Requiem 14

“SPARK-EATER! SPARK-EATER! SPARK-EATER!“

The demon had lost all semblance of intelligence now and was screaming that single title over and over again as it tried to catch up to Apexus. They had long stopped their slow prowling and now the nightmare of sewn skin and sickle-legs rushed after Apexus, who himself was moving at the best sprint he could muster.

While a human could have easily outpaced them, the force with which their heavy bodies moved would have crushed numerous bones in a regular person’s body upon impact. Apexus could feel the entire cave shake when he took a sharp turn and the demon rammed into the wall behind him, before using his countless sickles on his top side to crawl along the wall just as he was crawling along the floor.

The hundred-fold staccato chased Apexus as he kept as much of a distance between them as he could. His earlier estimate about the creature being slower had proven true, albeit it wasn’t quite as easy as that. While Apexus was doubtlessly quicker on his feet, the demon's speed was consistent no matter where they passed. As the chimeric slime had found out in the last few minutes of being chased and almost getting caught, while heading through a part too shallow to properly utilize his legs.

“SPARK-EATER!” if the vibrations and tiny, individual steps hadn’t tipped Apexus off he was still being chased, the ceaseless screams certainly did. Apexus wanted to understand what had caused this shift in behaviour, this particular phrase to be hurled at him over and over. However, making up a plan to win this seemed like a priority.

Apexus wasn’t just running away to escape those sickles, although that was certainly a good reason to keep up the distance. In the first place, he had chosen flight over fight because he figured that the injuries the demon had already sustained would soon take their toll. However, there were no signs of the abomination minding any of the black, crusted patches or it slowing down because of them. Occasionally they would crack open, causing a bit of black liquid to trickle, evaporate and instantly seal the wound again.

The higher up they got, the quicker the wounds seemed to close. Something that Apexus noted along the ever withdrawing amount of moss around them.

While Skinwalker had no high regeneration capabilities, it was tremendously good at the initial sealing of its wounds. Stamina loss was prevented to the largest part. As such, Apexus initial strategy of just waiting until the bleeding caused the Skinwalker to die of exhaustion, was out. Now, the slime was trying to think of an alternative strategy.

‘Could try to lure it out…’ the slime thought, but immediately dismissed that strategy. Not only did he not know what he could achieve outside better than in here, Gizmo had made it sound like this demon was bound to these caves. While that opened the option of fleeing, Apexus didn’t want to take that either. While the wounds weren’t as useful as Apexus had hoped, they were still better than fighting this thing when it was uninjured. Apexus was pressed for time already anyway.

As such, Apexus turned away from the way that would have brought him back up towards the entrance and instead into some depths that weren’t part of the demon’s lair. Soon, stone made way to glowing moss again. The softness causing both of them to become a tad slower.

There had to be something else down here, something that Apexus could utilize if he was smart about it. Where there was moss, there was humidity, there had to be water. Where there was water, there were lakes.

All he had to do was find it.

A search that sent him through yet another shallow passage. Slipping in as quickly as he could, he used as much of his distance as he could to avoid the sickle claws. The screams, however, were right behind him as he rushed through stone above and moss below.

“SPARK-EATER! SPARK-EATER! SPARK-EATER!“ The Skinwalker immediately flattened down and practically flowed into the gap in the stone like a living puddle. Apexus would have doubled his efforts to claw through, if he had any more speed to give. Hands tore out moss in a panicked fashion that didn’t allow for the earlier guilty conscience about wasting food. The sickles were already ripping at his soles, slicing down to the bone, threatening to engulf even more of him.

Then he grabbed some sort corner in the darkness before him. Pulling into the extension of the cave, Apexus fell down a drop and then rolled uncontrollably. A sharp slope, disorienting him completely, was exactly the thing he needed. Even though it wasn’t pleasant, this created distance once again. Distance that the Skinwalker didn’t regain, naturally choosing to remain in control of its own movements, as it spilled out of the crack in a controlled and secured fashion.

Apexus came to a halt on the soft moss and hurriedly oriented himself. In the soft glow of the pale plants, he saw it. A lake. A pretty big lake, especially considering how far underground it was. It seemed sufficiently deep, and the humid air condensed on the ceiling, allowing stalagmites to form.

Apexus felt nostalgic at the sight, was it so close to his birthplace, although undoubtedly a different chamber. He didn’t have the time to revel in this though, as the Impreh-class demon was immediately on his tail. “SPARK-EATER!” it bellowed with utmost contempt as it charged once more as quick as its physique allowed.

Backing off into the shore of the lake, moss hastily making room for the water, Apexus let the Skinwalker approach. The abomination only saw the target it had to destroy before it could grow to become an even greater threat. Towering up high it attempted to slice at Apexus. The slime dodged to the side. The demon stretched its body in a slamming downwards motion, lead by the pitch-black centre of its sewn-together body.

An attack that Apexus met with literally open arms. Embracing the screeching monstrosity, the chimeric slime held against the attack. His head and chest vibrated under the impact, but the core surface of the Skinwalker had none of the sickle-legs. Which made this anything but a secure position, as there was still a myriad of them digging into his waist and upper legs. Also, they weren’t standing still, the demon immediately tried to free himself.

Locked into a raw power struggle, one for which both creatures were poorly equipped too handle, Apexus dropped all tension in his body and simply let his mass drop towards the lake. The large monsters disturbed a serenity that had been untouched for years, as they slammed into the surface, causing every last creature inside the lake, from the smallest insect to the biggest axolotl, to scramble from their resting position and go somewhere this source of turmoil wasn’t.

Apexus dragged the two of them along the shallow water, into the deeper parts of the lake. His legs became unusable for this soon, all slime was scrapped of the bones by the endless scratching of the sickles. By then, they were deep enough that Apexus could utilize his wings for a single beat, propelling them yet deeper.

Water fully surrounded them, hot, heavy, and the flat body of the Skinwalker was not prepared to deal with a liquid environment. If he had been sprawled out, maybe he could have floated, but all clumped up and with Apexus attached to him, they instead stuck to the floor like a stone.

And the wounds that Apexus had observed sealing so quickly, they all opened again. The black vapour rising of the wounds as they quickly crusted over had tipped Apexus off that the demon’s blood simply evaporated quickly once exposed to the air, leaving only the hard bits to seal the wound. That this effect had accelerated where there was less moisture in the air was the final piece that had told Apexus that proper, liquid water, would cause the crust to liquify again.

Not just that, but the demon was clearly not designed to exist under water. Even though the same could be said about Apexus’ current shape, at least he had experience with this environment. Most importantly, however, water hindered quick movements.

Apexus once more began to flow around the black centre of the demon’s body. On land, that move would have carried the risk of getting thrown off the thrashing abomination again mid-engulfment. Now, however, with their combined weight pressing them into the lakebed, that was no worry. Doubly so, since the Skinwalker was laying on his side, confused and crumpled together, instead in the flat state that allowed it to rise up quickly.

That didn’t mean that Apexus was safe. In a desperate throw of motions, the demon tried to writhe its body around the slime. Its inexperience with water was what saved the digesting blob the most pain. The Skinwalker tried to move in a spread-out way, to cover as much in one move as possible. That worked through air, but in water it created an enormous amount of resistance against itself. It only accelerated the process of getting tired out from blood loss.

It screamed still in the water, gargled sounds, coming from airless lungs. Empty eye sockets flared with red light. Even as Apexus engulfed the smooth black skull, the creature continued to scream. The words were gone, but the intent shifted, from anger to panic. Endless panic. Right up until the demon died.