At the core of the scene was… something. Maynard tried to compare it to any creature he had ever seen before but he could not quite get a grip upon its form. The creature’s features and shape seemed to shift with every single flicker of the light from the lamp that he held in his hand. From one moment to the next it had mandibles, a mouth with razor sharp teeth, a single eye, a hundred blinking in sync, it was tall, it was short. It was everything and anything a shadow could be, but all Maynard could really know was that it had Adam in its grip.
As Tommy slashed at the creature he screamed, “Why won’t you die!” His knives speeding through the shadow as ineffectually as Adam’s attempts to reason with the beast. The man begged, he cajoled, he pleaded and he cried out, but as his breath got fainter his words became less and less clear.
S***, Maynard thought to himself, I may not like you, but I’ll be damned if I let this chain linking all of us break on my watch. He pulled out the shield from his inventory and as he charged the creature he screamed at the top of his lungs, “Oy, shadow-bitch! How about you choke on something a bit bigger than a bean sprout!”
As he dashed forwards and churned up the mud behind him, he heard two dings that echoed out from the aether. He paid no attention to them though, as the creature turned to look at him with its single, hundred eyes. Its maw opened wide but Maynard charged forwards still, his shield in front and his light held high. The beast and man slammed together, and as both rocked backwards from the force of their impact Maynard watched as a solitary “1” popped up out of the beast before fading into the night.
For a moment the night was still. The rain prattled down on the group unabashed as they all stood and watched the man and the beast square off. It was only when Maynard let off a string of expletives that the moment was shattered and the shadow surged towards him, leaving Adam’s struggling body behind.
Maynard’s shield warded off the vast majority of the strike, and the rest of the odd shadow flowing like water over the lip of his shield was banished by the light in his hand. He stepped forwards and swung about with his shield, but it felt like he had made contact with nothing. In response, the shadow flowed over him in an attempt to swallow him like it had Adam, but he pushed it back with his lamp, the light continuing to act like a ward to all but the deepest shade.
The shadow responded to Maynard’s resistance by sweeping across him with a whip-like appendage, causing a bloody 4 to appear in his vision, and in return Tommy jabbed into the shadow once more with his short blades. Feeling no resistance and sliding past the creature before tumbling into a roll, Tommy bounced back onto his feet and yelled, “Why can’t I hurt you?” As he readied his weapons once more, the shadow flowed backwards and slung an appendage at Philippe, who was still cowering in fear. The Italian man scampered backwards, desperately trying to stick to the light provided by the small room that was attached to the gate. From places unknown, he had pulled out an old and withered branch that he held before him like some kind of wand or ward with his shaky, blood soaked hands. His eyes stood wide with terror as the shadow watched him unflinchingly. Its tendrils swing at him, causing the man to not have a single moment to breathe while it separated him and Adam from the two more active combatants.
As Philippe continued to stumble, Maynard slammed his shield into the deeper shadows and watched as a second 1 appeared in his vision. He retreated and cried out “The deep shadows seem to take damage! It’s dangerous, but if we attack in sync, at least one of us will do some harm to this thing”.
“Alright,” Tommy cried in reply, pulling back slightly and waiting for Maynard to disengage. With a swing of his lamp, Maynard pulled out of the shadows and skittered backwards, his shield dragging against the ground. He winced slightly as he felt pain from his right ribs, where the shadow had struck him before-hand. He brushed his arm against his side and could feel the tenderness as a bruise began developing. He grimaced, breathed out and charged back in with Tommy hot on his heels.
With a swing of his lamp, Maynard cut the shadows down, but the creature gathered more in front of it, emulating Maynard as he held his shield. From behind, Tommy swept in and stabbed his knives into what he assumed was the beast’s back, causing two 7s to appear. He cried out in joy at finally being able to do damage to the creature, but his excitement was short-lived. The eyes that had been fixed on Philippe blinked shut and then flicked open in front of Tommy, along with a wide mouth that tore itself open like a wound as the creature locked onto him instead of Maynard. He tried to pull himself away but the beast moved like lightning, shadows collecting in front of it like a maw that snapped shut on Tommy’s left arm and leg, tying him down and preventing the man from moving. The creature’s eyes swiveled around before locking back onto Adam’s body, who was sitting just outside of its grasp.
Shadow began flowing once more and in that moment time seemed to slow down for Maynard. S***, he thought to himself as he watched the shadow ripple, Adam or Tommy? Who should I prioritise? He felt his legs tense before he began charging towards the creature. I’m not gonna’ be able to reach both…
In that moment he made a snap decision. He raised the lamp once more as he charged in, and the thought I need all the luck I can get passed through his head as he entered the area of the shadow. He took a step and felt his right hip pocket heat up but he paid it no heed. He took a second step and watched as an odd grey light flickered out from the beast in a cone. Instinctively, he swung his left arm and watched as another bloody 1 appeared in front of him. Another light cone shot out of the beast and Maynard followed it with his right fist, earning a second 1. A third light cone shot out of the beast and he struck again, and again, each time the strike would usher another 1 from the body of the shadow beast. That changed on Maynard’s fifth strike. His shield followed the same arc guided by the cone of light, and as the lip of the tool landed in the deep shadow a heavy 5 shot out of the beast. Seeing such a response, Maynard grinned and followed the next light cone and smashed his right fist into the spot he had been guided into. A ruddy, orange 21 sprung out from the spot where his fist struck the shadow and he whooped with joy. As he pulled his right fist back, Maynard waited for the next light cone to appear but none came. Whatever had gifted him with the ability to strike his foes so cleanly and increase his damage had disappeared. Now he was all on his own.
The shadow had mostly ignored Maynard while he attacked it, dealing with the two men it had targeted instead, but when his fifth landed it seemed to realise that something had changed. The eyes flicked round as the sixth strike connected and the beast’s shadowy maw tore open as if to devour the young man whole, but as the cavern of knives fell towards him Maynard swung out a seventh time, causing another 21 to appear in the air as he cut the shadow in half with the edge of his shield.
Tumbling through the deep shadow, Maynard watched the creature dissipate. He could taste iron in his mouth, but he paid it no heed. Instead he moved over to Tommy, who was rolling around in pain, and looked at the severe burns that now covered the man’s left arm and leg, wounds that were only being made worse by the mud and rain that was everywhere. From what Maynard assumed was his inventory, the Asian man pulled out some kind of glass vial filled with fluid. He drank half the vial before spilling the rest on his wounds and collapsed unconscious, leaving Maynard entirely on his own to deal with the fallout from their encounter with the shadow beast.
