CHAPTER 48: THE HANGING ONES (1)

"What the actual fuck is that thing?" Stephan said, his voice low, eyes fixed on the ceiling.

The creature hung upside down, its long fingers hooked into the stone like talons. It was a Sanguivore, a Hanging One. Its body was a twisted mixture of man and bat, gaunt and wiry, every muscle stretched tight beneath pale, leathery skin. Veined wings folded against its sides like a shroud, and its face was a nightmare parody of both human and beast, sunken eyes gleaming in the torchlight, pointed ears jutting back, and a jaw lined with jagged fangs.

A thick strand of saliva dripped from its maw, landing on the stone with a wet hiss.

"That’s a fucking Sanguivore!" Fizzwigg shouted, his voice sharp with panic, though Stephan caught the edge of something false in it.

Stephan smirked. What’s this gnome playing at? he thought. Well... whatever game it is, I’ll play along.

"Relax, Freezewig," he said, hands in his pockets. "This is nothing I can’t handle."

He turned to the others. "You move on. I’ll deal with this one."

"But you’ll be lost, you won’t find...." Fizzwigg started.

"Don’t underestimate me, gnome," Stephan cut him off. "Even in a room filled with a thousand of you, I’d still find you."

The Sanguivore hissed and dropped from the ceiling, headfirst like a falcon diving for the kill. Its fanged maw gaped wide, saliva trailing as it came screaming down.

Stephan moved faster, slipping to the side in a blur. The creature struck empty air, wings snapping wide with a leathery crack as it righted itself, then blasted down the tunnel they had come from, the gust from its wings rattling the stones.

"It’ll be back, fast," Fizzwigg warned. He glanced at Stephan, then at the others. "We’ll go on ahead."

"Grief!" Stephan called.

"My Lord," she answered, bowing.

"Protect Anna Mary and Yennefer with your life."

"It will be so, my Lord."

They turned and hurried down the tunnel, torches bobbing until the light bled away into the dark, leaving Stephan in silence.

He faced the shadows where the Sanguivore had vanished.

"Now then," Stephan murmured, lips curling into a grin. "Let’s pluck those wings of yours."

A hiss echoed from the black, low and venomous, rolling closer.

Here it comes.

Lucidas’s Ossuary Sword shimmered into Stephan’s grip, its black edge humming faintly with power.

"Right then," he said, voice low. "Let’s play."

The tunnel swallowed the torchlight behind him, but he didn’t need it. He felt the thing’s presence in the dark.

He was at a disadvantage here. The Sanguivore wasn’t just a monster; it was the master of this blackness. Born to it and fed by it. Blind eyes, sharp ears. A bat in a man’s skin.

"When it screams," Stephan thought, lips curling faintly, "it isn’t just rage. It’s sound. Echoes. A map of me."

The air trembled - low at first, then rising into a bone-rattling shriek. The scream tore down the tunnel, bouncing off the walls in waves Stephan could almost feel against his skin.

He smirked. "So that’s how you see me."

The scream cut off in an instant. It was followed by silence.

Then a blur of movement. The Sanguivore came out of the black like a spear, head low, claws stretched forward, fangs bared. Its wings snapped wide, the leathery crack echoing like thunder.

Stephan shifted one foot back, Ossuary Sword angled low, his grin widening.

The creature slashed, talons raking for his throat. Stephan slipped beneath the strike, steel flashing upward in the same motion. The blade carved along its forearm, black ichor spraying in a hot arc.

The Sanguivore shrieked, not in pain but in fury, twisting with inhuman flexibility. Its other claw whipped around, catching Stephan’s shoulder with a raking blow. The impact shoved him against the wall, stone cracking behind his back.

[System Alert]

[Damage Registered: 3%]

[Status: small cut on the shoulder]

He didn’t flinch but he only laughed, the sound sharp in the dark. "You can’t be serious, that all?"

The Ossuary Sword pulsed in his grip, drinking in the spilled blood. Shadows clung to its edge like smoke.

The Sanguivore crouched low, wings twitching, its jagged maw frothing with saliva. It circled him on all fours now, spiderlike, every muscle trembling with the promise of another strike.

Stephan rolled his neck until it popped. "Good," he whispered. "Show me your real teeth you ugly piece of shit."

The Sanguivore froze mid-circle, head cocked unnaturally to the side, ears twitching like a predator catching whispers on the wind.

Then it opened its maw. A piercing scream ripped through the tunnel, so sharp it rattled stone dust from the ceiling. The sound wave hit Stephan’s chest like a hammer.

Stephan gritted his teeth, clutching his sword tighter. "So that’s how you play."

In the dark, wings thundered, then silence again. No footsteps, no breath. Only the faint drip of saliva on stone.

Stephan closed his eyes. He didn’t need them now. He slowed his breathing, tuning himself to the faint tremors in the air. Sound is your eyes... but silence can blind you too.

The hiss came, right behind him.

He ducked.

Talons raked the stone where his head had been, sparks spraying. Stephan twisted and slashed upward. The Ossuary Sword screeched against bone, splitting the creature’s cheek open from jaw to ear. Black blood misted the air, stinking of iron and rot.

The Sanguivore recoiled, wings snapping open, and with a single beat it was gone again,darting into the shadows above, circling unseen.

Stephan spat, rolling his shoulder where blood trickled from the earlier rake. His grin was wolfish now.

"Yeah... come on motherfucker. Scream again. Let’s see who’s hunting who."

The Sanguivore screeched again, the sound tearing through the cavern. This time it didn’t circle, it dove, a black missile, wings folding tight. Its jaw gaped wide, saliva trailing like strands of venom.

Stephan didn’t move. He stood perfectly still, Ossuary Sword loose at his side, lips curling into a grin."I won’t waste anymore time on you, I got batter places to be."

Closer...

The air trembled as talons stretched for his throat. At the very last heartbeat, Stephan’s eyes flashed open. He pivoted, blade singing in a single clean arc.

SHHK!

The Ossuary Sword cut through the Sanguivore from shoulder to hip as though it were parchment. For a moment, the creature’s shriek continued, then cut off, strangled in its torn throat.

Its body hit the ground in two halves, blood gushing black across the stones. Wings twitched, then fell still, spread wide like broken sails.

Stephan exhaled once, calm, steady. He flicked the blade, scattering droplets of foul blood.

"That was easy" he muttered.

The tunnel was quiet again. Only the faint drip of Sanguivore blood echoed in the silence.

Ding!

The familiar interface of the system shimmered in the dark.

[SYSTEM ALERT]

[Target Eliminated: Sanguivore - "Hanging One"]

[Classification: Tier F–E Predator]

[Designation: Tunnel Stalker of Magodilin]

[Description: The Sanguivores, known as the Hanging Ones, are twisted hybrids of man and bat. They cling to ceilings and walls, using echolocation shrieks to hunt prey in absolute darkness. Though individually weaker than elite warriors, their gaunt frames conceal inhuman agility, razor talons, and fangs that inject a paralytic venom. In swarms, they overwhelm entire warbands, reducing them to husks of bone and dried flesh. A solitary encounter, however, is considered both rare and deadly, for a lone Hanging One strikes with calculated precision rather than frenzy.]

Stephan sighed. "What’s the point of giving me their description when the threat’s already been eliminated?"

His grip tightened on the Ossuary blade, its black edge faintly pulsing. "This low-key feels like Lucidas is fucking with me," he muttered.

Still... his lips curved faintly. "But Lucidas did gift me a cool sword."

His gaze slid to the bisected corpse of the Sanguivore, wings and viscera spread across the stone. "One clean strike..." He crouched, inspecting the gore. "And I wasn’t even using its full abilities."

Reaching with his senses, he frowned. Nothing. No lingering essence, no soul to claim. Just silence and an ugly corpse. "Tch." He exhaled, irritated. "I don’t like killing things without rewards."

Rising to his feet, Stephan swung the blade once, flinging blood from its edge before resting it on his shoulder. His eyes traced the darkness ahead, the path his companions had taken. He could feel them, four distinct flares of soul energy burning faintly in the black.

"They’re about eight hundred meters from here," he thought, relief cutting through the tension. "Not that far after all. I better join...."

The thought was ripped away by a chorus of shrieks. The sound knifed through the tunnels, bouncing from wall to wall. Stephan froze, eyes narrowing.

"That sound..." His grip tightened on the Ossuary blade. "It’s Sanguivores. And not just one."

The shrieks multiplied, weaving into a dreadful symphony.

"How many?" he hissed. "Two? Five?!"

The thought of Anna Mary’s fragile soul-flame flickered in his mind, and that was enough.

"Shit, shit...." He bolted forward, boots hammering against stone, sword angled at his side. "That better not touch Anna Mary!"

The tunnels quaked with the echoes of his sprint, each step driving him faster toward the chaos ahead.