Very wrong.
My eyes stay focused on the dark tunnel, and a growl reverberates through the ground, low and menacing.
My breath catches as the creature emerges, its hulking form covered in rippling muscles. Long, curved claws scrape against the dirt, and its crimson eyes gleam with a predatory hunger.
A stonehide badger.
Shit.
I’ve never actually seen one in person, but I’ve read about them, and looked at countless drawings. Badgers are wild and feral, a force of nature themselves with an insatiable hunger.
It’s far bigger than I ever imagined.
But it’s a badger. I’m sure of it.
The arena is silent, so silent you could hear a pin drop.
And then the creature dives into the sand and disappears.
Double shit.
It’s a Terramancer. It can move the earth, everything we’re standing on. It could beanywhere.
Dropping to a crouch, I slide my blade into my boot before pressing my fingers into the soil, searching for vibrations, for any hint of its location.
And then, suddenly, I canfeelit, the slight shaking of the earth, the softest rattle that radiates through my limbs.
A scream pierces the air to my left.
The badger bursts from the ground, rocks and dirt emerging with it, and its sharp claws rip into a man’s chest.
His orb drops.
And so does he.
Dead.
He’s dead.
The badger is in the ground again. Hunting its next victim, and before it even makes another move, a group of three women all drop their orbs andrun. The orbs shatter as they sprint to one of the tunnels, desperate to escape.
No badger in sight, but they’re met by four Enforcers, who grab them by the arms and drag them away.
Now, they’ll be dead soon, too.
The badger emerges again, this time in the very center of the arena where five men are standing far too close together, which means they had probably formed an alliance. Its claws rake across one of them, sending blood spraying in all directions. His orb cracks as it hits the ground, and he collapses beside it.
The other men scatter, releasing heart-wrenching screams as they cling to their orbs like a lifeline.
A girl near the south wall lets out a sob just before the ground beneath her collapses, and she’s gone, pulled under with a muffled cry.
Some of the contestants remain frozen, too terrified to move, while others dart around in a random pattern, and truthfully, I don’t know which is the better strategy.
Where is it?My eyes scan the ground erratically.Where the fuck is it?
But I don’t need to wonder for much longer. The badger launches from the earth and lands ten yards in front of me.
I burst into flames, but they don’t touch my clothing.
