THE LAST KEEPER

”Is this an attempt to keep me grounded?” Sagiri asked no one in particular as his eyes scanned the place. Perfect rocks, nothing out of place. Sagiri walked forward, his breathing calm.

”Now that I am trapped, why don’t you come out and play?” Sagiri said, walking forward again. If the quads were trapped in such a manner, then he did not have time to waste. Being trapped with no way out is the same as being buried alive.

Sagiri moved into the centre of the humongous cave, but nothing else moved. He did not have to waste. Whatever was in here must have needed hiding in the rocks because he could not see any opening anywhere. It was a perfect grave. Well, too bad he wasn’t planning to die yet. Sagiri peered his eyes into the rocks, but nothing moved. Well, a beast that smart could not be easy to find. He would be disappointed if he found it on the first try.

”Good at hiding, aren’t you?” Sagiri sighed.

”Nokai!” he called, and Nokai answered immediately. It sprang out of the archive pocket. The blades had grown longer, and right now they glimmered dangerously in the darkness. Nokai had grown stronger in the south, and now the blade could split into ten.

Sagiri held the blade in front of him firmly. It had been stirring since he entered the cave, and it hummed softly in his hands now. He swung the blade around, cutting through the darkness of the cave, before he threw the blades in the air. Nokai span around before with a snap into split into ten.

”Tear through the rocks until you find the bastard,” Sagiri said calmly, standing at the centre of the cave.

The air crackled with electricity as the blades tore through the air, momentary flashes of light as they moved to answer their master’s command.

blade met rock in quick sessions. The assault went on for a few heartbeats, but nothing changed or barged.

”Cut deeper!” Sagiri said his voice was deadly calm.

It did not take long before a scream filled the air. more like a wail that sagiri had never heard

one.

Then two, then more and more, and sagiri tilted his head to look at the source. Right then, a rock tumbled from the top of the cave. Only the rock was bleeding....

The creature blended into the cave perfectly, so perfectly that it was almost impossible to notice until it moved. Its body looked less like flesh and more like a mass of broken stone forced into the shape of a living thing, layers of dark rock stacked unevenly across its back and shoulders like fragments of a collapsed cliff. Cracks ran through its body in thin jagged lines. Its limbs were thick and heavy, ending in blunt claws worn down like weathered rock, each movement grinding against the earth with a harsh scraping sound.

Loose gravel spilled from its shoulders when it moved, chunks of hardened rock breaking free and crashing onto the cave floor. Its limbs unfolded with unnatural weight, thick arms dragging against stone before lifting a body that looked carved rather than born. The creature’s head barely separated from its torso, its face hidden beneath overlapping layers of rock except for two narrow glowing slits buried deep within the darkness of its skull. Every movement echoed through the cave with the sound of grinding stone, as though the cavern itself had come alive and pulled itself away from the wall.

Sagiri paused for a moment as he took in the creature before him.

A rock beast.

They had gone extinct centuries ago. Guess not. No wonder he could not find them. They were creatures whose hearts were buried under their rocky bodies so that they could not be heard. They were perfect rocks. The creature in itself is small, but its rocky exterior covering every inch of its body is huge enough to be the size of the big cats Salka kept. On top of that, the rock crawler is a lazy beast. It eats once every few years. They eat grass and small undergrowth. That said, they don’t eat flesh. They were not holding him hostage to eat him, but just to starve him until he died.

The rock crawlers move in hundreds so that they can suffocate the enemy to death if need be. Their skin can not be broken by blades. But Nokai was no normal blade, and even so, it had taken a few tries to shatter the shell and reach the beasts hiding deep within.

”How cowardly of you to bury me alive when you could have just pretended to be rocks,” Sagiri said, still staring at the beast with awe.

He understood why the beasts would want to be hidden. If anyone knew they existed, then they would come to hunt so they could take the rock shells to make armour. Many could die in this quest, but people are greedy, and even to acquire a little gain, they could keep coming until the valley was finally flattened.

Perhaps his squad was the greedy people. Why could they come to hunt for merits in such a place? sagiri sighed. He did not wish to grieve the beast, but now that blood had been drawn, there was no backing out. The cave shifted as if it were alive. Now he understood why anyone would think that the cave was alive. With the rock beast moving like that, it could only look like a cave was moving. They had come to look like the very rocks of the valley. It could be hard to even tell if you were standing on top of one or just a natural rock. by them, you realized you could be trapped and waiting to die from hunger, cold, or suffocation.

”Now will you boys be nice and open the entry. I don’t want to kill you when I am the one who has trespassed on your habitat.” Of course, they could not hear him. They only knew survival. They only knew how to keep living.

Nokai had folded back to one and was now resting on sagiri’s hand. The beast started raining from all over, falling into their beastly formations around him. As much as they do not eat flesh, their jaws are strong enough to hold themselves hanging like rocks with the help of their limbs. They were going to kill him.

What a tragedy.