It wasn't just a sound or a guess. It was a presence, heavy and suffocating, pressing against my back like it was already reaching for me.
I turned just in time to see it.
Its arm had already shifted into something else, stretched and sharpened into a thin, blade-like shape that cut through the air as it came straight for my neck.
I threw myself to the side. The razor edge passed so close I felt it graze the air against my skin, and I hit the ground hard, rolling as fast as I could to create distance.
For a split second, I thought I had avoided it.
Then its chest moved. Something black burst out from it, not quite solid and not quite liquid, like a mass of writhing strands snapping forward all at once. It spread through the air like a web, fast and wide, before I could even react.
It hit me square in the chest.
The force knocked the breath out of me instantly as the black strands tightened and launched me backward like I weighed nothing.
