The words barely left his mouth as he reached out his hand, scratching open a void out of nothing.
Withdrawing his Odachi, Ryven plants his feet, watching as the weird hybrid of a bug made of human limbs and a stone face continues approaching.
The one in front uses its back two human hands as legs, leaping forward like a weird cat.
Ryven screams as he drops his Odachi, colliding with the hybrid's stone head.
Just like a knife to a rock, the impact rang through his arms and rattled his teeth.
The Odachi bounced off the creature's stone face, the blade skidding sideways as sparks of silver light spat into the dust.
The hybrid crashes into the ground a few feet from Ryven's toes, his Odachi seemingly having acted more as a hammer than a blade.
Ryven stares at it for a few moments, slowly watching as its cracked head once again begins to move. The other creatures begin to close in, and for a moment, things seem pretty grim.
"Bloody hell." Ryven mutters.
The cracked-headed hybrid dragged itself upright, stone plates grinding as if annoyed more than injured. The fracture across its face glowed faintly, red light leaking through like a half-healed wound.
Looking around, Ryven realized something.
They were herding him.
The two other creatures had surrounded him, blocking off his escape out of town.
"No way… do they actually have intelligence?" Ryven wondered.
The cracked-headed hybrid answered him by moving.
It launched itself forward again, back hands slamming into the ground and hurling its body at him in a low, snapping arc. Ryven barely had time to react. He jerked the Odachi up on instinct, blade angled wrong, stance sloppy.
The creature collided with him anyway.
Claws scraped across his coat, fingers grabbing for his arms, trying to pull him down. Ryven shouted and twisted hard, more panic than skill, and swung the sword sideways with everything he had.
The blade didn't hit the stone face.
It hit one of the arms.
There was resistance for a split second, then none at all.
The arm came off.
Ryven staggered back, staring as the severed limb hit the dust and twitched. Dark fluid spilled freely from the stump. The hybrid didn't scream. It's face was made of stone. Instead, it vibrated, shaking and clicking as it reeled backward, clutching itself with its remaining hands.
Ryven blinked once.
"…that worked."
The arm wasn't stone. It was flesh. Human flesh, warped and wrong, but undeniably soft compared to the head.
The realization quickly clicked into place.
The wounded hybrid rushed him again, frantic now, coordination gone. Ryven stepped aside this time, heart hammering but mind sharp, and slashed low into its torso where the limbs met.
The Odachi slid in cleanly.
The creature collapsed almost immediately, stone face cracking as the red glow died out.
Ryven didn't stop to look.
One of the remaining hybrids lunged from his left, trying to catch him while he was distracted. Ryven spun, bringing the blade up just in time to deflect its head. The impact jolted his arms, but he used the momentum, letting the sword slide down and carving across the creature's midsection instead.
It screamed and stumbled.
Ryven pressed forward, breath loud in his ears, movements still rough but purposeful now. He ducked under a clumsy swipe and drove the Odachi straight into the creature's body, twisting hard before pulling it free.
The hybrid collapsed, limbs splaying uselessly across the dust.
Two down.
He felt so incredibly powerful.
Before he could turn to face the third, it had already pounced on him, jumping on his back.
"Shit!" He screamed as the heavy creature grabbed at his arms, putting him off balance and dragging him down.
He felt the hybrid's stone head against his as he wrestled with the creature. Yet, it seemed to be of no use.
It only took a few moments for Ryven to feel weaker. Smaller.
Four arms held down his legs, while two held his arms. And the creature was strong. A lot stronger than it seemed.
Suddenly, Ryven could tell that the creature was scheming something. It released its hand and legs, gripping him at the waste.
Then, with a sudden jerk, the creature slammed its stone head hard against his. Pain exploded across his skull. Stars erupted behind his eyes. The moon tilted violently, and his legs buckled.
"Ah—" he barely got the sound out before blackness swallowed him.
The Odachi slipped from his fingers, clattering to the moonstone dust beside him. He went completely still, limp beneath the creature, consciousness slipping fast.
"Mmm. At least he killed two of them." The old man muttered, standing above the creature which held Ryven's unconscious and bleeding body.
The creature reacted fast, but it was nowhere near fast enough. It tried to drop Ryven's body, but it stood no chance against the dreamer armed with superspeed.
In one quick, and powerful motion, the old man raised his leg, bringing it down with a speed that could only be rivaled by light..
The stone head crashed and crumbled beneath the speed, dismembered like a bomb had gone off in its brain.
The man yawned as he grabbed Ryven by the arms, whistling as he dragged him back toward the center of town.