I kept moving, slowly pacing back and forth as I scanned the fence. I never directly approached the shadows that marked my watcher, but as I walked back and forth on my small patch of ground that I was striding along, it drew closer on its own. So, they wished to ambush me, catch me off guard. Whoever this was, was sorely mistaken if they thought I didn’t know they were there. I was drawing them in, luring them closer - and then the tables would turn and I would finally know who was following me.
I was on my way back across the uneven ground, passing by one of the upright pillars that were holding up some of the half-finished building, when my mystery follower finally decided to make their move. They’d merged their patch of shadow with the shadows of the pillar, so if I hadn’t been keeping track of them very specifically, I would have had no idea that they were there. They were good, I was once again forced to think as the shadows erupted from the ground, and a form rushed at me out of the darkness.
If I had not been ready, had not been prepared and aware that they were there, that first assault could very well have finished me off. Limbs blurred around me, lashing out from multiple angles, trying to entrap me and bring me down, sharp, catching claws tearing through the air at my clothes, at my garments. But - but I had been ready, had known that the attack was coming. I dropped to the ground, dodging beneath the flurry of strikes. If I didn’t have abnormal reflexes, if I wasn’t faster than a normal being - the attack could have ripped me open. It didn’t.
I hit the ground and rolled back to my feet, the Saw-Spear snapping out from its sheathe as I stared at the beast that had attacked me. It was - similar, dreadfully so, to a drider. Spider-like body, monstrous and grotesque, bulbous and hairy with eight limbs. Six legs held it off the ground as it turned around to face me, black and chitinous as the claws on the end dug into the earth beneath our feet. But if that was the case, then it would have just been a giant spider, a bit unsettling but not too bad. No, what made it disgusting and repugnant, and impossible, was the humanoid head that glared at me with a ferocious hatred. Unlike a normal drider, there was no torso with the head - it was just a head, twisted and contorted to replace the spider’s head. Emerging from either side of the head were the remaining two limbs - ropy, thin things, like worms almost, with ominous looking stingers on the end. I swallowed, once, and shoved the revulsion down.
“Tststs You.†Aaaand it could speak. Its voice was unnatural, a grating yet reedy sound, and its eyes blazed with anger as it studied me. “You will feed me, Ar’Tuel†What. This thing thought that I was - that I was an Ar’Tuel?
