“I’m pretty sure, yeah.” Cheyenne kept blasting, but no matter how many scuttling black crabs she knocked off the newly forming creature, more took their places.
Persh’al sent a ball of blue flames at the spider with one hand and coiled his green whip around two of its legs with the other. A sick, wet crunch filled the air, and the spider thing toppled to the ground before disappearing in the black fog.
“Well, that was—” He turned and saw the crab creature building itself larger while Cheyenne unleashed her attack spells all over it. “What?”
“I don’t know!” The halfling stepped forward and pushed with both hands outstretched. A wave of telekinetic force burst from her palms and sent the growing mountain of scrambling crabs flying.
“Hey, that’s a good one.” Persh’al nudged her with his elbow. “Kinda makes me think of—”
“Get down!” She clapped a hand on his shoulder and shoved him onto one knee as she dropped.
The scattered crabs had pulled themselves together in midair and now swooped toward the crossing magicals as a giant pair of wings and nothing else. The thing shrieked and sprouted two sets of talons as it dove, and one of them snagged the strap of Persh’al’s huge trekking pack and jerked him backward. “Shit!”
Cheyenne spun on one knee and fired another black sphere into the flying creature’s underbelly. It exploded and dropped the troll, who was already two feet off the ground. He landed on his ass and groaned.
“You okay?”
“Uh-huh.” He accepted her hand up and held his whip out to the side. “Keep moving.”
They hurried forward in no particular direction. Cheyenne glanced over her shoulder, but nothing followed them. Yet.
“These things are a lot easier to tear apart than last time.”
The troll snorted. “Last time, they’d made it into the real world, where things are solid. They’re easy now, sure, but I’ve never seen so many quite like this.”
“Think that’s why they’re leaking out Earthside?”
“Maybe. I don’t have the focus to try to figure that one out right now.” He leaped sideways and knocked into her when another geyser spewed black smoke. “And now I’m all jumpy. Sorry.”
“We’re good.” Cheyenne pointed ahead and nodded. “That kinda looks like a doorway.”
Persh’al squinted up ahead, and a grin broke across his blue face. “Yes, it does. Let’s get the hell through it.”
They broke into a run toward the dark, shimmering outline that was a relatively rectangular shape—a door without any walls or support.
I bet it doesn’t even touch the ground.
The light coming through the doorway was less gray than the rest of this place, and it only grew brighter as they approached.
“We have to run forever too?” Cheyenne panted.
“Time and distance, kid. Not really things here. Just like that tree, we’ll be there before we—”
The ground exploded in front of them and sent them both flying back through the smoke. A grating shriek shook the air, and the thick black smoke poured from a new fissure in a billowing wave.
“Dammit!” Persh’al pounded his thigh and pushed himself to his feet. He cracked his green whip and snarled at the creature coalescing from the smoke. “This better be the last one.”
“We can take it.” Cheyenne summoned two more black spheres and launched them at the glowing red eyes in the center of the smoke creature.
The thing darted straight up at the last second, avoiding her attacks, then dove in a roaring column toward Persh’al. The troll cracked his whip at it, but his magical weapon went right through the new monster without any effect. His eyes widened just before the barreling stream of smoke hit him square in the chest, and the rest of the monstrous shape coalesced around him.
“Fuck!”
“Persh’al!” Cheyenne sent another attack at the top of the smoke monster swirling around the troll. Shit. Goes right through it.
“Get this thing off me,” the troll shouted. “It’s— Ow!” A flash of green light burst from within the smoke, and the bodiless creature roared.
“I’m trying.” Cheyenne sent another telekinetic wave toward the cyclone wrapped around Persh’al, which was growing tighter by the second. It blew the smoke away for a mere two seconds, long enough for her to catch a glimpse of the troll clawing at two thick, glistening tentacles coiled around his neck. He snarled and gasped for air, then the smoke drew in on itself again and hid him.
I’ll go through the list, then.
Cheyenne darted toward the smoke creature and sent black tendrils of whipping magic through the smoke, feeling for Persh’al. She felt the tug when her magic caught something, and she pulled.
The black cloud roared and tossed her aside, and she lost hold on what she hoped was Persh’al and flew sideways. Before she reached the ground, a stream of black darted out of the funnel around the troll and wrapped around her upper arm before jerking her forward. Cheyenne growled at the slicing pain tearing through her bicep and somehow managed to dig her feet into the ground. The creature pulled her closer anyway, and she grabbed the now-hardened tentacle with her other hand. “Fuck you.”
She didn’t have to think about which ability to use next, and she barely thought about the Nimlothar seed bound to her body before her hand erupted in black flames. The tentacled smoke-creature screamed, and Persh’al screamed with it. Cheyenne dug her fingers into the in-between monster’s flesh and sent the black fire racing across the appendage. The vortex of black smoke materialized into a snarling mass of tentacles and glistening black flesh before the fire consumed it.
In two seconds, the entire thing was in flames. The creature let out another piercing screech before it shattered into fragments that blew away in the next gust of wind.
Persh’al was on his knees, his fists pressed into the ground as he fought to draw in the air he hadn’t been breathing.
“Hey. Come on.” Cheyenne offered him a hand up again, and his grip slipped from hers. She grabbed his arm
