In the vast, endless darkness that was the abyss, one shadow stared at the one flame that refused to extinguish in the voidless expanse where nothing could exist.
The smiling shadow made its way easily through the abyss while the man trudged in soft flames that hugged his skin, finding difficulty in fighting against the darkness lest it consume him as they stared one another in odds. He slipped his remaining arm under his cloak and looked at the shadow, intrigued.
"What are you?" Tobi asked curiously.
The shadow smiled a wicked grin and opened its mouth, but nothing came out, then gave a mock frown before laughing, though no noise came out, only silence. The only noise present was the crackling static from its eye. A flash of black and white sparkled, then nothing. the hunter looked, staring at the blackness, turning his flamed head. He stared into the uncanny darkness; he wasn't sure where it went.
Then he felt hands hold his shoulder as his fire flared instinctively; he simply lay there, bathed in flames, outmatched a hundred to one.
The shadow grabbed him and threw him gleefully as he experienced whiplash from the speed. As it swam comically through the void, it came right up to him and punched him mercilessly in the gut, knocking the wind out of him. He had coughed. It was agonizing and brutal being treated like a ragdoll as it clung to his leg, swinging him around.
How curious, Tobi thought, looking at it curiously as it came to throw another punch.
He evaded it and kicked it, but the shadow absorbed his kick in the literal sense as he looked. His foot was ensnared in the black of its body. He charged the flames in his foot, and the shadow winced slightly before grabbing him and throwing him away as Tobi spun in the void, looking like a wheel of flames.
To say he didn't feel pain would be a lie. He felt it all. However, to scream, to cry, or to fear anything of the sort felt futile; besides, he was not one to feel such things. In this moment, he simply float.
The shadow paused to watch this creature curiously; its mask morphed into something overwhelming, something incomprehensible, expressing so much it was a constant tangle of every shade, a variety of colours that meshed beautifully and terribly together.
It looked at this thing, calm and composed regardless, simply staying still like a corpse. His mask had a wide, grotesque grin akin to its own. To think a creature like this had existed was beyond him. It was so vexing to the playful shadow who tried to break it. He was simply curious how much this creature could take before eventually giving up. The shadow had no intent to kill the creature; that would prove too boring for it, and so it began.
First, it grabbed the leg and flayed the creature's skin, expecting to hear a scream. It heard none.
Then he choked the creature, expecting to see the light in his eyes fade.
His eyes already empty.
Then it reached and pulled the very nerves from his leg, squeezing and kneading them, tugging them as if they were no more than string. Electricity jolted throughout the creature as if the inside of its body was combusting; the body flinched, but it didn't blink as its body registered the pain, but its face stayed the same.
His eyes stayed voidless, just like the void they lay.
The shadow looked as its smile faded as it pouted. How boring this creature had been. He couldn't understand this creature. Glaring at the creature angrily, wanting a reaction from him. The creature simply looked at the shadow pitifully. Did he think he superior to it?
"A shadow," the hunter whispered coldly.
The shadow was enraged by this creature as it clawed viciously, ripping and tearing the man's leg apart, flesh by flesh, ripping it piece by piece, but nothing happened. Once done, the shadow smiled wickedly. It was fun; this man was really fun. But he looked at the man; he was not angry, nor was he in pain. Nothing was there except those same cold eyes looked at it even as the mask smiled hideously. Behind that mask lay a man whose heart was darker than the abyss they be in. How cold it felt.
The shadow looked at him curiously and confused; it wanted to scare him, but it was strangely unsure of what to think of this prey. In fact, it couldn't understand this prey. As he came closer, the mask smiled hideously and greatly, and the shadow didn't understand what it was looking at. This couldn't... no, shouldn't... be a man. Even the most insane of men would have gone mad by now; this was inhuman. So how was he there, simply looming over like that, expressing nothing at all, so cold to the playful shadow?
He didn't understand if it was anger, hate, or anything else to drive him; the man wasn't even unconscious. He wasn't even human.
The shadow faltered, confused at the foreign feeling in its stomach it didn't understand as the hunter uttered the words.
"Saurous uf ehyl moromon-marouvra"
Fear is the mind-killer.
The shadow faltered each step as it came closer and closer. He could kill the man on a whim any day, yet he looked at the man, and that feeling, the thing he was, didn't make sense in the slightest. It wasn't that he wasn't human; no, he saw the man before he showed emotion but it's that what he was facing right now wasn't adrenaline nor sanity. The man wasn't afraid to die whatsoever and didn't make any mental reactions to pain as if it wasn't something he need be worried of.
The shadow loomed, getting bigger, but it did nothing. He wanted to kill him. No, he could kill him, and he would.
It lunged for the man, coming close, but then black ichor sprayed as a sickle pierced into its eye, hooking in deep. The man clung to the weapon with just one hand as they float in the abyss, and with a pull, dragged himself toward the shadow. The creature panicked, thrashing, trying to swim back, but the hook held him there, and the space around them didn't allow escape.
The man climbed the sickle like a rope, closer and closer until he shoved his arm down through the eye, the hook dragging it deeper. His arm ignited. Flame erupted from within the shadow.
It screamed.
The burning didn't stop.
It writhed in the void, its body contorting in agony, while the man stood still, silent, unmoving. He did nothing, just let the fire spread until the shadow finally broke away, tearing itself free and fleeing.
The man came closer, uncaring that his leg was beyond repair. It could see those flames rage as the flames consumed all. He was no human. He couldn't be. Something else, something beyond what he was or had been meant to be.
The shadow scowled as it faded away in the abyss, choosing to not deal with the Hunter as Tobi simply looked at the black, his mask returning to normal once more.
He faltered a moment before standing, despite his leg being more bone than flesh. The flames sealed the blood as he trudged through the dark liquid into the unknown, stuck here until he found his way back up.