Entity #444

11: (null)

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Playlist songs for this chapter:
Bloodshot- Sam Tinnesz
Standing Tall- Extreme Music

***

Marzena

My consciousness burst back into waking reality, and I shot straight up. Chest heaving in my bed. My eyes traced through the dark to my alarm clock. 3:27 AM was the time, glowing the same red as Nazarius' eyes.

Except he was nowhere to be found.

I pulled my knees close to my chest in an attempt to catch my breath.

"...what the fuck..."

* * *

Nazarius

"Marzena!" Nazarius' hooves splayed under him, and he looked around wildly.

She noclipped- she's gone, he thought, panicking. He dropped his head and pawed at the water where she had disappeared. "Where did she clip to?" His jaw parted as he investigated the point of disappearance, heart rate increasing rapidly. As he raised his head, an unwelcome sound echoed off of the walls.

Footsteps in the water. Speedy steps.

Predatory steps.

Nazarius raised his head quickly to look- the sound was coming from one of two directions, forward or behind. Left with no time to think, a disfigured creature sprang from the shadows behind him, and latched onto his neck near his withers. The creature was equipped with claws that must've been near a foot in length.

A pain-filled bellow left Nazarius' nasal cavity, and he twisted and threw his neck and head, trying to unbalance the unknown predator.

The room before him delved down a few steps toward a central tunnel with several others branching off from it. The light here was dim, which left Nazarius' eyes responsible for seeking out his attacker's next move.

The disjointed creature dug its claws into Nazarius' hide, trying desperately to grip and disable him. The blind-sided stallion arced his back to the ceiling in a sharp buck, kicking and striking at whatever he could reach, which was, unfortunately, empty air. Now, low-pitched whines and bellows were escaping him, as the creature sank its claws into the crest of his neck, holding on for dear life.

He began to see nothing but red, as his fight-or-flight spurred him forward towards the steps. Hurtling his body toward the ground and bracing for impact of his skull and horns to the concrete, Nazarius sent his body downward.

His proud, sturdy frame crashed against the steps. The concrete dug holes into his bony joints as he rolled all the way over onto the disfigured body of the predator. Its bones shattered one by one at the steel steam-roller weight of Nazarius, and it struggled only momentarily, as it released the crest of his neck from its grasp.

Nazarius inhaled sharply, and kicked his legs out to roll back onto them, bringing them underneath him once more. He paused to stay on the watery concrete floor of the tunnel for another minute as he caught his breath. A long, winded groan left him.

Deep crimson blood flowed from his withers down each of his front legs, and his skull was spattered in neck blood. The body of what he could now determine as a Scratcher, twitched halfheartedly as Nazarius gingerly began to lift his weight off of it. The long claws glinted in the light of Nazarius' red, LED- like eyes, so that he couldn't tell how bloody they were.

Once he was to his feet, his legs began to tremor slightly. As he was still attempting to catch his breath, he shook his entire body, blood droplets flying.

Nazarius investigated the crushed Scratcher, and when he had enough, he opened his jaws wide and snatched the Scratcher's disfigure. Using one of his boulder-like hooves, he held the rest of the body to the concrete with a stone-cold vengeance.

He pulled back and slowly shredded the creature from limb to limb, omitting the claws and devouring the carcass. When he was done, he stood, looking forward, and licking the blood dripping from his jaws.