The darkness at the cave entrance began to move like liquid,
seeping in through every crack in the rock.
Then it was there.
Floating.
A detached head with no body moved through the air with the calm confidence of something that had never needed a body to be dangerous.
It had dark grey cracked goblin skin, a wide torn mouth, and sharp uneven teeth.
Glowing yellow eyes with red pupils moved too fast,
noticing too much,
while small bat wings flapped on both sides of his skull.
A long dark red tongue hung out,
moving slowly and tasting the air.
Dark Mutation Aura leaked from him constantly,
pressing outward from his cracked skin and filling the cave air with something that made thoughts heavier and hope feel further away.
Psychic Mockery activated.
Before anyone could speak,
Huba Huba's presence pushed whispers into their minds.
Their worst thoughts and deepest fears were amplified and sharpened, playing in their heads like a voice that knew exactly which words would cause the most damage.
"So…"
Huba Huba said in a low,
sadistic voice.
A creepy grin spread across his face, slowly and deliberately.
"It's your turn now…".
He leaned toward the children, hovering and patient.
"My little… sweet children…"
he whispered, almost gently, which only made it worse. His tongue moved.
"You'll taste… even better…".
"AMMI!!!"
Zayd shrieked
"STAY AWAY FROM US!!!"
Hashim cried.
"DON'T TOUCH MY CHILDREN!!!"
Zainab screamed, stepping directly in front of her sons.
Imran stepped forward,
his bow raised and an arrow nocked.
His hands were steady in a way the rest of him was not.
"Zainab," Imran said quietly.
"Take the boys to the back. Don't look. Whatever you hear — don't look.".
"Imran—" Zainab started.
"Go," Imran commanded.
She went.
"GET OUT OF HERE,"
Imran roared.
SHOOT
Shadow Leap.
Huba Huba blinked, and the arrow buried itself harmlessly in the cave wall.
"Hehehehe…
Oh that was exciting,"
Huba Huba laughed.
"I almost felt that. Almost.".
"Shut your mouth,"
Imran spat, firing again.
Goblin Laugh Break.
A high-pitched shriek echoed—the specific frequency that shatters concentration.
Imran's aim broke, and the arrow went wide.
"Are you trying to impress your family?"
Huba Huba mocked.
"Very noble.
Very futile.
But noble.".
Imran fired three rapid shots.
SHOOT
SHOOT
SHOOT
Bat Wing Slash.
The creature's wings snapped outward, launching sharp air blades that deflected two arrows,
but the third grazed the side of his skull.
Huba Huba stopped moving.
The humor drained from his face.
The smile came back, but it was colder.
"You grazed my skull,"
Huba Huba said softly.
"A regular human.
With a regular bow.
Grazed my skull.".
Terror Gaze activated.
Yellow eyes locked onto Imran,
forcing terrifying visions behind his eyes—
his sons already gone,
his wife already taken,
everything he was protecting already finished.
Imran blinked hard and gritted his teeth.
"Not real,"
he said.
He had two arrows left.
He looked back once at Zainab, Hashim, and Zayd, who were pressed against the far wall with their eyes closed, trusting him.
He turned back.
"Okay," Imran said very quietly.
He nocked both arrows on the bow, pulling further than he had ever pulled.
The wood strained, the string cutting into his fingers.
He watched Huba Huba's movement, tracking the rhythm.
Three
seconds.
Four.
There.
"DIEEEEEEE!!!"
Imran roared.
DOUBLE SHOT
Both arrows drove directly into Huba Huba's eyes simultaneously.
Huba Huba shook, lost control, and crashed into the cave floor with a sound like something breaking completely.
Silence.
"…Is it dead…?"
Zayd whispered.
"Abbu… did you win…?"
Hashim asked.
"Imran… you did it…"
Zainab sobbed through her tears.
Imran breathed.
He just breathed.
"Thank God…"
he sighed, walking toward the creature.
The head lay on the ground,
arrows buried in both eyes, completely still.
Imran knelt.
"It's over…".
He reached for the arrows.
Suddenly, the mouth widened into a smile.
With no working eyes,
with arrows buried in its skull,
it smiled.
"Hehehe…"
Huba Huba whispered.
Imran froze.
Venom Tongue Strike.
The tongue shot out like a spear from a crossbow at full speed,
aimed directly through his skull.
THRUST
It pierced through Imran's head from one side to the other in less than a second.
"IMRAAAAAAN!!!"
Zainab's scream tore through the cave.
"ABBUUUU!!!"
Hashim wailed.
"NOOOOO—!!!"
Zayd cried.
Imran's body went still, his eyes wide and still looking forward.
It was as if he were still protecting them,
as if even now he had not accepted that he was done.
Huba Huba pulled his tongue back and floated back up.
Both eyes were dark, the arrows still buried deep in the hollow sockets where his eyes used to be.
He could not see.
But he could feel.
He felt the children, the heat of the living, and the fear still thick in the air.
He didn't need eyes for any of that.
"Heroism always ends the same way,"
Huba Huba said coldly.
He drifted forward, toward the back of the cave and the heat of the children.
His Dark Mutation Aura expanded outward, pressing like a slow tide with the sensation of something corrupt getting close.
"Now then…"
Huba Huba said with sadistic glee.
"It's your turn…".
Blood had dried on the cold ground. Imran's lifeless body lay motionless in the dark.
Zainab was completely shattered, and Zayd and Hashim were frozen in sheer fear.
Huba Huba slowly rotated in the air, his dark presence growing heavier and suffocating everything around them.
"So…" Huba Huba whispered in a low, sadistic voice.
A creepy grin spread across his torn face.
"It's your turn now…"
He leaned slowly toward the children.
He was blind, but incredibly precise,
tracking their heat,
their breathing,
and their fear as if it were a weapon pointed directly at him.
"My little…sweet children…"
he mocked gently.
His long tongue moved through the air.
"You'll taste… even better…".
"AMMI!!!"
Zayd shrieked.
"STAY AWAY FROM US!!!"
Hashim cried.
"DON'T TOUCH MY CHILDREN!!!"
Zainab screamed,
throwing herself fiercely between the monster and her sons.
He was almost there.
His cracked grey skull was close enough that the children could physically feel the cold coming off his dead skin.
And then —
FLASH!!!.
A brilliant white light erupted at the cave entrance like a door opening onto a second sun.
It was not the white of a torch or the white of moonlight,
but a blinding white that darkness has absolutely no defense against.
Every shadow in the cave—every dark corner and every place Huba Huba's aura had claimed—recoiled violently and instantly.
Huba Huba felt it before he could even understand it.
A searing heat pressed against his dark aura like a sharp blade against skin.
He spun toward the entrance,
his blind eyes facing the light he could not see but could absolutely feel.
"WHO IS IT?!"
Huba Huba snarled.
"Enough,"
a calm, absolute voice replied.
That single word made the cave walls vibrate.
Space at the cave entrance distorted as a Star Light Arrow formed out of pure condensed energy from the light itself.
It fired at lightning speed.
THUD!!!
The arrow hit Huba Huba directly,
blasting him sideways into the cave wall with enough force to crack the solid stone behind him. He crashed to the floor with his wings pinned.
Every instinct screamed that what had just hit him was completely different from anything else in this cave.
From within the brilliant light,
a silhouette appeared with a bow already raised.
Then the light softened, and she was there.
Noor Jahan.
She had deep red flowing hair and focused, purple glowing eyes.
She wore white-silver armor etched with horse patterns across every plate, and gripped a silver-golden bow.
Floating star particles drifted through the cave air around her like embers from a fire that had never been afraid of anything. Her aura was pure divine white light—Star Gazer energy.
Chapter End