While they needed ten minutes, the Malaki had decided to only grant them five. The walls around them started to close in.

“Shit, they’ve found us.” Amaro said, “Raktus, can you brace the walls?”

“It will be done.” the xio said, pressing his palm to the wall.

Gornax joined him, attempting to keep the walls at bay as they edged closer and closer to their group. Yet, even with their combined effort, the walls still clenched tighter and tighter.

“We’re going to have to go out into the surface at this rate. How is that bell coming along?” Anitus said.

“Still working on it!” Tulos said.

The pressure on the walls was becoming unbearable, the air condensed and made her ears pop. They were being squeezed together, backs against one another. Kaara wet the walls and helped to push back. It was the best they could do. Tulos’s hands swiped through the air, a glowing glob of copper hovering as he heated raw tin. He fused the two together, casting it in the shape of a bell.

“Enough of this. We need to get to the surface or we’ll be buried alive!” Anitus said.

“Gornax, can you take us to the surface?”

“The earth is fighting me too much.”

Raktus dug his heels into the ground, “We might be able to make an opening above, but the walls will crush us the moment we let go!”

“Rixam, can you use your wind to push us up?” Gornax asked.

“If I had both of my wings, maybe, but I can’t lift everyone as I am.”

Kaara’s mind raced. What could she do? She closed her eyes. She couldn’t summon. Filling the place with water would only drown everyone and give them less footing. The space around them was getting hotter and hotter as the air compressed. Heat. Pressure. Underwater.

“That’s it!” Kaara shouted, “I can launch everyone up with a geyser! Break the ceiling above us on my mark!”

“A geyser? Are you insane?” Anitus said, “We’ll be boiled alive!”

“Not if Rixam buffers it with his wind magic. Do you have a better idea?”

“Fine. Make it quick. How’s that bell coming Tulos?”

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“I think it needs a good quenching. On your mark, Kaara.”

“Got it! On three! One! Two!”

“Three!” They said in unison. Gornax and Raktus punched a hole to the surface with all their might, Rixam summoned a buffer of wind, And Kaara drew the water from below as the rest braced for impact.

Water gushed forward, shooting them high above the crowd of Malaki gathered around the hole. The geyser carried them up and up, the force of the water breaking through the buffer of air Rixam had generated. Kaara braced for the heat, only to feel cold snow slapping into her. Why did boiling water turn to snow so quickly?

Either way, she knew she could use it. She gathered the freshly made geyser snow below them and dampened their fall. They landed on their feet.

Ring! Ring! Ring!

“Finished the bell, let’s hope it’s worth something.” Tulos said, tossing it to Kaara, “I doubt it’ll work just by ringing it normally.”

Kaara caught the bell. If this ceremony was meant to awaken their Ux, then there was only one way to use this bell. She focused. Ux, the invisible force which protected her from magic. The very same which prevented her from drowning. She summoned healing water from her hands. The glowing liquid dripped down the curve of the bronze bell. She rang it, focusing on that invisible force. She channeled as much as she could. A resonant tone reverberated through the crowd of Malaki as they recoiled.

“Go! Attack them now!”

The rest of the group sprang forward, lunging their spears into the monsters as they cried out in pain. Fire blazed, lightning crashed. The wind at their backs, and the earth itself working in their favor. Amaro cleaved through the Malaki with ease, his blade moving with such violent speed she could hardly see it move. Anitus was no slouch either, his greatsword easily severing bone and tendon as it splayed black blood into the snow. The supercharged Oskuutor attempted to fight back, but with Kaara’s defensive spells their magic could not touch them. She rang the bell again. Another resonant tune played out. The song of their defiance in the face of death. A song accompanied by the chorus of death throes and agonized roars of their enemies.

It was something out of a dream. Something out of a fairy tale.

And as Kaara watched the world slow down, she realized that was all it was. The Oskuutor had feigned their vulnerability, cackling as they latched on to their attackers. Amaro and Anitus were quick enough to escape. Rixam and Gornax had kept their range, and Tulos had the means to cut himself free.

Words echoed in her mind. “Destiny is no more than repeated mistakes, leading to repeated outcomes.”

Raktus could only raise stones in his defense. Kaara reached out, summoning the snow to bind the Oskuutor. She was too slow.

With a brutal squeeze, the hulking Oskuutor crushed Raktus until his bones crunched. His stone armor worked against him as he scrambled to escape. Amaro and Anitus sprang forward, but the other Oskuutor intercepted, grabbing them by their tails and dragging them through the mud. Raktus’s yell pierced the howling winds before a gurgling smothered his lungs.

Raktus, the one who towered over them all, the one who vowed to defeat Rux and take Arik as a bride, the one who listened more than he ever talked. Kaara could not help but wonder in that moment, if it was her fault, or yet another unavoidable tragedy.

As the Malaki cackled their horrid laughs, she felt their influence invading her mind. Bragging and boasting at what they had done. In a single instant, the most resilient of them all had been squished like a peach and tossed to the snow.

Raktus was dead.