Orion had never thought himself as brave. He was a runner, always had been. His parents had always enforced that, even when he started getting bullied in high school.
"There's no good reason to fight!" His mother would tell him.
Well, he thought he had a pretty good reason now.
He watched as the tap water overflowed from his cup, spilling down into the sink. It had been doing this for nearly half a minute, but Orion still couldn't move. He had an iron grip on the edge of the sink, his knuckles as white as bone.
He didn't want to fight. He didn't want to die. The cut on his calf was feeling all too prevalent in the moment. He imagined himself getting skewered, cut through like a piece of paper. He felt fear gripping his innards like a snake constricting around its prey.
The apartment complex was silent now. Orion tried to convince himself that it was because everyone else had already won their battles, and he was dragging behind. But he knew that wasn't the case. He heard the screams.
His next door neighbour, a kind woman named Amy, had been one of the first to scream. She had always been nice to Orion, she had even packed him food occasionally. She seemed worried about his health. He always meant to return the favour.
And now she was dead.
Had she faced the Moss Shambler too? Or did she get something different? Orion hoped she got the Shambler, for as terrifying as it was, it would offer a quick death.
Orion felt himself sob. He didn't want to fight, he didn't want to end up like Amy. He considered running in that moment. He knew what he was meant to do, that he was commanded by something to kill the Shambler. But he had no desire too.
He wanted to run, to go outside and leave this all very far behind him. But that wasn't possible. There was nothing outside of this apartment. Just a void.
Thud!
The sound came from the apartment to his left. The sound pulled him out of his trance. He turned to his left, as if hoping to see through the wall and find the origin of the sound.
He heard another thud, a grunt, a crash of plates.
Someone was fighting.
Orion turned back to the cup. He wasn't alone in this battle, someone else was struggling and here he was, too scared to turn a tap off and fight a blind and dead monster. Who knows what his neighbour was fighting, what horror they were up against.
It was almost surely worse than what Orion was dealing with. He turned to the Shambler. It was standing still, ready to pounce on the next signal it received.
It was ready for a fight, Orion needed to be too. He turned off the tap and grabbed the cup before leaving the kitchen. He found himself some seven paces from the monster. The tendrils had started growing out again, spreading across the floor.
Orion stared at the claws one last time, and he felt the cut on his leg, and the blood that had dried around it. He may die. He didn't want to die. And that was why he would fight.
He threw the cup.
The water spilled from the cup and flew over the beasts head, landing on the moss behind it.
The beast turned in a flash and started swinging, it's back now facing Orion. This was his chance.
He charged in, the moss now centralized around the Shambler. He held the heavy butchers knife in both hands, ready to swing at any moment.
As he approached the moss carpet, he fell to his knees and slide on the hardwood floor. He tried to lower himself as much as he could, in hopes that when the Shambler detected him, it would swing too high.
He touched the moss, and the Shambler turned. Orion watched the bests claws pass over Orions face, missing by hardly an inch. And with that missed attack, the beasts neck was open.
Orion swung with all the force he could muster, aiming for the middle of the Shamblers neck.
Ting!
The blade bounced off the bone, leaving only a small crack. Orion felt everything fall apart, and for a moment he was convinced he was dead. The beast would swing, and cleave him open.
But the claw never came.
The beast jumped back defensively. Putting up its claws to stop a further assault. Orion did not waste this opportunity. He got on his feet and threw himself backwards and off the moss carpet. He slide on the hard wood floor, crashing into the wall right beside the hallway this had all started in.
Orion looked up at the Shambler. It was searching desperately, the tendrils of moss attempting to cover as much ground as possible. It needed to locate Orion, and stop him as fast as it could.
Orion had found the weak spot. He just hit the wrong area. Instead of aiming for the neck point blank, he would need to take advantage of the gaps between the vertebrae. If he could wedge his knife into one of those gaps, he could sever the neck.
The Shambler had sent its tendrils out far, leaving plenty of holes in its defense. Orion steadied his nerves, gripped the knife, and charged forward. He jumped between gaps in the moss, keeping his eyes set on the panicked Shambler.
It had been backed into a corner, its weakness discovered and defenses thinned. The beast swung wildly in every direction, attempting to stop an assault before it could happen.
Orion had the upper hand.
When he got close enough, he fell to his knees infront of the Shambler. He just needed the Shambler to miss its attack, and then it's neck would be exposed. And this would all be over.
The Shambler didn't miss.
It learned from Orions previous assault, and its claws shot directly down, aiming for Orions throat. He threw up his knife, blocking the attack by wedging the blade between the Shamblers middle and ring finger. The claws came within half an inch of his throat.
Orion barely had time to catch the second hand, which came from the side, attempting to dig into his stomach. He was forced to hold the beasts arms back with only one hand each.
Orion couldn't hold it back. The claws slowly pushed forward. Digging into his side. Orion stifled a scream. He was barely managing to hold back the claws aimed at his throat. They were approaching, and if they were to cut him, he would surely die.
He needed to get out of this, and quick. Orion tried to push the claws back, but to no avail. The Shambler was too strong. It leaned closer, pushing the claws deeper into his side.
He screamed then, unable to endure the pain silently. He felt as though four hot knives were slowly plunging into his flesh.
"This is how I die, isn't it?"
He didn't want to die, he couldn't die, not yet. He wasn't done, he had so much left to achieve. He wasn't ready!
He needed a way out. He looked spuratically, seeing if there was some other weak spot he could abuse. He saw no cracks in the bone, no easy way out.
That was when his eyes were drawn to the spine, the neck was too far away for him to hit, and the middle of the spine was guarded by the ribcage, making it nearly impossible to hit reliably. His eyes drifted down.
"The lower spine!"
It was the same situation as the neck, a collection of connective bone that had no real protection. It was the best shot Orion had.
He lifted his leg up, feeling all four claws in his side as his flesh moved. He slammed his leg into the lower spine of the Shambler. Nothing seemed to happen. No cracks formed, nothing broke apart. But the Shambler panicked. It tried pushing harder, and attempted to move itself out of Orions reach.
He wouldn't allow for it.
He kicked again, and again, and again. Orion foot screamed in agony, unprotected against the durable material it was being slammed into. But he didn't stop.
Eventually, he heard a crack. He saw a displacement in the vertebrae. It wasn't broken, but it sure had to hurt like hell.
The Shambler couldn't take it anymore, and it retracted from Orion. Orion grunted as the claws were suddenly ripped out from his sides.
He got up as quick as he could, holding his side. His hands were red, and blood dripped into the floor below. Thankfully the Shambler had recalled most of the moss, seeming to now favour a stronger defense. It knew it had hurt Orion, and it now just had to wait for him to be weak enough to not fight back.
Orion had to kill the Shambler before that happened. The tides of war had shifted back into the Shamblers favour. Orion stared at the beast. It had learned Orions pattern, and had used Orions strategy against him.
And now, Orion needed to figure out a new plan while worrying about bleeding out. But what could he possibly do that the Shambler wouldn't anticipate?
Orion thought for a moment, and then came to a conclusion. A stupid, reckless, probably-gonna-get-him-killed conclusion.
And it might be his only chance.
Orion withdrew his hand from his side, blood dripping from his palm. Orion began charging at the Shambler, every movement feeling sharp and heavy with the new injury. When he got close enough, he flung as much blood off his hand as he could.
The droplets landed infront of the Shambler. It acted without hesitation. It swung both up and down, trying to stop Orion at whatever height he could be at. However, it missed, because it forgot to account for one thing.
Orion could jump.
He soared through the air, his legs sticking forward. Orion had kicked the Shambler before, and it hurt like hell. But it also worked like a charm.
Orions feet slammed into the Shamblers face, sending it to the floor and onto its back. It attempted to get up. It was too slow.
The edge of the butchers knife found the split between vertebrae, and the beasts neck was severed in two. The Shamblers head popped off, rolling away from the rest of the corpse.
The Shamblers corpse laid still for a moment, and then went limp. The bones and moss slowly began to turn purple, and then black, before disintegrating into nothing.
The apartment became very quiet. None of the moss was left, and the Shambler had disappeared. The room was only filled with the sound of Orions heavy breathing, and the dripping of blood. Orion was hurt, exhausted, bleeding, and scared.
And he was alive.
He yelled, not a scream of pain, but a declaration of victory. He had prevailed above the abomination, and would live to tell the tale. It didn't matter in the moment that there were still challenges to be faced or questions to be answered. Orion was, even if only for a time, victorious. And that deserved to be celebrated.
He closed his eyes, and saw another message.
[Moss Shambler defeated.]
[You have received your gift!]