"The moment I drifted back into consciousness, the world stopped moving. The brutes had finally decided to take a break, dropping me onto the jagged, cold floor of the tunnel like a sack of rotted grain."
They didn't give me a second to clear the cobwebs from my head before the interrogation started. It was relentless. Questions were hurled at me like stones, one after the other, with no breath in between for me to actually answer. At the very least, I managed to learn the name of the bastard who kept calling me a 'half-portion.'
Bellarus. A mountain of a man with skin the color of wet clay and a voice that sounded like a rockslide.
His favorite line of questioning seemed to revolve entirely around my physique. "Are all the men from the surface built like twigs, or are you just a defect?" he sneered, poking my ribs with a calloused finger. "Why are you so small? Why do you look like a half-starved rat that crawled out of a sewer?"
I stared at them, my eyes stinging from the stench of their unwashed bodies. They had smeared some kind of pungent, grey grease over their skin—probably to mask their scent from predators—but to me, they just smelled like a swamp's backside.
What can I do about being small, you idiots? I thought, my rage simmering just below the surface. I don't look at your women and ask why they're as muscular and brutish as the men, do I? You filthy, primitive bastards!
The silence that followed was heavy. Every single one of them—Bellarus, the woman with the translucent skin, and the rest of the scouting party—froze and glared at me with pure venom. Except for Alparius.
Shit. I did it again. I thought too loud.
Instead of reaching for his blade, Alparius burst into a booming, thunderous laugh. The sound echoed off the obsidian walls, startling a few bats in the distance.
"The brat has spirit!" Alparius roared, wiping a tear from his eye. "He managed to take down a Grell with one working arm and a hole in his shoulder, all after outsmarting the Guardian. I think he's already shown us why she wanted him brought to the colony. Haha!"
I glared at him, my shadow-arm twitching beneath the ropes. You arrogant piece of shit. Who do you think you are, judging why I'm here or how I survived? I'm a cockroach, Alparius. And cockroaches survive long after kings like you are dust.
Alparius's laughter died down, replaced by a sharp, calculating glint in his eyes. "Okay, that's enough talk for now."
Without warning, he leaned in and delivered a sharp, stinging blow to my jaw. My head snapped back, the metallic taste of blood filling my mouth.
"Try that when I'm not tied up, you coward," I spat, blinking away the red haze in my vision. "Anyone can play the tough guy when their opponent is in chains. Even a 'half-portion' like me could act like an authority over a helpless dog."
His reaction caught me off guard. He didn't get angry. He simply smiled—a dangerous, jagged grin that didn't reach his eyes. "Fair point, loudmouth. Let's see what you're made of."
With a flick of his wrist, he signaled the others. Bellarus grumbled but drew his knife to slice through my bindings. As the ropes fell away, I didn't wait. I knew Alparius was fast, but he was overconfident.
He lunged at me, his fists like iron hammers. I didn't try to block. Instead, I tapped into the Naga's shimmering essence. Illusion Magic. I projected an image of myself a few inches to the left of where I actually stood. Alparius's fist whistled through the empty air, and in that split second, I diverted the illusion toward Bellarus. To Alparius's eyes, Bellarus suddenly looked like me, mocking him.
Alparius spun and delivered a devastating hook to Bellarus's face.
"What the—?!" Bellarus roared, clutching his nose as blood sprayed the floor.
While they were confused, I struck. I channeled my Shadow Shaping, coiling dark, suffocating vines around Alparius's legs to root him to the spot. Before he could break free, I summoned a Shadow Blade and drove it straight into his left shoulder.
It wasn't a lethal blow—I needed him alive for now—but it was enough to make him grunt in genuine pain.
The other Abyss-dwellers surged forward, their weapons drawn. "Back off!" I screamed, igniting a wave of White Flame in a circle around me. The intense, holy heat pushed them back, their eyes wide with terror at the sight of the light magic.
Bellarus recovered and charged at me, his eyes bloodshot with rage. "I'll kill you, you little freak!"
"Stay put," I whispered. I triggered my Cryokinesis, the floor beneath Bellarus's feet turning to jagged, thick ice in an instant. His boots fused to the stone, his legs encased in a frozen tomb up to his knees. He slipped, flailing helplessly as he tried to maintain his balance.
Suddenly, the ground beneath me shifted. A girl, no older than sixteen or seventeen, stepped out from the shadows of the tunnel. Her hands were pressed to the earth, her eyes glowing with a dull brown light. Earth Magic. The stone floor rose up like a wave, trying to pin me against the ceiling. I reacted by instinct. I began to chant the sequence for the Sawing Sun of the Four Colors, letting the violet-white mana flare up around my hand. I didn't intend to fire it—I didn't have the stamina—but the threat was enough. I released a weakened, flickering pulse of solar energy that shattered her earth-construct into dust.
Damn, it feels good to be the one doing the hitting for once.
Alparius, however, wasn't finished. He reached into his belt and drew a short, crystalline blade. With a flick of his wrist, he hurled the weapon at my head. Diamond Magic. The blade was reinforced with a crystalline structure that made it nearly indestructible. It hummed through the air, and even though I dodged, the sheer pressure of its passing distracted me.
That was all he needed. Alparius closed the gap in a heartbeat, his massive hand wrapping around my throat and slamming me into the floor with a bone-shaking CRUNCH.
But as he looked down at me, grinning in victory, my body began to shimmer and dissolve into purple mist.
"W-what?" Alparius gasped.
Behind him, Bellarus let out a muffled scream. Alparius turned just in time to see the real me standing over the 'runt,' my shadow-blade at his throat. The 'me' Alparius had crushed was just another illusion.
"Surprised by the variety?" I asked, my voice dripping with venom. "I can do more than just hide, Alparius. I can absorb magic."
I lied through my teeth, and they swallowed it whole. I had secretly used the Grell's tentacle hidden in my tunic to trigger a tiny spark of Electro Magic, letting small arcs of lightning dance between my fingers.
The girl with the earth magic gasped. "He... he's a devourer?"
Alparius stared at me for a long time. The anger faded, replaced by that same terrifyingly wide grin. Suddenly, a woman named Gammia appeared from the shadows behind me. Before I could pivot, she delivered a precise, heavy blow to the back of my neck.
As the world began to go black again, I heard Alparius's voice, fading into the distance.
"Haha... you were right, brat. Without the ropes, you aren't exactly easy to put down. I think the Wächterin is going to find you very... interesting."
I drifted into the dark, a small smile on my lips. I had lost the fight, but I had won their respect. And in a place like this, respect was the only thing that kept you from being eaten.
Until next time.