ELDRITCH NIGHT (Rough Draft)

Chapter 28: Descent

I found a kind of clarity in giving myself over to my primal instincts. It was as if by letting that part of my mind take over I was also reducing the burden placed on my more rational side. I no longer needed to resist. Reflex controlled my physical actions now, and yet I was not a slavering beast left unable to think.

I wasn't sure if I was in control, or if the Companion was. There might not even be a real difference between us anymore. We were separate entities, and yet we were also two parts of something more – it was yet to be seen what that something would become.

I could sense the body of the Companion. With its every pulse it drove oxygen into my lungs. It augmented my senses and strengthened my body. I could feel the creature pulling on the eldritch energy around us, strengthening us, and growing its mass as it did so.

The clump of flesh around my face tightened and began to flow downwards over my back and shoulders. Eyes dissolved into protoplasmic bubbles and tentacles merged and lengthened. When the transformation was complete six long tentacles trailed behind me like demonic wings, pumping to propel me through the darkness of the abyss.

A thin clear membrane had been created in front of my face, allowing me to see for the first time since waking. The water was dark, with only the thinnest hints of grainy beams of moonlight cutting through the gloom.

My perception and willpower had recently received a boost, increasing by five when I gained my class and by an additional point at each level up. My perception was increased even further from my connection to the Companion. Even with this boost, however, I couldn't see more than a few meters in front of me.

My vision was not the only sense that had been enhanced. I still regained the strange sonar-like sight I had experienced earlier. When I closed my eyes faint vibrations in the water would become visible to me as cloudy outlines. The images were like paintings crafted from smoke, hazy and quickly dissipating.

I scanned around myself discovering vast emptiness and a jagged and scarred landscape beneath me. Life was teeming here, but it had retreated and hidden away. Small creatures concealed themselves on the ocean floor, diving into various crevices and holes. I could sense faint movement as water moved around and through these creatures. My senses were strong enough to pick out individual heartbeats and the low hum of water flowing over gills.

The dolphin sized fish had all fled, leaving the strange blob of flesh and tentacles as the only danger.

I could make out its misshapen form and the writhing arteries that madly flailed around it. Some dark instinct in me called out in glee to see the panicked flailing, I sensed injury and desperation, and I felt a primal desire to strike back at my attacker.

I continued to dive deeper, far deeper than any river could ever be. It was hard to tell if this was the terrain warping that seemed to grow stronger as we had grown closer to the dungeon, or if I had been dragged far out to sea. The pressure was immense, and most likely an unenhanced human would be unable to survive under this crushing pressure for long. I could feel the air in my lungs compress, and bones groan in protest.

My physical stats and resistances protected me, but I also suspected that my final class feature was playing a role in my survival. I had yet to work out exactly how the ability worked, but it had the potential to be my most powerful ability - if I could properly understand and harness it.

I opened my status screen, noticing the staggering amount of FP as well as the remaining stats I needed to allocate. Somewhere along the line I had gained two more levels, leaving me seven stat points to allocate.

First, I looked at my fourth, and final, class feature to see if I could gain any further clues as to how it worked. As I did so, my body continued to swim down deeper propelled by the writhing tentacles of my Companion.