Abyssal Fear

The glowing eyes slowly emerged from the crevasse. The torch light illuminated the murky form of the creature. Its hunched humanoid form was obscured by a dense black smoke, seeping from its body, seeming to devour the light. The few features that could be made out through the haze were the claws on its hands, that seemed like spikes as long as a forearm, and sharp needle like teeth, similar to an angler fish. The glowing eyes, though, were what drew the attention of the onlookers. The eyes glowed with a shocking light that pierced its shroud of smoke as if it wasn't there. The light brought no warmth or clarity, instead one would feel like they were losing their sanity looking into those pools of light. As if those lights were beckoning them down to hell.

Seeing those eyes fixed on Ameri and himself, Kaleb felt panic take hold of his mind. It was a new experience for him, one which brought another unfamiliar emotion, fear.

The creature came into the open and made its way slowly toward the two bound figures. It came right up to their feet then slowly turned its head and looked at the Hunters off to the side. Then, Kaleb could have sworn he saw the needle like teeth turn up in a gruesome smile. It raised its head toward the ceiling and released another terrifying shriek, and the whole cavern seemed to come alive with shrieks in answer to its call.

Over 20 haze shrouded creatures emerged from the darkness around the Hunters, completely surrounding them. The shouts of surprise were enough for Kaleb to confirm that this was far from what the Hunters had planned.

The creatures rushed the Hunters causing further disorder and panic among their ranks. Allowing the beasts to draw them into isolated battles, taking advantage of their superior numbers to keep the Hunters from fighting as a group. Kaleb couldn't get a full view of the situation from the limited vision his bonds allowed, but the situation looked like a disaster for the Hunters.

Just then Ameri, who had been silent since the creatures first appeared, began screaming. Kaleb looked away from the battle to see Ameri thrashing against his bonds to the point of bleeding. His eyes were wide with fear and seemed to have lost all reason. As Kaleb watched he began to feel his own panic and fear rising as well. He then noticed that all the creatures who had approached the Hunters from their direction had passed them by. Almost as if they weren't there.

Suddenly, Kaleb's fear and panic disappeared. Like a raging sea that became smooth as glass in a moment. His thoughts cleared and his mind steadied.

'What just happened?'

'You were under the effect of the Abyssal Fear.' Rackshar answered, much calmer than he was a few minutes ago.

'Abyssal Fears don't feed on flesh, they feed on fear. So, when they hunt prey they capture it alive, and subject it to torture, feeding on its fear until its mind breaks and it dies. Their magic is a mental attack that causes fear in their victims. You can see the full blown effects in that human kid next to you.' Rackshar explained, as Ameri continued to thrash around.

'So why am I no longer effected?'

'I spent the last few minutes suppressing the effect in your mind but I couldn't fully stop it until you finally used that brain you claim to be so proud of to calm down, which allowed me to drive out the last of its ability.'

Kaleb took one last look at Ameri before turning back to the battle. There was nothing Kaleb could do for him at the moment.

The fight still wasn't going well. Most of the Hunters were struggling fighting just one on one with the Abyssal Fears. Kaleb could already see slash marks on several of the Hunters. Salarime, for her part, was taking on three at the same time, showing why she was the leader.

Lightning was arching around her sword and armor as she stood in the middle of the three creatures. Any time one of them would strike her the lightning in her armor would lash out at them. She would then slash the defenseless Abyssal Fear, stunned by her lightning. Kaleb thought that Salarime's powerful attacks would end the battle quickly, but it was almost like the smoke coming from the Abyssal Fear's bodies would repel Salarime's blade. Her attacks would still cut them but were never lethal. It was becoming a battle of endurance between Salarime's armor, which already had several gashes in it, and the Abyssal Fear's defenses.

An explosion rang out from the other side of the battle field and Kaleb had to strain his neck to see the source. An Abyssal Fear was lying on the ground, its normal black smoke was mixed with gray. It was starting to struggle to its feet but Kaleb could tell whatever had happened had hurt it. Once the beast had recovered, it rushed back into the fray with a shriek. It threw itself at Elroth, who calmly dodged behind it, causing the two other Abyssal Fears he was fighting to get tangled with their new comrade.

Unlike Salarime, Elroth maneuvered around the Abyssal Fears with speed and grace. Kaleb found such fluidity surprising, coming from the unassuming man. Elroth never allowed himself to become surrounded and the three creatures always seemed to be in each others way. The creatures struggled to even swing at him without getting tied up with each other. In fact several times the Abyssal Fears would hit each other instead of their intended target.

Finally, Kaleb found out the source of the earlier explosion. One of the Abyssal Fears got ahead of its two companions and aimed a swipe for Elroth's chest. Elroth ducked under the swing, using his wrist to deflect the attack higher. He stepped inside the creatures blow and gently placed his palm on the Abyssal Fear's stomach. A loud explosion sent the creature hurtling into its two companions, sending all three to the ground a few meters away. Elroth took the brief respite to take stock of the teams condition.

"Elroth!" Salarime shouted, seeing him clear of enemies for a moment. "Organize a retreat! We need to break out the back!"

"What about those two?!" Elroth shouted back to her.

"I'm sorry! The plan has changed! If we stay here we all die! There's nothing we can do for them Elroth!"

Elroth slowly turned and met Kaleb's eyes. What Kaleb saw there surprised him. Elroth's eyes were full of fear and panic, that hadn't been there even when he was fighting three Abyssal Fears.