Duskbound

The assassin scorpling was proving to be more worthy a hunt than Velik had given it credit for. It had been close to an hour now, and the amoral giant bug had stayed ahead of him by leading him on a merry chase through piles of its allies. He'd lost track of how many monsters he'd killed pursuing that bug, but he hadn't given up.

Which Is stupid of you, he admonished himself. You might not be lost, but you're letting this thing lead you into ambush after ambush. It's dictating your route and you're giving it plenty of time to set up traps.

On the other hand, he was moving at such an impressive clip, literally scything through enemies before they even realized he was upon them, that none of the traps were all that effective. He hadn't run into any other assassin scorplings, either, just the regular ones and a few six-foot-long centipedes that had no business being in the flesh tunnels. None of them had been higher than level 25, and he didn't even need to use his actual spear to kill them as he ran by.

Torwin's harvesting advice came back to him, and he was sure he was leaving a treasure trove of useful parts behind, but he didn't have time to stop. Maybe he'd harvest the venom glands off those assassin scorplings when he was done, assuming he could even find the corpses again.

One of the funny little quirks of being [Duskbound] was that he had an almost instinctive awareness of when the sun was going to rise. It wasn't anything as overt as an hourglass in his mind, sands slowly draining and giving him an exact amount of time left, but he could feel that dawn was close, maybe half an hour away at most.

The smart move was to retreat, to get away from the monsters that were now crawling through the tunnels and find a place to rest. If he did that, he'd be looking over his shoulder the whole time, just waiting for that scorpling to find him again.

The tracks were still clear, for now. It was barely keeping ahead of him, but then, it had been 'barely keeping ahead of him' for two hours now. There was no rational reason to think now was when he'd catch it. If anything, it seemed likely that the monster was deliberately baiting him. He couldn't deny that, regardless of its intentions, he was killing monsters at a ridiculously fast rate. Not having to hunt them down was doing wonders for his time management.

No, it's time to give it up. I can't catch it before the sun comes back up, and it's stupid to keep trying.

With great reluctance, Velik abandoned his chase and started backtracking toward the surface. He had a complicated mental map of the tunnel complex he was following, one that he'd been refining for hours as they looped around each other, occasionally forming small caves where five or six all connected at the same hub. He'd only found that one giant cave, and as intent as he'd been on exploring that, he refused to do it with that last assassin scorpling still out there.

Something hit the floor behind him with a loud splat, like the world's biggest loogie being spat out. Velik looked over his shoulder, expecting a monster of some sort, but there was nothing there. Frowning, he turned fully to face the direction the noise had come from and scanned the dark. [Phalanx] generated two spears that floated forward twenty feet, letting him see the fine details of the tunnel. Other than the flesh having what looked like a long scar running down the wall—not that unusual a decoration, he'd found—there was nothing to see.

A quiver in the flesh wall was all the warning he got. Despite everything, it was alive. It could bleed. It responded to stimulus. Something invisible was stuck to it, and the only clue as to its location was a faint sizzling hiss. Even as Velik's ears caught it, the sound cut out.

What the hell is going on here?

Whatever it was, it probably wasn't that much of a threat. None of the monsters he'd found in here had been individually, with the notable exception of the assassin scorpling. Even those were only a threat because one of them had snuck up on him while he was fighting something else. This plop-monster wasn't going to be an issue either.

Another wet splat echoed down the tunnel from behind him, this time between him and the way out. The same hissing sound came from over there, but was quickly silenced. A second later, there was a third splat, then two more at the same time.

Velik spun in place and rushed away from the sounds. Whatever they were, there were more of them than he wanted to deal with. He ran deeper, stumbling only once when his foot clipped something invisible that had adhered itself to the floor. Even when he glanced at it in the light, he could see nothing.

He quickly left the hissing, splattering sound behind and took another tunnel that would lead back to the surface. The layout was confusing, but it did have the fact that there were many routes to the same places going for it. The only problem was that as he approached the intersection he'd been near before, he heard the same sound.

Annoyed, he backtracked again and took a third tunnel. This time, there were no noises beyond his own footsteps echoing down the tunnels. For a brief moment, he thought he was clear. Then he ran directly into something solid and invisible.

Wincing, he stumbled back a step before reaching a cautious hand out to press against what felt like a solid wall. It had almost no give to it, less so than wood, at least. Stone might have been harder, but either way, it was solid. And it definitely hadn't been there before.

He backed up a few steps, brought his spear up, and slammed it point first into the wall. It skittered across the surface, leaving a strange scratch that seemed to float in the air. Whatever this is, I can break through it.

[Kinetic Charge] empowered his next strike, and the spear shattered the wall. Immediately, the faint hissing sound he'd heard before returned a hundred times louder. Burning pain erupted across his arm, and he jerked back in surprise. Whatever was coming out of the wall was just as invisible as everything else, but its effect was immediate and obvious.

The flesh in the tunnels started blistering, and noxious fumes stung Velik's nose. He retreated from the wall, his arm cradled against his chest. At the same time, a shudder rippled through him as [Duskbound] failed him. That's it for tonight's run, he thought. And now I'm trapped down here. What even are these walls?

The bright side was that unless he attacked one, it didn't seem to do anything but stop him from moving past. The problem was that he wasn't sure how feasible cutting through was going to be if they were going to do… whatever the hell it was they did.

[You have slain an acid brick slime (level 29).]

[You have been awarded 2 decarmas.]

He blinked in surprise. A what now?

* * *

He was truly delighted at the intruder's presence. What had started as an annoyance that had triggered the premature launch of his plans had transformed into something wonderful. It had taken some spying to confirm his suspicions, but now he was sure.

His original guardian had finally returned to him after all those years.

Even better, he was strong. So strong. It had to have been him who'd destroyed his most recent guardian a few days ago. All the signs were there, and he'd recognized several of the skills the intruder had used.

And then, the unthinkable had happened. The intruder had tried to run away! There was no way that could be allowed, so he'd quickly whipped up a new type of monster, or rather, a modification on an old type. His flesh slimes had coated his home and congealed into his sensory network years ago, but he'd needed something a bit more durable if he was going to keep his uninvited guest from leaving.

The inspiration to fill them with acidic mist had been genius. Though he thought he knew the limit of his former guardian's power, this was too important to take chances on. Breaching the slime wall's outer structure had indeed been within the intruder's capabilities, but being scorched with acid was making him think twice about brute forcing the issue.

He needed the intruder to delve deeper, to keep coming ever closer. His creations lured it in, slowly at first, then quicker when the intruder had fixated on a particular scorpling. At first, he'd been concerned about the poison, but his former guardian had proven resourceful enough to make a full recovery.

Delightful. Truly, he thought to himself again.

He was so taken with the turn of events that all of his hands had grown still for the first time he could remember. Flesh withered under his care, completely abandoned and forgotten. He needed to see what the intruder would do next, needed the intruder to come to him.

There would be no retreat.

It was only a matter of time.