Anomaly

Amid the heavy silence that suddenly settled over us, the only sound cutting through the stillness was the dry scrape of something dragging in the darkness. Everyone kept their eyes fixed on the shadows below, waiting for something to emerge from it. I, however, looked elsewhere. My gaze stayed locked upward, far above our heads.
No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t make anything out. My vision only lit a few meters ahead, unable to pierce the darkness stretching beyond. Even so, whatever was coming down, there was no doubt it was getting closer, closing in with every passing second.
One of the members of the response team furrowed his brow, as if noticing something odd. His eyes slowly lifted, focusing on the darkness above us as he tilted his head slightly in confusion. Then he spoke: “Hey... wait. Do you guys hear that? That’s coming... from above?”
No one answered. The question hung in the air like an itch no one could ignore. With confused expressions, everyone instinctively raised their heads and looked up. Their eyes narrowed, tension marking their faces as they tried to see anything beyond the seemingly endless darkness above us.
The noise grew louder, clearer, leaving no doubt it was coming from somewhere overhead. Victor tightened his grip on his weapon, fingers tense around the trigger, as he tapped the communicator clipped to his ear. His words, though whispered, sounded firm and methodical: “Everyone, ready your weapons”
A metallic chorus rang out as every weapon in the response team shifted position, all of them now aimed upward toward whatever was descending. Everyone held their breath at the same time, and another overwhelming silence settled in, heavy enough to make the heartbeat of Victor, Rupert, Arthur, and the anomaly response team sound louder than anything else.
The noise kept rising by the second. The harsh scrape of something dragging echoed closer, louder, making it painfully clear that whatever it was, it was very close, terrifyingly close. I kept my eyes fixed upward, straining to catch any sign of movement in the dark. And then, a few seconds later, I finally saw it.
First, a leg emerged, sliding out of the shadows. Then another. Then a third, a fourth... five, six... until eight legs in total came into view. They were long and sharp, like perfectly honed spears, reflecting the faint light my eyes provided.
The legs were fairly hairy, but their texture was grotesque and repulsive. Even though I didn’t normally feel disgust, just looking at those legs, whatever creature they belonged to, sent a faint tremor deep in my gut. Not that I felt like throwing up, even if I tried, I knew I wouldn’t be able to. But the discomfort was there.
The next part of the creature’s body to emerge from the darkness was its abdomen, or maybe its hind section; it was hard to tell in that darkness. Like the legs, it was covered in hair, but in much greater quantity, forming thick tufts that shifted slightly with each step.
By that point, I was already beginning to have a vague suspicion about what exactly was following us. That suspicion solidified the moment its head finally emerged, faintly illuminated by the glow coming from my own bright eyes.
Eight reddish eyes appeared in the dark, four on each side, shining like tiny burning embers. Just below them, a completely arachnid mouth opened and closed in irregular intervals, as if suffering from constant spasms.
A purplish drool dripped continuously from its mandibles, thick and viscous, catching the glow from my eyes. Before I could pull back, a drop of the substance fell onto my left arm.
I blinked, startled, watching as my skin simply turned to sludge beneath the purple goo. There was no pain, only the strange sensation of something dissolving. Within seconds, my arm broke apart completely, detaching from my body as if it had been melted by pure acid.
I watched my own arm fall into the bottomless abyss below, disappearing into the darkness. I stayed still, expression indifferent, staring at the colossal spider that had suddenly emerged.
Seeing that abomination appear as if out of nowhere, a subtle thought crossed my mind: (Hmm... we’re still inside that aquatic anomaly, aren’t we?)
My thought was cut off by a sharp click as the spider above snapped its fangs together. Oh, and my arm was already back in place; the regeneration took only two seconds. Still, watching my own limb get corroded and disintegrate, even if only for a moment, is far from pleasant.
With a frown threatening to break my normally stoic face, I noticed the giant spider above raising one of its legs. My instincts flared instantly, if I didn’t move that exact second, everyone except me would die. I didn’t hesitate.
My wings beat hard, ripping through the air and hurling me downward at brutal speed as I dove into the darkness below. Through my vision, warped by both speed and shadow, I watched the spider let go.
Her furry feet tore free from the fleshy walls with wet cracks, and then she plunged into the abyss behind me, her colossal body twisting as the fall swallowed her whole.
At the same time, gunshots burst out behind me, each loud, sharp crack followed by flashes that lit up the heights, revealing even more of the spider’s threatening silhouette.
I didn’t have time to worry about how fast I was moving. Even flying as fast as I could, or, at least, as fast as Victor’s, Rupert’s, Arthur’s and the others’ human bodies could withstand, the giant spider kept getting closer, closing the distance every second.
No one complained about the speed. In fact, it was the opposite. Everyone wore rigid, focused expressions as they fired at the creature, aiming upward where its monstrous legs tore through the darkness.
The shots ricocheted off the spider’s body, chipping bits off the fleshy walls around us, but without actually slowing it down, only making it even angrier.
Rupert’s frustrated shout echoed through the air as my wings beat even harder, hurling me downward with even more force: “Damn it! It’s not working! That thing’s exoskeleton is way too tough!” he snarled, his voice thick with desperation and rage.
Rupert’s outburst was met with an equally irritated explosion from Victor: “Just shut up and shoot! Unless you wanna be spider dinner!”
I let their voices echo in my head and beat my wings harder, boosting my speed as we dove into the deep, dark abyss toward whatever might be waiting for us down below.
Even so, even accelerating, I had no idea where we were going. The darkness was so absolute that I could barely make out any shape at all, let alone anything that could help us shake off the massive spider chasing us.
What the hell... how long had we been descending? Even flying at an insane speed, it felt like there was no end. The deeper I dove into that pit, the stronger the uneasy feeling grew that we might never reach anything at all.
Frustrated, I twisted in mid-fall and stretched both arms toward the wall. Instantly, the smoky shadow making up my wings slid around my arms, enveloping them completely. Darkness coated my skin like armor, releasing thin trails of smoke that snaked through the air.
The black shadow covering my arms detached and stretched across the walls with a sudden snap, all happening in mere seconds. The moment the giant spider crossed the dark patches embedded in the fleshy surface, they stirred as if waking from a trance.
The shadows surged toward the creature, first grabbing her legs, coiling around them like sticky tentacles, then spiraling up her grotesque torso.
Finally, they wrapped fully around her head, muffling the aggressive hissing sounds she was making. Within moments, the spider’s massive body hung suspended in the air, completely still, trapped by a net of dark, smoking tendrils.
I stopped myself midair with ease and pulled Victor, Arthur, and Rupert closer to where I was. Every gaze turned toward the giant spider, waiting for whatever it would do next.
She still thrashed, desperate to move her legs and bare her fangs, but every effort was useless. My shadowy tentacles, smoking like living darkness, wrapped around her completely, immobilizing her and crushing every attempt at escape.
The reaction-team members, as well as Victor and Rupert, who just seconds earlier were aiming their weapons at the monstrous spider, slowly began to lower them. The silence that followed felt heavy and dense.
Finally, one of the team members was the first to break it. He took a deep breath, swallowed hard, and dared to ask, his voice weaker than he intended: “Did we... get her?”
From the outside, it probably looked exactly like that... unfortunately. But the truth was very different. I was trying to clench my hand with all my strength, my plan was simple: crush the spider. The problem was that I just couldn’t do it.
Every attempt was interrupted by violent spasms shooting through my arm, freezing my fingers mid-movement. The creature’s frantic struggle to break free from my grip seemed to make everything worse, as if her direct resistance was sabotaging my strength.
But the stalemate didn’t last long. The next instant, my hand was overtaken by the same dark, smoky shadow that now wrapped around my arms and wings. I felt the energy pulse, hot and dense, responding to my will.
With it, I finally managed to close my hand. The air vibrated as I tightened my fist. The shadows answered with a crack, and the spider folded in on itself, its body exploding like dry wood under pressure.
Chunks flew and blood sprayed in every direction. Instinctively, I raised a sort of shadow-umbrella formed by my powers, watching the purplish goo slide across its surface before dripping into the abyss below.
“Gross!” Rupert muttered, his face twisted in pure disgust as he watched the purple slime drip in front of us. And I couldn’t disagree, the sour smell and sticky texture made it clear that yes, it was truly revolting.