songerein | Every Dream Filled With Hell From Beyond

"Creepy."

If they were in the physical world, she'd say it was just the way the place was built, making voices echo like that, but dreams don't have to follow those kinds of rules, and Noctaere sure as hell don't give a shit about real-world physics, she's pretty damn sure.

"Wouldn't be surprised if it's both." She grimaces, picking her way past another puddle and glancing back over her shoulder. Though that laughter had echoed throughout the tunnel, the source of it is definitely still ahead. "Isn't that the same shit bats do? Just kind of yell to figure out where things are?"

Nobody ever taught her about the finer points of echolocation.

"... lot of tracks. Hard to tell how many of these there are."

"Honestly wouldn't surprise me either, these things don't seem to have many limits past whatever someone can dream up," which is another thing that made them much more dangerous than Erasers in his mind. Those things were limited to whatever their purpose was, these were literally nightmares given form and took shape and did whatever would fuck with someone the most. A deep fear, a horrible memory- nearly limitless.

A low noise in his throat, the tunnel curving to the right and down with a sort of slant, "Yeah, basically what bats do. They scream and whatever bounces back directs them to food- they still crash in to each other and other things, though." The number of times he'd had to save a bat from a fence or something.

"Looks like we're going to start heading down, too. Warn me if you start slipping, and I'll do the same," so either bumping in to him from behind or him just going down. At least the claws he had could help find purchase a little- "This is just getting worse by the second, isn't it."

"Seems like it would be too much to hope that this thing gets turned around the same way and does damage to itself— more for us that way, though."

If it puts up a good fight, she's not going to be lodging any complaints beyond this whole place being unsettling as hell. She knows what she's good at, and she'd learned to take pleasure in it early on.

She takes in a sharp breath as she begins to descend behind him, her hand running against the wall and fingers curling into any grooves she can find by touch alone, the claw marks beneath their feet offering them some traction. There's at least one near slip, but she catches herself before her feet end up out from under her.

"Guess that's kind of the point— hunting these things down ain't meant to be a picnic. They're literal nightmares, right? Maybe this is how they get us— neither one of us is afraid to fight, but it can sure make things a pain in the ass on the way to knock us off-guard."

An ear flicked- "It might be in control of all of this- we're more than likely in a nightmare that's only starting bad and will get worse until we find this little bastard."

It was enough to put up the fur along the back of his neck on end, all the more reason to be cautious. Aware of every noise and movement, so two sets of eyes sure as hell was better than one at the moment. Fortunate for them.

Honestly, 76 was digging claws in wherever he could carefully to create some suable grooves- and test just how stable the walls and ground were. If anything was going to crack he'd rather find it than let it catch either of them by surprise. If it helped her get a better brace behind him? All the better without need to say it.

Was noticing how the tunnel seemed to get smaller the further down they were going; had a growl building in his throat the moment he did. "That's definitely how these things work, made out of anyone's nightmare. Feed on the negative energy they can get from whoever is around, make them stronger. Whatever advantage they can worm out of someone.

"Conniving little bastards going for weak points, even if they have to make one."

Those ears of his are pretty communicative, aren't they? It's almost kind of cute, although she'd never say anything like that aloud, and definitely not right to someone's face. She finds herself a little jealous of the advantage his claws offer him as they venture forward, especially when the tunnel starts to narrow on them— but at least if she falls now, there aren't a whole lot of places to go. Silver fucking linings.

"Definitely not a fan, but I can't say I blame 'em. You use every tool you've got to your advantage in a fight, right?" These assholes just so happen to have a lot of tools, especially compared to the rest of them. Her own voice has become a bit sharper as the tunnel becomes smaller; she's far from claustrophobic, but she doesn't love the idea of having to fight down here.

"This is really starting to—" She cuts herself off when she hears another high-pitched round of laughter coming from up ahead. It echoes, just like before, but it's much closer now, and she grits her teeth as she puts a hand against his shoulder to steady herself.

"It's just around that next bend— get ready. Any way to tell if the passage opens up a little from here? I'd hate to accidentally take your head off when shit gets real."

If she can't use her swords, she'll have to figure out another way.

"To say the least," the man who would pick up the nearest object and use it as a weapon, even something as harmless a a piñata was fair game as far as 76 was concerned. "These things get in your head, literally, and use whatever they can claw up. Real bitch is that you can't body them without great risk."

Body? Of course he meant literally slamming in to one, and he learned tat the hard way from not having his usual weapon on hand to use as a blunt-force object.

He could feel mud under his fingertips, and the pads of his feet. Could imagine how it was staining fur, but fuck if he cared that much. Ears pinned back at the laughter, a low growl building in his throat as hackles raised a bit more. Close, and he wasn't happy about close-quarters for this one without a doubt.

"Can't, but if nothing else I'll duck and help launch you forwards sword first if that's ow you want to go."

Yes, he was suggesting that he had little issue literally flinging her forwards at a Noctaere weapon first if it might help her feel less likely to get his head in the process- "I'll send a light with you, in case you need to pull a quick tuck-and-roll."

"That'll work."

He has no issue doing it, and she has no problem with being vaulted forward— you pick up all kinds of tricks fighting Shades as long as she has, and as far as she's concerned, this isn't any different. Acrobatics? No sweat.

"Probably safest if I go first, then— these things aren't great for tight spaces, but they'll sure as shit get the job done." They've talked about how it would likely take some combination of dreamotion and physical effort to take one of these things down, but she knows where she shines.

"Duck down, I'll go on ahead."

"Got it- and if you need a touch of dream magic? I know how to apply mine to things and have them stick so long as I'm conscious." Suggesting that he could coat her swords and whatever else with dreamotion energy to make this a hell of a lot easier for her? Yes, yes he was. He really had been getting a lot more practice in simply because he realized how much it could be needed.

Fuck over both Noctaere and whatever the hell that the Story Eater might pick up along it's way off bullshittery.

76 ducked down, claws bracing as best he could and nearly flattened himself to the floor just to give her that much room. Almost like he'd done this before and just knew the routine to get things moving as easily and quickly as possible. Also did let his own light attach, letting it keep ahead to light up the ground just in front to help hopefully avoid anything happened.

Or spot a Noctaere if it decided to pop it's head in from somewhere- "Keep frosty."

What a pal— she'll definitely have to keep that offer in mind. She's always preferred a more straightforward approach, but hell, if the Noctaere are going to use whatever advantage they can get their claws on, why shouldn't they do the same?

He ducks down, and she wedges her blade against the wall to keep it clear of both of them before she braces her hands against the tunnel on either side so that she can vault herself over him— easily managed, when he's down that low, except—

"What?"

She looks over her shoulder at him as she lands on her feet with a hard thud, reaching to pull her sword free.

"What the hell does that mean?"

... she can figure it out from the context, but she's never heard anyone talk like that before.

Oh. Right. He only straightened up a bit once she was over and the weapon was pulled free- Knew better than to move too soon around swords and the like.

"It's a slang term, quick way to say stay alert and ready for action. Picked it up during my time in the military," and of course it was used elsewhere. Video games liked to use it a lot, anything that had any form of military existing. Spread out further than that, too.

"Habit."

One that was coming back the more he ended up working with other people at that. An ear twitched as he caught the sound of movement ahead- almost like the ground was splitting apart just beyond their sight. Rumblings of movement.

"Weird."

She gives his explanation the bare minimum response, shrugging it off before she turns to face forward again. Sure, whatever floats his boat— she might have ribbed him about it a little, if the sounds up ahead hadn't drawn and held her attention.

They have bigger shit to deal with at the moment.

She holds a hand up to indicate that he should wait a moment as she moves forward, at least long enough to give her some space to move freely, and she hefts her blade as she rounds the bend just in time to come across the Noctaere itself as it lets out another peal of that horrible, grating laughter.

Well. Not like the element of surprise had been on their side to begin with— this thing has been playing with them all along.

"Hey, shitbag! What's so funny?!" And, having grabbed its attention, she grins sharply as she lunges forward, swinging her blade in an upward arc as she attacks without hesitation.

Tactics, unfortunately, aren't really her thing.

The Noctaere was practically cackling, a few stones vibrating with the noise, earth shifting near it as if it was more fluid than solid. Eyes glowed from the dark spot that showed eyes, and it was clear any other bit of face was hidden by dark and light stone that made up it's skin like armor. No wonder this thing probably had an easy time tunneling- and good thing it was trapped within dream-dreams or no doubt it could cause havoc elsewhere.

The lunge no surprise either. 76 didn't mind at all passing the lead to Kainé, giving her room with that sword as shadows wrapped around hands like sharp clawed gauntlets and even around digitigrade lower legs for the same. Get all the grip he could when he finally moved from the tunnel out in to the open.

If this thing was earth and soil- could that mean...?

76 swung himself to the side and practically pitched a ball of bright blue electricity at the Noctaere as it started to move in to the ground as if to avoid the swing of the blade. Caused the thing to freeze up and take at least most of that swing before flinging back.

There was the muffled sound of glass breaking as it moved again- "I might be able to help slow that fucker down enough for you to get some solid hits!" There was sand mixed in there with whatever else this nightmare creature was made out of. For however long it had any, he could attempt it.

Reckless was something he was good at, for better or worse. Quick on his feet, too.

Fortunately for both of them, ‘quick’ and ‘reckless’ are two things they have in common.

“Give it your best shot, old man!” Anything he can do to slow it down, she’s more than willing to take— the fact that it’s big and heavy means they already have a speed advantage here, but while she’s still plenty strong, she’s lost a little of her inhuman strength since finding her way to this world. She’s still plenty confident that she can crack through that armor, but she’s learned that she doesn’t have to try quite so hard to refuse help, especially not here.

The Noctaere strikes, aiming for Kainé thanks to her being in close quarters; she very narrowly manages to dodge, rolling out of the way before she hefts her blade and swings it towards what pass for legs, the strike of serrated metal against hard stone high-pitched and dissonant.

“Asshole is made of rocks, we can use that weight against him!”

Always press the advantage, however small it might seem. She’s sure this shithead has a lot more up his non-existent sleeves than just heavy armor and solid punches, anyway.

He was very much adaptable when it came to fighting with others, which honestly was helpful in a place like this. 76 could fall back and pick where he could best compliment whomever he ended up with, pick up to better have their back and follow someone's lead as easily as he could take it when necessary. Made for a decent soldier.

Electricity was crackling around those solid shadow clawed gauntlets even as he moved around- "Bigger they are, harder they'll fall!"

Always worked, just had to sometimes find that center of gravity to get the best place to strike and knock them down. However that ended up being. He was pelting electricity, even getting them to curve and doing whatever he could to split the Noctaere's attention between the two of them; when it went for her he lit it up. When it went for him all the better to open an attack for her.

There was a moment he suddenly felt his foot catch in to something, nearly twisting it as he stopped in time, "Fuck—

"Ground is changing, watch your footing!"

It was solid rock wrapped around his leg and could feel it trying to pull him down as if that part of the soil had suddenly gone liquid. Took a few punches to break through that rock and get away. The damned thing cackling again even while taking hits.

For a good few moments, it works— the Noctaere's attention is divided, unable to decide on which of them it should go after, and the oncoming barrage of electricity gives Kainé plenty of opportunity to get in close and circle around to try and pinpoint where best to strike to send this guy tumbling to the ground. It's a solid effort, until the Noctaere decides that rather than decide, it's going to go after both of them while shifting the ground beneath, cackling all the while as though they were assaulting it with nothing more threatening than feathers.

"Shit—!"

Kainé, too, feels herself being grabbed by the ground itself, heels sinking deep into what feels like quicksand even as the earth calcifies around her ankles. She manages to pull one foot free, having to pry the other loose with her sword before stumbling forward, letting out a low growl as she regains herself.

"Cheap trick! That's only gonna work once, shitlord!"

She lunges, hefting her sword overhead to bring it down firmly against the Noctaere's back, hard enough that she hopes to at least crack its armor.

Crack the armor did- as did one of the walls somewhere within the cavern they'd entered in to. Loud enough that 76's ears pricked at the noise, eyes narrowing a bit-

"Keep going hard!" It could have been a trick, this thing throwing noise or it was threatening to bury them under rock and rubble just for hitting it. Either way? It needed to- "Need to take this fucker down fast if that wasn't just the noise off of it echoing around us!"

Might not have been a cavern wall cracking, because even the thought of being buried under stone rubble brought back memories he'd rather forget; that he had to push back to the furthest point of his mind to keep focused. This was a dream, a nightmare, not somewhere back at the fallen Swiss HQ as a much younger man at the end of his rope.

If nothing else? It meant that 76 was packing more power behind the electrically charged pitches, only risking that in knowing the creature was grounding and it wouldn't risk cross over to Kainé.

"Only way I know how to go, old man!"

Even with the challenge ahead of them, Kainé is grinning as she continues her assault; their surroundings being structurally sound may be in question, but shit, it's a dreamscape, isn't it? Can't let it get into their heads more than it already has, can't let the fear of what might happen keep them from getting the job done.

They can do this.

Those charged shots help keep the creature's attention; it swings for Kainé blindly with one arm before turning to lumber towards 76 to retaliate, leaving her an opening to attack again and wedge her blade into where the armor had cracked, prying it open and using her strength to force some of it to fall away.

"If I get it's attention, think you can nail it from behind, grandpa?!"

The Noctaere lets out another shrieking cackle, a pained edge to it rather than merely taunting. They're definitely making headway.

Every Dream Filled With Hell From Beyond | Closed

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