Nick ran, blind and terrified, until he crossed into a patch of clear ground once more. He threw himself onto his stomach when he felt a disturbance in the air, an immense black shaft passing just above his head.
This time, the impact was close enough that the shockwave rippled throughout his body, magnifying the agony of his shattered arm. He screamed, resisting passing out on the spot through sheer effort of will. Then he climbed back onto his feet, grateful for every point of toughness he’d acquired.
By now, an ocean of blackmist had risen to engulf the base of the tower. Only a narrow ring of clear ground remained, and it would be submerged within the inky mists within a fleeting handful of heartbeats.
Running behind the others, Nick could hear the warbling cries of what had to be hundreds of redfang hunters, perhaps thousands, converging on his position.
As terrifying as the creatures were, the fear they evoked was nothing compared to the terror that chilled his heart like ice in his veins when he looked over his shoulder and saw what else was heading his way.
All four hounds were closing on his position like heralds of the end of days. They were twenty feet tall at the shoulder, and a glance told Nick that they were at least as deadly as the shelled beast he had come to call river king.
Their canine faces were high enough to emerge from the roiling bay of blackmist, and their noses pointed unerringly at the people who had yet to make it to the tower and dive inside a door.
But even the horror that the fell hounds evoked was put to shame by what Nick saw when he raised his gaze to the horizon. To where a great horned figure, the lord of the shadow hunt, was fast approaching.
The giant had abandoned his spears and drawn his sword, a wicked barbed blade long enough to reach the ground far below. Nick watched on as death approached him. He knew in that moment that none of them would survive when the lord in black iron arrived.
Not that he expected there to be many survivors once the hounds and the redfang hunters closed the last few feet. There were hundreds of bladed feathers darting out from the fog in a ceaseless barrage, striking down unlucky people as they ran for their lives, desperate to enter the tower before it was too late.
In short, if Nick didn’t enter the Darkstone Tower within the next handful of seconds, he was dead. It was as simple as that.
The problem was, he had no idea where a doorway was, if there were any left to begin with. But his team seemed to have a destination in mind.
Nick shut out his fear, pushed past his pain, and kept right on running, racing past the places where hundreds of other doors had disappeared after their parties passed through.
He couldn’t afford to lose track of the others. If he got turned around and fog overcame him, it would be the last mistake that he ever made.
He hardened his heart to the screams of people being torn to shreds by the redfangs’ bombardment. Ignored the growls of the hounds riding hot on his heels. The screech of armor as the lord raised his blade and began walking in Nick’s direction.
Except for a few fallen stragglers who he was able to help back onto their feet, there was nothing that Nick could do. He had to focus on his own survival, praying that as many people as possible entered the tower in time. Although he knew deep in his bones, that for far too many members of team Earth, these were the final moments of their lives.
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“Hurry,” Devin cried out, face raw with blisters and burns. “That ocean of blackmist is almost upon us.” Veronica ran by Kenji’s side, helping him move while he held a strip of leather tight around his missing arm, stopping himself from bleeding out while V guided his steps.
At least the elixir kept him from passing out. Nick followed up from behind, with Sophia a few feet in front of him. The pain of his wounds was excruciating, but he couldn’t stop now, though each staggering step drove molten daggers into his arm.
The pain doesn’t matter. Once we make it into the tower, the System will heal our wounds. All they had to do was survive long enough to make it to a door, assuming there were any left.
“Don’t worry,” Sophia yelled over the screaming crowd. “I know where a hidden entrance is. Follow me, it’s only a little further.”
Nick felt a surge of relief on hearing those words, grateful that his partner had found a door while he was busy fighting Ken. It seemed that they wouldn’t be left behind after all, if they could get there before the onyx mist broke over them.
The ocean of inky fog was already filling the last bit of open air. It would cover them within a few dozen heartbeats at most.
Behind his back emerged the wails of the redfang host. But though the flying creatures were a deadly threat, they weren’t what filled him with dread.
The fell hounds would be upon them within another few seconds, their lord only a few steps behind.
If the redfangs caught them, they would be dead within minutes. If the hounds overtook them, they would last mere seconds. If the lord of the shadow hunt unleashed his might, Nick would be dead before he had time to cry out a warning.
By now, the mist had overtaken the slowest members of the crowd, screams erupting on all sides as the final members of team Earth sprinted for the last remaining doorways with everything they had left. Everyone knew that their lives would be forfeit if they remained outside the Tower of Rizzen any longer.
“Just a few more seconds,” Sophia yelled. “We’re almost…”
That was the moment when the blackmist broke over them.
Before Nick could cry out a warning, a redfang closed in for the kill. Multiple feathers slammed into his jacket, missing his flesh by a matter of inches.
He called upon his mind’s eye visualization to help guide his path. It let him see the ground and the tower, but not his enemies or his friends.
In that moment, the realization of what had just happened came crashing home. He didn’t know where the hidden doorway was, and he had no way of finding it.
He clasped his wand in one hand, taking aim above his head. When he felt the hunter come back for a second pass, he fired, immensely relieved that the wand didn’t send any of the force back in his direction.
Before it could launch more feathers, the redfang was caught in the blast, slamming into the tower with a thunk before falling to the ground, dazed or dead Nick didn’t know.
He began feeling his way around edge of the spire, hoping against hope that he could uncover an entrance, knowing that he had mere seconds remaining before the shadow hunt extinguished his life like a candle in a monsoon.
That was when Nick heard a growl coming from behind him, so deep that it vibrated his teeth within his jaw. One of the hounds has arrived. Its jaws will close around me any second.
Just then, he heard Kenji run past him, chainmail jingling with each step that he took. Nick turned and ran after the one-armed strategist, praying that he had a better idea of where the party had gone.
The hound followed hot on Nick’s heels, savoring his desperate plight. Before he could make it much further, Nick lost track of Kenji’s position.
His bad situation had just taken a dramatic turn for the worse.
Nick groped his way forward, defenseless and blind, unable to determine which way he should go.
Just before the towering creature caught up to him, he felt a hand grab onto his own.
Nick knew by now what Sophia’s touch felt like. His partner had arrived to light his darkest hour.
Relief mingled with terror as she guided him forward, pulling hard despite his injuries… just as the hound closed the distance and struck.
He felt the air stir as the immense creature’s jaws closed around his head. It’s breath moist against his neck.
Half a heartbeat before its teeth snapped shut, Nick’s foot stepped onto open air.
He fell down into a hole, rolled, and then passed through a doorway, the midnight hell engulfing him dissolving into boundless light.
END OF BOOK TWO