I dashed as far away from it as I could get. The snake could burst forward, like me. But its aim was off and it needed a minute to compress the spring in order to strike. Which meant that I was always going to be able to stay ahead of it.

“Pebble shot!”

The snake went wide again. I shot it a few more times as it flew past me, missing me by a wide margin. I was starting to wonder why it wasn’t using its breath now that it had destroyed the weapon that could hurt it during the charging phase. But I wasn’t going to complain. This way was almost too easy, kiting it around the room.

I did have one serious concern. I hadn’t seen any of Ether since the second breath attack. The broken hood ‘finger’ where I had seen her arm, I now couldn’t see anything. I tried to keep my mind positive while it was focused on worst case scenarios.

I dodged again as the snake went wide another time.

“Pebble shot!” I hit it in the head. With a target this big, it was harder to miss.

It looked at me and I could see its frustration, then it turned over to where the supports were.

“Pebble shot! PEBBLE SHOT! AELIN! JUSTIA! GET OUT OF THERE!” I started running, but I wasn’t going to make it. They didn’t have a movement skill like I did. And even if I did, there was no way I could grab both of them and get out of there in time.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“DASH!” I was able to get ahead of the snake, but it could move faster than me in a straight line as soon as it struck. “DASH!”

Casting one on top of the other didn’t make me go any faster. It did make the skill last longer though.

Both women were running... In the same direction… I’d hoped that they’d split up and I’d be able to grab whichever one was the focus, but they weren’t going to make it that easy for me.

I angled in front of them, turned once I slowed down. And started to move.

“DASH!”

The snake was uncoiling, shooting forward.

“DASH!” I tried to will my legs to move faster.

Justia looked to her right and saw the snake coming right at them. She turned back to me and stopped running. I could see it on her face, which one of them she wanted me to save.

Aelin realized Justia had stopped and turned around. I couldn’t see the look on her face but I heard her scream.

“NO!”

I hated that I had to choose. The snake was almost on us and there was a good chance we were still going to get clipped.

Actually it didn’t matter if the snake hit us or not because I knew I was going to get hit by whichever one of them I grabbed.

I closed my eyes and prayed that I picked the right one as I grabbed her in a princess carry.

“DASH!”

I opened my eyes as we shot away from the collision. We still got clipped by some part of the snake. The two of us got spun around, then we rolled across the floor away from where the one I had left had gotten run over.