With a sharp intake of air, Idel opened his eyes. He stood on his favorite spot, the moon bathing him in red. He raised his head and saw Tintless and Shifty standing 10 meters away from him.
The three shared nods, agreeing to proceed with the discussed plan, as Tintless and Shifty wore necklaces that possessed glowing green stones.
With a thought, the Labyrinth trembled as the fog began to gradually recede, leaving the dim moon alone. Eventually, even it died out, and soon the hills where they stood started to plummet, leaving them to fall...
Using his intellect on the beast nightmare and the geographical knowledge presented by Shifty, Idel had come up with a plan he referred to as "Smother, Snare, and Shatter." This plan, according to him, if carried out efficiently, would lead to their victory.
It had to. If not, they would die. That was very much clear and needed not be discussed.
...The reddish clouds below disintegrated, and just like that, the Labyrinth was dismissed.
The stage of the final act was in sight... surprisingly, barely.
Idel could not see a single thing, as the surroundings were shrouded in thick black smoke with little red specks drifting about.
'Is this the smoke from the forest?'
Idel did not know how to react, for the first phase of their plan was to, using the increased power of Shifty, bring about black smoke, clouding the entire village and making it hard for the nightmares to see and sense traces of fear, even if only slightly.
The inability for them to see each other was, however, not to be the case, for Idel, using his will in the Labyrinth, created 34 glowing green stones, three of which were taken by Shifty and Tintless. Idel took the rest.
Thud!
He landed and immediately felt the presence of a nightmare; however, it was only one: the beast nightmare.
Aside from the monster, no life could be detected!
It was hard to pin down its exact location, mainly due to the smoke and other reasons he had no time to figure out.
He reached into his pockets, pulled out the glowing green stones, and proceeded to throw them at significant distances from each other.
The stones did not, as intended, fall; they floated.
As he looked on with a satiated expression, more black smoke started to drift through the air, an indication that Shifty was commencing phase one, "Smother."
He focused a little and pinned down the duo's location. They were 100 meters away. He threw more stones there too.
He proceeded to wear his, and unlike the other stones, with the exception of the duo's, it had a small green dot that glowed even brighter.
This was the trick: they could easily know each other's positions while the nightmares could not, even if they somehow figured out that the glowing stones indicated the presence of a person. Choosing which of the countless ever-moving stones was the correct one would be hard.
He turned to the duo's location and saw their two stones combine.
Part two of phase one was complete.
With the beast nightmare not yet showing up as he would have wanted and expected, he whistled, the sharp sound tearing through the smoke-laden land.
A moment of silence.
Then it came.
The beast nightmare!
Thunderous stomps that caused the ground to shake emanated, soon followed by a massive surge of suffocating energy and primal roars.
Idel relaxed himself and turned, spotting a floating stone that spun mischievously. Then it moved, wending through the smoke.
As the beast nightmare drew closer to his back, he could feel its ravenous breath. He sprinted from his position and followed the mischievous stone.
Thud!
The nightmare's hand barely missed him as it hit the ground. It seemed wilder now, and with its glowing red eyes piercing through the smoke, it burst towards him, its roars never ceasing.
Idel's focus, despite death breathing down his neck, never wavered. His eyes remained fixed on the mischievous stone.
...
Tap! Tap! Tap!
15 minutes later.
Idel continued following the stone, carefully wending through the village alleys that he and Tintless had spent 20 minutes mastering.
' I'd imagine the beast devoured its own kind. How clever...and stupid.'
The nightmare, on the other hand, in such tiny spaces, had it way harder to move and relied on its brute strength to break through them, and due to this, debris fell on it, thus giving Idel the space he wanted.
Thud!
Idel could tell by the sound that more debris had fallen on it.
'That must have hurt; two thick walls with barbed wire just fell on the bastard.'
He smiled as he increased his speed and followed the glowing stone.
Tap! Tap! Tap!
As he prepared to take a turn to the left, he heard something whistle past him at a terrifying speed.
In the next second, he heard a loud impact on the wall that stood in front of him. The house collapsed and fell, dust mixing with the smoke.
He gritted his teeth as the realization of what was occurring sat in: the bastard was now throwing debris at him.
"Shit!"
He turned to move when a debris large enough to cover his body hit his side with thunderous force. It sent his body crashing into another wall.
Idel's body was sandwiched.
He grunted through clenched teeth as the pain overwhelmed him in an instant. Even his vision blurred a little.
Either way, he had to continue moving, as more debris were coming in his direction, barely missing him.
As he prepared to move, he noticed something devastating: his left arm had gone limp, and when he touched it, he felt a deep wound running across it.
If he were to use Regeneration, his stamina would reduce, and if he were to leave it as it was, mobility would be hard to maintain.
Which of the two was he to choose?
'Damn! Damn!'
Before he could decide, a piece of debris whistled.
His heart skipped a beat. As a last-minute decision, he lowered his frame.
Bam!
The debris slammed into the wall of the dilapidated house where he once stood.
He clawed at the ground before he stood and ran, holding onto his limp arm.
'Just a little more, you can do it. Come on.'
He urged himself onward with shallow breaths.
Debris continued missing him as he stubbornly followed the stone. The nightmare too was on his trail, chasing whilst throwing debris.
Bam!
A piece of debris crashed into his back. It propelled him forward, sending him to the ground. He got up and ran, blood pouring from his wounds.
Tap! Tap! Bam!
He got up.
Tap! Bam!
"..."
He picked himself up and followed the stone on shaky legs.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
His body fell to the ground. He tried to stand hastily but this time could not.
Roars of the beast, now muffled, reached his ears. With pain surging through his entire body and reality seemingly distorting, he slowly got up.
His frame was lowered as his lungs screamed for oxygen, only for him to end up choking on his saliva and the suffocating smoke.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
"Cough! Cough! Cough!"
A mix of blood and saliva left his mouth.
His strength had now depleted. He could no longer run.
He chose wrong.
He lifted his head and stared upward.
The smoke was slowly clearing, revealing the shimmering glass. As he dropped his gaze back onto the village, the smoke had also begun to recede. The only part that remained in complete darkness was, surprisingly, the ground.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
He turned his head toward the approaching beast nightmare. Its movements were wild and sluggish.
Suddenly, his mouth twitched before he nervously smiled.
The nightmare, seeing this, got even angrier. It roared but continued moving rather sluggishly.
Thud! Thud! Tap!
Thud! Tap! Tap!
Tap! Tap! Tap!
Finally, it was in close proximity to the bloody, quivering, yet grinning frail pale being.
A tired breath left its lips before it roared, exposing its large canines. It moved its right arm to strike him.
Blink!
1 meter from his head.
Blink!
30 centimeters.
Blink!
10 centimeters!
Blink!
And that was it.
The beast nightmare's eyes widened in confusion. Its large arm could not move any further.
It roared and tried to move its hand, but failed to do so. With each attempt and failure, Idel's smile widened.
The nightmare tried to lift its other short arm but couldn't, and such was the case for every single part of its body.
Slowly but evidently, its face of rage changed into one of fright. Even its breathing changed.
"Now that's a look fitting for a nightmare," Idel said between breaths.
He turned his head and looked at the mischievous stone. With a simple nod toward the nightmare, the stone spun happily in the air and moved towards it.
He watched it tear through the receding smoke, during which a small colourless arm holding the stone was brought into focus.
It was the boy's arm—an extension, to be precise.
'Well done, Tintless.Snare part impeccably executed.'
The smoke from Shifty was not only to conceal them so that the nightmares would have a hard time catching them, but also to give Tintless time to use his "elastic body," as Idel suggested, to create snares that were to bind the monster.
Idel turned to the tamed beast and saw the long colourless arm drop the stone before its hand took the form of a long spear.
The nightmare, with terrified eyes, tried to move, but due to the countless interconnected snares that had now become visible, could not.
As discussed in their plan, the huge arm might have harbored the core. And so, the spear aimed for it, smoke coiling around it mid-travel.
It punched through the arm with a wet, meaty thunk, fresh screams ringing out as it tore through. A choking breath burst from the nightmare's mouth before a roar of agony followed.
Idel watched on with a face drenched in cold sweat.
Phase three was complete.
The beast nightmare had fallen into an eternal slumber, slain by the very preys it sought to devour.