Red shook off his surprise, looking away from the monster.
‘Did it notice me?’
The boy wasn’t sure. This lizard seemed blind, like all of its brethren, but the feeling of being observed that Red felt didn’t disappear, and he knew his crimson sense wouldn’t lie to him. There was something off about this creature.
His companions weren’t saying anything, but the boy could feel their questioning gazes on the back of his head. He turned around to look at them, struggling with how he was supposed to explain what he had detected without speaking.
Thankfully, they could detect something wasn’t right by his posture.
‘What is it?’ Narcha mouthed the words.
Red pointed toward the strange lizard. His companions made to look at it, but the boy held his hand up to stop them.
They all looked back at him, even more confused than before.
Red pointed at the lizard again, then at his eyes and then to himself, in this exact order. He repeated the same motions a few times until he saw understanding dawn on his companions’ expressions. The boy was trying to say that the lizard could see them, and it seemed they had gotten the message.
Narcha frowned and mouthed the words. ‘Are you sure?’
Red hesitated. Still, he nodded and mouthed the words. ‘Almost certain.’
He wasn’t completely sure by any means, but it was better to be safe in this situation. There was no way to explain to them what exactly he had seen.
It seemed his warning had worked, though, as his companions all looked at each other with worried expressions. Reinhart, in particular, pointed at the way they had just come from with a questioning gaze. He was asking whether they should go back.
Neither Narcha, nor Eiwin, responded. Instead, they looked over at Red.
The boy was also considering his next steps. However, he shook his head. There was no point in retreating, since this was the only way forward. They had to go through the lizards, and they had gone too far to turn around right now.
Red made a circling motion with his hand, to show his intention to avoid the area with this strange lizard. The others nodded to show their understanding, and they got ready to move on.
The boy had already mapped an alternative route through the ruined room and frozen monsters, and he did not look at the lizard again, afraid the creature might detect his gaze. Thunder came rolling in again, and the group moved.
Red tried to stay as far away from the lizard as possible, but the room was still only 30 meters wide. He would need to go relatively close to the monster to pass it by, but he planned to use the ruined pillars as cover, something this place didn’t lack.
Soon enough, the boy was about to pass by the lizard. Red monitored the fluctuation with his crimson sense and watched for any movements out of the corner of his eye. To his surprise, no such thing happened, and as the next thunder rumbled from above, the group was able to pass by the lizard’s vicinity with no accidents.
‘Was I mistaken?’
Perhaps there was indeed something special about that lizard, but it might not involve having any better senses than its brethren. Still, Red maintained his vigilance as they got ever so close to the other end of the room.
The boy waited for the next thunder to come. A few seconds later, the rumbling arrived, and Red moved, stepping around a few lizards. Suddenly, though, he felt the strange fluctuation move almost in sync with his steps.
He froze. His companions were also able to stop in time and avoid bumping into each other. Before they could make him any silent questions, though, Red held his hand up and motioned them to remain still.
The boy focused on the fluctuation. It had stopped moving as soon as the group froze in their steps. If Red hadn’t been paying attention, he might have almost missed it amidst the dozens of fluctuations around him, but he had been waiting for something like this to happen.
He turned around, giving a quick glance behind him. He wasn’t able to spot the lizard amidst the covers blocking his way and all its identical brethren, though.
His crimson sense was a powerful ability, yet it also had its limitations. When there were too many fluctuations all around him, they blended together in his consciousness, and the boy wasn’t able to parse which fluctuation belonged to who with his vision. This was exacerbated by the fact all these monsters looked the same too. Still, he took a mental note of the position of all the lizards surrounding them.
Red turned around to look at his companions. He made a wide motion with his hand of grabbing his weapon.
‘Be ready.’ he mouthed the words.
Narcha’s expression worsened, but she knew this wasn’t the time to make questions.
Half a minute later, the next thunder came, and Red moved. Almost immediately he felt the fluctuation moving along with him, quickly closing the distance between them. He froze on his steps, this time giving ample warning with a hand movement to his companions.
‘I can’t hear its steps.’
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This wasn’t surprising, considering the thunder muffled their hearing as much as it did to the surrounding lizards.
The fluctuation also stopped moving, but the boy could sense it was no more than fifteen meters behind them. He turned around, observing the surrounding creatures. Then, he compared this image with the positions he had previously memorized in his head.
Red was quickly able to spot a creature that shouldn’t have been there. It was partially hidden behind the body of another lizard, and the boy would have missed it if he hadn’t been paying attention. However, he had memorized their positions before, and the strange fluctuation was coming from that exact direction, so he was certain he had his culprit.
‘It’s not even looking at us.’
It was as if the creature was doing its best not to get spotted. This wasn’t the type of intelligence Red was used to seeing in monsters, and it made him even more wary. He shifted his gaze away.
‘What now?’
He hesitated. The lizard was stalking them, possibly waiting for the right moment to strike. Yet, considering how fast it had moved, Red knew they couldn’t outrun it while sneaking either, and if they ignored it, it might just take one of them down.
His struggle was obvious to his companions.
Narcha, however, seemed to be able to understand his concern. She pointed at herself and at the ground. ‘I’ll watch our back.’
Eiwin frowned with worry, but Narcha’s expression made it clear she wasn’t putting this argument up for discussion. The younger woman nodded.
Reinhart also had no reason to protest against the idea, seeing as it didn’t involve putting himself in the way of danger.
With a quick plan settled, Red pointed the general direction of the lizard to Narcha. The warrior nodded in understanding, her hand hovering over her saber’s hilt in preparation.
As the group got ready to move, however, something happened.
A low groaning sound started to rise in the room. It was easy to miss, and yet it stood out like a sore thumb in the silent chamber between the rumbling of thunder.
Red had a bad premonition.
He looked over at the strange lizard. The creature had raised its head ever so slightly, and the flaps under its neck were growing bigger as it released the strange sound out of its mouth.
Red felt the air around the chamber change as all the lizards shifted. Then, all at once, they turned their heads to stare directly at the group with their milky white eyes.
Reinhart gritted his teeth. “Fuck.”
Without the need for anyone’s prompting, they all turned around and ran. The lizards all spurred into action at once, charging straight at the group.
The first lizard was very close to them, and it was already swinging its claws at the Narcha, who was guarding the rear. She barely had time to pull out her saber to block the blow, as sparks flew out of her weapon upon impact.
The woman got ready to counter-attack, but no sooner had the first lizard attack that another one stepped over it and clawed at her. Narcha was forced to keep her weapon up to parry yet another blow as they ran.
“I thought they couldn’t see!” she screamed.
No one had the time to respond to her.
“Red, step back!” Eiwin ran ahead of the boy.
Red didn’t complain, letting her take the lead. A lizard was quick to step up to her, using its tail like an enormous whip to strike at the woman. Eiwin was quick to jump out of the way, and Reinhart used his sword to cut the monster’s tail as it swept by.
The creature didn’t even seem to notice its appendage being cut off, and curiously enough, no blood spilled out of its wound, and the monsters looked unabated by the injury. The group didn’t have the time to examine it, though, as they focused on running away.
“Weave through the pillars!” Red said.
The creatures were closing in by the second, and if they stayed in the open, they would definitely be overwhelmed. Eiwin, who was leading the way, did as the boy suggested.
She dashed behind a pillar, impeding a few of the creatures that tried to surround them. It was but a drop in the bucket, though, and a few moments later more of them had run around the obstacle and were attacking the group.
Eiwin and Reinhart did their best to clear their way forward, but these creatures were not normal monsters. No wounds or lost limbs seemed to dissuade them from attacking their targets, whom they seemed capable of sensing to a very precise degree, considering their lack of vision.
Their progress completely stopped as the group put themselves in between a few ruined pillars and focused on keeping the monsters at bay. It became clear, though, that this position was untenable.
“Shit!” a curse came from Narcha.
Red turned around and saw a large stain of blood flowing down the woman’s shoulder. She was keeping the most monsters off of them, but eventually one of them managed to use one of its large claws to scratch her shoulder.
Narcha hissed in pain, but didn’t falter, using her sword to beat them back. More continued to move forward, though, replacing its incapacitated brethren as they climbed over their bodies. The only thing that seemed to keep the group from being completely overwhelmed was the fact the room wasn’t wide enough for so many enormous monsters to move at once.
Red frowned. He was doing his best to shoot at the lizards, but his arrows didn’t seem to affect the creatures.
“Use the talisman!” Reinhart screamed at Red. “In the pouch on my waist!”
Red rushed at him without hesitation. The man had abandoned all semblance of skill and was swinging his sword wildly, battering away any lizards that reached for them. The boy pulled out the knight’s pouch from his waist without hesitation, spewing its items in the ground.
He was quick to spot the talisman he was looking for in the midst of the unidentified ones.
‘He has another shield talisman?’
Red didn’t have time to confront the man about it, though. He reached for the talisman and hurried to activate it.
He shouted at his companions. “Close to me!”
They all followed his words. Then, a few seconds later, a translucent shield formed around the group. The lizards didn’t stop their attack, though, but their claws continued to scratch at the barrier without causing much damage.
Red knew from experience, though, that it was a matter of time before the shield was destroyed with so many monsters attacking it. He looked over at his companions, noticing that even Eiwin had been wounded in the conflict. A large bleeding scratch was running down her arm, though she seemed to suffer her pain in silence.
Just as they were considering their next steps, though, the lizards suddenly froze and stopped attacking. Then, all at once, the creatures started to step back, moving away from the group and their shield before stopping once more and staring at them with their blind eyes.
“What… What are they doing?” Narcha asked in between her heavy breaths.
The answer was soon made clear, though. A lizard stepped forward from its brethren, and Red was quick to recognize its fluctuation. It was the monster that had spotted them.
The creature walked right up to their shield, and it seemed to be examining the humans hiding behind it.
“What is it…” Narcha trailed off as something started to happen to the monster.
Its milky white eyes bulged out of its head, more than doubling in size. Veins popped out of the orbs as it continued to grow before, a few seconds later, they exploded in a shower of blood. Then, beneath the gore of its now empty eye sockets, something stirred.
Small red tentacles started to emerge from where its eyes once had been, dripping blood and pieces of flesh along their length. Each of the dozens of tentacles seemed to move individually, but they all reached for the invisible barrier protecting the group.
They slithered around, smearing it with blood, as if searching for an opening to no success. Then the group heard the same low droning sound that had alerted the lizards to their presence, but this time they noticed it wasn’t coming from the creature’s mouth.
Rather, it was coming from inside its head.