Their eyes were very few in the world of flesh, though it was not difficult to locate their prey. The group did not even try to hide, some of them even apart from the rest, as if not afeared of any attack.
Foolish.
The wispy tendrils of ur-shadow extended towards those too far away. As much as it pained them to take orders from a human, there was no going against said orders. It was father's will for them to obey, after all - and father's will was absolute.
The tendrils poised to strike - all grabbed at their prey, one by one dragging them down into the murky depths of their own domain. The fae brought down instantly, too tired and inattentive to resist. Then the dragon, the icy mutt, the ghost and the bug along with everyone on her network. Only two remained. The other mutt, still separated from the group, somehow dodged the imperceptible tendril. The human was struck, yet somehow resisted the attempt to drag them down.
Annoying.
Still, the humans that brought them here were about to attack the main group, meaning they could concentrate on the remaining mutt.
The prey looked panicked, frantically running through the forest and shouting something. Pointless - even if the group was awake, they would've been too far away to help. Still, there was no point in playing with food - so they separated the remaining tendril into two, before sending each at the mutt from two different directions.
Mere moments before those tendrils had hit their mark, the prey's eyes flashed white. A sudden jump a dozen paces to the side allowed to barely avoid brushing against one of the attacks. Then again, and again and again - the mutt was gaining and losing ground, not making any progress towards the rest, yet avoided the capture. So they separated each tendril into two once more.
This time, they decided on a three-pronged attack, the mutt somehow sensing it again, and suddenly jumping into the air - only to be met with the fourth tendril. This time, they did not evade. Now, asleep as well.
At this point, they sensed nobody still awake around the camp - and so, they dove back into the land of dreams.
Here, there were six dream spaces to which their tendrils were already attached. Stretching themselves maybe a bit too thin, they enveloped all six to plunge the prey into endless nightmares, so they could sustain their body. The manner of a nightmare never mattered, so there was no need to microma-
Hm. One of the prey, the fae, turned out to be a lucid dreamer, ending the nightmare, and repelling their body. Annoying. They had to either persist until the fae grew too tired to resist, or until some of their prey perished, so they could double down on this one.
Except, something went wrong.
The dream of the fae collapsed, yet its space did not disappear. Not dead, but not there - and something tore into another sphere. The one of the troublesome mutt. Was the fae dreamwalking? If so, perhaps they needed to actually deal with this issue perso-
Suddenly they screamed silently, as a spike of pure agony pierced through their body, leaving a horrible gash, bleeding and raw. Then, before they could come to their senses, another one. And another one. Each plunging them back into agony.
Finally forcing themselves to focus, they looked in shock as three of their prey were somehow outside their own dream spaces, and two more were already guiding the ice mutt out of his dream through a hole torn in their body.
They saw red.
As these three had entered the only space still under their influence, they reformed as best as they could, and gave chase, taking direct control over the nightmare the prey had entered. It was a simple thing - bug's deep trauma from the past, relived on repeat.
They could work with this.
Carefully, they semi-separated the four minds - enough to allow for different points of view, but not enough to realise this was a dream - and pointed each in a different direction. Then, they changed the nightmare for each. The icy mutt was reliving same helplessness he saw in his own space. The troublesome mutt was plunged back into that human building she was so afraid of, humans busy torturing her. The human-
…
Was this even a human?
Didn't matter. They did not see this maybe-human's nightmares, so an experience of an ever shrinking perspective had to do - fear of closed spaces was a common thing, and even without it, it was very focus-consuming and uncomfortable dream. With the four stuck in respective nightmares, it was only a matter of time for at least one to expire, allowing them to focus on the rest even more. And judging by the sheer emanating panic, the two mutts were really close.
Suddenly, troublesome mutt's eyes came into extreme focus, looking not at the nightmare - no, looking directly at them. Then, the space in front of the mutt wobbled, as if something heavy was thrown into water, before shooting forward - past them.
Then, the space shattered.
The space shattered as if made of fragile crystal. Not fully, though it formed a massive rift, a space between the dreams and the flesh. A dream space that followed the rules of a flesh world. They saw this before, from the outside.
This time, they were inside. Falling. So was the troublesome mutt, and so was the rest of the group, all but the mutt still in a dreamlike daze. Good. The only two able to fly here were the still dazed bug, and them.
Harnessing the ur-shadows, they clung to the pseudo-air, slowing their fall, until regaining control of their movements - at which point, they shot after the troublesome mutt, as they gathered energy in-between their claws. As they caught up to the falling four, they used the gathered energy to form a ball, and-
The troublesome mutt's head snapped to the side, eyes cold and looking at - through - them. Then, the air wobbled beneath mutt's four legs. Then, a jump mid air, with a sound of a whip, then another one, and third ending dangerously close to them - all in a span of half a blink, like a cascade of strikes - followed by a ripple and an actual strike.
Agony.
They lost left arm. They fled in shock.
The mutt did not stop.
Two more strikes against air, blood red eyes appearing right in front of them.
Another agonising ripple narrowed their perspective to just one eye.
Three more whips. The stomach.
One more. Half of right arm.
Two more. Chest.
Three more. Arm.
Two more.
One more.
No more.