Saya was sure someone was lurking in the dark. She adjusted the glasses that had begun to slip from her nose and with a quivering voice she again repeated the words that had begun to drive her party crazy: “Something isn’t right.”
Ayaka exploded. “Something isn’t right, something isn’t right—of course, something isn’t right, we are almost a hundred meters underground in a dungeon filled with monsters, it completely dark, completely silent and we haven’t come across a single monster in ages! The place is beginning to give me the creeps and I’m also getting bored.”
Ayaka’s black hair gave off a purple sheen against the light of the glowing sphere that hovered around her to illuminate the way. Despite her defiance and talk of boredom, it had only been an hour or so since their last fight and it was not an easy one—an ambush had injured pretty much everyone in the party, Ayaka having a gash that ran along her upper left shoulder before ending just midway across the top of her breast. The bandage covering the gash had gone muddy in coloration. Mana was scarce this deep into the labyrinth so unless the injury was life-threatening, healing spells were kept to a minimum, and health potions were a commodity. They would have to return to the surface to regenerate their mana, but at this point, it had already gotten late so if they were to use their teleport crystals, it would be a one-way trip and the whole party, bar Saya, were motivated by how much new ground they had covered.
Saya was one of the ones lucky to not have a scratch but the doubt within had sunk deeper than any wound. But perhaps she wasn't lucky as she now was at the front of the group, being uninjured and a lot more able to fight than some. So if anything did leap out from the darkness, she would be the most likely to get hit.
Their party consisted of seven all-female magia possessors or as the townsfolk liked to call them witches. Women, after all, are the only ones who can wield magic since its introduction into the world eons prior. Not a single biological man has ever been known to be able to produce not even a spark, so soon as society began to form, a matriarchy was all but inevitable. That isn’t to say that all women possessed great powers—some could barely light a candle with fire magic while others could scorch entire villages with just a click of her fingers. Why such imbalances exist is unknown, some speculating that it was down to where said woman was born or what color of skin they had, justifying segregation and sometimes murder despite there being no correlation whatsoever.
Saya remembered being pushed around as a kid for being one of the only dark kids in the magical academy—the aforementioned Ayaka being one of her bullies. So when she proved herself in both her studies and practicals, it shocked not only the children but some of the adults who should have known better but decided that yes, we shall be racist because why not?
The sound of a stone cracking against the ground reverberated from the darkness ahead. Everyone in the group tensed up and stopped moving, their breath held to listen in ahead. Saya, being the closest to the border of the dark void of the cavern, stepped back, her feet shuffling against the rock below, causing the girl nearest to her, an aqua specialist called Kalie, to grab her shoulder to prevent her from making any more noise.
Another sound, this time of slow deliberate footsteps, approached from the darkness. The group readied themselves, wielding their swords in preparation for the battle to come. Each step sent a rush of adrenaline through the witches, their arms shaking more and more as whatever it was coming closer and closer.
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Then, an arm reached out from the darkness, seemingly human in construction but missing a key vital aspect of anatomy: skin. Red flesh separated by slightly grayed fat spun cords around thin limbs and appendages, a striking flash of crimson in an otherwise dull cave. Everyone’s eyes immediately locked to the arm before the rest of the being came into sight. A person, without their skin, stood naked before them, a man it seemed from the shape of his torso and thing that dangled between his legs.
Saya felt her stomach churn as the smell from the man perforated her senses and she fell back from him.
The aqua witch Kalie was less afraid, immediately raising her sword and slicing at the man without a single moment to think. The blade glinted in the light as it cut the arm clean from the humanoid creature, spraying no blood as it careened in an arc and hitting the witch clean in the face with an audible squelch. At the moment of impact, the arm disintegrated, becoming small chunks of muscle that shot out in every direction. Saya was almost hit by a chunk, it slapping against the wall just beside her. No one else got hit by coincidence and as they soon would learn, by sheer luck.
After everyone lowered their shields to protect themselves from the flying debris, they found the creature standing stock still with his mouth slightly agape. A single word exited his lips, “No...” which echoed in the now silent tunnel.
The next sound was a scream that ruptured from the aqua witch as she knelt with her hands reaching up to the Heavens above blocked by cold unassuming brick. Saya let out a yelp and scurried away from the witch like a dog after seeing Kalie’s eyes bulge out from her sockets and her skin turn a dark purple as her capillaries, veins, and arteries all expanded like a supernova to many times their original size and bursting, spraying geysers of blood until all parts of the witch erupted in an explosion of crimson, coating everything nearby in a thin coat of once was Kalie.
Saya was the first one to scream, wiping blood from her eyes and crawling back further away from the monster. The rest started doing the same, backing away from the creature as it limped towards them, trying to say something but failing to be heard over the fear. The leather armor that Kalie wore was splattered around the place in torn shreds that stuck to whatever surface they landed on, some too heavy to remain and peeling off like scabs. Iron-rich putrid air collected in the tunnel and soon anyone nearby could feel their stomach lurch.
Ayaka hoisted out her staff and spoke words whose meaning was long lost. A dark smoke formed before the group and shot towards the creature, who jumped out of the way, his one hand and two feet cracking into the walls and gripping it. Ayaka froze up: how much like a spider did this creature resemble, and she hates spiders. She recited another spell, this one a faster beam of light that crashed into the creature—at least it seemed to until she noticed that it had jumped onto the ceiling.
It’s too quick. Ayaka felt her body weaken as her mana had been almost totally drained from her. The other witches did not even bother to try and attack the beast, for fear and exhaustion held a stickier grip on them than the blood of their fallen party member.
The party made the silent collective choice to get out of there, each of them pulling their teleport crystals from their pouches which glowed green as they fumbled them in between their fingers.
Saya was one of the first to get a firm grip of the now blood-smeared stone that was warm to touch. However, before she could recite the spell to return to the surface, she saw the blood that had coated her fingers get drawn from her skin as if pulled by a strong gust or by gravity. Soon, what was once drenched in what remained of Kalie now was cleaned as it all was drawn into the fleshless creature that stood on the border of darkness, entering between the strands of muscle.
Soon, the tunnel was filled with flashes of bright light as each witch recited the spell and disappeared to the surface. Before she could finish, Saya had one last look at the creature and noticed something: the arm had grown back.
And there was an all-enveloping flash and the breeze of the chilly night air greeted her now sweat-soaked skin.