'' Seth muttered mentally to them, raising his fists. His gaze flicked to the other creatures inside the large cavern—too many of them were within earshot. The noise would draw them all sooner or later.
'' Seth said.
Colossus clacked his pincers together, shaking his head. ''
Before the scorpion could finish, the ground began to shudder violently. A low, thunderous rumble echoed from the depths of the cave and swelled into a deafening roar. A wave of brown and gray bodies surged from a massive cavern opening to the left—a stampede of dozens, then of Rhinoceros Earth Elementals. Their stone-plated bodies thundered toward Seth, Colossus, and Nightmare. All of the creatures' eyes were wide not with aggression, but with primal terror.
They weren't charging to attack. They were fleeing.
Seth yelled through their bond, spinning on his heel and bolting back the way they'd come.
The cave floor shook beneath the thunder of countless heavy steps, causing loose shards of stone to crash from the canyon ceiling. Seth glanced back, his heart sinking as he saw Colossus struggling to keep up; the scorpion's lower Agility was a death sentence in such a situation.
And with them still in the distortion field, it was impossible to recall Colossus to the necklace.
The only option was Beastmaster Rage. But once the spell ended, his Toughness would plummet and leave him vulnerable.
A crimson haze bled into his vision as he cast the spell. Instantly, power surged through his body, filling each of his muscles before spreading through Link to his packmates. Colossus' legs began to hammer the ground in a blur, and the scorpion gained just enough speed to stay ahead of the panicked Elementals.
Seth, Colossus, and Nightmare burst from the narrow canyon back into the colossal cavern, the rhino-like golems thundering behind them, the creatures' infectious fear drawing more of their kin from connecting tunnels. Seth veered left toward the stone bridge they had crossed earlier.
"Let's go!" he shouted, while glancing at Nightmare and Colossus.
But as he turned, his eyes caught movement on the far right of the cavern. Another horde of elementals was surging forth from a different tunnel, and two small figures were running desperately before the crushing tide.
It was a woman with dark hair and a slim young man. Even from this distance, Seth recognized them. If he got closer, he was sure he'd see the scars on their cheeks: those two were the Bridan Empire fighters he'd faced weeks ago. The young man was the Dark Assassin, Kaelen, the one who'd stopped Seth from finishing the Rogue that had tried to kill Elena.
Seth's mind reeled. The realization struck him.
Seth cut left sharply, gesturing for Colossus and Nightmare to follow toward the natural stone bridges that arced over the bottomless precipice they had crossed earlier. They went for the closest one on the left, since the two Bridan Rogues were already scrambling for the one on the right.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Yet before any of them could reach those bridges, the cavern wall behind them .
A blast of scorching air and jagged debris slammed into Seth as a creature of impossible scale tore its way through the breach, loose rocks crashing down around it. It was a behemoth of molten stone and raw magma with a form that looked like a twisted imitation of something humanoid. Its massive eyes burned with the light of dying stars. The creature dwarfed everything Seth had ever seen; the Desert Snake, the giant owl, even the Peak-Gold golem Orwen and the other members of the Champions of Chaos had killed.
The thing was a moving mountain of destruction the size of an eight-story building. Each of its earth-shattering steps sent violent tremors through the cavern, threatening to bring the entire place down upon them.
Seth screamed through their bond.
Nightmare and Colossus surged ahead, but the Elementals behind were gaining ground, their horns now almost grazing the scorpion's shell. When they reached the foot of the bridge, Seth spun around to face the tide of stampeding stone and unleashed Phantom Punch. The spectral fist smashed into the lead rhino's snout.
The spell shattered the creature's stony horn with a deafening , and the beast tumbled back, creating a chaotic pileup that sent several of its kin skidding and falling into the abyss on both sides. Seth immediately pivoted and poured aether into Huntbound Rush to aid in the flight across the bridge.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the two Rogues of the empire running onto the narrower bridge to his right.
Behind, the magma behemoth took another step, and its massive fist slammed down into the heart of the stampede. The impact was apocalyptic. Dozens of Earth Elementals Rhinoceros were instantly obliterated, their bodies exploding in a shower of shattered rock that nearly threw Seth off his feet.
Yet he kept sprinting, his boots pounding with each stride. Colossus and Nightmare were already halfway across the bridge. Instinctively, Seth forced even more aether into Huntbound Rush's grooves, and the air screamed past his ears as another shockwave from the Molten Titan's strike rippled through the cavern. The bridge shuddered violently, stone groaning under him while dust and pebbles cascaded into the darkness below. He was almost there.
Then, the behemoth's fist crashed once more into the cave's floor, and everything shattered. To Seth's right, the bridge beneath the two Rogues groaned, cracked, then crumbled into the abyss. The young man's shout pierced the chaos.
"Jump!"
As Seth ran, he caught sight of the two Rogues leaping from the collapsing bridge. The young man landed hard on the far side, barely keeping his balance, but behind, his sister fell short by several feet.
"Kaelennnnnn!" Her loud scream died out when she vanished into the darkness below.
The stone beneath Seth's own feet gave way, so he immediately lunged to hurl himself across the widening gap. He soared through the air, yet knew with sickening certainty he wasn't going to make it.
Just as he braced for the fall, something shot out toward him—a brown, chitinous tail. His hands closed around it in reflex. The next instant, Seth looked up and saw Colossus clinging desperately to the cliff's edge. The scorpion strained with every ounce of strength to keep them both from falling while half his armored body dangled over the precipice.
'' Nightmare bellowed through the Link as he clamped his jaws around the scorpion's pincer and pulled with everything he had.
Seth's gauntlets locked on the rough tail. Though before the scorpion could haul him up, the stone began to groan under their weight. Rock cracked beneath Colossus's legs as the clawed limbs scraped helplessly against the ledge to find some grip. Through Link, Seth felt his companion's panic—they were both slipping away.
If he held on, they would both fall.
Seth's grip loosened, fingers trembling, ready to uncurl.
Yet Colossus acted first. With a final, desperate heave, the scorpion whipped his tail and flung Seth upward, causing him to sail through the air and land hard on the solid ground of the far side. Seth scrambled to his feet and spun back to the edge, just in time to see his partner—the young beast he had sworn to protect—slide over the precipice and disappear into the abyss.
A single cry of pure despair tore from both Seth's throat and Nightmare's mind:
Seth stumbled to the edge, peering into the bottomless dark. He heard nothing but the roar of rushing water far, far below. A single thought surged forth in his mind:
Colossus could survive the fall. And Seth could too.
But just as he gathered himself to leap, a cold, predatory presence to his left made his core flare with warning, and he spun around. The dark-haired Rogue from the empire stood there, daggers already drawn. His eyes held the flat look of a killer as they moved from Seth to Nightmare.
(NOT UPDATED):
------
Thank you so much for reading!
------
21 24!! advanced chapters on !