Riven pressed himself deeper into the shadows, forcing his breaths shallow so the sound wouldn't betray him. The stench of ichor still clung to his skin, thick and putrid, masking his scent just enough to make him feel invisible, though he knew that if those fractured, glass-like eyes swept his way, no camouflage in the world would save him.
The compound eyes of the towering Deviant swept the dark like lanterns of shifting prisms, shards of fractured glass turning in their sockets. Every few moments its head would tilt, jerking in short, insectile movements, and its gaze would pass dangerously close. Even crouched as he was, pressed flat to the jagged wall, Riven felt exposed.
His hand clenched the stinger-staff until his knuckles whitened.
'That thing... If it sees me once, there won't be a second chance. If I don't tread careful, and it catches me in the open, I'm dead.'
He forced himself to keep looking. He needed to study it. Each leg ended in claws that scraped sparks when they touched stone. 'I definitely don't want to know just how sharp those are.' The beast didn't walk so much as stalk hunched, deliberate, its shoulders rolling forward with each step, like a reptile measuring distance before a killing lunge.
Riven shuddered. 'It's like staring at something woven from the logic of nightmares, an insect's unblinking hunger forced into a predator's body.'
He waited. His ribs kept on aching and his hand throbbed, each twitch sending fire up his arm. He couldn't beat this thing head-on even if he was awakened. The thought was laughable. But there was no way out except forward and ahead lay that dull pulse of light. If it was what he thought it was, it meant escape. The only thing in the way of liberation was the creature.
His jaw clenched. 'I need bait. That's the only way. If It hunts by sound, by smell like a monitor lizard on carrion. Or worse… like an insect following blood through the dark.'
He did something both desperate and revolting. Forcing his trembling legs to carry him all the way back to the first Deviant's corpse, Riven gagged as the stench of rot and ichor hit him full in the face when he got back . Black sludge oozed from the split flesh, pooling in sickly globs. His stomach rolled. Still, he shoved his pickaxe into the meat, tearing loose hunks of rancid tissue. The blade slid through with a wet squelch, slime coating his hands.
'God, the smell…' He gagged again but pressed on, cutting a strip of his trousers to bind the pieces in a crude bundle.
When he returned, he kept the meat away from his own body as much as possible. 'Keep it close too long, and I might as well write an invitation to Death.' Creeping along the cavern wall, he scattered the chunks one by one, leaving a grotesque trail.
The Deviant's head twitched. Its nostril slits flared, drinking in the rot. Slowly, it began to move toward the first morsel.
'Good. Take the bait. Follow it.'
It lowered its head, the deviant sniffed it before taking it into his mouth and grinding wetly as it tore into the first piece. Riven's lips curled into a shaky grin. He readied the stinger.
Then the beast snapped its head up, one kaleidoscope eye flashing straight toward him.
"Shit."
Sweat poured down his face. He froze, every nerve stilled. But after a moment, the Deviant turned back to its meal. Riven exhaled shakily. 'Too close. Too damned close.'
Again and again, he crept back and scattered more meat, drawing the thing further and further from its post, closer toward the gorge. Every pause and sweep of its fractured eyes sent his heart lurching.
Then disaster struck. His bare foot landed on a loose stone and it It cracked sharply.
The Deviant's head whipped around instantly, compound eyes locking on him.
Riven's heart leapt to his throat.
'Shit… I'm dead.'
He bolted. The cavern shook with the monster's pursuit, claws ripping gouges into stone. A strike came fast a lunge so sudden he barely registered it. One reptilian arm scythed through the air.
He ducked on instinct. The limb whistled past his ear, close enough to peel the air from his skin, and smashed into the ground. Dust exploded around him. He staggered back, gasping in pain.
'My head, my god, my head would've been gone!'
He ran before veering hard, clutching the stinger-staff for balance. He threw another piece of flesh to distract it, but the Deviant was no fool, it wanted him. Each bound closed the distance, claws ringing against stone. His only saving grace was his small body and his tenacity.
'Ahhh my body… it wants to give up on me. I want to sleep. Damn it!'
The next lunge nearly ended him. As the beast descended, he spun and rammed the stinger-spear up and right into its eye. The impact thundered through his bones. The compound lens shattered, fluid spraying hot and metallic ichor across his face.
The shriek that followed rattled the cavern. Ichor poured down in steaming rivulets.
The recoil almost dislocated his shoulder. He scrambled back, slipping, and when he hit the ground his hand folded under him wrongly, two fingers snapped out of place. He bit down hard, blood filling his mouth. 'Pain doesn't matter. Survive. Survive!'
Desperate to live, he climbed the beast's back, hacking at its plates. The flesh writhed beneath him felt both hot and slick. It bucked, thrashing, and finally he slid right off. He hit stone hard and rolled. A claw slashed past his skull, close enough to shear the hair from his temple.
'I almost died again. God, I almost died right there…'
He chuckled madly, breathless and eyes wide.
His Heart was hammering in his ears, ribs stabbing him with each breath, Riven staggered upright. The gorge was close now, mist trailing upward from its unseen depths. The Deviant stumbled after him, half-blind with ichor streaming down its rough skin and it kept on shrieking in fury.
He baited it to the edge. His last hunk of flesh he hurled into the void but the beast didn't care.
The Deviant lunged at him, momentum carrying it too far and when it almost got to him, he rolled out of the way. Stone cracked the moment it landed due to its weight, and the monster plummeted into the abyss with a screech that shook the world.
But Riven was too close. The ground shattered beneath him as well. He fell.
'No, no no I can't I won't die here not until I surpass HIM!'
Instinct and a burst of strength from nowhere saved him. The stinger-staff jammed into a jut of stone, halting his plunge. His body dangled, and his arm almost got dislocated due to the sudden halt of his body.
'Don't let go. Don't let go. God, hold on!'
With a guttural roar, he hauled himself upward, scraping his chest bloody as he pulled his body over the edge. He collapsed in a heap, trembling, sweat and tears blinding him.
Flat on his back, he let out a ragged, broken laugh, covering his face as tears leaked past his fingers. It sounded more like a sob.
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