The oppressive silence within the cave is shattered by a cacophony of unseen creatures outside, and I immediately shift my position with Virgil's dagger in hand. I don't know how to use it other than as a standard weapon, so I don't try, instead lowering myself in case the monsters are closer than they sound. As I crouch, poised for action, my senses attuned to the looming creatures, the strange, skittering noises grow ever closer. My heart pounds within my chest as Blodwyn accelerates to refill my chest of blood. In only a few seconds, my eyesight stabilizes, but my heart rate only continues to accelerate.

I bled until he was somewhat tired of fixing me up, careful not to send him too far into exhaustion just for this very reason.

With cautious steps, I edge toward the cave's entrance, my hand jerky from the blood loss with a dagger clutched in my left hand, its blade glinting with deadly promise. I dare not breathe, acutely aware of the fragility of this balance. Right now, they probably only have an idea of prey, not certainty. Some measure of surprise still remains. I peek at the film of flesh, our feeble shield against the encroaching peril. It shimmers like a gossamer veil with a light tremor from the sand that blows against it, attempting to bite into the flesh.

Against the wall, I ready the dagger to strike the second they step through the film, preparing Blodwyn as well.

"Let me know when it is punctured."

Blodwyn replies to me as we both shuttle Ether through our pores, the artifact hiding the presence of the substance with his Power. It's not just going to be vital in a fight; it will be required for stealth and survival in this hellish place.

Breakneck, Strugglers Defiance, and Release empower my arms for a quick fatal attack to begin the battle. I need to end this as fast as possible with as little noise as I can manage. If too much sand funnels into here, then we will have to immediately leave and find somewhere else to hide. And if these creatures fight for too long with me, more may come.

Arbalests wrap around both my ankles as I strain to hold Lily in my ruined right hand. The Colt does her part to help as the dark mucus of Petalshield leaves the petals on her frame and glues her to my hand. I smile as I see thorns build on the tip of the weapon, steadied for action.

The plan isn't to shoot her, as I doubt these creatures are worth devouring since they're in a pack. But Rosethorn can still be used as a weapon when things get all up-close and personal. Lily isn't an ordinary gun, and as such, I won't treat her as one.

A seething apprehension courses through my veins as I consider Virgil's unmoving form, but I cannot falter. His safety depends on whether or not I can kill these things before they ruin our hiding place. I focus my senses, drawing upon Ether and channeling it toward my ears in a desperate bid to glean insight into the coming force. Listen immediately garners new sounds and details that I was not aware of before.

And there, through the enhanced acuity of my senses, I recall the entities on the other side. It's the snake-like things that move in teams with spears. This isn't that bad. It could be that fusion of Crimlimes or the Bloodstained Whirlwind, after all. Their serpentine forms writhe and undulate along the sand that treats them as one of their own. Their inhuman movements make me hold my weapons with tighter grips as I consider how they may fight. Perhaps they work simply to overwhelm with numbers and odd movements?

I'll have to bank on that particular thought. It makes sense. I've sensed that few other things hunt in groups, especially not groups of a half dozen.

Time seems to stretch in the agonizing seconds before the first creature, whom at this moment I name a Slither, breaches the fragile film that guards our sanctuary. My grip on the dagger tightens as I lurk just beyond the entrance's corner, poised for the most opportune moment to strike. The chamber's darkness conceals my presence, but the scent of their foreign flesh stings my nostrils. It's like... a cooked snake. Yes. That's it.

However, I don't let anything distract my thoughts and creep slightly closer to the edge without making a single sound, thanks to Stealth.

As the lead Slither inches into the cave, the boundaries of its vile form breaking into our refuge, I seize the opportunity. My body springs forward with my left hand in front, and Lily quickly follows. The dagger in my hand finds its mark, plunging into the Slither's neck with a visceral thud. Using that force, I continue to bring the creature to the rocky ground as I simultaneously bring the Lily to bear, smashing its thorned barrel against the creature's skull with a force born of desperation.

The creature gurgles until the thorned steel cracks its skull open, leaking out a foamy liquid. A primal ferocity fuels my movements as I watch the Slither's form crumple and collapse, a life snuffed out in an instant. I withdraw the dagger, slick with its foul blood, and grasp the spear the creature once wielded with the sticky glue that Lily has expelled from Petalshied. It is a crude yet deadly weapon made of bone, sand, and blood that I slide along my wrist to use with Lily.

However, my actions have cost precious time as creeping tongues slap into the dust that is leaking through the film. Thus, I backpedal swiftly from the advance of the remaining Slithers. It seems they sent one ahead as a test or sacrifice. How brutal.

There are five of them now, their grotesque forms writhing and contorting with a ravenous intent. I stare into their faces possessing nothing but hunger. No sense. No reason. Only a ravenous want for satiation. They want to eat me. They want to devour me. My senses heighten even further as I feel my Ether ramp up even further with Blodwyn's help. With each heartbeat echoing into the cave of a growing Painsforge, I become more acquainted with their presence. Still, I hold back on forcing the skill too far, it is quite loud after all.

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I confront the remaining five Slithers, driven partially by the urgency to protect Virgil and partially by my own voracious hunger, finally bursting at the seams with the smell of blood that isn't mine. A creeping smile twists onto my lips as Blodwyn encourages me.

As the first of the creatures lunges at me, it slithers through the seeping red sands invading the cave that sting my heart. Too many grains are getting in. I need to do this faster. And so, I meet them at the entrance, one at a time. My movements are swift and precise, my senses honed to their pinnacle without Blodwyn's boned mask. Upon being attacked, I twist my neck with a deft maneuver, narrowly evading the creature's spear as it slices through the air. As I avoid the spear, I sense the Ether coalescing into peril in the depths of the Slither's gaping maw.

These things are all 3rd and 4th Sigileds. It is nothing too crazy, but still risky with their numbers, even if I wasn't injured. My gaze hardens on the back of its throat while the ones behind the first try to slide beside it to help.

Like a scene predicted, I watch a slimy Ether protrude from its throat before soaring through the air. I elude the venomous spittle that gushes forth from its mouth with the incomprehensible swiftness of Arbalest, pivoting my whole form in an instant.

With my heart pounding in my chest, I steady my right arm, and with a swift, fluid motion, I drive the stolen spear deep into the creature's mouth, the primitive weapon exiting the back of its scaly skull. The Slither convulses, its fire within extinguished in an instant.

The next adversary rushes towards me with spittle falling onto its weapon, but as I attempt to pull the spear free from the first to retaliate, I realize it's lodged too profoundly. I don't hesitate and cut my losses almost instantly. With a surge of determination, I wrench the weapon sideways, snapping it in the process.

Now armed with the broken spear, I use it to deflect the oncoming attack from the Slither. Their weapon crashes against the rocky wall as I press my advantage. Then, exploiting my superior speed, I sidestep the creature's advance and thrust the dagger I wield into its chin, driving it mercilessly into its brain. The third Slither, in total, falls in a twisted heap, its life snuffed out by my relentless assault.

Now, only half remain.

Unlike other humanoids, creatures with minds, these Slithers don't seem to mourn the fallen. They only lash out their tongues at me, the enemy that has slain half their number in a single moment. This is a point that causes me extreme frustration because my body is not at its peak.

My legs wobble from the excessive use of force as I stumble backward. I catch the cave wall on my right, preventing me from falling, but that gives the Slithers time to attack. And as I've stepped backward, more than one can fit into the entrance to strike at me.

Two spears scream for me, one to my head and another toward my side. Sidestepping with Arbalest, I dodge them both, only to feel a sudden threat on toward my back. I can almost feel the tip of the spear, likely thrown, entering my neck, but my Ether roars with instinct.

Cracks resound in my body as my whole body sinks to the floor, my body Shivering downward in an instant as a dozen Leashes extend from my body. They wrap around each Slither, harrying and impeding them as they surround me.

I catch eyes with one that I immediately assault. Flicking my wrist toward them as Virgil has taught me, I let loose the dagger, sinking it deep into its skull with a crackle of the air. Then, I flip to catch a spear in the trigger guard of Lily.

A brief contest of strength begins as I, unfortunately, learn that these things are not weak by any means. With the muscle to break a dozen men, this one attempts to force me to cower. And as I'm caught in this contest, a spear enters my back from the remaining one.

It digs the pike deeply, the edge peeking out from my stomach on the other side. As it does so, a flicking tongue prances about on my shoulder. Then, the spear is ripped out, only to shove another hole as I try to regain my footing.

I flinch with a muffled groan of pain before I tighten my jaw and force my heart to beat with power, ordering the forge to warm up. With that, a resounding echo bursts from my chest as Ether flows to my every muscle according to the pain. As the third hole is opened up in me, I win the strength contest, breaking the spear in half as I throw the Slither to the slide.

Whipping around my head, I grab ahold of the spear from my front, staring at the Slither. I peer deep into its eyes, searching for anything that resembles an actual soul, only to find nothing at all.

"Monster."

I grunt out the only appropriate word as I rip the spear out before promptly grabbing the snake-like humanoid's throat and shutting its mouth with my thumb. Unable to spit at me, I gore them with their own spear five times before their last partner stands.

Finally, I hobble on worryingly wobbly feet with dark spots in my gaze as I meet the final Slither. It gapes at me while I glare at it. And in this short pause, I finally look it up and down, discovering what it is. These things don't possess legs but have a single long tail extending to a human-like body made entirely out of scales. Two arms, one head, and two eyes. It's so bizarre, yet it fits this place created by Vincent so perfectly that I don't know how to feel.

Its jaw trembles momentarily, and I act, unwilling to see how it will attack me next. Arbalesting myself forward, I thrust Lily directly into its throat before it could even respond. But as I remove the creature's most vital artery, I realize that it put its hands up in a final act.

Not even another breath leaves the being as it crumples to the floor, bleeding out in seconds from Lily's thorns.

The weapon falls to my side as I comprehend what I just did.

I attacked first. They might have been peaceful. No, who am I kidding? These things are monsters, right? They don't look human at all.

But neither does Aniwye, Rou, Skyswain, or even Lennox. Even Silas isn't entirely human-looking with his dead flesh and fiery sockets.

Did I just murder someone? Did I just murder six people in my own extreme paranoia? No. I couldn't have. They didn't care for each other even when they died. Or... were they simply beset with such hunger that they had no choice?

"Hungry. Eat... please."

Blodwyn interrupts my internal commotion as his words bring my full attention to the flowing blood and red sands that are not hovering in the air. The dust made of tiny insects isn't attacking or burrowing into me or Virgil, and I know why. Blodwyn's Power is at maximum capacity right now, preventing any hint of our Ether from existing. Any indication of us being different from the rocks around us.

The newly made bodies, however, are free game. The sands tear into them, ripping off pieces of flesh with a crazed frenzy. The sights and smells make my stomach growl, not in disgust but instead hunger.

"Damnit."

I try to resist for a few moments, but as the bodies quickly turn to more sand, the insects shifting the flesh into more of their kind, I reach out, grabbing handfuls of snakemeat. I scrape off the insects with my hand before devouring the raw meat, unwilling to waste the time to cook it. If I were to, it would all be gone before the meat was even rare.

And like the monster I am, I chew through it ravenously, my hunger overpowering my distaste for uncooked meat and the meat of possible people.

My meal ends in less than a minute as my stomach is full, both of food and guilt. I sit on the shifting crimson sands beside Virgil as Blodwyn croaks to me.

"Thank. You. Power is tiring."

I nod to my artifact as I wrap one of the spears around my right arm, treating it as a makeshift weapon that points off the ruined hand like a claw. Using Virgil's dagger, I cut up the other four unbroken spears to make miniature javelins for throwing. Virgil's Colt is out of bullets, so the only ranged thing I can manage will be rocks and these javelins. And... I don't really trust the stones right now.

My eyes constantly check the broken film as more and more sand enters the cave, flowing in like water that then spreads out into the air. I glance down at Virgil when I'm finished preparing the weapons, and I lift him onto my back with a grunt. Blodwyn's on a timer. That Power, even with the sustenance from those Slithers as an extra umph, will run out.

He's a living being like all others, and as such, he has limits. Once he reaches them... we'll be open to the full dangers of the Wastes. I need to get us all out before that happens. Which means... I need to either climb that plateau or trek all the way to Lawless Lake.

Blood still leaks from my side and abdomen as my artifact only had enough spare Ether to stem the bleeding, not seal the wound. Regardless, they aren't a problem anymore for movement. Within an hour, the injuries should be wholly healed. Taking a deep breath and lifting Virgil's mask over his mouth while doing the same for my own, I step outside of the cave for the first time in what has to be a week or more.