To Name The Dark

dangerous when broken

As the Hope Soldiers sprint towards us, spraying red sand behind them, I try to summon the acid. But my power lies dormant- maybe it's exhausted after what happened during the testing.

A Hope Soldier runs straight at me, arms outstretched and fingers curved like claws. Before I can even flinch, he slams into an invisible barrier in front of me, and backs away, nose beginning to bleed. I stare into his eyes- they are pupil-less, filled entirely with white light. Underneath his skin, flickers of light undulate. He takes another swipe at the barrier- it holds, but only just.

I glance over at Arc- their eyes are clenched shut, their entire body shaking. My fault. If I hadn't lost control of the acid, they wouldn't have had to suspend me in the air- and we wouldn't be losing.

Mika flings bursts of her power at the Soldiers, but she's distracted, and her explosions only slow them down. Rohan is whimpering on the sand behind us, Riana with him. My head snaps from side to side, frantic. Arc's barrier pushes outwards, throwing the nearest Hope Soldiers to the ground, then disappears. To my left, Arc collapses with a thud.

Riana shoves my shoulder, throwing me off-balance. 'Well, don't just stand there,' she yells, focusing her golden-eyed glare at the Soldiers, who have recovered from being thrown on the ground and now look really mad. They edge towards us, droning their dissonant tune. Then, suddenly, they stop. A few trip over, most rub their eyes or blink vigorously, confused.

I turn to Riana. She smirks. 'I made them blind. Not permanently, but... there's an illusion of darkness in front of their eyes. Won't last forever, though! And what the hell were you doing?'

'Nothing,' I mumble.

'Yeah. Nothing. That's exactly my point. If you'd-'

'Will you two just shut up? Rohan's dying over here!' Mika shouts, panic twisting her voice into a snarl.

I turn, and wince. That glowing light has spread itself over Rohan's shoulder, pulsating like some kind of luminescent jellyfish. Its tendrils have looped themselves tight around his arm, then jabbed inside it. His fingers are glowing, almost too bright to look at. The light seems to be creeping its way through his veins. Mika attempts to pry the thing off, but yanks her hand away, cursing. 'That burns,' she manages through gritted teeth, shaking her hand to manage the pain.

Arc rushes forward. 'Mika, stop! I can do it, and I won't get burned.' They place their hands over the light-jellyfish-thing, careful not to touch it, and attempt to yank it off, slowly moving their hands back. The jellyfish writhes, wrapping its tentacles tighter round Rohan's arm, but Arc directs their own tendrils of power at the tentacles, slowly removing them, one by one.

Mika and I hold our breath, unwilling to do anything to distract Arc, who is on the penultimate tendril. They peel it off his skin, breathing heavily. Only one left. I sigh a little, in relief. Then, everything changes.

The jellyfish seems to sense that it's in danger. Its luminescent body shifts, turning a grey-black colour. It pulses, angrily. Arc yanks at it with their mind again, visibly straining. This seems to enrage it even more. It yanks its tentacles out of Arc's grip, and wraps them firmly back around Rohan, digging the sharp edges of each tentacle into his skin, and pumping black liquid into his arm. The tips of his fingers start to turn grey-black, then crumble.

Mika gasps- or, well, less of a gasp, more a startled intake of breath, too panicked to scream. I realise that if we can't stop the jellyfish, it will dissolve him entirely- that Rohan will end up as dust, mingling with the red sand. Arc tugs again at the jellyfish, and it pumps out more of the liquid. His hand is half gone- Arc needs to stop, it's only making things worse.