Chapter 168: The Fear!

『"Paralysed."』

The cave walls were rough limestone, slick with moisture, and covered in formations that must have taken millennia to develop. Everywhere, the smell of death lingered.

Amara moved carefully, testing her weight with each step she took. The deeper she went, the colder it felt.

She lifted her blade overhead, using its dim glow to examine the walls and floor of the tunnel. Blood spatter stained the walls, while drag marks led deeper into the cave.

Everyone good? Sophia’s voice echoed in her mind.

Western tunnel is clear so far, Amara replied. Lots of evidence of activity. This is definitely the nest.

Eastern’s the same, Ethan thought. Found what looks like a sleeping area? Bones arranged in a circle, almost like bedding. This thing has been here a while.

Coming down the central path, Meredith reported. She raised a hand, signaling Raj to stop. Raj, stay close. I’m picking up vibrations ahead.

Copy, Raj’s mental voice was filled with tension.

Amara continued deeper, the cave narrowing until her shoulders nearly brushed both walls.

She ducked under a low overhang, and when she straightened on the other side, she found herself in a larger chamber. It was a gallery of horrors.

Bodies, or what remained of them, had been arranged along the walls like a morbid pantry.

Some were fresh enough to be recognizable as human. Others were desiccated, mummified by the cave’s chilling temperature.

In the center of the chamber lay a pile of bones representing dozens of victims accumulated over God knows how many years.

I think I found its storage, Amara reported, keeping her mental voice steady despite the nausea. Multiple victims. I’m counting at least twenty distinct remains... no survivors...

Jesus, Hiro’s voice came through. This thing’s been killing for years.

Decades, probably, Meredith corrected. Wendigos are patient hunters. They can go months between feeding if necessary, but when they find a good hunting ground, they stay.

Amara was about to respond when something moved in the darkness beyond her sword’s limited radius of perception.

Fast. Too fast to be human.

She spun, bringing her blade into a defensive guard. There was nothing there, at least nothing she could see. But she’d heard and felt it. The displacement of air. The scrape of claws against stone.

Contact, she thought urgently. Something in the west with me. Moving fast. I can’t get a visual.

Hold position, Meredith commanded. I’ll try to pinpoint your location. The cave seems to be interfering. Too much open space. Not enough solid ground for me to track through.

The sound came again, this time from behind her. Amara spun, cutting through the space where she’d sensed movement.

Her blade met resistance, carving through something that shrieked in rage and pain. Whatever it was vanished into the deeper darkness of a side tunnel she hadn’t noticed before.

Hit it, Amara reported, her heart hammering. Definitely drew blood. It retreated into a side passage.

Fall back, Ethan thought immediately. Don’t chase it into unknown territory.

Agreed, Meredith confirmed. Everyone converge on Amara’s position. We hunt this thing as a team.

In the central passage, Raj moved carefully behind Meredith, his body making the already tight passage feel claustrophobic.

Water dripped from the stalactites overhead, each drop striking stone with an echo that sounded wrong. Raj flinched anyway, even knowing it was only water.

Raj, you’re breathing too loud, Sophia’s voice chided gently in his mind. Try to calm down.

Easy for you to say, Raj thought back.

Ok, that’s fair.

Meredith had stopped ahead of him, her hand pressed against the cave wall, eyes closed in concentration as she used her earth sense to map the area.

"There’s a larger chamber about thirty meters ahead," she said aloud, her voice traveling through the confined space. "Multiple passages leading off it."

"What does that mean for us?" Raj asked.

She opened her eyes and glanced back at Raj. "It’s a good place for an ambush if the wendigo’s smart enough to use it. We’ll split off from here. Take the left."

"Cool," Raj muttered. "I’m definitely not scared or anything." Then he moved deeper into the tunnel and braced himself.

As he navigated the darkness, stepping into a larger space, something he couldn’t see moved ahead.

Something rushed him at full speed, accompanied by sounds of chittering and wet rasp that made Raj’s blood run cold.

"Guys!" Raj shouted, both vocally and telepathically. "I think I found it! Or rather it found me... GUYS!"

The wendigo slammed into him with incredible force.

Raj barely got his arms up before the creature crashed into him. The impact drove them both backward, slamming him into the cave wall hard enough to crack the stone.

Thanks to the emerald glow spilling from his Breastplate, Raj caught a glimpse of it in the split second before impact.

It was an emaciated humanoid with a hunched frame wrapped in pale, stretched skin so thin it was almost translucent. Blue veins crawled beneath the surface like tangled roots, and a cut that refused to heal was across its arm.

It landed in a crouch several meters away, its pale blue eyes burning in the darkness. The creature didn’t attack immediately. It simply stared, as though sizing him up.

Then its lips peeled back as it screamed, the sound echoing through the cavern before the wendigo charged forward again.

Rather than dodge, Raj planted his feet. "Come on," he said, lowering his center of gravity as he waited until the last possible second.

The wendigo’s jaws snapped down on Raj’s shoulder as razor-sharp, jagged teeth tore through his tactical gear only to meet hardened skin.

"I don’t think so." Raj drove his fist straight into its jaw, launching the wendigo across the chamber where it bounced off the cave wall before crashing to the floor.

"Guess Amara was wrong about dodging." He rolled his shoulder. "This isn’t so ba—" Before he could finish, the wendigo was already back on its feet.

***

Amara followed the narrow tunnel until the passage widened into another open space. Near a bend that led into what she thought was another tunnel, a strange purple glow spilled across the cave walls.

She slowed, her heartbeat already spiking. As she approached carefully, she assumed the source of the light was some kind of crystal formation within the cave.

It wasn’t.

At the center of the chamber floated a sphere roughly the size of a basketball.

Violet light seeped from within it while dark clouds churned beneath its surface as though something was trying to claw its way out.

The instant she saw it, her breath caught, her knees locked, and every instinct screamed at her to run. But she couldn’t. It wasn’t courage that kept her rooted. It was terror.

I found something else...

Tears welled in her eyes without warning. She couldn’t blink. She could barely breathe.

I...

Nothing came after that as paralyzing fear overwhelmed her thoughts.

Her fingers refused to tighten around Angel’s Bane and her legs would not obey her. The longer she looked at the violet sphere...

...the more overwhelming the fear became.