Gnawing.

  A snap.

  Scratch.

  His eyes blinked open with effort, wet hindering them. Darkness met him the same as his eyes closed. Something thumped onto his chest. Three stabs and a thud when it moved. Dull pain clawed him, stretching until it met sound.

  Chewing.

  Teeth bared into his flesh. Talons dug into his stomach to keep its balance. His arm pulled away from him while his leg pulled another. A crunch, and his dull pain rumbled towards numbness.

  Get up.

  His breath caught in his throat. A cough flinched the things on him. Then claws on his throat squeezed.

  Move.

  It hurt. Everything hurt. His lungs emptied and struggled. Wet flooded him, and he drowned in it. The claws dug deeper. His mind faded. Fuzzed. Everything melted away and hummed a lullaby he couldn’t hear. He prickled and became weightless.

  Stop.

  He needed strength. Energy. Move. If he didn’t—

  Give it to me then.

  He swung his head forward, with any force he could muster, and bashed his forehead into the thing on him. The impact knocked it off his neck, and breath flooded back to him. It overwhelmed, coughs slowing it.

  His mind returned, and he ripped his arm away from the things. Flesh drained wet over his chest as he huddled the remains of his arm to him. Clicks, and something launched at him. It grappled his chest, and bit into his shoulder. He shrieked, pulling back and smacking it off with his other arm.

  Before it reacted, Mouse pulled his free leg to his stomach, before stomping out at whatever gnawed his shin. Jagged skin ripped, and he gritted as the thing tumbled off him and slid somewhere a few meters away.

  In the darkness, the things skittered around, drawing his focus everywhere and nowhere all at once. One of them latched talons into his good arm, stabbing teeth into it and ripping back. Muscles snapped and tore pain through his arm and shoulder. Before the last of his feeling fled, he flipped his arm over and slammed it down into the ground. The thing cried out and its grip loosened. He yanked away and scrambled back from them.

  His legs failed beneath him, slumping him down against piled rocks. A scamper to the left. He seized a stone in his hand before lunging it towards the sound. A miss. Clicks of laughter.

  “Get back!” He snapped as something tapped nearby. His throat scratched the words out, a fragment of what he’d intended.

  How many were there? What types of demons was he trapped with? How much space did he have? He needed to see. He needed to—

  A thing latched to his injured arm, yanking him forward and sunk its teeth deep into the flesh. He cried out as he pulled back. But another thing leapt into his back, claws digging into his neck.

  He ripped away, flinging the thing on his arm off. Once freed, he reached behind him, gripping the head of the demon, and jerking it forward. He squeezed the nook of his arm beneath its chin and snapped the neck of it.

  One less.

  Something whimpered in the darkness. More clicks, a howl from somewhere further back. He couldn’t pinpoint its location with the echo. Scrapes and grazes of things moving across the ground surrounded him. But where were they?

  Listen.

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  He breathed. He needed to know where they were. He held the breath, and stilled his body. And listened.

  Steps. Skitters. A tail sliding across loose dirt. Clatter of talons on stone.

  More.

  Quills clacked in movement. Fur brushed over rock.

  More.

  Breath. His heart beat, pounding his chest, blood dribbled down made paths. His flesh slid over itself like velvet. It stitched together, muscles reforming.

  More.

  A shift in weight to the left. He drew his eyes to it, the slightest of movements echoing in small glitters of existence. He smiled. He could see it. Now he had a chance.

  He lunged at the echoes, reaching out and grabbing hold of the small thing. Colors of red and blue splashed in the echoes as it yelped. The sound screeched through him, but he would not let go of those which preyed upon him. He slammed it into the stone, crackles and thumps overwhelming his ears.

  He lifted a rock, and bashed it over the demon. The blow blasted through his ears, and trembled him. He lifted it again, and repeated, tensing his fingers around the rock. They held firm when the soundwaves boomed through him again.

  The pain in his ears was a small price to pay if he could stay alive.

  Clicks rippled through the air, and he spun towards it. Flashes of gray bounced over the tunnel walls and echoed the sound off them and over the rocks trapping them in. Twelve, thirteen, no, more than that. Creatures of all heights and sizes moved in the darkness, the shuffles and creaks of their movements echoing color and location.

  He raised his injured arm, bending it and flexing reformed fingers. The pain drew back, only pulling when overstretched. He shifted his weight to each leg, testing their limits. Then, he braced as a heavy thud drew his focus.

  Several moved at once. A leap from the right. He swung and arm out and swatted it back. Rush from the left. Claws dug into his leg, scampering up it. He pulled at it. A tumble from behind. He spun around, but it was only loose rocks slipping. His shoulder took a gash before the weight of a demon knocked him off balance.

  He spun around to counteract it before flinging it off and ripping at the one on his leg. A slash across his back stumbled him forward. Strength fled his legs and he caved to the ground.

  It leapt onto his back, and he reached around, grabbing it by the ankle. It twisted to get away, but he squeezed. The bone crunched before the thing let out a metallic screech of clicks. He gritted the searing migraine that erupted, and ripped the demon off him before smashing it into the ground. It whined a moment before dying down.

  Blood dribbled down his side, and snaps of his flesh folded as he forced himself to stand. A slick slimy thing struck his stomach, lashing across it in sizzling acid. A hand gripped it while the other reached for his sword. He ripped the wood from his holder and sliced between the gripped tongue and its source.

  A cry in the dark ripped blues across the ground. Twelve, thirteen, fourteen, eighteen. More demons than before. How? He’d killed several already, and yet more still appeared?

  Shifts and giggles and scrapes.

  He wouldn’t survive them all.

  He needed more.

  Twenty, twenty two demons. Creaks of bone and joints. Muscles pulsed around him, shifting and swelling as the demons stepped. Two knees bent before springing. He whirled behind him. The blood pumped into skinny arms lunging at him. He sliced the metal tip across the demon’s gut. It fell beside him, bones and joints and cartilage knocking around at impact.

  A toe slid over stone. Talons clacking against the rail. A neck turned sharply. Blood flowed into the rivers of veins. It rushed before leaping. He swatted the demon back, catching glitters of blue slamming into the wall.

  A whirl. Whack from behind. He crumbled as his vision shook. Something furred and thick stomped his back. Cracks of bone and screaming nerves. Intestines and lungs squeezed at the pressure. A demon slithered to his head, chomping on his ear. He swung at it, pushing up on his palms to get out from beneath the thing atop him.

  He lacked the strength, and his body caved.

  He needed more.

  Mouse twisted around, stabbing the ankle of the creature. It leapt back, and he grabbed the foot. He raised his sword and pushed it down into the scales of the demon. A howl. His ears burst.

  Muscles bulged to the right. He swung an arm out, catching a small thing against his forearm, and slammed it into the floor. He raised a fist, knuckles and bone cracking, before pounding down into it. Cracks. Pops. Splash.

  He needed more.

  Then everything overwhelmed.

  A breeze between the crevice of rock. Stone compressed beneath each step. Nerves popped. Saliva sloshed in a mouth. The hairs on his head clacked and snipped against each other. His braids pulled at the roots. Fur of a demon swayed. Scales scraped over stone. A bird from beyond the cave sung. Leaves blew in a breeze. Wind awoke a chorus of giggles amongst the grass. Clicks. The jaw of a demon creaked as it opened, muscles expanding and contracting. His arm grated on extension. The impact of jaw to arm crunched. Teeth sunk into flesh. Blood bubbled and popped. It sloshed. A drip. A woosh of the sword. A gurgled cry as the tip drove into its throat. Clucks of gasps for air. Clicks and clicks and clicks and clicks. A rock clattered across the ground. The caw of a hawk. The feet of a bug crinkled over the curves of a twig. Teeth clacked together. A grind. Bare toes slapped. A laugh from the village. The call of his name. Blood splashed like a waterfall through his ears. His sword sunk into a demon, its quills scraping, cracking, crunching. Clicks. A whisper in the dark. New feet touched the ground as a new demon appeared. Slice. Slosh. Splash. Plunge. Scream. Cry. Gurgle. Groan. Rub. Scratching of tendons. Rips of flesh and fur. Grating of teeth. Saliva flung and splattering stone. Breath of steam on his neck. Clicks. Echoes of steps. The demons chattered and chittered and chattered and chittered. Bang. Pitter of ants running in a line back to their hill. A demon thumping against the ground dead. Rocks thumped around them. Creak. Grind. Groan. Cry. Thud. Rip. Crunch. Click. Chirp. Whisper. Click. Shhhhhhhh. Click. Click. Click.

  He screamed.