Day's arm flew back, and Day took a sharp breath in.
Then, his newfound claws shot forward just as fast and they retracted. His eyes were lit aflame… No, rather, they were pulsating with radiant light.
When Day landed, his sharp claws pierced the creature's hard skin like it was paper– an obvious result of the drop beforehand.
Day's knees collided with its hard skin and his lower body bounced back up into the air. The creature screeched in protest and pain, but it was simply unable to shake Day off at the moment, so it kept running. Each and every turn it took was sharp and powerful. There were rocks flying everywhere as it charged through the many buildings, and Day was struggling to stay planted. He was able to hold on by way of his claw of light, but he had to do something fast, or he would be forced to let go.
Day pulled himself down and then slammed the claws on his light-covered feet into the creature's skin as well. Its mandibles began to clack even faster, and the clicking that came from its mouth became even louder. The creature was pissed and in pain, but Day could tell– it had not a clue what to do about its afflictions, so it just moved on instinct.
'I need to kill it! Maybe if I get closer to its head… I need to try! Quickly!
Day unimpaled his hand from the creature's back and reached forward for another grip. His claws sunk in, and at this point, it seemed that the creature was truly growing desperate.
It jolted to a stop with a skid and took out a section of the two walls next to it, then it screeched. Day couldn't see what was happening, but the front section of the creature's body started to lift up.
It was trying to climb on top of one of the buildings. And it was going fast. What was its plan, if it had one?
'It has to be trying to gain some freedom to move, I need to kill it faster, damn it! I can't let that happen! If it shakes me off, I'm going to die!'
Day increased his speed, despite the risks. He would take out one of his three body parts from the creature's skin, and then lodge it back in. Like this, he was slowly, but surely climbing up the creature's long, wide body. But it was far from enough. The black ant was tenacious, and reached the top of the building long before Day arrived at its neck.
Day was dismayed. Was this it? Was the creature going to throw him off and then find him and tear him apart?
He couldn't have that. He wouldn't have that… but he didn't need to.
The creature did something different from what Day expected. It didn't try to shake him off, no, it seemed that it truly couldn't– instead, it started using the buildings to move forward. Its long, mighty legs, despite not being in sight, and thus unknown to Day, were apparently more than enough for him to clear the buildings with ease. So like this, the insect and its parasite moved, faster than before by a large margin.
The fact that it wasn't trying to shake Day off wasn't reassuring, however, Day had new problems. The creature's movements were less restricted, and subsequently, more power was infused into each tap of its legs.
Now more than ever, it was becoming increasingly difficult for Day to even hold on– much less kill the insect.
Not only that, but with its new speed, it would be gaining on Caster faster than ever before. Day still had no clue where the prince was, but if he was still down there… It had to be close.
So instead, Day took a new approach entirely. He used all of the strength he could muster from his body and dragged his remaining hand and two feet forward instead of trying to unlodge it beforehand. The creature's hide was tough, but its meat wasn't half as hard– so Day could do it. He could move forward like this.
The suffering the creature was undergoing was unfathomable. If the creature's sounds had any true meaning, Day would have certainly translated it to a string of curses and agonized screams. Despite it being a mighty creature, it was having trouble dealing with the unpreventable suffering.
When it collected itself as much as it could and focused its attention back on moving, that was when Day finally saw Caster for the first time since they split up.
The legacy was dashing like mad and frequently used his Aspect Ability for a speed boost to quickly navigate the corners of the dark city with ease. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough, even though he was making zero mistakes and utilizing his Aspect Ability almost flawlessly.
That was the difference between an Awakened Nightmare Creature and a Dormant human. There was an endless, uncrossable bridge between the two. Only the fluid intelligence of the human mind could overcome such an obstacle, but even then you needed numbers to accomplish such a feat.
For Day and Caster, however, they had no choice but to shatter that bridge with raw, pure effort– and a little bit of luck.
Caster quickly noticed the creature was gaining on him, but at the same time, he noticed Day riding the creature. The pure shock on his face was simply indescribable with words alone. If they both weren't about to die, Day would have laughed and mocked the prince for the display.
Sadly, they were about to die.
The creature diverged from its path and went left with a sharp turn. It almost tumbled over in between the buildings, but it was an insect, and an insect would never fall if even a few of its many legs had the leverage to grab onto something.
Day also nearly fell off when the creature turned, but Day was just as tenacious as the creature, if not more. After all, he was a human. A human who wanted to survive, no less.
Day was molded by suffering, blessed with the virtue of bravery, and greedy for the taste of triumph, and because of that– he refused to fall. He fought for balance, and stayed on the creature through every single desperate action it took.
He was still slowly creeping forward, but with the pace at which he was nearing its neck, he wasn't sure if it would be enough. In the end, if his plan worked, he would kill it. But he had to save Caster. If Caster was torn in half and swallowed before Day could kill the creature, it wouldn't matter if he dug into the creature in an attempt to reach his companion– It would be too late.
Those thoughts were quite drastic though, so Day chased them out of his mind and focused on what was in front of him.
He was going to rely on Caster to keep himself alive until he did his part. If Day wasn't here, there was a possibility he wouldn't have had this chance… So Day was hopeful that Caster would be resilient enough to use it.
After a few moments, the ant had caught up to Caster. Day could no longer see Caster, so he put him out of mind. Worry would make him falter, and if he faltered…
'Damn it…'
Day took a sharp breath through his teeth and continued forward. He had landed on the creature's lower back, and at this point, he was only at its upper back. Luckily, its head was getting closer and closer, and that notion infused Day with a maelstrom of hope.
The creature. however, wasn't quite done causing problems. After it locked onto Caster, it started moving atop the buildings much more purposefully and frequently jolted to a stop in an attempt to reach down and grab him.
Each time it did so, it would tilt over slightly, and Day would be forced to plant his body down tightly against the creature to stay on. Day was sticking to the creature well, but he knew that he couldn't allow it to do whatever it wanted for much longer.
So Day, even in the moments when the creature was trying to grab Caster, kept pulling himself forward. Inch by inch, moment by moment, he ripped through the creature painfully to reach his goal.
Its yellowish blood was creating a stream that was flowing off its grotesque body and tainting the buildings' stone with remnants of the suffering it was undergoing.
'Come on… Here it is!'
Finally, Day reached the creature's head. It had a somewhat thin neck. Its head was large when compared to day, but small in proportion to its body.
Day kept his toenails planted in the beast and then removed his hand and prepared himself to tear through the creature's head.
But alas, the creature wasn't done just yet.
As if sensing its impending doom, the creature, in one final act of defiance, stopped trying to be conservative when chasing after Caster, and leaped. Day didn't quite understand how an ant was able to take such a dire action so easily, but its efforts weren't in vain.
The creature dove head first in between one of the narrow buildings. Wind crashed into Day's face and turned Day's hair into its subject as they flew through the air at high speeds. When it leaped, Day's claw, which he had taken out in an attempt to kill the creature, slammed back into the spot it was before on its neck.
Before the ant impacted the ground, Day saw Caster for a moment in his spinning, swirling vision. He was close. Too close, in fact.
The creature slammed into the wall of the far building and sent it crashing down into a pile of debris with its mighty body. Day held on tight, but the creature rolled through the rubble, and Day could feel himself being crushed and mangled by the plethora of rocks that were pricking at his entire being. By some miracle, he hadn't been entirely flattened by the time the creature was back on its legs, but it hurt like hell– and he could feel his consciousness fading away as blood dripped from his broken body.
He was about to close his eyes and fall from the creature. The light that was making up his claws was slowly fading away, and at any moment… It would all be gone.
'Is this… is this it? Am I going to die from a Nightmare Creature's last ditch effort…?'
"No..!"
Day gasped loudly. His consciousness exploded with life– like it was never even slipping. His light started to come back, and the luminous, white glow was shining brighter than ever before.
"NO!"
Day gritted his teeth and grinded them together. His eyes locked onto the head beneath him. There was that same burning, radiant light in his eyes that screamed, 'I refuse to give up.'
"This goddamn creature isn't going to beat me… I'll kill it! I have to kill it! I refuse to die! I won't let this be the end! My promises… My conviction… My bravery! I won't let them be in vain! I'll taste triumph in the form of this creature's damned blood!"
Once more, Day tore his enlarged nails from the creature's body and reeled his arm back to the utmost– and then his arm shot forward.
"I'll kill you... and win!"