ATLA, In A Darker World

The horrid creature, whatever it was, strode through the darkness with silent steps.

All until it was right above its prey's location.

Crack-Boom!

Only this time, the monster transformed into a stream of light, its essence surging forward to possess Luca.

But.

As the light flashed, illuminating the cave, the body of the young rebel that lay on the floor was nowhere to be seen.

The entity froze, its green fire eyes scanning the darkness with frantic intensity.

As the scene shifted to face the monster, a figure emerged from the shadows.

Shiing!

An ivory white glow erupted out of nowhere alongside a silver gleam.

Shriek!

What followed was a blood-curdling shriek of epic proportions. The creature lowered its head only to see a sword piercing right through its chest.

And behind it, was Luca holding the handle of that sword.

He recalled the split seconds of darkness, how he had been woken by an unsettling chill, a restless stir and a desperate sense of crisis.

The sixth sense, to many was something they had heard of or most probably experienced themselves but had no way of verifying or explaining in logical details.

To some, it was written off as a lie, coincidence, or misunderstanding as there was no reasonable fact to back it up or intentionally replicate it, but by god it did exist.

And this wasn't the first time Luca was experiencing it.

Instincts honed from countless battles, although not original his own had made him sensitive to his surroundings even when he didn't mean to be.

So although he didn't know how long had passed, Luca had always been aware of what was happening in his area.

The young boy had never fallen into a deep sleep at all, constantly remaining in a state of half alertness while simultaneously catching some semblance of rest.

How this was even possible was beyond him, but he was currently glad it worked that way.

Under normal circumstances, his alertness should be attributed to his battle instinct and perception far superior to the the average human.

But not this time.

Simply because, Luca hadn't sensed the monster when it appeared.

The moment it appeared in the cave, his natural senses hadn't gone haywire, neither did he develop the sensation of goosebumps one would expect.

Everything remained the same, proving that his natural five senses had been useless and completely ineffective.

His ears, perception and body sensitivity had recorded no abnormalities ..... But something else did.

His Chi.

Thunder struck. And the moment it did, the mass of Spiritual energy resting at the bottom of his abdomen like a rock in an ocean immediately grew agitated like it had come into the presence of something irritating.

Luca's spirit Chi that remained unresponsive unless summoned immediately stirred causing his sleepy eyes to snap wide open.

And what do you know.

The moment they did, a lightning bolt flashed through the skies, illuminating the cave and displaying the shadow of a horrifying sight.

Luca could have sworn that his heart almost jumped out of his throat.

Assessing the shadow, The first thought that came to mind was that a werewolf had invaded his cave, looking for dinner.

Although it wasn't a werewolf, it certainly was looking for dinner.

Once the light disappeared, Luca immediately moved out of the way without so much as a sound in a split second and counterattacked, piercing his sword through its heart.

A frown prevalent of his face.

'What the hell is this .....'. It happened then.

The creature stabbed through the chest had its lower body contort, stretching into a spiked tail with jagged ends. The appendage lashed out with incredible speed, striking Luca before he could react.

The impact slammed him back, his grip on the sword loosening. Pain seared through his chest as the spikes dug deep into his skin, grievously wounding him.

Luca stumbled, barely clinging to the cave's ledge to avoid plummeting off the side of the mountain.

"Ahh …. Alright…that hurt". He gritted through clenched teeth.

If he could look down, he would find a long slash mark stretching from his chest to his left waist area.

Luca pulled himself back into the cave, eyes locked onto the creature.

'It ….'. His eyes widened. 'It didn't die'.

Everything had happened too fast. All he had initially seen was a shadow.

Hence, he had attacked despite the poor vision in the cave without identifying the creature, piercing its heart.

Or at least, he thought he did.

After all, regardless if it were human or animal, anything getting pierced through the heart would lose the ability to move.

However .....

This monster ….

Luca's gaze transversed its body. Only now did he see its true form.

'You've got to be kidding me'.

The dark mist like flesh seemed to shift and writhe like a living shadow.

The chilling feeling all over his being intensified as what was in front of him didn't give the feeling of a living creature at all.

More like a demonic .....

The thought had barely crossed his mind when I hit him.

- Some will try to possess you, others will try to devour you -

In the world of Avatar, only one thing could look like this.

A spirit.

Or in this case ….

'Dark spirit'.

Luca's face turned dark. No wonder it didn't die.

Anything else would fall over from a shot through the heart, but spirits had no hearts.

Even if they did, Luca knew that piercing through it couldn't and wouldn't kill them.

The Last Airbender series rarely went into details of the Spirit world and the beings that inhabit it.

The Legend Of Korra was the opposite.

As a fan, Luca remembered how Korra and Team Avatar's encounter with Dark spirits developed.

It was a bitter struggle. Quite literally.

Unlike regular benders, Spirit beings were fast, strong, of varying sizes, could elongate and were almost invulnerable to all damage except Spirit Bending and particularly forceful forms of bending.

Regular elemental bending was practically useless against them and Korra in her Avatar state got her butt whooped on the first encounter.

Worst of all, a spirit's possession could fatally disfigure the possessed victim, endanger their life or even kill them outright.

Luca didn't remember the episode, but in early season 2, a single large dark spirit defeated Mako, Bolin, Tonraq, Korra and Tenzin.

Heavy emphasis on the word 'Single'

This was bad. Like, really bad.

His hands instinctively reached for his sword only to grab thin air.

The boy's body froze.

Right, his weapon was no longer in his possession.

"Shriek!"

A loud roar emerged from the Dark spirit's mouth as it pulled out the blade and tossed it aside.

Countless tentacles emerged from its body before shooting forward towards Luca at the tunnels entrance.

Luca immediately manipulated his spirit chi to flow through his veins.

Against such a dangerous creature, he wasn't going to take any chances.

The restless Spirit Chi at the bottom of his abdomen flowed upward ..... Then, it fell back down to its original resting place after rising three inches.

The familiar empowering feeling didn't emerge.

'What the …'.

Luca's pupils shrank to the extreme.

At that moment, several tendrils shot over.

Under the dark spirit's gaze. The tendril pierced right through its target and destroyed the earth behind it.

Bang!

The impact shook the entire cave as the earth was covered in countless cracks.

'My Spirit Chi. It didn't respond'.

Seeing the attack that went right through his chest, Luca felt his scalp go numb

'If I hadn't activated density shifting at the last second'.

Just the thought made his blood go cold. If he didn't have density shifting, then that tendril that just destroyed the floor would have gone right through his chest.

Fear welled up in his heart as Luca's eyes shrank to the point of needles.

Realizing that just a second ago, he was at the edge of death itself.

Unfortunately .....

Several more tendrils shot over, interrupting his reverie. It seemed that the Dark Spirit was unsatisfied that its attack didn't have the desired effect.

Simultaneously, there was a prompt appearing on the corner of his vision.

- Chi -85 -

- Chi -85 -

- Chi -85 -

Three more collisions resounded as the tendrils drilled into the earth behind him. Just like the last one, it had zero effect.

Luca immediately sprang up to his feet. Rushing through the tentacles and towards the monster.

He tried to summon his spirit chi. No response.

At that moment, his heart fell to the bottom of his stomach, realizing that for some reason, he had lost a weapon in his arsenal

But now wasn't the time to ponder why.

First and foremost, the problem at hand needed to be dealt with.

Seeing Luca bravely rushing towards it, the Dark Spirit raised its shadowy hands and swung them forward.

Both clawed hands turned into large hack saws as they slashed forward.

Once again, Luca rushed right through without suffering any damage.

With density shifting active, he phased right through the monster itself, emerging behind it.

As for his goal?

Luca rushed towards his fallen sword and grabbed it.

Barely a moment had passed when he felt the something shooting towards him at a fast speed.

As fast as his natural reflexes would allow, he ducked and spun around while slashing.

The two tendrils were cut off before they could reach him.

At this point, he had already deactivated density shifting and would only use it when necessary.

Barely six seconds of usage time had consumed nearly one fourth of his regular Chi capacity.

Once his chi was used up, he would basically lose his combat ability.

Drip!

The sound of liquid impacting the floor fell into his ears. No need to look down, as Luca knew that this was his own blood.

'It truly is unresponsive. Even the passive effect of regeneration is gone'.

The itchy feeling when his wounds healed wasn't there.

Yet despite all this, his spirit chi was still restless.

Luca's grip tightened on his sword.

He needed to end this.

And so he would.

Luca dodged the Dark Spirit's tendrils, his body rolling aside in an embarrassing posture due to his lack of agility. The cave's walls cracked and crumbled under the creature's relentless assault.

The space was narrow without much room for movement as Luca hadn't spent so much time on it.

However, it was enough. Chi was infused into his long sword the moment he rolled.

- Chi Slash -

As he evaded, Luca unleashed crescent slashes of pure chi energy.

The ethereal blades sliced through the darkness, striking the Dark Spirit with precision in continuous succession.

Each hit elicited a blood-curdling scream, the creature's mist-like body rippling in agony.

Emboldened, Luca charged forward.

Density Shifting activated again as he dodged several attacks with ease.

Arriving before it, he released a burst of chi energy that shredded the Dark Spirit's tendrils.

Shriek!

The creature was blasted backwards, stumbling towards the cave entrance.

It had barely raised its head when a swift kick slammed it out of the cave entrance and into the stormy night.

And Luca followed.

Rain pounded against his skin, lightning illuminating the dark sky.

The Dark Spirit reeled, its tendrils flailing wildly in the air before it crashed into the hard earth. Dust and debris flying everywhere as cracks emerged on the earth.

However, the real finishing move came from above. Luca fell from above, s sphere of swirling chi energy in the form of a ball in his left hand.

The Rasengan descended, a blazing comet of energy.

It struck the Dark Spirit with apocalyptic force, slamming right into its core.

Boom!

The creature's scream echoed through the storm, cut short as its essence dispersed into the night.

...

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