After the disappearance of The Archiver, Atral’s eyes gravitate towards Nekesh. Or at least she thought, but suddenly Nekesh molded into the background and disappeared. Atral jumps in fear and quickly scans her area.
She just now realized the deadliness of her situation as she looks around and sees nothing but jagged stone walls.
“Anything but a cave.” she says with a whimper while her tail stands straight up in the air. This is one of Atral’s telltale signs that she is on high alert. Caves are the place Atral hates the most considering they are dark, damp, and most importantly… Filled with bugs.
Atral forcefully shakes her head back and forth to get rid of the thoughts of bugs out of her head since she has a deadly creature to escape from.
Looking around and using her night vision, Atral can see decently in the cave, but considering that Nekesh has the Stalk skill, Atral realizes her disadvantage. Her first step should be finding Nekesh-.
*CRONCH* *MUNCH* *MUNCH* *GULP*
The sound of obnoxious eating fills the cave as Atral looks over at her popcorn stash bought for her by the Distracted Snacker.
Atral recoils in horror as the angle at which the Ghoul is opening its mouth is nothing but horrifying. This is the first time she has seen something unhinge its jaw to a 170 degree angle.
‘Wait.’ Atral thinks to herself. ‘Isn’t this the best time to leave?’
Feeling a tinge of hope, Atral starts slowly backing away before deciding to straight-up sprint down the tunnels of the cave.
As the sounds of Atral’s clawed feet hitting the floor echo throughout the cave, Nekesh smiles widely after finishing the second bucket of popcorn.
‘Prey is always so stupid. It simply run away and find more prey. It better if find a village by following fleeing prey. Then, I devour all prey… YEESSSSSSSSSSSSSS.’ Nekesh cackles loudly in between each bucket of popcorn when he thinks about the mastermind plan that has been formulated.
Atral continues running aimlessly through the cave for the next 10 minutes.
Atral feels herself running out of breath quickly as she sprints through the desolate cave. Her heart is trying to jump out of her chest as it beats with intense fear and fatigue. Mentally Atral is trying to keep up but she has never experienced anything like this before.
Atral hears a ding come from her system, followed by another one shortly after but she is too afraid to check her system notifications at the moment.
She has long since stopped hearing the disgusting sounds of Nekesh devouring her popcorn and that puts the Dragonkin on high alert.
“I wanted to eat some of that too you bastard!” Atral says between each wheeze as she struggles to continue running forward.
Atral at least knows that she is heading towards the exit since she can sense a slight breeze coming from the direction she is running. That usually means the entrance of the cave, at least that is what Atral is hoping for.
As Atral feels her body starting to shut down from the constant running, she spots a light of hope.
A literal light can be seen at the end of the tunnel she is running down.
‘YES! I KNEW IT. ALWAYS FOLLOW THE BREEZE. TAKE THAT YOU UGLY FIEND I’M GETTING OUT OF HERE.’ Atral thinks to herself as she pumps her fist into the air.
Atral pushes her body to its ultimate limit and sprints through the tunnel faster than she has ever before.
‘The light isn’t that bright so maybe it is dawn or dusk… Yeah… That is definitely the reason!’
As Atral takes each step closer and closer to the light, her hopes die more and more as she feels despair setting in again.
Atral smells burning wood and she quickly realizes that she is running towards some sort of fire. She doesn’t lose all of her hope as she notices that the burning wood and light is coming from a campfire.
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Atral’s labored breaths echo throughout the cave, causing the people sitting around the campfire to stir awake. A human male jumps awake and looks down the dark cave as he hears the wheezing of a beast-like entity.
“Uhhhhh, Carl… I think something is coming.” Harry says as he shakes his partner awake. The old man named Carl slowly wakes up while his partner is constantly shaking him.
“I already told you, don’t wake me up unless a monster is trying to kill us.” Carl says with a groggy voice.
“A MONSTER IS COMING!” Harry yells with a loud voice as he hears the breathing coming closer and closer.
“I’m *wheeze*... not *wheeze*... a monster!” Atral yells, trying to convince her only hope to not have the wrong idea.
Carl and Harry look at each other. The dungeon adventurers have never had a beast that speaks Common, so it is most likely not a beast at all.
Atral finally makes it to you the two and they look at her in surprise.
“A Dragonkin? I thought barely any of you actually live on Iakos, let alone live in Nashville.”
Carl’s old voice is raspy and not very pleasant to most people, but his voice to Atral sounds like an angel from above.
“Look, I was brought here by The Archiver okay?! I have no idea where I am!”
Harry and Carl look at each other in confusion.
“The Archiver? Never heard of him.” Harry says as he scratches the back of his head in confusion.
“Also, what’s got you so spooked that you are sprinting around in the higher levels of the dungeon?”
Atral’s eyes go wide and her tail immediately stands up again.
“Fuck… WE NEED TO RUN!” Atral yells as she goes to pick up both Harry and Carl. A wicked cackle stops Atral in here tracks.
“Too late prey.” Nekesh says from above. Carl, Harry, and Atral all slowly look up at the ceiling and see a pale humanoid creature with a horrific face and elongated arms. Before any of them can react, Nekesh pounces from the ceiling and lands on Harry.
His grotesque maw is wide open when he pounces, and Harry is not quick enough to escape.
*SNAP*
The closing of Nekesh’s jaw is so loud Carl can feel his eyes ring from the sound. That isn’t what worries Carl however.
His partner for the last year and the man he considers his adopted son is now nothing but a pair of legs.
Nekesh’s mouth surrounded the entire upper half of Harry’s body, and cut him clean in half in one bite.
Nekesh doesn’t even chew his food and simply swallows his prey. Harry lets out one last petrified scream as he finds himself within the magical stomach of the Ghoul.
Tears well in Carl’s eyes and he grabs the short sword at his hip. The old man turned 73 not too long ago, and his 5’1 statue is not something that is intimidating. One thing Carl never lacked though is courage.
Carl draws the sword and runs at Nekesh, swinging it wildly as the old man has never really used it before.
Nekesh’s sadistic smile spreads further as his prey is simply delivering itself to him. What Nekesh doesn’t notice is the activation of a skill.
Atral rushes forward, her fear having washed away and only the feeling to protect welling up inside of her.
She sends the punch forward and connects right on Nekesh’s left side of his jaw. The Ghoul is completely caught off guard since he never expected his prey to actually fight back beyond Carl’s random sword swinging.
The punch is strong enough to where a sickening crack is heard from Nekesh’s jaw as he falls down to his side.
Nekesh starts crying and holding his jaw. Atral stands over him, a dangerous glint in her eye and an aura of confidence exuding from her.
“You will pay for your sins. I don’t know why you have to decide to be such a sick and twisted being but-.”
Atral’s monologue is cut short by Nekesh’s claws flying out and striking her chest. Atral completely did not expect the attack, having figured Nekesh gave up after one punch. Little did she know, Nekesh was not below feigning weakness to deliver a decisive blow.
Dark red blood flies into the air as Nekesh’s claws tear through Atral’s hide. She goes flying backwards and into the darkness of the cave.
Carl sees this and all of the anger and courage that once inspired him to fight back leaves his body. The force used to cause a Dragonkin much bigger than Carl to fly away puts the fear of death into Carl’s mind.
Nekesh gets up and with a now crooked smile looks into the darkness of the cave. Atral lays on the ground, gripping her chest and crying out in pain as he blood covers the floor of the cave.
Nekesh always enjoyed the thrill of the hunt, and he is not complaining that his prey is fighting back as it never had a chance against him in the first place. Nekesh slowly crawls up to Atral.
Atral sees Nekesh taking his time with his food and her eyes open wide, seemingly in fear of Nekesh. Her tail is wagging and smacking against the ground, Nekesh figuring that this was a response of fear from Atral.
Nekesh makes it right above the Dragonkin and unhinges his jaw once again. It has already healed from being broken earlier since Nekesh had devoured half a human earlier.
As Nekesh goes to swallow the upper half of the blue dragon woman, a metal staff suddenly appears in Atral’s hands and she brings it down onto the top of Nekesh’s head. The staff with a metallic box of popcorn on the top finds its mark and smashes down onto Nekesh’s skull.
Nekesh this time is the one to go flying and Atral quickly gets up afterwards. Nekesh also quickly recovers from being thrown off of Atral and hisses out in pain. Nekesh’s skull was broke open but is already starting to visibly heal.
Nekesh’s eyes burn in fury as his own trick was used against him. He never expected his prey to actually do a complete reversal from the fear-stricken prey from before. Nekesh however has survived in some of the most inhospitable places where everything simply eats each other, and Nekesh will not underestimate this ‘Atral’ again.
They face each other for the final time. This battle will lead to the death of one, while the other will get to survive and explore this new world.
“I will kill you. Not because I want to but because you are nothing but a beast… Plus you ate my popcorn!” Atral roars out as she rushes at Nekesh, staff in hand, ready to kill. Nekesh simply prepares himself, waiting for the opportune time to end this game of prey and predator.