Chương 23: A Monster in a Borrowed Face

Just as she spoke, a soft and sickly light bled to life from further inside the corridor, pale and greenish, growing slowly brighter. Lio's eyes narrowed. He recognized the source. The Skinwalker had broken open one of the bioluminescent caps from the smaller fungi growing along the Pillar stalks and was holding the severed piece in one hand, using the dying light it produced as a torch. Rather clever.

The light was weak and uneven, throwing long lurching shadows across the corridor walls, but it was enough for both Ophila and himself to see, and to be seen. Ophila let out a breath, tightening her grip around the marbles. The Skinwalker came forward, and Lio got his first proper look at it. Recognizing the classic Delver gear immediately, he knew that the monster was still wearing one of William's companions. The girl, Jeanne.

It was a good thing that William was standing outside the corridor and couldn't see this. It moved grotesquely inside her body, producing a weird lurching motion like her joints had been turned into slime. The severed fungi cap in its hand dripped its pale, glowing fluids across the moss floor, dimming further with each second as the bioluminescence died. Ophila moved before the Skinwalker did. She dashed left in a sudden movement and hurled the first marble directly at the Skinwalker's chest.

It struck with a soft plop sound, doing absolutely no harm to the creature. Then her position and the marble's swapped instantly. One instant she was on the left side of the corridor. The next she was behind the creature as it lurched forward into the space she'd just vacated, its momentum carrying it stumbling into empty air. Lio raised an eyebrow as he came in from the right. Teleportation? He slammed his elbow hard into the Skinwalker's jaw, forcing the head to snap sideways.

Though the neck easily broke, it didn't matter as it recovered fast, spinning toward him with one arm swinging wide. He ducked under the explosive swing and drove his Adamantine knife into its shoulder. He was careful not to push it so deep that the wound would be too detrimental. However, it was deep enough that it would look like he was fighting to the best of his ability. The Skinwalker wrenched sideways, tearing itself off the blade, and Lio let it stumble backwards, himself backing up two steps.

Meanwhile, behind the Skinwalker, Ophila had already retrieved the first marble. Lio had to commend that level of spatial reasoning and strategy. In the dying uneven light, with the marble somewhere on the moss floor behind a moving creature, she'd found it in under four seconds. Very impressive.

As the Skinwalker turned toward her, she threw the second marble at the corridor wall to her left, and swapped with it mid-throw, her body vanishing from one position and reappearing pressed flat against the left Pillar stalk as the creature lunged through the space where she'd been standing. It crashed into the opposite wall, blood spraying out from its injuries. Lio quickly activated [Mach Heart]. The burst launched him forward and he slammed into the Skinwalker feet-first, driving it even deeper into the wall.

He kicked off before it could reach back for him, landing six feet away in a crouch. The fungi cap had fallen to the ground during the harsh collision. Its pale light was fading fast, its glowing fluids pulsating out onto the floor. The Skinwalker peeled itself off the wall. Pressing its hands flat against the stone, fingers splaying for purchase, it managed to get one knee under itself, then the other, rising in shaking stages. Jeanne's face came into the light.

The left side of it had taken the worst of the wall impact, a deep abrasion running from cheekbone to jaw, the skin darkened and weeping thick rivulets of blood. One eye had hemorrhaged violently, the white having gone completely red. Her neck sat at a horribly twisted angle from where Lio had snapped it. It wasn't enough to kill what was inside her, but enough that her head kept listing to the left no matter how the Skinwalker tried to correct it.

It tried to straighten to its full height, but the damaged leg from Ophila's earlier evading gave out, making it stumble before it managed to redistribute its weight properly. With shaking hands from the blood loss, it weakly grasped the mushroom cap, bringing the fading light back up, and turned toward them. Lio stayed back and he watched as Ophila took in the full picture of what was standing in front of her.

With the sight of the horrible and inhumane injuries, and Jeanne's eerily emotionless face, it was clear that the person who had once lived behind it was now completely gone. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. Ophila's eyes hardened with determination, and she prepared the first marble in her fist. The Skinwalker lurched forward, somehow faster than before, closing the distance in a single movement.

But before it could land a hit, Ophila swapped, vanishing from its path and reappearing six feet to the right. The Skinwalker's momentum carried it past her and she immediately threw the second marble at its back, swapping again. It was a fight that would confuse almost anybody. Ophila continuously appeared and disappeared across the available space while the Skinwalker wheeled and lurched after her, always a half second behind, always hitting the air. Lio moved in when the creature inevitably left itself open.

He came in low from the left, and swung his fist into the Skinwalker's damaged leg. The joint buckled under the harsh impact, the creature dropping to one knee. Letting out a soft croak from its throat, the Skinwalker rose back up. This time, the damaged leg was shaking visibly with the effort. Jeanne's soaked arm hung lower than the other, the dripping of the crimson fluid from the fingertips having now having turned into a steady stream. And yet still, it kept the bioluminescent cap raised.

Even with all its grievous wounds, it had kept the light protected. The tactical intelligence that had impressed Lio at the start of the fight was still present. And that intelligence had been observing Ophila's fighting style the entire time.

For example, instead of lunging directly at her, it had made an adjustment that angled its body to cut off her retreat toward the far end of the corridor, boxing her between itself and the Pillar fungi on her left, forcing her toward a section of wall where any swap would drive her straight into solid stone rather than open ground. Lio found himself impressed. Skinwalkers were naturally smart, but this one might be the smartest one he'd ever encountered. Still, Ophila wasn't stupid either.

She saw through the trap a fraction of a second before the Skinwalker could pull it off. Without wasting a beat, she threw the first marble not at the Skinwalker but past it, sending it far down the corridor behind the creature, and swapped with it at the last possible moment, reappearing fifteen feet back in the direction they'd entered from, completely outside the box the Skinwalker had built around her. In the pale and guttering light, Lio watched Jeanne's ruined face turn towards Ophila's new position.

On the other side, Ophila had started forward to retrieve the second marble, which had come to rest somewhere near the Skinwalker's feet during the last exchange. She was almost there when the Skinwalker made its decision. It dropped the fungi cap. And in that same motion it suddenly dashed with all its might directly at her, faster than it had moved since the very beginning. However, Ophila's hand was already moving for the swap.

But as Jeanne's face filled her entire field of vision in that last sliver of light before the cap hit the moss and the darkness swallowed everything, Ophila hesitated for a fraction of a second. Just a fraction. And yet, that was all that the creature had needed. The Skinwalker's hand caught her across the shoulder, its inhumane strength sending her spinning into the Pillar stalk behind her. She slammed into it and bounced off. Though she'd managed to keep standing, her marble had fallen to the ground.

Letting out a sigh, Lio dashed forward. He put himself between Ophila and the Skinwalker by solely relying on sound, tracking the creature's position through the noise of its wet, labored breathing. He held his knife up just as it lunged for the killing blow, catching the force on the flat of the blade and redirecting it sideways. He shook his head sadly. Rather disappointing. She'd had it completely under control until that very last second, failing when it truly mattered. But he could worry about that later.

First, he needed to deal with the Skinwalker. He pressed forward, driving the Skinwalker back two steps as he purposefully let his footwork get sloppy. He also made sure to grunt with effort, and his breathing to roughen and quicken. It was important that he still put up an act. Meanwhile, the Skinwalker fought back against him with a fervent madness, slashing and swinging everywhere.

Lio absorbed it easily and gave up his ground in careful increments, just enough to sell the picture of two roughly matched opponents fighting against each other in the dark. He drove his knife into its side, and the creature reacted with a harsh blow that he let hit his jaw, turning his head to the side and spitting out blood and saliva with the contact, making the impact look worse than it was.

The Skinwalker was clearly encouraged by that as it began to press harder and faster, its previous tactical patience changing into a more animalistic aggression. For another thirty seconds or so Lio kept it going, trading ground and taking the occasional hit, painting the picture of a boy trying his best to fight this powerful creature from the lower floors. But then… Then he got bored. As he was maintaining the performance, he simply found that in the next moment he simply didn't want to anymore.

The Skinwalker was damaged, slow, and bleeding. He felt that he had been standing in the dark pretending to struggle against it for long enough. Lio stopped giving ground as he secretly activated [Augmentation], grabbed the creature's outstretched arm, and wrenched it sideways with enough force to spin the entire body around. He stepped into the rotation, drove his knee into the back of the compromised leg, and put the Skinwalker face down into the moss.

Without pausing, he drove his knife through the back of its skull. The Skinwalker convulsed violently, blood spraying out from its eyes and nose, until going completely still. Unfazed, Lio straightened up and cleaned the blade against the soft moss. The darkness in the corridor had completely covered them again, the fungi cap's last light having died somewhere during the fight. Behind him, he could hear Ophila moving as she crossed the moss and retrieved the fallen marbles one by one.

Again, she was finding each of them in complete darkness without even a need for searching. He waited. When she was done and straightened back up, neither of them spoke for a moment.

"Are you okay?" Lio asked, breaking the silence.

"I'm fine," she answered. He nodded, and started toward the corridor entrance. She also quickly fell into step beside him. Outside, William was exactly where they'd left him, leaning against the Pillar with his arms crossed over his chest. His eyes found them as they emerged and his shoulders relaxed with relief, the tension he'd been holding visibly draining out of him.

"Is it dead?" he asked gingerly.

"Yeah," Ophila said. William let out a long, unsteady breath.

"Good," he mumbled quietly.

"That's good."