An air of determination descending upon his features. He stomped towards me, his pace accelerating with each step until he broke into a full run. It was clear that the Nightmare had no intention of entering the training room. He was too smart to fall for that. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t be coerced into it.
“Come out now!” I ordered my Nightmare Squad.
I waited until the very last second before rushing inside the room, giving Darryl the illusion that he had stood a chance of yanking me out. He shouted in pain when his tendril missed me and struck the door instead. As soon as I was out of the way, a volley of bullets showered him. Darryl turned towards his attackers. His eyes widened in shock, and the first glimmer of fear crossed his features. My Nightmares had come into play.
He had known they would likely form this weekend. I believed this had prompted his attack on the base to nip the potential Squad in the bud. But he hadn’t expected them to finish forming so quickly, let alone to face them in their ethereal forms instead of their weakened, new human bodies.
Darryl couldn’t run to the right side of the T intersection which was a dead-end leading to the closed off cafeteria. Not knowing the full power of the two Nightmares supported by the agents shooting, attempting to bowl through them to flee could prove too risky. But when the confinement wall leading to the personal quarters opened in front of us, revealing a dozen agents also firing at him, Darryl had no choice but to seek refuge inside the training room. He knew he would never manage to cross the fifty meters between him and this new team of shooters before the wall closed again.
I flew further back inside the room. Understanding that this was do or die, Darryl threw all caution to the wind and raced after me. Knowing it would hurt like a motherfucker, I transferred a maximum of energy to my ethereal shield and allowed him to catch up. To my shock, instead of simply whipping at me with his tendrils while I lured him farther to the back, Darryl wrapped his tentacles around my body and yanked me to him. While every single one of his tentacles were attempting to crush me, Darryl’s hands were clawing at the back of my head. If he managed to break through my shield and inflict a bleeding wound, he’d be able to suck my lifeforce right out of me.
Teeth clenched, I forced myself to keep advancing forward to the back of the room where the Mist trickling in from the corridor hadn’t reached yet. When he finally realized what I was doing, Darryl attempted to reverse course, which slightly loosened his hold. Merax and Letho flew inside the room, tendrils swirling, ready to strike. The delicious scent of Darryl’s blossoming fear tickled my nose. He released four of his tendrils surrounding me—further reducing the pressure on me—to parry the oncoming attacks from my Squad, while attacking my neck in a frenzy.
“Whip him towards the back,” I ordered my minions.
With all my might, I dragged him forward, clearing the thinning plumes of Mist. Darryl shouted in agony. Before I could make myself intangible to break free of his hold, my nemesis released me to attempt a mad dash towards the exit. Carried by my momentum, I flew up and did an aerial backflip to bring down all four of my tendrils on his back. He would have face planted but, just as he was falling forward, Merax’ and Letho’s tentacles whipped him back with enough force to send him crashing against the back wall.
Darryl shrieked in agony and scrambled to his feet only to be showered by bullets from the agents who had invaded the room. Having understood my plan, Thomson closed the door of the training room to prevent any more Mist from entering. He tapped a few instructions on his phone, the blaring of the breach alarm stopped, revealing the rushing sound of the ventilation system sucking the Mist out. Sure, it made it harder for us to fly and glide in our ethereal forms, but Darryl was as good as dead.
With my minions following my lead, we swooped down on the Nightmare like birds of prey, whipping him back before flying back out of range. Where Merax struck powerful and well calculated blows, Letho moved like a snake, striking and retreating at lightning-speed,