Leo ran until his lungs burned like someone was shoving hot iron through them.
The slope was a deathtrap—loose shale, knife-sharp stone. Every step carved fresh agony into his feet, but the thing behind him was worse than pain. It was inevitability.
SKRCH-SKRCH-SKRCH…
Wet joints scraped against stone.
A low, hungry clicking echoed behind him.
It wasn't running.
It was pacing him.
Patient. Confident. Certain he was already dead.
Leo risked one glance over his shoulder.
Big mistake.
The larva had dropped to all fours, limbs folding and unfolding like broken puppetry. Translucent skin caught the dying light, revealing twitching organs swimming beneath. And its face—
No. No, that wasn't a smile anymore.
That was hunger wearing human skin.
Leo whipped forward again and nearly tripped.
A ravine cut across the slope—three meters wide, its jagged mouth dropping into solid black. Too far to jump. Too steep to descend.
No time.
No plan.
He veered left, sprinting along the edge, heart exploding in his chest. Wind howled through his ears like laughter.
Then—
There.
A spur of rock jutted from the ground like a broken tooth, funneling the path into a choke-point no wider than a doorway.
If the creature wanted him, it had to come through there.
Perfect.
Leo skidded to a stop behind the spur, chest heaving. He pressed his back against the icy rock, gripping the obsidian shard until it cut into his palm.
Slow breath in.
Slow breath out.
The way he'd breathed when hiding from people who would've beaten him just to pass time.
Quiet.
Invisible.
Alive.
The clicking stopped.
Silence.
Then—
SCRRRT…
A single, delicate scrape.
Almost playful.
Right on the other side of the rock.
Leo's pulse thundered. He raised the shard.
A long, pale finger curled around the edge of the spur—nails black, curved like sickles. Another followed. Then the creature's face slid into view inches from his own, tilting as if studying his heartbeat.
It knew exactly where he was.
Leo didn't wait.
He exploded forward—
SHNK!
—and drove the obsidian shard into its nearest eye.
The larva shrieked, a sound like glass shattering inside bone.
SFX:KRRRIEEEEEEEEEEH—!!
Black blood sprayed, hot and reeking of rot and metallic old copper. The creature recoiled, clawing at its ruined eye.
A half-second.
That was all Leo had.
He dove under a wild swipe that tore a crater in the rock where his head had been and scrambled up the spur—fingers slicing open as they clung to razor stone.
The larva lunged after him, but the choke-point forced its limbs to twist awkwardly, slowing it.
Leo reached the top—rolled—
WHRRSH— claws carved empty air behind him.
He ran again, legs screaming, vision tunneling.
Behind him, the larva shrieked a second time—
This one all fury.
Then—
Silence.
Too quiet.
Leo dared a glance—
—and nearly swallowed his tongue.
The creature was scaling the outer face of the spur straight up, limbs splayed like a monstrous spider. Fast. Efficient. Horrifying.
The ruined eye socket was bubbling.
Knitting.
Healing.
Of course it heals.
Why wouldn't it?
Leo swallowed a hysterical laugh.
He scanned the ridge—open rock, no cover, only the yawning drop on both sides.
Then he saw it.
A crack.
A thin vertical seam in the mountain face, barely wide enough for a person. A slit of darkness.
Not a cave—just a wound in the stone.
But it was something.
Leo dove for it.
He squeezed in sideways, stone tearing skin from his shoulders. The larva hit the ridge behind him—
CRUNCH— claws dug trenches in the stone.
A single arm forced inside, pale fingers reaching—
Leo kicked its wrist.
CRACK!
The bone snapped like brittle wood.
The limb jerked back with a furious shriek.
He pushed deeper, deeper—
The crack narrowed until he had to exhale to fit.
Darkness swallowed him whole.
For a dozen heartbeats—
Nothing.
Then—
SFX:SCRCHHHHH—
Closer.
Bones compressing.
The impossible body forcing itself in after him.
Leo crawled faster, palms raw, breath ragged.
The seam widened—finally—spilling him into a hollow carved inside the mountain. A bubble of space.
No exits.
A dead end.
He spun, back to the wall, shard raised.
The larva's head slid into view, regenerating eye half-formed, grin stretching impossibly wide.
It began to enter.
Leo looked at his shard.
At the low ceiling—cracked, frost-shattered, unstable.
A thought sparked.
Insane.
Perfect.
He leapt.
SFX:CRACK—CRACK—CRACK—
He slammed the shard into the ceiling again and again. Dust rained. Pebbles dropped. A large slab groaned—
The larva forced half its torso in, ribs folding like paper.
One more—
SFX:CRRRRRRNNNNNK—
The slab gave.
A mountain's worth of stone collapsed like a guillotine.
SFX:BOOOOOOM—
The larva vanished under an avalanche. Its shriek cut off mid-scream, dissolving into a wet, choking gargle.
Leo hit the ground, rolled, coughing dust.
Silence.
Then—
A twitch.
A claw pushed out from the rubble. Another.
The thing was still alive.
Of course it was.
But its movements were sluggish, desperate.
Leo walked forward, shaking, covered in blood and dust. He raised the shard.
And he brought it down.
Again.
And again.
And again.
Screaming through clenched teeth until the claws went limp.
Until the gurgling stopped.
Until it was dead.
When it was over, he collapsed beside the crushed corpse, chest heaving, staring at what he'd done.
The voice returned—calm, mechanical.
Almost… pleased.
[Nightmare Creature eliminated.]
[First Kill achieved.]
[Awakening progress: 1/??]
[Aspect Awakening in progress…]
Leo closed his eyes.
He was still alive.
For now—
that was enough.