The creature didn't remain motionless for long.
Nyargoohl's living chains remained taut around its body, sinking between plates and soft tissue, fixing its limbs against the ground. Each attempt at movement generated a thick friction, as if darkness had its own weight. Even so, something changed.
First it was a slight adjustment.
One of its long limbs stopped moving erratically and began tracing a more precise pattern. It flexed, tensed... and its surface hardened. The wet texture disappeared, replaced by a smoother layer, almost polished, that partially deflected darkness's pressure.
Then another.
Plates that previously opened irregularly began fitting better together. Not completely, but enough to cover gaps the group had exploited moments before.
"It's... changing," Lyria murmured, without lowering the spear.
Noelia retreated half a step, observing.
"It doesn't just regenerate. It learns."
