While running, David understood one thing. The length of the cave was huge.
He has been running for minutes at this point, looking for an escape. But all he got was a staircase that spiraled upwards.
And he was right now very close to it.
'I have no other option. If I stay here, I need to face the wraiths...all I can do now is run away.' David thought inwardly as he looked behind him once again.
And just like the previous few times, there was not a single wraith behind him. David wondered if their slow speed was the reason why he wasn't being chased by them or did they give up on him already?
In any case, he was pleased with the outcome. As long as he survived, any result was desirable.
Suddenly he felt the hairs on his neck stand up as a cold shiver passed through his spine. Involuntarily, he wrapped his arms around him.
'That feeling...it was familiar.' He knew that there was only one creature that was capable of making him feel that.
But David still didn't think he was being chased by any of them. Afterall, his Vision was in the active state. Had any wraith been after him, he would have seen them.
"Wait a minute..." David stopped in his path. The stairway was just few feet away but he didn't rush towards it.
Not only did he feel the same shiver again, this time at his cheeks but also he came at a certain conclusion.
"Wraiths use their tentacles to touch others just as they had been poking at my legs when they were on the ground. Doesn't that mean...?" He didn't say anything further as if afraid uttering them aloud would make it come true.
But even then, he slowly craned his head and looked up. At the ceiling.
He didn't even see the ceiling. But all he saw was a concentrated mass of darkness resting up there.
And from them, numerous tentacles hanged in the air. All of them just a few inches away from David's head.
David almost screamed in shock. Why hadn't he thought of this obvious fact? They had been originally resting on the cave walls. Obviously it made sense that they could easily climb the ceilings as well.
But before he could even do anything, as if waiting for that moment all the slithering tentacles pushed into David's body from every direction.
His legs buckled as he almost slipped on the ground. Somehow he regained his balance as the tentacles pulled out his of body.
David felt his heart clench unnaturally as if on the verge of a cardiac arrest.
'Its alright. All they can do is dull my responses....I just need to run away before they completely shut down my consciousness.' He gritted his teeth to resist the sudden dizziness that threatened to overcome him.
Then suddenly the patterns in the movement of the wind changed. The calm, smooth glowing air turned into a whoosing gale.
Alarmed, David looked up. There, a tentacle was raised in the air. Then with a force that split the air it rushed at him.
David prepared himself for yet another touch of the wraith. But this time, the tentacle didn't pass through him. Instead, it struck him right on the forehead with a sickening blow.
David felt a jarring impact from the solid punch of the wraith as he was tossed back into the air.
Like a ragdoll thrown without any care, he fell on the ground. Instantly the wraiths that had been waiting on the ceiling jumped upon his vulnerable body. They covered his body with their darkness as the tentacle that had struck David dissolved into thin air.
'What just happened...? How did the wispy, shadowy tentacles suddenly turned solid?' David was very puzzled as he lay on the ground, powerless. The wraiths spread their tentacles as each of them went in and out of his exposed flesh.
David felt his senses dull to the point where even forming a cognitive thought was a painful task. However what he noticed was that the tentacles were no longer solid. They had returned back to their usual smoky state.
"I don't want to die...again" A raspy whisper came out of his lips as suddenly the mana left in his body surged towards his eyes. Simultaneously, the effect of the Vision doubled.
'Am I hallucinating?' David thought dreamily, his eyes tracking the movement of thousands of tiny particles in the air. He saw his own body covered in something red, minute entities.
The tentacles whipped into him. His eyes slightly widened as he saw the tentacles sucking the red coloured mana from his body and leaving back a black miasma in its place.
These sinister looking particles spread through his body and at that moment, David felt his senses dull even more.
The tentacles took out his red coloured mana and transferred it to their core body where half of it turned into the same black miasma and the other half of it was stored at a small part of their body in the form of dark bluish particles.
All of a sudden, most of the bluish particles rushed together and covered the insides of a single tentacle.
'And if I am not wrong...' He thought inwardly as the tentacle covered in the bluish particles struck David's shoulder, almost breaking the bone in there. The other wraiths soon followed with their own solid strikes.
'I see it now...these wraiths suck out the mana of their victims to charge themselves before they attack them with a mana infused tentacle.'
By now, David couldn't even feel his lower body anymore as he watched the black toxins entering his body.
'In fact, wraiths are made up of these black toxins alone.'
He sighed heavily or atleast that's what he tried doing as he laid underneath the layers of multiple wraiths.
"But in that case..." He raised his hand weakly, his fingertips grazing the dark body of the wraiths. "You aren't exactly invincible either. It's true that I can't touch your shadowy form on my will."
Even while he said that, his hands moved upwards as the dark toxic body of the wriath above him parted and his hands moved through thin air.
As if proving his own statement, he added. "However, your heart isn't safe."
His hand shot towards the bluish energy core inside the wraith. In one single movement, he grasped it inside his palms. Strangely enough, this part of the body was actually solid unlike the rest of it.
David pressed hard as the bluish core burst into pieces. Instantly, the wraith above him dispersed into nothingness as an agony filled cry permeated the air.
Suddenly the other wraiths stopped at the death of one of their own kind. Then as if recognising David a threat, their movements went into a frenzy.
Their bodies suddenly split as more number of tentacles appeared from each wraith. They poked furiously into David's body, releasing more and more of the toxin into his circulatory system.
But he smiled. Not out of arrogance or weakness. But rather, it was a knowing smile.
"It seems even ghosts don't want to die. How ironic." His hands zipped like lightning as it tore through the cores of the wraiths without stopping.
At last, only one wraith was left. As if understanding that it won't be able to kill him on time, it tried running away.
The irregular bulky body of the wraith slithered on the cave floor like a slippery snake, the bluish core glistening in the range of the Vision skill.
David smirked, "As if I shall let you go."
He crawled on the ground as he came across a cone shaped stalagmite protruding from the cave floor, like a spear stuck into the ground.
He held it in both his hands as he pulled himself up with a grunt. Having done so, he jumped forward.
His tired and numb figure stumbled across the cave as he aimed at the wraith. Then in one swoop of his hand, he seized the bluish core or which happened to be the heart of the wraith.
*Crunch*
The final core shattered into pieces as it dissolved into thin air. However David through his Vision could see that the bluish mana was getting converted into a transparent mana that camoflauged with the surrounding air.
As the last of the wraiths died, David felt all his energy wither away. He deactivated his Vision as his body fell on the floor limpidly.
"I don't care whether I live or die...but for god's sake, I need some rest."
He closed his eyes as his consciousness slipped away.
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A/N: If you are liking the story, please do leave some reviews as well. I shall find them certainly useful in improving my content.