5 Chapter 5: The Blessing of the Shadow (1/2)
Head over heels, Luca tumbled through the gateway of the World Dungeon. Passing through the empty dark space between worlds and the infinity chasm that lay between them. Aimlessly, he fell and continued falling, a fall that knew neither sense of direction or the passage of time.
Eventually, after time incomprehensible, the sensation of falling lessened, replaced by the progressive feel of the world and gravity around him. Luca landed impossibly without harm on his back. Striking the cold stone of a dark cave with a loud boom. Disturbing in the process, a thin layer of dirt on the ground of the dark cavern. The earth previously long undisturbed deep within the caverns of the hole he had been cast into. As Luca lay lost in the that deepest dark, his very soul was slowly edging away from the cusp of death. He felt the strength gradually return to his body as the lingering sense of lethargy and malaise he had long felt since the accident that took the use of his legs fell away from him. His very soul was slowly edging away from the cusp of death.
As Luca returned from the very edge of death, the sensations of bodily need began to return to him with a vengeance. Strangely absent was any feeling of pain. His stomach rumbling in unabated terrible hunger, even as his own trembling weakness from hunger seemed to have passed, no longer a concern. Unmoving, Luca remained in place, uncertain of where to go or what do if he ever found his way to whatever or the wherever he was heading towards.
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Due to the limited illumination that was being cast by the lavender quartz embedded in the stone of the cavern, Luca's eyes were able to adjust to the dark of the cave, allowing him a bit of limited vision. From within the darkness, something stirred. Luca could see a pale gleam of stained white and yellow. ”What big fangs you have,” Luca said out loud, barely croaking out the words through his torn vocal cords, towards what he thought was an illusion, cackling with an edge of madness that surprised him
The white gleam was replaced by a darker shimmer from a pair of hyper dilated eyes blinking in gluttonous anticipation from deep within the dark. Luca heard the sound of feet slapping against the stone as whatever it was moved closer. I'm not dreaming. I need to defend myself. With his legs useless as they were, Luca had no option to run instead. Instead, Luca felt for something to use, his hands clasping around a fist sized stone. Even as he grasped the stone in his hands, the heavy breathing drew closing.
Luca smelled it before he saw the thing's body. Vaguely human, though clearly not with pale green skin loose skin, full of blotches as if diseased with pointed ears and large hands with sharpened yellowed nails. The smell radiating off the thing was fetid, the breath it expelled smelling heavily of rot. I think this is what? A goblin? Have I gone mad?
Whether he had lost his mind or not, Luca knew the truth of the situation. The way the monster eagerly looked at him let Luca knew without a doubt if he didn't do something, the goblin would eat him. Luca would only get one chance to survive this. Terrified as he was, Luca tried to calm himself, waiting for his one chance to live as the Goblin approached. Those dark eyes peering down at him as it bent over. Luca thought he heard the thing hiss as it spoke to itself, ”Freshest meat.”
Those two words galvanized Luca's fear into action, and as hard as he could, he swung the rock up, aiming for the Goblins temple. The rock hit with a wet thud as dark liquid splattered against Luca's face. The monster fell backward into the dark and disappeared. What began of it, Luca could only guess as the very air around him seemed to change as subtle laughter could be heard from within the dark.
Luca was able to vaguely see amorphis shadows swirling around in circular patterns around him. Long tendrils and twisting shapes of smoke, reaching for him from further out in the dark. Helpless Luca tried to scream but found he had no voice with which to scream. The damage to his vocal cords had not healed. Unlike with the goblin, Luca felt pure fear as he recoiled in terror at the eldrich shadow. He wanted to scream and cry and found he could do neither. Not that it mattered. Neither would have saved him.
The shadows curled around him. His skin burning with cold at the touch. The tendrils grasping at his body, encircling around his chest, beginning to pull him further into the dark. Though Luca tried to resist, it was futile. The nails of his fingers breaking off as they left white scratches on the rock from trying tried to brace himself to avoid being taken. The force of whatever dark entity was behind those shadows hungered for him, and Luca knew fear as he involuntarily shivered but could not move otherwise, suspended as he was above the ground in the air.
With a surge of unexpected force, Luca was pulled forward by the shadows and tossed upwards before beginning to fall again. This time, the fall did not last an eternity. Luca felt the force of gravity re-exert itself on him as he was met with the feeling of air rushing through his hair. It lasted only a few seconds before he landed. A searing pain spread throughout his body as Luca felt his back smash into a small boulder with blunted noise. The sounds of his bones breaking echoing throughout the cavern he was trapped in. The pain was immense. Whatever magic had dulled, his sense of pain before was no longer in effect.
The sounds of screaming filled the cave, and Luca looked around frantically scanning the dark for its source, disorientated from the fall, and only seeing retreating shadows. Panicking, his breathing quickened as he started to hyperventilate. It would be some time before Luca was able to recognize the screaming voice he feverishly searched for was his own.