Did that mean that it was hunting Amari? Had meant to pursue her? And what did it mean that I would feed it? I narrowed my eyes, my fingers tightening around the hilt of my weapon. I couldn’t let that slide. I might not be able to be close to her, but if some fucking spider thing was trying to find her, I was not going to let it go. I gave a loud snort.

“I don’t know what you want from me, fiend. But I won’t feed you a damn thing but my blade.” I flicked the Saw-Spear out to full extension, the jagged blade locking into place. The loud clack dragged the abnormal eyes of the thing in front of me down, to the blade, but they soon enough returned to me, burning with that hate - and now, I could see, a hunger. I snarled behind my facemask. I did not want this thing to ever lay those eyes on her.

“I will consume your essence, shining one. You will sleep forever and I will go on.” For a moment, I stilled. Consume my - consume Ar’Tuel essence. This thing preyed upon Ar’Tuel. It could kill her.

It could kill Amari.

That thought shot through me, and ice followed in its wake. Not shock, not fear. Fury. Rage so hot that it froze. This thing threatened her, this thing could kill her. No. Even if I had not already reached that decision, there was no way, no way at all that I could let this thing go even one step further than this night. It had to die, had to die here and fucking now. Silver tinted my vision as sound rushed away, my senses narrowing as rage drowned everything else. This fucking abomination thought it would kill me, thought it could kill Amari. It would not draw any breath come morning. I would bathe in this abomination’s blood for its gall to try to strike at her.

I crouched down, and the thing mirrored me. The two of us glared at each other across the shadow-strewn lot as the moonlight swirled around us. The spider-thing’s hate filled, pitch black eyes locked with my blazing silver gaze, and I did not know in that moment which of us desired the other’s death more. But I knew which of us would get their desire. My blade would drench the earth in this thing’s life blood, and it would expire here. I snarled, teeth bared behind the leather mask. The beast answered me with an inhuman shriek, an impossible cry that ripped through the night air.

In the back of my mind, behind the silver-tinged fury, I wondered how many people would hear that, how many would feel terror as the monstrous sound split the night. It was so obviously unnatural that I doubted any of the normal people, Alerans who relied on science and progress over magic and mysticism, would be able to process it. That was fine, though, wasn’t it? Because it wasn’t the normal person’s place to worry about the monsters in the night. It was mine. And I was a bigger monster than this spider could hope to be.

Which one of us moved first, I don’t know. All I know is that at some point, we were dashing, flowing back and forth as we attacked. Claws and stingers lashed out at me, trying to impale me and run me through. But without the advantage of his sneak attack, my eyes focused entirely on the abomination, I was able to easily weave my way through the strikes, shifting my body back and forth around the outstretched limbs, slipping past them with my own unnatural reflexes. I lashed out, trying to catch the thing’s leg with my Saw-Spear, but it managed to pull back, retreating out of the way of the jagged blade before I could catch it. I let out a low snarl again as I jumped back, narrowly avoiding the stab of one of the worm-like ‘arms’.