Nothing can ever just go right, I thought to myself. I should just expect it at this point. I should expect that any plan I’m a part of is going to go horribly wrong.

“Shoot!” Cadoc was yelling up at us, shell still raised above his head. That was the only word I could make out, before he broke into more manic laughter.

“What now?” Naomi asked, staring at the two massive worm-drakes barreling towards us. Maybe it was my imagination, but it sounded like she was ready to run already.

“Shoot one,” I said, trying to sound confident. “We’ll handle the other one.” I had no idea if we could, but we had to try. I tried to tap into my internal source of power - not my mana, that is. My anger.

Naomi sighed, but she raised her staff.

An orange glow began to emit from the tip of the staff, and I thought I could almost feel the power in it like a change in pressure in the cavern. The cavern, with its strange ambient light, seemed to darken, while the staff’s carved tip shone like a beacon. Then a yellow light shot out, and this time, prepared, I was better able to see it. It was like a crescent of air, an edged anomaly in space. Pure cutting mana, without a solid form, apparently. It shot forth, and in an instant it had reached the worm-drake on the right.

It did not disappoint. I had been worrying that perhaps Naomi’s magic was as worthless as the rest of ours, and maybe her cutting would only work on smaller opponents like the Kalamuzi - who would operate in groups large enough to mostly nullify its utility anyway. It was never a good sign for someone’s power when they’d lost 100% of the battles you’d ever seen them in - even if that was only one out of one battle. Two, if you counted being tied up by the Kalamuzi.

I hadn’t needed to worry. The slice of mana, traveling down the slight angle of the pass, struck the worm-drake at a slant, the edges of the edge - if that makes any sense - slicing into the skin above one saurian eye and below the other, drawing a line from where an eyebrow would have been on a human, down to the opposite cheek.

It cut the flesh of the worm-drake like butter, filleting the monster, peeling a third of body right off the top. The cut continued down the length of the tail, and the mana’s edge was so fine that at first the cut was hardly noticeable. But the worm-drake crawled forward for a second longer, clawed arms moving automatically before the creature realized it was dead, and so the two pieces separated, the bottom half coming out from under the top, as if shrugging off a third of its weight, revealing a clean slice of meat and a thin-boned skeleton underneath.

Cadoc slowed his pace a little, turned back to look at the damage. Even though he was turned away, I could see in the way he set his shoulders the moment he realized he had brought two worm-drakes with him, the idiot. And the second one was still advancing on him. He turned back towards us and renewed his run with new zeal.

“Drop the shell!” I yelled at Cadoc, despairing that he hadn’t done it already. I hoped the worm-drake was still interested in the bait, and not the man holding it.

Cadoc immediately turned, pivoting on one heel, and threw the shell over the head of the monster, back down the slope.

The monster didn’t turn. It advanced on Cadoc, teeth barred. It was after the bigger meal.

Naomi, meanwhile, was leaning against her staff, clearly having trouble supporting her own weight. Her tanned-skin looked suddenly pale, and she swayed like a branch in the wind. “Gonna have to sit the rest out,” she said. “Tell Cadoc not to be mad at me.”

She stumbled back from the slope, making towards our escape route. She’d know better than to go into the room without us - right? I realized suddenly that I was putting a lot of trust in her not to shut us out here with the worm-drake and hide inside that room until the danger was gone.

On the other hand, as I looked back at her, then the worm-drake again, I doubted she would even be able to make it in time, stumbling towards the door with her drunken, weakened pace. The monster would be upon us any moment now - it crawled with a fervor none of us had seen before, faster that we knew it could possibly go.

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No more time to think. Shoot like your life depends on it. Because it does.

Amaia had already sent two javelins into the soft flesh of the monster, which stuck out like strange antennae. Cadoc, still yelling, was summoning walls of wood behind him. He would turn, looking over one shoulder - still running - and raise a hand towards the monster. A square of wood, a few feet wide and only an inch or two thick, would appear suddenly before the face of the creature. It would then shatter into splinters as the worm-drake crashed into it, blinking away the debris. It slowed it down slightly each time, but clearly not enough.

I ignited the tips of the spears Amaia had already thrown, then raised my own weapon. I sent shot after shot, steel balls embedding themselves into the pink flesh, until I had spent five balls. I kept the last one, in case we had to run. Didn’t want to be stuck in that chamber without a way to hit the switch.

I had hit every shot I fired - it was a large target, growing closer all the time. By this point it looked to be only a few feet behind Cadoc - he could probably smell its breath - and they were both maybe thirty yards from where Amaia and I stood.

I ignited all of those balls, and the additional spears Amaia had thrown in the meantime. The worm-drake roared in pain as points all along its body began to burn - but still it did not stop. If anything it quickened its pace, driven on by its rage. I knew the feeling.

That was all of the shots I had - and was willing to risk - and Amaia was similarly spent. Cadoc could only summon the walls, and that wasn’t proving effective either. And our trump card was limping away, worthless.

It was time to retreat.

“Fall back!” I yelled. “To the target room!”

After I saw that Cadoc had heard the message - he gave a little nod - I turned, hoping that I wouldn’t see a closed door.

The heavy door was still raised. Naomi hadn't made it inside. In fact, she had collapsed, lying in a pile to the right of the room’s entrance.

I ran, cursing myself and my stupid plans. Then I thought better of it. I cursed everyone else. Fuck them. Especially Cadoc.

Amaia was running beside me. “Grab her!” I yelled, pointing at Naomi. Amaia didn’t respond, but immediately changed course, running towards where Naomi lay.

Meanwhile, I stole another glance back at Cadoc. It seemed as if the worm-drake was close enough that it could simply reach out and grab him. He was barely staying ahead of it.

I ran for the entrance, but did not enter. I knew that the door wouldn’t close while people were still entering - it was almost like it had a sensor like the automatic door of a grocery store, as we’d noticed last time - but if I entered way before anyone else, then it would close and leave them to their doom.

Wait.

I realized with a descending sense of horror what was about to happen. We had planned on running into the room, letting the door close behind us, and hiding out there until the worm-drake had likely passed to look for easier meals. But we had assumed, naively, that the worm-drake would be far enough behind us for the door not to sense it, and close. I hadn’t planned on it being three feet away from snatching Cadoc.

If the three of us enter right now, I realized, not even wanting to think it but unable to keep the thought from my head, then Cadoc will be shut out before he reaches the entrance. But if we wait for him… if we wait for him, then the worm-drake will crawl in after us, the door will stay open, and we’ll all die.

Amaia had hefted Naomi up onto her shoulders, and now stood beside me at the entrance. She looked at me like a soldier at ready, awaiting the next order. Naomi was half awake, muttering to herself.

I swore under my breath. Fuck Cadoc, part of me said. What the hell do I need him for, anyway? That asshole abandoned me. This is only fair. If he survived, I would tell him to his face. Oh, you wanted me to help? I thought you were in a duel with that worm. Couldn’t go breaking the sanctity of a duel, now, could I?

I looked back at Cadoc, and the worm-drake. My window was quickly closing - would be gone completely any second. If I didn’t move immediately, we were all going to end up worm-food.

I don’t have a choice, I thought. He would fucking volunteer, if he could, the suicidal maniac. Either he dies, or we all die - which means he dies either way. He’s already dead. He’s already dead. He’s already dead.

I repeated this mantra to myself as if it would help, but it didn’t. I could taste blood where I had been biting the inside of my cheek.

“Fuck,” I said to myself. I couldn’t believe what I was about to do. I’m a fucking idiot. Tom wouldn’t be so fucking stupid. Wouldn’t have to be.

“Hurry up!” I yelled to Cadoc. “We’re waiting for you, you stupid fucker! Run faster!”

Cadoc smiled at us, and that fucking smile reminded me of Tom’s infuriating smile, and I almost changed my mind right then and there.

“Alright,” I said to Amaia. “Get her inside. Quick! We’ll be right behind you.”

“Do you have a plan?” Amaia said, looking back at the rows of teeth coming our way.

“I think so,” I said. “But get ready to die either way. Because I’m not convinced it’s going to work.”

Amaia simply nodded, and carried Naomi inside.

“Wait!” I yelled after her. She turned.

“Go out the far door,” I said. I saw the look of defiance about to set on her face, and cut it off. “Just do it. That’s an order. Get behind the next door. We don’t all need to die here.”

Amaia met my eyes and stared at me for a second - we didn’t have time for an argument, and she knew it. But the second seemed to stretch out for hours.

Finally, she nodded again, and ran.

Cadoc was still approaching, and for a while, I just watched. I knew I’d made the wrong choice. Any second now, Cadoc would trip and fall, and maybe the worm would take enough time to eat him that the rest of us could get away, but probably not. They were too close now. There was no going back.

“What took you so fucking long!” I yelled at Cadoc as he came within a stone’s throw of the entrance.

“Good to see you too, friend!” Cadoc yelled back, grinning wildly. I’m not sure if he even heard what I had yelled at him.

I waited until the last possible moment before turning and running. I was still a couple yards from Cadoc, but there was no chance that the door would close on him now. I ran to the center of the room - Amaia had already carried Naomi out the other side, and I could see her standing there in the distance, watching. I turned back towards the worm-drake. Cadoc was just about to enter the room, and the worm-drake couldn’t be closer at his heels.

“All this for a fucking meal,” I said to myself. “And I thought going home and being homeless was bad. Fuck. I’d beg for Dimen-X to let me back, now. Let the debt ruin me. Let me be homeless.”

I sighed, and prepared to die.