To continue our path, we have to navigate around the pit via a narrow rock ledge.
—Careful—
“AYYY…” The screech sounds from the tunnel we just exited. It’s close. How is it behind us?
—Hurry, Nymph. We must hurry—
The pathway is slim, dug into the rough vertical walls.
—follow where I tread—
The cavern walls welcome my body as I move along the ledge, each movement innate. I move quickly, reaching the other side within minutes; this is good. I can stand sentry while the others cross. Nothing gets past me. I am the gate.
I split my attention between the open tunnel ahead and Theo, as she scrambles across the rockface. My nymph moves with surprising agility.
“Careful!” the centaur calls out.
“Theo, slow down,” says the professor.
"Parkour." She whispers a word I do not know, frowning with concentration. When she’s halfway across, the ground starts to tremble.
“Yayayayaya.”
A crooning, chanting noise echoes up from the pit.
“Yayayayaya.”
As I move towards the chasm, Theo screams. I look up in time to see white claws appear at the rim. They grip the ground.
Something is rising from below.
I move fast, but the centaur-boy, even in his human form, is faster, taking Theo around her waist, then pulling my nymph to the end of the narrow shelf, and almost throwing her at me. Ipush her behind my back, preparing to fight. More skeletal claws appear atop the pit.
In less time than a breath, the hellhound takes point, the centaur-boy shifts and then the blonde Elite throws himself off the ledge, his body disappearing into the blackness.
Within a beat, he rises from the pit in the form of his dragon. Fire explodes from his jaws, pouring down on the mass of bones and claws that are now scrambling out of the darkness.
So many. A legion of death.
These creatures may be long dead—but they are still eager to attack. The dragon fire holds back some of the wraiths, but not all. There are at least forty in the cavern now.
Maybe more.
“Keep Theo safe,” the professor roars.
“I will,” the horse shouts back.
The professor would be wise to move to safety as well; his human body is too fragile. He fights with his mind, but here, in the dark, only muscle matters. The hellhound pounces forward, knocking at skeletons with his giant paws, taking the skull of something monstrous in his mouth, crushing it to dust between his jaws.
Fire keeps pouring from the dragon, and I lower my head to slash at the white breastplate of a long-dead beast.
Once that monster is cleaved in half, I shift onto the next. The creatures don’t seem intelligent, just relentless. From the corner of my eye, I see my former skeletal foe is reforming. Bones are knitting back together where I’d smashed them thoroughly just seconds ago.
Can these things not be destroyed? Bony bodies, charred by dragon fire, are dragging themselves upright.
I take one by the ulna, swing it violently around, then release. The skeletal frame smashes against the cavern wall.
Claws dig into my legs, piercing through the thick hide on my lower limbs. Pain flares, hot and sharp, but I welcome it. It focuses me. A loud snort leaves my muzzle, and I bend down to rip the corpse's hands off me, but as I do, I feel more dead creatures leaping onto my back.
