The Dark Descent Chapter 8
#8 of The Dark Descent
In the distance, a group of four could see their destination. A place where only nightmares were spawned, but the promise of gold still drew them in. They came prepared for a fight, but nothing could possibly prepare them for what they must endure. Watch as a blaziken, a gallade, an alakazam, and a dwarf are all forced to fight for their lives. They will be pushed to their absolute limits, both physically, and mentally. Only one thing is certain, none will escape unscathed.
Robin looked around as Janus rowed his way down the river cave. Their path illuminated by the many glow worms clinging to the ceiling. Everyone was completely silent. All that could be heard was the sound of the wooden paddles splashing against the water as he rowed the boat, guiding it through the twists and turns of the cave. Thankfully, there was plenty of room to move the boat around. This entire place felt so wrong to him. So many questions were on his mind, but he wasn't sure if any of them would ever get answered. There wasn't really anyone that could answer his questions. The one person that could've answered those questions was now dead. Suddenly, the boat started rocking as if something bumped underneath it. "Shit!" Robin exclaimed as he looked straight back at Janus.
Janus looked worried as he looked over the side of the boat, thinking he saw something disappearing deeper into the water. Something big. "What the fuck is that..."
Thea's grip on her mace tightened as she thought she saw something moving around in the water. "What did you see?" She asked Janus as fear crept into her voice.
"Something big and bad! But I am not hanging around to find out what it is!" Janus sharply replied as he began rowing faster.
Hilda's eyes darted over the surface of the water, watching every little ripple. She noticed a dark shadow in the water, it appeared to be about twelve to fifteen feet in length. It was too hard to tell when it was hiding like this. She watched as it neared the boat. Despite the blaziken's best efforts, the water monster appeared to be getting closer and closer to the boat. She clenched her teeth as her eyes widened, keeping her hand tightly wrapped around the handle of her short sword.
"It's getting closer!" Thea yelled as fear started to genuinely set in. The thought of some kind of hideous beast lurking in the water terrified her. Even when she was just an abra, the thought of large sea creatures scared her. However, she never thought that one day, she may have to face that fear.
Hilda watched as it got closer, and closer, and closer until it was just a foot away from the boat. It was then that the creature emerged, showing its ugly face. At first glance, it looked like some kind of sea creature that had been turned inside out, but a closer look revealed that it was very similar in appearance to an onix. It was composed mostly of red and pink flesh, with strips of what looked like human skin to form strange fins along the sides of its body. The eyes of the gorey onix were large, with a thin red iris, and a huge black pupil that dominated most of the eye. As it opened its large maw, everyone was forced to endure horrifying sight. Two rows of hundreds of fingers wiggled around inside its mouth, taking the place of teeth. Right where one would expect to see the back of a throat, instead lay what looked like a human head in the early stages of decomposition. The flesh was stripped away from its mouth, and cheeks, revealing its sharp bloody teeth. The head also appeared to have very inhuman eyes. They were like tiny black shiny marbles. Quickly, it tried to snatch the dwarf straight off the boat with its gaping maw.
Immediately, Hilda stood up, screaming at the roaring monstrosity as she plunged the blade of her short sword right into the beast's left eye. As soon as the eye was pierced, blood gushed straight from it, spraying over both the dwarf and the gallade. "Fuck you!" She screamed as she saw Robin quickly stand up in the boat too, only to shove the spike of his halberd right into the gorey onix's side.
Almost as soon as it emerged, it quickly retreated back into the dark red tinted water. It took with it Hilda's short sword, still lodged in its eye, leaving her with just her shield.
Janus grunted as he rowed as fast as he could. "Keep that thing off us!" He yelled to everyone else. He was determined not to become food for the strange river cave monster.
Thea was still seated, too terrified to even stand up just in case she fell off the boat, and into the water. Just as it seemed like the monster might have retreated, something smashed against the underside of the boat, trying to capsize their boat. She dropped her mace to tightly hang onto the edge of the boat. Her heart felt as if it was beating so fast, it might just destroy itself before the monster does it for her. She watched as both Hilda and Robin almost fell overboard. Suddenly, she felt something bash against the side of the boat so hard, it actually tipped it over. It happened so fast, she barely realized what was happening until she actually hit the water. It felt like all the air in her lungs was quickly replaced with water as she claimed her arms in the water, trying to swim back to the surface. She didn't know how to swim however. No matter how much she flailed her arms and legs, she felt as if she was only going deeper and deeper into the dark cold water. Everything got darker and darker as she struggled to breathe, water flooding her nostrils and mouth as she kicked and swung her arms, trying to break the surface, but it felt as if something was dragging her down. She couldn't do it, she couldn't make it. And soon, it all became too much for her. And then, everything became dark.
Author's note: We might be one person down already! Thank you all for reading! And thank you once again to BigBossSonic for editing this, and Zarfy for looking through it! Oh, and I also hinted to something onix related a few chapters ago, so good job if ya picked up on that! XD