~After such a battle, there was bound to be an impressive finish, accompanied by a fully orchestrated score with ominous strings tremoloing in the background, trumpets giving out little blasts of light and hope, and french horns playing the boss-finish theme. The wretched form of the darknut would then curl up, crack and then crumple into dust, its shadowy substance never to be seen again, the fire spell taking care of it once and for all...

Or so it would be after the impressive battles that the hero of legend would participate in. Be it a giant parasite spider, a possesed yedi, or a huge undead dragon, things always finished in this same spectacular way. But this wasn't an epic legend. This was real life, and instead of turning out fine and dandy, things went swiftly down hill.

The first hint that things were not quite going to work out came well before the actual catastrophe. The fire, instead of instantly destroying the darknut, was absorbed into its body. An unearthly shriek, which instead of the sound of one voice was instead the sound of many, pierced through the stagnant air of the tunnels. Like in the legends, the form of the darknut contorted, and seemed to lose its animation, shrinking in size slightly, but never actually crumpling into dust.

During this whole episode, Flit's breathing became shallower and shallower, to the point where it was noticably less than Yukie's. The light from the lantern also seemed to lessen. It seemed that all was not right in these dank passages far beneath the earth, though there was no outward sign that there was really a problem. The lantern haning on the ceiling was now Yukie's for the taking. There was even protective glass around it to prevent the fire from lashing out and burning something. Greatly decreasing the chance of harm for the woodland creature while handling the light source. Outwardly it seemed that they could now proceed to free whoever they had found chained in the room before, and then get out of this black place.

It was impossible to discern what would really happen, and Yukie would just have to take the lantern, and move on, not knowing that a catastrophe was awaiting him. Despite all of this, Flit still did not awaken.~

A veteran of many real battles, Yukie had not been expecting anything like a musical ensemble playing orchestral music in the background as the beast fell. Rather, he expected exactly what he found: a few moments of silent rest as he waited for another enemy to show itself. Yet none come as he sits there, breathing heavily. 'Well doggone it, I'm gettin' way too old fer this kinda stuff!'

He does allow himself to smirk, however; at least he still seems proficient in the task of slaying creatures of evil like the one here. Though it hadn't died in nearly the same manner he had hoped for . . . it simply seemed to shrivel up rather than be set ablaze like the other shades did. He slowly shakes his head as he allows himself to catch his breath rather than instantly claim the prize for which he'd fought. He's old and it takes less to wear him out, after all. It's quite amazing that he's held out as long as he has, even with the frequent rests he's taken being taken into account. He shuts his eyes, letting them rest while his other four senses begin surveying the area, listening and feeling for any approaching enemies, trying to catch the scent of such creatures, even tasting the air to see what might be coming his and Flit's way.

Oh yeah, Flit . . .

He reopens his eyes, trying to find where the boy has gotten himself off, only to have his peepers fall upon the only source of light in the hallway.

Oh yeah, the lantern . . .

Still, he waits for a few more minutes, trying to get some amount of strength placed back in his legs before attempting to stand on them again. When he finally feels ready he hoists himself upright, using his twin blades as walking sticks as he staggers over to right beneath where the lantern hangs. Strange . . . it seems a lot dimmer than he'd originally thought it was . . . but his eyes are feeling rather tired right now. Actually, his whole person is feeling exhausted; his eyes just probably aren't seeing it correctly right now. With a mighty leap, he jumps and grasps at its handle -

And when he comes down again, he lands with a hard crash as his legs give out from under him. Obviously that Darknut battle had strained him a bit more than he'd realized.

Oh yeah, the nearly fatal fight . . .