One scroll for one dryad. That was the deal I made with Shadow Fang. His group had been at the pyramid for months but couldn’t overcome the traps that kept resetting themselves. The traps didn’t run on magic, so dispelling the pyramid didn’t work. Every person they sent never returned, regardless of their powers. It's why he was after me, but I couldn’t understand how I could succeed better.
That may be the point. If I fail, Shadow Fang gets rid of a threat and could use me again after two decades since I would forget. If that was true, it was a cruel plan. Still, I wasn’t going to fail.
I stood at the pyramid’s entrance high above the ground. The wind whistled through the dark and dank corridors to unknown parts. The two guards had left their post, not wanting to be near me. I took one step forward, but then the air became hotter. I turned around to see Chase wearing articles of odd clothing similar to his track attire. He also looked different, but I didn’t care to put my finger on it.
“I didn’t think you would come all the way here,” Chase said. “What are you doing?”
“Why do you care? You’ll lose nothing from what I’m about to do.” I snapped back at Chase, not realizing how confident he was standing before me.
“Someone's gotten bolder. Go home, Joe. This doesn’t concern you.” I turned my back to him and made my way into the pyramid. “Hey!”
Something hot pierced my shoulder, and I remembered the first time Chase had stabbed me with his claws. It didn’t go as deep, but I never thought I would feel pain like that again.
Chase growled in my ear, his breath radiating heat like an open oven. “I’m not letting you take this away from me.” I watched as he ran with an orange streak behind him. I couldn’t comprehend what happened, but two things were apparent: the damage would heal, and I would not let Chase get in my way.
I ran after Chase, entering the pyramid. My heart was beating out of my chest because I knew Chase was significantly faster than me and would get to the scroll first. Brick after brick, I saw traps had been activated, most likely by Chase, and dead beasts of wondrous and deadly kind littered the floor, cut in half and cauterized. If I was going to catch the fastest person I knew, I would have to do something other than run straight behind him.
I took a deep breath through my nose and quieted all other sounds, hoping I would find the patterning of sneakers on stone and deodorant. I didn’t smell deodorant, but I could hear Chase running. He was right below me, furthering the distance between us. Not sure what to do, I jumped in the air, my claws extending and my arm growing larger with fur covering it. I jumped as high as the ceiling would allow and, on the way down, put all of my power into crushing the floor.
It was surprisingly easy to break, and I fell with the rubble. Chase was beneath the falling rocks but could dodge the bigger ones. Some he would cut with his molten claws, but I didn’t think he was strong enough to do it consistently. I was able to move myself out of the rubble when I heard the air getting sucked through the halls.
A torrent of fire was coming at us. I jumped before Chase as I guarded my face, feeling strangely in control. The flames washed over me like a tidal wave, and I had to dig my feet into the ground lest I would fall.
After the flames were done, I was cut in the back again by that same hot knife feeling. My rage took hold of me once again. I was in a half-wolf form, towering over Chase. I slashed at him and tried to bite him, but he avoided every attack. Chase would retaliate but discover that his claws couldn’t get past my fur. I kicked around boulders from the debris to slow him down. Through this, I was able to strike at him with one downside. His blood was as hot as his claws.
I didn’t understand. Was this a power leatherbacks had? Impossible, I thought, despite not knowing anything about what they could and couldn’t do. Still, something about this power was oddly familiar regarding my current lifetime.
Chase’s blood seemed to cauterize his wound, but he wasn’t more heat-resistant than I was. Though he was in more pain than one cut would cause him, he stayed determined but chose to run.
I was right on his tail this time. He was careful to activate traps where he could and avoided them so that I would be the one to take the hits. I pushed through each one in an attempt to not lose him. I didn’t want to kill him; I just had to get to the end first. I jumped and broke the floor again since it worked so well the first time.
I landed on the lower floor and found myself in a room resembling the end of the trap-filled hallway. I could barely see but could tell there was little in the room.
In the center was a throne with what might have been a Mayan mage. The mage was simply bones, and his clothes hung off them. There were many artifacts, from weapons to trinkets, but on the lap of the mage was a scroll not touched by time. Around the throne was a barrier that guarded the dead mage and his greatest treasure. This is what I was looking for.
Suddenly, a hiss reverberated around the room before I stepped forward. In sync with the hissing came growls that came from holes in the walls that my eyes were adjusted to see. The hiss came from a giant snake with deadly spikes across either side. The end of its tail was split into a hook with sharp points. The growling came from five canines with ape hands at the end of their monkey-like tails. Nothing came to me as to what these were, but it didn’t-
“Of all the things to happen in my life, I didn’t expect anyone would go so far as to destroy my home.”
-matter. That wasn’t good. If this beast could speak, then what other enchantments were on it?
Chase ran into the room but tried to return upon seeing that I wasn’t the only one inside. Unfortunately for both of us, our primary way out was closed off by a slab of rock that fell into place of the doorway.
“Another one,” hissed the snake. “I hope you both will go down easily.”
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“When did she get down there?” Asked Mindplay as quietly as he could. Alongside Beth, they both tried to get as close to the camp as possible without being seen. Raya, at some point, snuck past them with BD close behind. Mindplay couldn’t see her, but he could keep a general idea of where she was.
“I’m more impressed that you are keeping up with her location,” said Beth. Mindplay had to emphasize that he was a technopath, tracking the earpiece he gave Raya.
Raya could handle herself, and BD was watching her back, but there was no plan. Mindplay tried to contact Raya through the earpiece he gave her, but she wouldn’t respond. With all the heavy hitters going out to do whatever they wanted, Mindplay had to accept that he would start making things up as everything else unfolded around him.
Now closer to the camp, Mindplay whispered to Beth, “Silver is in the pyramid, so once Raya causes a distraction, we have to go in and get him.”
“What about Raya?”
“I can’t imagine she would do something so risky without a plan.”
“Doesn’t mean the plan will go well.”
Mindplay couldn’t deny her point. He wanted to go after Silver because, statistically, he was the strongest fighter. However, because he was the strongest, he had a higher chance of getting out safely with brute strength.
While he pondered, Beth whispered, “You stay back. I’m going to support Raya.” She was gone before Mindplay could argue.
That was a lie, thought Mindplay. He needed more time to pick her brain to determine her goals, but the question was whether it was necessary. He could do other things, like mining the enemy's computers for information on what they were up to. Then again, who said he couldn’t do both.
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I wrestled with the snake, keeping its jaws open. That didn’t stop the snake from throwing me across the room and breaking the walls. Chase grabbed a saw-sword to fight the other creatures. It was such an odd choice concerning he could outpace all of them, and his claws were potent natural weapons. Maybe he knew something I didn’t have the luxury to think about.
When I stood up, the snake used its hooked tail to trip me and draw me closer to it. It slammed its open maw on me and scooped me in its mouth. It didn’t have a chance to swallow as I used my claws to cut into its mouth. I was thrown to the ground again, dazed because of how loud the snake screamed in pain.
“Let me eat you,” it whined. “I can practically taste the dense magic on you. Be a generous traveler and become my nutrition.”
“At least you’re polite about it,” I said, “But I’m good.”
Again, the snake tried to trip me. It was so fast that it got me again and flung me towards the other monsters. I flailed my hands, and my claws dug into something. Sparks fired from my left hand as I cut and ripped the magical barrier around the dead mage. I could land safely, but the snake continued to pursue me. I would not get tripped up again, so I rolled under the snake’s next bite and cut its underbelly. I lost my footing under the unexpected weight and bumped into Chase.
Chase rolled with the hit. He seemed to be handling the five vs. one fight well using his speed, but he wasn’t striking deep enough. Chase was getting tired. Sooner or later, he would fall out and be torn apart if he kept going. I ran around the snake to the fallen debris. I slashed at its nose to get some damage and keep it from attacking me later. I cleared my mind and forgot what I could do as a human. I quickly threw a piece at the snake to get it off my back, then another at Chase's fight. I tried giving him a heads-up, but he seemed to know what I was trying to do. Three of the dog things were crushed under the rock.
Chase’s demeanor changed as if he got a second wind. The sword he had started to glow the same way he would when his claws would burn me. As such, the blade also could cut the same way. The two dogs were out before I knew it. On his last strike, he stumbled onto the ground.
The snake turned to him. “Well, I might as well get one in.”
At that, I went for the snake’s tail to cut it off. Apparently, the snake wasn’t distracted enough. Once I was close to cutting it, the snake hooked me again and was about to throw me. I held on to its tail as long as possible until I got a foothold. For the first time since becoming Silver, I could feel my muscles straining, trying to keep the snake in place.
“Unhand me,” it yelled, reverberating throughout the room. It yanked against me, but I kept my ground. The snake was winning out, but I flew back from the lack of tension. The snake bellowed in pain as it now had a cauterized stump of a tail. Chase had used his sword to cut it.
With the tail still in my hand, I used the hook part to bring the snake to the ground by its mouth. I stabbed it in the head with my claws to hold it to the ground. Chase ran up to its body and stabbed the snake in the heart, and soon after, it was silent.
I took my chance to breathe, thinking all the fighting was done. I couldn’t believe Chase had any more will to fight. I was right, but Chase wasn’t done talking.
“I’ve always hated you but could never put my finger on it,” He said, sitting on the snake’s corpse. “I thought it was because you were always standing up to us day after day. A nobody with no ascendeit abilities to speak of. But when we showed our true selves to you… It was the first time I saw fear in you. Now here we are again, you standing fearless before me.”
“Where is this coming from?” I asked.
Chase coughed in his free hand, and I could smell warm blood. “You have been a pain in my side since the day we met. Even now, I fail to get rid of you.”
“As long as you’re with Shadow Fang, we will keep having meetings like this.”
“...You have a drive in you now.” Chase’s grin was genuine. His eyes saw something in me that I could never know. I don’t believe he knew what he looked like at that moment. “I don’t know what he did to you, but if this gives you a reason to live, I would feel bad trying to stop you. I still don’t like how you will be in my life, but at least I have a head start with this side of reality.”
I stood up as soon as Chase ran to the scroll. "Your speed can't get you out of this, Chase. We're both trapped."
Chase quickly went to grab another artifact. It was a small ball of stone with symbols on it. As the symbols glowed, Chase turned to me with a cocky grin.
"With that lack of knowledge, you're the only one trapped here."
I rushed Chase, but I couldn't catch him. When he was out of my site, a gust of wind came out of nowhere from behind me, and the chase was gone. The rock must have given him what he needed to escape from the ceiling.
I failed again.
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Raya left the body of the headless ghoul that she fought with Silver behind to go directly toward Shadow Fang. She tasked the wyvern with multiple distractions for Shadow Fang’s minions, making it easier to sneak up on him. To the hunter's surprise, the wyvern didn’t hesitate to follow Raya’s orders.
She took out the ghoul by getting it off the ground and removing the head with her blades. Even if that didn’t kill it, it gave Raya enough time to go after Shadow Fang, who was nearby.
His dark arm reacted faster than its owner, giving the vampire the space to avoid Raya’s attacks. However, Raya was too agile to get hit by the hand and was getting closer to Shadow Fang.
Raya had finally reached his neck and landed a precise blow, but the blade was stopped by part of the arm covering the neck.
Raya jumped away to create distance. She looked back at the ghoul for a quick moment to see the body sinking into the ground. There wasn’t enough time to deal with that, so Raya counted the tools she had left and devised a new plan. Before she could do anything, someone kicked her in the face, sending her flying.