Capítulo 16
Sombra
The monster lunged toward Laios, but something held it back, or rather, hindered its leap.
One of its legs was severed, and as it fell, blood of a violet-red hue gushed out. The wound began to bubble, forming grotesque spheres of flesh that pulsed as if trying to recompose themselves.
As it turned toward where it had been before, it saw an arm holding a blue sword wrapped in a green aura.
The debris of wood and some metal plates began to shift aside.
From among them emerged the man from before:the officer who had given Eilor his uncle's sword.
He emerged from the wreckage with an annoyed expression, and a green light covered his abdomen, right where his uniform now had an open, bleeding hole.
As he turned his gaze toward the point where he had been before, the first thing he saw was a raised arm, firm, gripping a blue sword that blazed with a vibrant green aura, like contained fire.
Each step made the wood fragments crunch under his boots, while the sword in his hand hummed with an electric buzz that filled the scene.
He spat blood to the side, the red thread mixing with the dust still floating in the air.
He lifted his gaze,fixing his eyes on the monster. His body adopted a low stance, ready to launch himself.
But before he could move, a fleeting flash: a claw tore across his face, opening fresh lines of blood.
The blow came from another cryptid,lunging from the side.
Suddenly, a metallic clash thundered in the room. A sword with a bent hilt cut through the air and deflected the attack at the last second, pushing the creature backward.
The weapon's crooked trajectory didn't lessen the impact's force;it had saved a life that, an instant before, seemed lost.
Immediately after, Laios lunged at the creature, about to reach the sword. But the cryptid was faster: it sank its fangs into Laios's right hand before he could smash its head against the floor.
The pain was immediate, fierce, but Laios didn't stop. With his left hand, he grabbed the beast's jaw, preventing it from closing with more force. The fangs dug into his flesh but went no deeper.
A burning flash ignited in Laios's eyes. From his right hand, still trapped between the monster's teeth, fire erupted.
The flames overflowed inside the cryptid's mouth,and instantly began escaping from its open maw.
Its roar became a choked scream, a mix of pain and rage, as its body shook and twisted violently.
Within seconds,the convulsions ceased. The monster lay motionless, smoke and fire escaping from its blackened throat.
Laios slowly withdrew his hand, the skin marked by bites and blood, as the flames extinguished around him.
As Laios was just getting up, the six-limbed monster lunged at them again, a deep roar vibrating in the air.
But before it could reach them,a burst of gunfire impacted around it, diverting its attention for an instant.
An instant was enough.
Laios and the officer didn't waste it.
The officer charged with a clean slash toward the opposite leg,while Laios aimed straight for the abdomen, trying to sink his sword.
The edge bounced off the hardness of that monstrous flesh. Laios retracted the movement and repeated it with a faster impulse, now wrapped in a red aura that managed to pierce… barely.
The blade sank a few centimeters, but the resistance was fierce. Not enough strength…, Laios thought with a flash of frustration.
The officer's cut, though precise, only managed to sever part of the leg. The flesh bubbled and closed instantly, not even leaving a scar.
The monster responded with a brutal blow that swept the air in front of them.
Both retreated, panting, barely dodging the charge. The force of the impact raised splinters and dust around them.
They fell back further, taking distance in opposite directions, leaving the monster right between them, crouched, turning its head from side to side like a predator sizing up its prey.
Laios took a quick glance at the battlefield, assessing everything in seconds.
Of the initial fourteen cryptids—thirteen if he didn't count the six-limbed monster—fewer remained.
Three had been crushed in the monster's initial charge.
One more he had killed himself,when he saved the officer.
Four had fallen under the fury of Körper and the other two.
That left only five cryptids standing… plus the monster.
The air smelled of iron and burnt flesh. The twisted bodies of the fallen were scattered on the ground, while the remaining ones growled.
In the center, the six-limbed creature breathed with a harsh sound, its wounds closing as if mocking death itself.
The numbers had decreased, but the tension hadn't.
An enemy like that didn't need an army to finish them all off.
A roar shook him. Laios reacted to the sound and came to his senses:
the officer was in front of the monster,or rather, surviving against it.
He dodged,deflected, and blocked with great difficulty. On the blows he couldn't intercept, translucent green squares appeared, interposing themselves right where the impact should land, absorbing the force instead of his body.
Laios didn't just watch. He leaped to help him, though first he hurled his weapon with force. The sword impacted the monster's torso and, to his horror, the blade snapped in two with a dry crack.
Laios's mouth opened in disbelief,but he immediately pressed his lips together, leaving astonishment behind. There was no time to think.
The monster spun with violence. Its body charged like a wall and dragged the officer, hurling him through the air.
The man landed against the ship's railing,breaking part of it, teetering on the edge of the void.
At the last instant, a strong arm grabbed him.
The robust man had caught him,almost falling with him, but managed to hook onto a firm part of the structure. Both were left swaying, held by a thread.
Laios leaped to the side, rolled across the deck, and dodged another charge that shattered the planks in its path.
The monster halted abruptly,turned, and with grotesque speed grabbed a cryptid lying on the floor, bleeding from bullet holes.
It lifted it by the legs, like a broken doll.
Seriously…? Laios thought with disbelief. Is it going to use it as a weapon?
The beast didn't wait.
It propelled itself onto its two hind legs,and with a bellow, leaped toward him.
In that instant, lightning tore through the night, illuminating the monstrous figure in mid-air.
The vision was etched into Laios's retina:the colossus with six limbs, brandishing a dying cryptid turned into a macabre club in its hands.
The fraction of a second froze him. And in that moment of doubt, a brutal impact hit him: a direct kick to his left side.
The air was knocked from his lungs as his body was sent flying,skidding across the wet wood of the deck.
The kick threw him a few meters further, the air escaping his lungs in a harsh gasp.
But it hadn't been the monster that struck him.
It was Körper.
He had covered his body in water and,at the last instant, propelled himself with that liquid force to move aside just in time, using Laios as an improvised projectile to avoid the direct impact.
In the brief flash of the maneuver, Laios saw it all as if in slow motion:
the dying cryptid,still held by the monster, bending grotesquely under the pressure of the movement; and then, the brutal crash against the deck.
But the unexpected part wasn't the body.
Instead of shattering as it should,the floor beneath it began to sink, buckling with a dreadful crunch.
The wood splintered, the metal plates gave way, and with each spasm of the corpse, the crack spread further and further, as if the ship itself were suffering the wound.
Within seconds, the deck was marked by a deep fissure, a gash threatening to split it in two.
The monster landed right on the crack.
With all its weight directly on the crack, the creak of wood resonated like thunder. The opening bent even more under its weight. A deafening crunch ran through the deck before the floor gave way completely.
The creature disappeared from view, falling into the fissure.
At the same time, Körper landed, rolling on the soaked ground, barely an instant later.
A fleeting flash crossed his mind.
The water still enveloping his body spread under his feet, propelling him like a projectile toward the nearest mast.
With a gesture, he dispersed the water and let himself slide across the wet surface, the rain lashing his face. He raised his sword and the blade began to vibrate, now wrapped in a red aura.
He twisted his torso and launched a downward diagonal slash with all his force concentrated in the edge. It described a horizontal arc in a descending diagonal.
The sound of the impact was dry, like cracking bone.
The slash tore through the mast's wood with a sharp cry. The structure ripped apart and, overcome by its own weight, collapsed. It began to fall, dragging sails, ropes, and metal pieces with it.
Until the entire mast crashed onto the deck. Shattering into fragments that violently covered the fissure.
One of those pieces impacted directly on a cryptid, crushing and shredding it instantly in an explosion of blood and splinters.
Other fragments pierced the floor, splitting planks and tearing loose a staircase that collapsed amidst the chaos. Leaving the deck a wreckage of debris and damp smoke.
The roar of the wind now mixed with the creaks and the momentary silence after the collapse.
---
The rain beat down relentlessly, but for the first time, they could breathe calmly.
Körper let himself fall onto his back,exhaling forcefully, the water still enveloping him sliding into puddles beneath his body.
Laios got up with difficulty and ran toward the robust man, who was still hanging from the ship's edge.
Bang.
The gunshot's roar shook them,forcing them to turn.
The girl held her smoking rifle;at her feet, the last cryptid fell inert, a hole in its forehead.
Laios nodded without a word, then took the officer by the arm and helped him back onto the deck. Between them, they managed to pull the robust man to safety.
The group was finally reunited.
They all collapsed,exhausted, sitting or lying on the wet wood, breathing heavily.
Around them, the deck was a graveyard: dismembered cryptid bodies, mast splinters, torn railing pieces, and puddles of blood mixing with the rain.
The ship creaked under the weight of the recently ended battle, as if it were also breathing with them after having survived.
One of them broke the silence with a tired voice:
—"We should go inside…rest under cover, now that we can."
But no one responded.
The words hung in the air like a weight,because upon hearing them, they all thought the same thing… something none of them had considered until that moment.
What if they weren't the only ones?
What if others,further down in the ship, had also begun to transform?
The faint murmur of rain on the deck became a heavy noise. No one dared to move, their gazes fixed on the doors leading to the lower decks.
Dark,silent, closed… too closed.
The air grew dense. Fatigue begged them to surrender, but doubt gnawed at their nerves.
Because the six-limbed monster wasn't dead.
They had only delayed the inevitable.
And now, the possibility that they weren't alone made every shadow seem like a lurking enemy.
Another lightning bolt tore the sky, illuminating the storm and the horizon for an instant.
This time,however, the light revealed something impossible to ignore: a colossal shadow, like a dark stain falling through the air from a gigantic bridge and then crashing onto the raging sea.
The roar of the impact wasn't far behind, rumbling through the sea and their bones.
—"Hey…"— the officer's voice cracked with a tremor he couldn't hide—. "Did you all just see what I saw?"
No one responded immediately.
The silence lasted only a second, but it felt eternal.
—"Yes…"—the four responded in unison, with a tone mixing disbelief and fear.
The echo of the word was lost in the rain, as their gazes remained fixed on that shadow that shouldn't have been there.