Heat blazed over Shang, scorching his hair and robes. The skin on his back tingled and reddened as the temperature in the cavern continued to rise. Shang flattened himself to the ground, taking shallow breaths. The hot air was heavy and suffocating making each breath torturous. Shang scrunched his eyes shut against the blinding white light.

As suddenly as it began, the blast ended. Shang opened his eyes and saw only white. He blinked, worried he’d been permanently blinded. Gradually, the white faded from his vision leaving only darkness.

In the aftermath of the blast, the air was sweltering and stank of ozone. A few dozen paces away, he could see faint sparks of impact and hear the sounds of battle. The orb of light surrounding the group was gone. The red-headed shadow wielder must have been caught in the blast.

In the gloom, his physical sight was useless. Shang closed his eyes and focused on his spiritual senses. The air swirled with deep shades of onyx, burgundy, and emerald. The qi was so dense that the air undulated in agitated waves. The world was a kaleidoscope of colors and shapes, smothering him in every direction. Shang rested his hands on his knees, fighting the motion sickness.

With a shaky breath, he pulled in his spiritual sight. When he looked up this time, the colors were muted, and he could see past the roiling energy. Somehow, the chimera looked even more monstrous in spirit. Its body was a mass of midnight, so unlike the vibrant colors of other living beings. Scattered around the chimera, five limp masses littered the limestone ground. Five. Almost half of their retinue.

Shang tore his focus from the bodies. The fight with the chimera had taken on new fervor. The sounds of steel on armor-like flesh rang through the confined space. A giant fox outlined in golden light leapt on the back of the chimera. An arm of dark qi lanced out from the monster, throwing the fox across the cavern. It slammed into the wall with an animalistic yelp. Koyo, using Bataa’s momentary distraction, stepped within striking range of the chimera’s tiger head. Shang was too far to see the details, but the tiger head roared in pain. He clamped his hands over his ears, cringing at the thunderous sound.

Koyo and Bataa were the only ones attacking. Nio stood protectively over a small group of cowering Mortal Realm cultivators, two halfmoon sickles at the ready. Shang started moving towards the survivors when the chimera swung its serpentine tail at Bataa. The fox leapt away easily, deftly dodging the blow, and the tail gouged deep into the cavern wall. The impact shook the cavern.

Limestone stalagmites shattered on the cave floor and large sections of the roof cracked, threatening the integrity of the cavern. A large boulder, twice again his size, broke off over his head. On instinct, Shang threw up his arm, forcing qi through his channels in a haphazard deflection. The boulder shifted course slightly, barely avoiding crushing Shang’s shoulder. He gasped in relief, his heart hammering against his rib cage. The deflection was weak and sluggish. The imbalance in aura was affecting his cycling speed.

Before he could run for the relative safety of Nio’s group, Rue squealed in glee. Oh what luck! Get the syringes ready.

Shang’s stomach sank. Are you really thinking about that right now? I think we would be lucky to even survive this.

Nonsense, this is the perfect opportunity. I can sense a pool of the girl’s blood down that way. Quickly, before it dries.

Shang turned and skulked, begrudgingly, away from Nio but kept his body crouched low. Bataa and Koyo were preoccupied and weren’t paying him any attention. Even so, he couldn’t help slouching slightly as he scurried down further into a side tunnel. Red beady eyes tracked him as he went. Shang kept his spiritual senses heightened. The last thing he wanted was some giant cave rat to sneak up behind him.

This side tunnel was small, stretching barely a head above him. The tunnel was wide enough to fit three men walking abreast. He was now out of sight from the battle, though he could still sense faint eruptions of energy as the fight continued. In the dark, alone with only rats for company, the walls themselves seemed to be shrinking towards him.

Shang tried to imagine he was in one of the limestone caves carved into the cliffs of AnSan. He had loved exploring them as a kid, as much for the adventure as for the thrill. As a child, he’d always hated small spaces, but he was nothing if not good at pushing his own limits. With each cave dive, the fear had diminished, until cave diving was actually fun rather than a self-imposed challenge.

But this cave was different. The air. The qi. The darkness. The odor of burnt and decaying flesh. He could feel the world falling in on him. Crushing him. Suffocating him. The bone-chilling claustrophobia rushed back to him in a torrent, punishing him for all the time it spent away. His hands shook uncontrollably and his whole body broke out in a cold sweat. Still, he forced his feet to carry him further into the tunnel.

“How much further?” Shang asked. His voice cracked on the last word.

Rue was silent for a second. Faa, afraid of a cave…humans are so ridiculous. Get yourself together! You're shaking so much it feels like my brain’s being turned to porridge. It’s close, a dozen steps forward, against the wall on the left.

Shang pulled his fingers into a fist, trying to control the trembling. His whole body shook—his very core buzzing to escape the confined space. Thankfully, it wasn't long before he saw the blood. A small puddle of blood pooled under a large crater in the wall. It glistened a faint purple in his spiritual sight. Koyo must have been thrown here in the melee. Shang's mind boggled at the distance. If he’d been thrown that far and impacted this hard, his body would be nothing but mush.

Shang reached into his expanse bag rifling for a small glass tube. He closed his whole pam around it, not trusting his trembling fingers. Despite being made of glass, it felt sturdy in his grip. He pulled it from the bag and held it out to study. One side of the tube was conical with a small opening at the tip while the other was rounded. He had never seen such detailed glass work in his life.

Just lay the opening in the blood and the pressure differential from the syringe will suck the blood in.

Shang gingerly knelt by the puddle and pressed the open tip of the glass in the viscous liquid. The glass tube lost its chill as it filled with lukewarm blood.

Ah! What great luck, wasn’t that easy? Rue exclaimed.

I wouldn’t really call this easy. Shang was having trouble standing, his bones weak and unable to support his weight. Alright human, mission accomplished, let’s go back to the group.

Shang’s legs buckled when he tried to stand. “I don’t think I can do this.” Every breath was now a short gasp. He leaned his back and head against the cave wall for support. The walls were caving in around him. He was being buried alive. Get out. Get out. Get out. He needed to get out. Escape. Shang clawed at his chest and neck. He couldn't breathe. There was no air. Nowhere to go. This was it. He was going to die.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Ah-hem. Not to make this whole…fit…worse, but you’re not wrong. You are going to die if you don’t move. There’s a Chaos Scorpion down this tunnel, and it’s getting closer, looks like your scent of fear was too tempting to ignore.

“What?” While he heard Rue’s words, he was struggling to understand their implications over his rising panic.

Oh Heavens above, I didn’t mention it before because I didn’t want to freak you out, but it looks like that’s a lost cause, so I’ll say it plainly. Get out of here. You need to run. Now! Rue’s voice was frantic.

Shang wasn’t sure if his legs would obey, but he pushed himself off the wall, back the way he came. His legs wobbled but they held. It was all he could do to put one foot in front of the other. He knew he would never make it in time. Even Shang could sense the scorpion at the edges of his perception. And it was getting closer.

The hairs on Shang’s arms stood on end as a roiling black mass manifested behind him. With an immense exercise of will, Shang turned to face it. It was smaller than he imagined, barely longer than an average human. Like the chimera, it emanated darkness in his perception, but its energy was controlled, constrained by the scorpion's physical form. A Mortal Realm Beast. Heavens. He really was going to die.

He could hear the chitinous clicks of its many limbs on stone as it crawled towards him. The beast studied him for a second, sizing him up. Apparently, he came up wanting. The beast tensed its body for a strike. The head of its tail lunged at Shang’s face in a blur.

His body moved on reflex. He pushed off his left foot, barely managing to evade the strike of the stinger. The shock of imminent death shattered the haze of fear consuming him. He could feel the strength returning to his limbs. He cycled frantically building up the qi in his meridians, the battle fever quickening his cycling speed. He waited until the last second before expelling a huge gust of qi at the exalted beast’s head. The force of it was enough to rip a hole in a boulder. The blow made full contact with the scorpion's foaming mouth and only managed to push it back a few paces. It was dazed but otherwise unhurt. As the scorpion recovered from the blow, Shang turned and ran.

He only made it a few steps before the scorpion crashed into him. Shang slammed face first into the floor. Despite the pain, he instantly rolled to the left until he was pressed against the tunnel wall. A stinger rammed into the ground where he’d fallen. With the scorpion beside him, there was no room to maneuver. The creature’s large pincers blocked the path out of the tunnels.

A pincer whirled to crush his skull and Shang rolled forward to evade. His shoulder screamed in protest. He rolled to his feet and ran further into the tunnel. He needed to get away from the beast. The monster was so physically strong that it could crush Shang’s feeble body with an errant swing.

A coppery taste in his mouth alerted him to his bleeding nose. Upon further inspection, a deep gash scored his left temple, washing the lower half of his face in blood. With his legs pumping fast, he was out pacing the beast. With the scorpion's bulk, the small tunnel limited its speed, but Shang couldn’t run forever. Each stride brought him further and further away from salvation. If he could get back to the larger cavern, Nio and the survivors could deal with this monster. Shang had no hope of killing it on his own.

Good news is, at least that thing is already injured. Rue’s voice was tight with anxiety. Shang realized Rue was right, from the uneven sound of its skittering legs, one of its limbs must be lame or missing.

“Not much of a consolation,” Shang gasped out between pants. The tunnel around him was gradually expanding. In the distance, he could see the opening to a larger cavern. In the cavern, the scorpion's motion would be unimpeded. Shang knew he couldn’t outpace it on open ground.

He reached the opening first. As the ceiling arced up, Shang halted his forward momentum and jumped onto a shelf of limestone. He stood over the tunnel opening and prepped an expulsion. A few heartbeats later, he could hear the eerie clicking of the scorpion’s approach. He waited. The timing needed to be perfect. His attacks were too weak, there was no way he could damage the monster through its hard exoskeleton.

As the scorpion clawed his way through the last leg of the tunnel, Shang fired a targeted spear of qi at the ceiling. At first, nothing happened. His heart constricted. Was the expulsion not strong enough? Then, all at once, huge jagged pieces of rock broke off of the cavern roof. Shang kept close to the wall to avoid being hit by falling boulders. Shang could sense the creature slowing its run to avoid the rock fall, but it was too late. It was moving too fast to stop its forward motion completely. It skidded to a stop directly in the path of the avalanche of stone. Shang gripped the side of the cavern with both hands as the walls trembled from the force of the cave-in. Shang counted to twenty before the sound of falling stone ceased. He breathed through his sleeve to filter through the cloud of dust in the air.

Shang waited a few heartbeats for any sound. He couldn’t sense the creature under the fallen stone.

It’s definitely not dead, but I think you have some time to run for help.

Shang jumped on top of the rubble. It was piled high enough that he could barely make out the former tunnel mouth. There was now a small hole where the mouth used to be. It was far too small for him to squeeze through. He cursed loudly and stooped to shovel away the rubble.

He jumped to the side at Rue’s shout of alarm, but it wasn’t fast enough to avoid the attack fully. A giant pincer slammed into his side, and he winced at the crunch of his ribs breaking. Surprisingly, he felt no pain. His body was too shocked to register the damage.

He rolled away as another blow threatened to crush him. Another pincer shot up from the rubble followed up by a chomping maw and a set of black beady eyes. In seconds, the monster was free. Despite its speed, he could see that the beast was hurt. The back half of the beast had been badly smashed. Its stinger and back limbs were detached from its body, left buried under the fallen rubble.

The monster chittered menacingly as it pulled itself forward using its front limbs. Shang was on his feet, focusing all his energy on quickening his legs with qi. As wounded as the scorpion was, its attacks were still fast and deadly. He barely managed to escape the first blow with his limbs attached, leaving the exchange with a large gaping slash on his forearm where the tip of the pincer found purchase. The wound bled profusely, dripping blood onto the cave floor. The pressure from his ribs was making it hard to breathe.

He sprinted to the cavern wall and climbed up. He needed to put distance between them. With qi focused on his fingers, it was easy to pull himself up even without adequate handholds. He stopped on a large overhang and looked back at his pursuer. Even with its injuries, the scorpion climbed with more dexterity than he could ever manage. But from his perch, Shang had the advantage of height. He sent out expulsions in quick bursts. The scorpion easily sidestepped the shots he threw at it, but the energy impacted the cave wall dislodging loose rock. The stone under the scorpion’s feet shifted, disrupting its upward momentum.

He took the opportunity to climb further up the wall. As he climbed, a wave of dizziness hit him and the edges of his vision dimmed. He’d lost too much blood, and he could feel his body shutting down. He needed to hold on. His only hope was to prolong the fight long enough for someone to find him or to make it too much of a nuisance for the scorpion to pursue the hunt. Without the element of surprise, his options were limited.

Shang settled again on a higher perch. When he stood, his head brushed the top of the cavern. There was nowhere to run. The scorpion was not far behind him. He repeated his attack, straining his already sore channels. Again, the beast lost its footing and slid further down the wall. Shang could see the creature was tiring too. Its wounds were far worse than his own. A trail of dark blue blood stained the wall with its passing.

“Come on, give up. Give up,” he pleaded under his breath.

After another barrage of attacks, the scorpion hissed in frustration and jumped to the cavern floor. Shang’s hopes rose but were immediately dashed. The energy inside the scorpion was building, increasing in intensity. What was once a dark outline was now glowing a menacing deep blue as the density of qi built up in its body.

If I were you, I would jump.

He didn’t need to be told twice. Gritting his teeth, he sprang from his ledge as a tongue of blue-black flame lanced from the scorpion’s mouth. The hand closest to the fire blistered from the heat. He landed gracelessly, grunting on impact. The fall agitated his broken ribs, sending pulses of pain up his spine. The scorpion did not give him enough time to recover. It raced towards him on its remaining legs. A low chitter rattled from its open mouth. A promise of Shang's impending demise.