Terror in the Dark. (Solo)

The sands shifted underfoot as Faral flung his upper body backwards. The scythe like appendage skimmed the very edge of his mask and he felt the ranking vibration as his hands planted on the dune beneath his head and launched his feet forward. They hit a solid body and he felt it stagger as he pushed off from it, twisting through the air to land on all fours.

Farals prey screamed that all too familiar Hollow call. It filled the stillness of the perma-night and carried itself into the never ending dunes of Hueco Mundo. A void black tail, as long as Farals near 8ft body, and segmented like a series of exposed vertebrae flicked backwards and forth, the blade like tip cutting the air in anticipation.

The enemy moved, his insect-like frame darting forward and the mantis like fore-limbs thrust back for another bone-rending swing. Faral trusted his senses, he trusted his body, he could ‘see’ the Hollow in his mind. Unbeknownst to it he was being pinged by high frequency sound waves every ten seconds or so, the resulting waves carried back and translated into vague shapes which combined with his ability to feel rieatsu made for as close to sight as a blind creature would ever come. The swing came with a pulse of intent in the Hollows aura and Faral danced under it, slithering inches above the sand and rising up with a taloned hand he spun his attack into its chest.

It found flesh, he felt his claws met a surface and then the surface give way. Blood flowed down his wrist and gouts flicked into the air when he completed his turn and ripped his hand from the creatures body. He made ground but whatever advantage he thought he had gained the mantis Hollow didn’t share his sentiments. A limb struck him on the side and sent him bouncing and skittering across the white sands. Disorientation greeted him as he sought to get upright, a buzzing filled his skull and then he remembered himself. The scythe blade slammed into the sand where he had been moments before and Faral found himself rolling again. Skipping and darting between impossibly fast strikes without end.

He was being driven back, relentlessly and without mercy, and then he felt why; there were others waiting, just beyond the next dune. His head cocked at this new revelation while he planted a hand atop one of the blades and stabbed his tail toward his foe as he vaulted to safety. The edged tip struck home and retracted just as quickly casting more blood onto the ground.

A whistle filled his hearing, like an arrow being fired from a bow, and then he was being propelled through the air. He felt his body hit the sand then pass right through it and come to a stop on a harder surface. The air smelled damp here and the sound of his claws on the ground told him that he was lying on cold, unyielding rock.

A burst of sound filled the space from his malformed vocal words and he saw a tunnel and as the sound traveled, more and more intersecting pathways through the stone. It was a cave system, he thought, dragging his aching body upright.

His head snapped toward the entrance as a bladed limb probed through the sand. The fight for survival wasn’t over.

The plan came into being like a hot drop of metal on a surface of ice; it sparked and sizzled its way into unmoving rigidity, past worry and doubt without a second glance. Farals jaws opened and in a breath tore a chunk from the vanguard limb. He had no time to swallow his pound of flesh and as the stricken Hollow roared in pain and rage the blind Hollow skittered away into the warren of darkness around him.

He didn’t go far, a recess in the tunnel wall some ten feet from the entrance. The first ill thought steps into the black echoed off the rock. They’d taken the bait, now came the tricky part.

“I don’t like this Detar,” hooted a Hollow, pushing through the sand covered entrance behind the irate insectoid.

“Grow a pair, Jinta.” the last through was a hunched simian-esque shape, his mask a wide mocking grin with two drops of coal for eyes on its pure white surface. The Hollow gave a grunt as it took in the smallest of the three, a bipedal creature with no apparent arms, its legs had three long toes and another at the front that rose up and curved into a wicked edge.

“I want that Hollow…” the fury laid upon each word could have cut glass, the mantis Hollow, Detar, slammed a bladed limb into the rockwall to punctuate his point, where it sunk a few inches deep causing blood to ooze from the obvious bite mark on his forearm.

It was at that moment Faral stepped out into the half-light, his tail flicking behind him and its tip kicking up sparks where it grated against the tunnel wall. They saw him, their collective awareness flared with rietsu; rage, fear and a touch of hesitation. It was hard to determine who felt what, they were so close together that the signals intermingled. Still, he thought, at least one of them wouldn’t let sleeping dogs lie.

He thrust his arms out at either side of his body and sent a glass shattering screech ricocheting up the tunnel, its intent was clear; Come and get me. The Mantis returned his challenge and his two lesser comrades had little choice but to join the chase as Faral turned and slipped into the darkness beyond the weak light from the entrance.

The trick, he felt, was not to get too far ahead. Draw them in, tease them with the possibility of success. He let his footfalls ring loud, his voice sing like nails on a chalkboard. They were like beacons in his senses, creatures of instinct now; wolves on the hunt. All that mattered was the kill and the chase.

Had they noticed yet that he was leading them into the pitch black of the maze? He doubted it, they were tracking him by his reiatsu, like nightmarish bloodhounds. He lead them down side paths, down, up, left, right, so fast and so often until he was sure they were good and lost and then…

“Wait, Detar! Wait!” the small Hollow called out, his voice loud and oppressive to the ears in the womb of stone. “I can’t sense him anymore..” the haze of hunger slipped away and only the darkness greeted them.

It shouldn’t have had a weight, Halec thought, his knuckles pawing at the cold stone beneath them, but in this moment the sheer blackness pressed down upon him like gravity. It threatened to steal his breath away, to crush his mind while his senses screamed in terror at the lack of input.

All he could hear were the quiet shuffling of the other Hollow who had instinctively pressed themselves together, a primal urge that carried over from a time when humanity clung to each other in the trees against the dangers of the world.

“How do we get out of here…” Jinta said, the sudden appearance of sound made Halec flinch. The small Hollows voice was barely a whisper but it may as well have been a peel of thunder. No one had an answer, silence rolled out in response to the question.

“I think we came from…” Detar began, he could still feel the hot flow of blood coursing down his arm but their situation had brought some much needed clarity. He’d let his pride get the better of him, had allowed that damn Hollow to taunt and draw them in.  “This way,” he sniffed the air and whether because he wanted to believe it or fact, he was sure it smelled fresher. “Stay close.”

They moved in single file, Detar in the lead, followed by Halec and then Jinta who of them all was the most afraid. They shuffled forward one cautious step at a time with Halec being the link between front and back, one hand upon Detar and the other touching Jintas chest. Halec, for his part, wasn’t all that convinced the large mantis Hollow knew where he was going, but he had seen them right so far and many a time had saved them from the dangers of Hueco Mundo with his strength and ferocity. Trust was a hard thing to give in this Hollow-eat-Hollow afterlife but right now there was little choice.

The mantis swept his bladed arms forward slowly, letting them bump against the surface of the walls on either side, he sniffed occasionally, trying to maintain the slim hope that he could smell freedom ahead. It felt like they traveled for hours in the still darkness, they heard nothing, no sign that the Hollow who had led them here was around. Maybe, Detar thought as his right blade probed a turn in the path, he was just as lost as them. Alone and afraid, cowering in the black or fumbling for the light that he may never find. A foolish hope.

The attack came from nowhere and would have gone unnoticed if the hand upon Detars back hadn’t been snatched away. All that they felt was the brief disturbance of air and then heard a brief shocked exhalation of breath and then Detar and Jinta were alone. The small Hollow lost his cool then, he felt his heart thunder in his chest and the fight-or-flight took hold. He set off at a dead run to the gods knew where, just as long as he wasn’t there.

“Jinta!” the mantis bellowed but only the retreating sound of footsteps on stone answered.

Halec lay on his back, his blood a bath, and felt his mind slip beyond terror. First it had stabbed him in the throat, then it had tore off his arms, then his legs. He lay in the darkness, unable to scream, unable to move, unable to fight. His only remaining option was to die and he would. The Hollow never spoke as it mutilated him but the intent was clear; You’ll die together and not before.