The Origin Warden

Chapter 4 : In the Dark

Ignoring the pain in his nose, he pushed himself up with his hands then looked behind him trying to figure out the nature of the monster attacking him.

He saw something resembling a tentacle tightly wrapped around his foot. You may wonder how he managed to see it considering darkness dominated the place, the answer was simple, the damned tentacle was glowing with a blue light.

Jack raised his head following the source of the tentacle and there above in the corner his eyes met glowing vertical yellow eyes.

A shiver ran across his body under that predatory gaze. In panic he tried kicking the tentacle with his other foot, while doing that he grabbed the bone that had fallen from him earlier then adjusted his position and tried stabbing the tentacle.

But it seemed the creature with the yellow eyes understood what Jack was about to do so it sent another tentacle at incredible speed leaving Jack no chance to react.

It wrapped around his arm and held it in place. He resisted violently but uselessly, the thing’s strength was overwhelming.

“I'm dead,” Jack said fearfully while staring at the creature that jumped from the ceiling toward the ground. Because of the blue glow he got a proper look at the shape of the creature attacking him.

It was a black panther or rather a cat that had mutated to become this size. The cat’s mouth was the worst part of its body, it was split in the middle, each side was a mouth filled with rows of sharp teeth, and directly from the depths of each mouth glowing blue tentacles resembling tongues emerged.

Its glowing vertical yellow eyes looked as if they were staring directly into your soul making you feel fear under its gaze.

Jack released a dry laugh nervously and fearfully.

“Yeah I’m definitely dead...”

Instead of resisting he opened his mouth and began talking, his words sounded like pleading.

“Umm, Mr. Monster, no I mean monster you are you are an ugly cat I mean I mean a beautiful and majestic cat. You should know that my meat tastes really awful. I haven’t showered for a full 7 days, oh and I was living in a trash container, if you insist I can offer one of my limbs, it’s useless anyway umm maybe the right arm has some use but if you insist who am I to say no to you...”

He put on the best smile he could draw on his pale face from intense fear and exhaustion in such a situation.

“So... what do you think?”

The monster seemed confused by the behavior of its strange and stupid prey. It bared its teeth and released a sound resembling purring but deeper and more terrifying.

' Fuck fuck '

Jack cursed intensely in his mind while staring at the third tentacle slowly approaching him before it wrapped around him and touched his cheek curiously as if the monster was really checking whether his taste was awful as he claimed.

Jack held his breath nervously and forced himself not to move enduring the sticky tentacle filled with tiny spikes that scratched his cheek leaving several crooked red lines.

Suddenly he felt the restraint on his arm and leg disappear and indeed the monster had withdrawn all its tentacles back into its mouth or mouths.

Under Jack’s resentful eyes the damned monster showed a disgusted expression and Jack swore those terrifying yellow eyes of its carried a kind of judgment, not only that but it even spat sticky saliva onto the ground.

' This damned monster wait why do I feel insulted?, at least it seems to have abandoned the idea of making me its dinner '

Jack thought bitterly maintaining his stillness because the monster before him apparently did not consider him a threat due to his lack of movement.

He had previously watched several documentaries about animal behavior so he acted this way, betting his very life on information he watched on television with his mother when he was young.

The monster released another terrifying purr then turned around and began moving away from Jack who watched the beast blend with the darkness as if it were one with it, even its footsteps were inaudible.

' Amazing. That’s why I didn’t notice it despite carefully checking the place. It seems like a cat that mutated into its current form. It even gained the ability to hide itself in darkness and also those tongue-like tentacles. Origin Energy is truly an amazing thing. I wonder if I’ll also get a cool ability '

While Jack was immersed in his thoughts and daydreams about obtaining an invincible supernatural ability, the sound of something falling came from the depths of the hallway. Although the sound was faint the hallway acted like a sound amplifier because of the complete silence.

' Please please don’t tell me there’s something behind me '

Jack continuously begged while turning his head with difficulty to look over his shoulder. Fortunately there was nothing except darkness. Just when he was about to breathe in relief that his fears did not come true. His old friend returned.

He turned his head forward with an ugly smile on his face. His eyes met those cursed yellow eyes approaching him, and under his exhausted gaze from the tension he had experienced during the last few minutes those blue tentacles began emerging from the monster’s mouths.

Jack quickly raised his hands above his head dramatically and said trying to explain the situation to a monster with ugly tentacles.

“Wait wait wait that wasn’t me, I swear to Almighty God I didn’t make that sound”

Unfortunately the tentacles kept approaching him, there were six of them this time. Seeing this Jack abandoned the role of the peaceful victim and quickly got up from the ground before starting to run toward the depths of the hallway from where the sound that caused his current predicament came.

He shouted resentfully cursing when he felt something strike his back hard or rather scratch his back because the sound of metal scraping echoed through the place accompanied by sparks from the friction.

“Fuck...”

Jack fell to the ground from the force of the hit. He let out a painful groan and instinctively placed his hand behind his back to inspect his injury only to find deep scratch marks on a metallic surface, only then remembering he was wearing armor. He had completely forgotten about it because of the armor’s lack of weight despite its durability.

Unfortunately he did not have the luxury of celebrating not being injured because the monster grabbed him again by the leg and started dragging him toward itself.

“Damn you. I told you my meat tastes awful”

Jack shouted angrily while trying to resist being dragged but that only caused the monster to wrap more tentacles around his leg. He gritted his teeth while his mind boiled with thoughts trying to find a way out of this predicament.

' Think think think. How can I kill this damned thing without dying myself. The damned mirror '

He stopped resisting, supported his body with his hand and flipped over to lie on his back which hurt badly.

While holding the sharp bone in his left hand he raised his right hand before his chest.

Particles of green light appeared from the void before beginning to gather on his palm in the shape of a mirror with a silver circular frame decorated with white lines.

Jack grabbed the mirror from its edge and threw it toward the monster. The mirror slid across the cement floor producing a scraping sound before stopping because the monster placed its claws on its surface.

It lowered its head downward staring at the strange thing. It removed its paw and because of the blue light from the tentacles the monster’s face reflected on the mirror and that was enough for the magic to begin.

Somehow a grotesque mouth with red lips appeared beneath the mirror.