hefted spear; four, no five feet out, a handle forming in my clenched hand. It was beautiful, a piece of living art.

The creature froze in place; stopping as if confused.

“Mother?”

It asked as if expecting an answer. We ignored it. I could feel her presence again. I felt an elation that I hadn’t felt in a long time, a burning passion, yes this was right. I pointed the blade at the creature, I felt invincible at that moment, and it, in turn, lashed out.

That movement broke the reverie, and I felt the presence disappear, I was alone again. Blade still in hand but that feeling of completeness gone. What had happened? I waved the sword out at the flailing appendages unsure of what to do feeling stupid for my bravado no matter how short-lived it had been. The tip of the sword glided through flesh and bone sundering everything it touched passing through as if I were cutting nothing more than mist.

The creature recoiled, the tip of its tentacle writhed on the ground. The beast stopped it action for a moment it's tentacles tentatively touching the sundered spot inspecting it with a curious gesture as if wondering how exactly that happened. Its tip grew back, bubbles forming into the shape of what had been lost.

I waved the blade towards the creature hoping to try to frighten it. Instead the opposite, it became more aggressive, a multitude of tentacles burst out from it, half-formed, no blades yet, one slamming against my shoulder punching me like cannon, pounding me into the wall, my breath forcibly expelled; lungs emptied like a popped balloon from the impact of the shove. A second tentacle started to try to wrap around me, I slashed downward with the blood blade slicing through both its flesh and the floor underneath. It howled in rage.

A third tentacle shoved at me, it would have hit me straight in the gut, probably disemboweling me, but for the last second save from Regar. He had jumped at the tentacle and slammed his sword down into it. Diverting it enough to instead hit the wall next to me. Unlike my blade, Regar’s blade remained stuck, piercing through the tentacle enough to lodge in it but not enough to cut through.

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“That’s payment for saving Lizz, now get your ass over to the center NOW, the thing seems afraid of the light!” Regar commanded, letting go of the now useless sword as he turned and rushed towards the light. I followed behind, knowing that if I didn’t that I would lose my chance to survive. Even with a sword, this thing was still too much to handle.

I followed Regar and was moments away from the moonlight when out of the darkness one of those disembodied tentacles appeared wrapping itself around my ankle. Momentum took over, and I fell face first into the ground my arms flailing it. I turned over and tried to slice a the tentacle with my sword until I realized that the sword wasn't in my hand anymore. With the risk of death hanging over I searched for it hoping it was still within reach. I saw the sword, it had only fallen a few inches away, I went to grab for it, but as I did it melted away as if the only thing that was keeping its form was its contact to me. "Fuck."

Regar grabbed the hand nearest to him and tried to yank me away, but the tentacle creature had other plans holding on steadfast to my ankle. Another tentacle appeared from the shadows, wrapping itself around the other arm that had been grasping for the sword. They tugged at me, pulling me in both directions, Regar trying to get me out of its snatch but with no real effect. So many arrows and bolts sprouted in the tentacles holding me that they reminded me of pincushions. The other men using whatever they had as weapons to try to keep the beast at bay. But it was all useless.

The creature yanked at my arms; I felt like I was going to be ripped apart, I could feel my limbs starting to give way. I needed to get free. I focused again on the blood, trying to will it to again become a blade, dizziness came over me as the blood formed again in the arm that was held down. It worked, only it was the size of a small dagger, its length far from impressive, but it was enough. I wiggled the blade in my hand until I felt the slight resistance of flesh. I pulled then and sliced deeper, my arm now free.

I turned my attention to the other tentacle grasping my blade; something seemed to shoot at me from the slug. I rolled, out of the way a spike whizzing past, and felt a sharp pain in my ankle. The main mass was getting nearer. I lunged towards the tentacle holding my leg. I nipped at it with my little dagger, but it grew back. This dagger just couldn’t reach it. God damn it, I looked up, the huddling mass was just about looming over me. I can’t die here. “Get bigger!” I yelled out heart beating in a made dance,

I put all my will into enlarging the blade; blood gushed out of my main wound as if being willed to my hand. I felt faint and dizzy like I was pushing my limits both physically and mentally. For the first time, I could sense where my limits were. I could feel the last bits of my mental strength, my emotional power, well into the blade, it rose, the sword lengthening outwards, growing back to its original form.

The creature was on me; I needed to get free now! I sliced through the tentacle holding me, the appendage flopping to the ground its life taken. Now free I tried to get up, tried to rush to where the demi-humans were, Regar grabbed at my one hand trying to help me up. I got to a kneeling position but as soon as I tried to put weight on my left foot; the foot that had been trapped by the tentacle, I felt a sharp pain. My leg collapsed bringing both Regar and me down to the ground. The creature was on us now. Tentacles bore down; we were going to die.

The sound of a Roar seemed to freeze everything. A man with the face of a panther appeared and with him Rosary. Men both demi-human and human followed him each carrying a torch, the light from them brightening up the room with such an intensity that it was hard to even see in here. The creature recoiled, as if afraid of the light. It retreated from it, its skin molting almost boiling where the light shone.

“Surround the creature, do not let it escape!” The panther man yelled pulling out what looked like a glowing blade. “In the name of my Lady Whyn, I command you to unveil your true form!” He shoved the sword outwards strands of light and steel seemed to unravel from the blade, revealing inside a living moving sword. It looked like a torch but with the flames taking on the shape of a sword. It's light far brighter than any other in this room a miniature sun.

“RRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW”

The creature screamed, it screamed with such pain and horror that for a moment I felt bad for it. The men started to try to surround it, the panther man taking up the lead. “Remember what I told you on the way here, men!” He roared taking a step towards the creature his blade cutting through the assualting tentacles with practiced grace.

He waved the sword, slicing seemingly at the waves of pure light pulsing out of it. The creature screamed, I watched in amazement those waves of light cut through the beast. It roared and flailed, but by this time it was ineffective. It looked like they about had, the creature was cornered. But then its form seemed to merge into the shadows disappearing before anyone could give it the finishing blow.

The fighting was over, but the panther man wasted no time, glowing, flaming blade in hand he yelled out orders to some of the men then walked his way over. His face seemed familiar. I wasn’t for sure, but I thought that it might have been Panzer.

A red blur of feathers and hair zipped into my chest, crying. “What are you doing here dummy?” She yelled; I wasn’t for sure, but I think she was angry. “You were supposed to have gotten back to the surface."

“I couldn’t leave you alone against that thing,” I told her.

“I wouldn’t have been alone.”

“That's not what I mean. I mean I couldn’t just let you go help them alone while I ran away.”

She started bawling.

“When I saw you there I thought you were going to die.” Her sniffled responses becoming less and less intelligible by the moment as she pressed herself against my chest.

“You’re lucky that she found Sir Panzer.” A voice responded. I looked up to see a… wait a sec I didn’t see anything. “Over here.” I turned my head, on the floor was a midget? No, this person was far smaller. He reminded me of a house dwarf, not the Tolkien type of dwarf, the Russian ones from folklore. I didn’t know what to think about that. Here was another fairy tale in front of me this one quite a bit more like the fairy tale then my last encounter had been.

“She be a brave one that one, I heard what happened, been a long while since I met a brave fae, they usually have no backbones.” I looked down at the sniffling, crying fairy in my chest and felt a sense of relief and happiness at having met this brave fairy, this girl who seemed to defy expectations, I patted her on the head, my body on the verge of collapse.