Just as the voidling wrapped itself around the spare suit the starfish rammed into the trailing portion. Continuing on it felt only a slight friction though apparently that was enough. However the thing was gripping onto nothing at all, it was disrupted by the starfish passing through. As it tried to yank the suit back, it instead pulled itself fully into the haven. As it did so the haven closed in a flash and the starfish collided with the new rent. Instead of trying to continue through Ozzy had the starfish grip the edges and morph into another plug.

Inside the haven the voidling was thrashing about while spewing energy in every direction. The suit, haven’s domain, squares, and the air itself were all anathema to it. Ozzy couldn’t help but visualize someone burning alive as they fought for their life and hesitated. Which was of course a mistake. Before he had a chance to take advantage of the situation the voidling turned into a whirlwind and shredded the suit it had gripped into useless chunks. After which the thing swirled in place, seeming to turn itself inside out. The result was odd. Like there was a bubble between itself and the air. The new surface was not reacting with the air in which it was suspended. The entire reason Ozzy had thought to bring the monster onto his own turf was now being negated with barely any effort. Well likely some effort as it would have already done this otherwise.

Before Ozzy could fully evaluate the change in situation it twisted itself and zeroed in on the suit currently surrounding Ozzy. His eyes shot open as wide as they could as it flashed toward him. With it a bare meter in front of the suit Ozzy was able to slash down with both spears while also jumping to the side. Another space rending screech escaped the voidling as it slipped past him. Two lines spewing energy now adorned its sides. On one he could see it begin to squeeze together and the energy fountain diminish. Since it was busy for a moment Ozzy took a chance. Copying his suit in front of himself he dashed toward the edge of the haven. Behind him the voidling finished repairing the gashes. Interestingly they weren’t entirely gone. There was still an obvious line where the damage had been. Suggesting this capability was energy intensive.

Again it flashed toward the suit though it zigged and zagged as it advanced. Not only left and right but up and down at random intervals as well. Instead of attempting to attack Ozzy gripped the suit and sent it flying in the opposite direction to his escape, where the voidling followed. Reaching the edge of the haven Ozzy stopped and contemplated his next action. He knew this wasn’t going to end if he simply left. Vonder had made it clear that once the likely similar being had their scent it had followed them through havens. Only leaving them alone once it had been distracted by their mentor. Technically it was focused on the suits but something told Ozzy leaving the haven would change that. Even if it didn’t chase him Ozzy didn’t want to give up everything he’d worked to create so far. Instead he turned around and leaned back, slipping out the back of the suit grabbing himself and setting his body down on the underside he then focused on the suit he’d thrown. The voidling had already reached it and sliced it in half. That didn’t stop him from retaliating though. Attacking back he found that his enemy had apparently been paying attention so far. Three different attacks in a row it evaded and retaliated.

The attacks with this new form of void were strangely familiar. It could form spikes, tentacles and blade-like appendages. Similar to his own initial abilities with domain. Though they all seemed to be weaker than the voidling in its natural form. While in its raw state it had been able to slice the initial suit into bits with less effort than it was currently expending to only leave large gashes or hack off parts of it and dodge. It was odd the things that Ozzy’s mind picked up on while in a life or death struggle with an embodiment of the void. His reaction time and capabilities were suffering because of it. Returning his focus to the exchanges going on between the upper half of his suit and the voidling he fell into a rhythm of avoiding strikes while meting out at least as much damage as he received.

Evading was made so much easier by not needing to plant the suit's feet or push against the ground in any special way. He hadn’t fought professionally but even in his limited experience he’d had to learn some basic footwork to adjust his position without rolling an ankle. Now he could simply jerk the construct about in exactly the way he wanted without having to prepare beforehand. Though the voidling could do the same. It seemed to be more nimble and had a quicker response time. Which should mean it would do more damage, but he was working hard to make up for that in other ways. It appeared the voidling was driven more by instinct and emotion than any intelligence or cunning. Its movements were rash and violent which was dangerous but predictable. Even the fact that it had a more three dimensional view of the world and would attack from almost any angle didn’t help it much.

The attacks it made were singular and telegraphed by its twitching observations. After each one it stopped and evaluated his position before moving onto another. It was also easily thrown off when he attacked causing it to pause before dodging and then observing again before attacking. Ozzy was slowly able to start pairing evasions with a followup attack in a single smooth motion. In a few instances he was even able to layer in a second or third swipe before it could respond. All of this gave him a quick succession of reprieves in which he could plan ahead.

While he was getting a hit in here and there the damage he was doing was quickly sealed. There was energy spewing out before each wound could be closed. Yet the miniscule amount was like trying to empty the ocean with a spoon. He couldn’t even tell if the voidling was diminishing even the tiniest bit. They would be at this for an eternity, possibly longer if it kept up at this rate. Ozzy needed a method to expose it to the elements for a prolonged amount of time. Before it had wrapped itself in the protective bubble it conjured it might have been difficult to pin down and subject it to anything. Yet this substance was able to react with both the voidling’s body, and physical objects both. When hitting the surface the voidling inside was jostled around like a melted ice pack.

Stolen novel; please report.

Ozzy took a bit longer to flesh out his plan. Evading, attacking, and thinking through his options before repeating the process again. Finally coming to a decision he reached out with his domain. All while still doing his best to contend with the voidling he also tightened his will around a tree on the underside. Making a few angled slices low on the trunk he pulled the entire thing toward himself. Inspecting his work and making a few more cuts to improve the tip he hefted the giant wooden spear topside at a specific point. He’d chosen the point as it appeared to be the spot the voidling was least likely to see. Slowly moving the tree higher and closer he felt the branches brush the top edge of the haven.

He wanted to pause and take a break, his mind felt bowed and bent under the strain of it all. Fighting can already tax the mind to breaking with the snap decisions required. Lifting the largest thing he had ever attempted before and keeping it hidden in the enemy's blind spot was also difficult. Doing them both at the same time was taxing him to his limits. Finally getting the tree into position he lined up his shot and waited. Letting his current attack finish and the voidling to dodge he still waited. Once the voidling finished its evasion and twitched twice to indicate it was observing he flung the tree at the monstrosity’s center of mass.

Whatever method of sight this creature had it was eventually able to react to the trunk. Twitching itself upside down it froze in place for a moment. Even if it didn’t the reaction was too late, before that moment ended the trunk had already collided with the protective surface and like a freight train hitting a horse drawn cart, was continuing on to the ground unimpeded. As the trunk pushed the unprepared creature into the ground it squashed out like a water balloon hitting pavement. Unlike a water balloon on pavement the voidling didn’t retract our bounce back up as the tree trunk speared through it, then still continued into the dirt of the square below. There was a frozen slice of time in which the impaled creature began to spew energy in every direction, but made no move or reaction. Then came a screeching wail that made the last one seem like a squeak. It continued on and grew in strength until the entire haven felt like it was vibrating itself to pieces.

Ozzy recalled his domain to himself, having needed to send the entirety with the tree just to lift it, and in turn lifted himself from the ground. Yet the shaking didn’t lessen. It wasn’t the ground, but space itself that was conducting these vibrations from the voidling. The power and pitch of the whine ticked up and up at a blistering pace. Ozzy couldn’t tell if he was breathing in or out anymore. It was also becoming difficult to breathe as the air began to feel more viscous than water. As if the pitch had reached some frequency that allowed gasses to become a non newtonian fluid. At some point his eardrums had burst, though at first he couldn’t tell. Only a dribble of warm fluid leaking out made him realize he couldn’t hear the noise any longer. That didn’t stop him from feeling the vibration in his chest and still not being able to breathe though.

Ozzy began pulling himself toward the top of the haven, unsure exactly what he was going to do. Maybe pull the tree out and throw the unknown and incredibly dangerous being back out of his haven. Before he could cross over the horizon the whine suddenly wound down in a few seconds as if someone had hit the off switch on a motor. Returning his focus to his suit he saw the tree still speared into the ground. There was also the protective shell still impaled to the ground. Yet the interior of it no longer contained the voidling. The surrounding dirt and the tree itself didn’t appear damaged enough to have absorbed the entire creature. Without the voidling holding them together each and every gash Ozzy had been able to put in the protective layer was now open wide. So there wasn’t even a good indication of which direction the thing had gone.

Scanning the haven he started at the two rents and found his plugs still intact. Following along the edge he couldn’t see any indication of another hole poked through the membrane. Not on the horizon and not above the squares. He even checked the underside despite doubting it would have gone that direction. There wasn’t a single new rent in the membrane of the haven. He checked it all a second time with a finer tooth comb just to be sure. If he was being honest it was because he was hoping it was gone. There was a hopeful thought as to whether it hadn’t just expired already, but he doubted that was the case.

Resigning himself to the now almost certainty it was still somewhere hiding, waiting for him to make a mistake he started checking the squares themselves. Starting with the underside as he was currently hiding out there himself. None of the quadrants contained a single indication that the voidling had traveled down. Returning his attention topside he began his usual method and checked the empty field first. Then the garden and Grove. Finally checking his house he still didn’t see the voidling. What he did find was a small hole in the side facing where he had speared it into the ground.