As a leaden dread churned in his gut, Nick realized that he had nearly been bisected by the flesh-render matriarch. The veil of falling sand wasn’t blocking its view after all. It meant that he was totally exposed, within easy reach of her hulking jaws.
Nick wouldn’t have believed that he could run faster than he already was, but apparently, he could. With a fresh infusion of distilled terror coursing along his nerves, he pressed his body into a greater burst of speed, reflexively channeling some stamina into his legs.
He was afraid that he would lose his footing in a patch of freshly strewn sand. But he was even more afraid of what would happen if he didn’t get away from the pit before the beast struck again.
With the juvenile render hot on his heels, he sprinted for all he was worth. Knowing that at any moment, a lethal blow might fall on him from behind, he gathered his strength and leapt, flying straight over the double row of minecarts to land by Sophia’s side.
Nick tried to turn his momentum into a skidding stop, taking three sliding steps to regain his balance, at which point his legs shot out from under him. He hit the floor hard enough to knock the wind from his lungs and went rolling along the stone.
It wasn’t his most impressive performance by any measure, but Nick had no time to be embarrassed. No time to do anything other than get ready for one of the toughest battles of his life.
Fighting for every breath, he reached over to retrieve his sword, then staggered back onto his feet. A potent cocktail of cortisol and adrenaline flowed through his veins, as he turned to face the battlefield he had inadvertently crossed.
When he realized what had happened, his jaw dropped in awe, taking in the sheer size of the flesh-render matriarch. The immensity of the furious beast reached up toward the cavern’s ceiling like a great onyx pillar, towering over the duo like a force of nature personified.
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The creature was simply… monstrous. Nick had no idea how they were supposed to escape from the immense predator, let alone complete the optional goal of slaying the colossal bug. Their odds of making it out of this predicament were laughably poor. Just looking at the matriarch made Nick want to crawl into the guts of the refinery and hide until it went away.
He probably would have tried it, if he wasn’t certain that the great beast would rip the machinery apart before making a light lunch out of Nick and his companion. Not to mention, he had no idea how many juveniles were living in the lair.
There was a good chance the duo would be swarmed by dozens of beasts if they tried to hole up and endure a siege. They couldn’t fight and they couldn’t run, they would be dead the moment they tried.
It was a bad situation. One that would only grow worse the longer they waited. Their only chance was to figure out how to escape the cavern now, before their odds dwindled down to nothing. While he stared up at the matriarch in consternation, Sophia fell in beside him. “Shit. I’m sorry Nick. That plan backfired. I was trying to keep you out of this mess. Instead, I wound up pulling you right into the thick of things.”
“What are you talking about?” He forced a nervous smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “We’re in this together, right? We agreed to work as a team, if purely on a trial basis.” Despite the gravity of the situation, he got her to laugh, the musical sound lowering the overwhelming pressure of the dire situation, if only by a hair.
During this brief exchange, most of Nick’s attention was elsewhere. His eyes took in their opponents, the environment, and the condition of his partner. Meanwhile, his tactical brain was hard at work, trying to think of anything they could do that might get them out of this mess, even though the situation seemed impossible to manage at the moment.
“I don’t suppose you can freeze the big one too,” he muttered, weighing and discarding a dozen plans out of hand, feeling his way toward a solution to their dilemma.
“Already tried,” Sophia replied, surprising him with her next words. “I managed to get an eye, although its tissue was too tough for the venom to spread into its brain. It cost me two of my wasps to pull off, and I don’t have enough reserves to summon more. Besides, after that attack, she won’t let them get close enough to try stinging her head again.”
At those words, Nick turned to take a closer look at the matriarch, who seemed content to remain within the pit for at least a little longer. Even the little one had pulled back to the boundary of the sand, granting him a moment to catch his breath and keep searching for a way out of this mess.