Soulless Soul

Chapter 73: Still Fast

If the Savage Beast wasn’t in such pathetic condition, it wouldn’t have forced itself to hide and wait in the mud for unsuspecting prey to wander by. A predator of its status should have ruled the open trenches with terrifying confidence, taking no precautions whatsoever - it would have simply followed the others and gone hunting, tearing through the weak denizens of the lower sectors with its pack.

It had resorted to a subterranean, stationary ambush posture and it proved how desperate the beast was to get a meal to sate its failing vitals.

Sky was simply unfortunate to have wandered directly into its chosen hunting ground. For all the many winding corridors cutting through the massive stone structure, he had picked the one which had a wounded, starving horror that decided to bury itself. Pure, bitter fate which bypassed his tactical planning completely.

His mistake weighed on his mind as he stared down the towering arachnid, having relied too much on the scouting abilities of his Soul Clone while forgetting the one crucial detail which eventually led to his current predicament.

The clone may have been able to phase through walls and move without making a sound

but its senses weren’t significantly sharper than those of an ordinary Awakened human being.

It was weightless.

It was completely inaudible. An entity made up of pure, detached spiritual energy with no physical mass to disturb the surrounding environment. That was why the Savage Beast hadn’t reacted when the Soul Clone passed over its hiding grounds just minutes ago. The creature buried deep under the elastic mud and ancient bone shards was completely indifferent when the phantom was above its head. There was no heat for it to track, no vibrations for it to feel, no physical threat for it to trigger its defensive programming. The spider simply bided its time, waiting for the heavy, resounding thump of flesh and bone cross its threshold.

Sky could consider himself lucky as well. In the grand, unforgiving scale of the Dungeon Array, it often came down to the minutest of differences. By the same token, if the creature wasn’t so injured and sluggish, he probably wouldn’t have survived its initial ambush. A healthy Savage Beast would have been faster, so fast that his chest would have been caved in before his Danger Sense could spike its adrenaline. The lack of foreleg and broken segments had caused for a minuscule delay in the beast’s attack - a tiny flaw which had saved him from an instant death as the beast used its weight backwards to throw itself out of the way.

But he couldn’t worry about his luck. There was no point in dwelling on it with the air still thick with the stench of azure blood and predatory malice.

Instead he had a much more immediate issue of

surviving.

"Cone out here!"

Sky immediately called forth the Soul Clone while throwing himself to the side. He barked the mental order through their mental link, his willpower snapping like a whip to bring the distant sentinel back to his position. His boots tore through the wet clay as he launched his torso sideways, abandoning his footing in favor of escaping the immediate area of danger.

A heartbeat later -

BOOM!

The space he had been in moments ago was torn apart, the atmospheric pressure shifting dramatically as a massive shadow fell like falling anvil. The Savage Beast’s massive foreleg crashed down against the side of a thick stone pillar, sending chunks of crimson rock flying through the air. The impact was purely catastrophic, the reinforced masonry of the labyrinth shattering like dry wood under the brute force of the strike. A dense cloud of pulverized stone dust exploded outward, blinding him as he regained his footing and took off running.

A couple of shards whistled past Sky’s face as he reoriented himself and continued running. One jagged piece of crimson rock sliced clean through his collar, leaving a hot sensation on his skin which immediately started to bleed as he scrambled back onto his feet. He didn’t care, his hands clawing at the mud to find purchase so he could propel himself down the narrow corridor, trying to put some distance between himself and the collapsing pillar.

It’s still fast...

That was the problem.

Sky had assumed that the beast’s massive size, heavy armor and numerous injuries would make it sluggish. He had looked at the missing limb, the leaking azure ichor, the shattered segments and foolishly thought that a crippled monster would have predictable movements. He had thought that he would easily outsmart it by using the narrow turns to slip into its blind spots.

He had been wrong. Cruelly wrong.

Despite its crippling condition, the Savage Beast moved with terrifying agility. The survival instincts of a high-tier dungeon entity didn’t allow for hesitation, its remaining nervous system currently overloading its muscle tissue with pure, concentrated mana to compensate for its structural failures.

Its remaining legs stabbed into the mud like sharpened blades, propelling its massive body forward with remarkable speed. The wet, rhythmic thudding of the beast’s limbs was a blur of sound, its scythe-tips digging deep into the underlying bedrock to tear out massive chunks of earth with every single step. It wasn’t crawling, it was launching itself, its massive weight a weapon of momentum.

The creature twisted unnaturally, its huge body moving far faster than something of its size should have been able to. It ignored the structural limitations of its broken joints, forcing its shattered limbs to lock and fire with hydraulic intensity. The jagged, empty shoulder where its missing leg had been torn away pulsed violently, spraying a fine mist of glowing azure fluid as it swiveled its torso to match Sky’s evasive patterns.

It closed distance on him before he could even manage to create enough room. The shadow fell across him once more, the leathery feel of its breath brushing against the back of his neck as its massive, snapping mandibles clicked together in a terrifying sequence. The walls of the labyrinth suddenly seemed very thin, trapping Sky in a straight line of fire.

Sky’s expression hardened, his teeth grinding together until his jaw ached. The Blood Blade in his right hand flared with an aggressive, unstable light, its crimson edge reflecting in the cluster of dark eyes looming over him.

This is going to be a problem.

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