(POV – Protagonist)
After stopping Victor from dying, I wrapped everyone in my smoldering smoke whips and shot through the canyon. With every step, the sound of rocks being crushed echoed louder, growing in intensity as I pushed forward, as if sothing colossal were chasing us right on our heels.
Even so, I completely ignored that brutal warning. I an, between simply running from an anomaly I couldn’t even see and staying behind to fight it, it was obvious which option I was going to choose.
So, without looking back, I pushed my speed to the limit. Either way, I wouldn’t feel tired even if I ran for hours, my breathing stayed steady, and my legs responded perfectly.
Besides, it wasn’t like Victor, Rupert, and Arthur were extra weight. Important detail: I wasn’t even the one actually carrying them. Still, shrill sounds echoed behind , confused shouts slicing through the air, blending with the frantic rhythm of hurried footsteps.
Most of it ca from the reaction team mbers, but I couldn’t make out exactly what they were saying. From my perspective, their voices sounded distant and scrambled, reduced to a jumble of half-muttered words as I kept moving without slowing down.
I continued running at a steady pace, my breathing controlled, while the heavy, relentless sound of rocks being crushed thundered just behind .
Then, without warning, sothing ca flying straight toward , a small asteroid, or sothing very close to it, spinning through the air with brutal force, large enough to completely block the path ahead.
Behind , the reaction team let out loud grunts and muffled exclamations, clearly having noticed the deadly projectile. The panic in their voices was unmistakable. I, however, didn’t break my stride for even a second.
Instead, I forced myself even faster, my steps accelerating as thick, living black smoke engulfed both of my hands, coiling around my fingers as if responding directly to my intent.
I thrust my hands forward, and two claws shot out toward the asteroid prototype. The curved blades snapped shut with precision, each gripping one end of the floating rock.
With a firm pull, accompanied by a sharp, resonant crack, I split the small asteroid in two, opening an uneven gap right down the middle, wide enough for to pass through.
My original idea had been to simply jump over it, but honestly, despite calling it a prototype, it was far too large for that.
A jump would have thrown out of the canyon, and that maneuver would have placed dangerously close to the territory of the anomaly chasing us. Taking that kind of risk wasn’t an option. Forcing my way through, as brutal as it was, turned out to be the safest choice.
I passed between the shattered halves of the asteroid and kept running. I still couldn’t see anything ahead; everything around seed to repeat endlessly, as if the path were a constant copy of itself.
With no landmarks or alternatives, I had no choice but to keep moving forward, relying solely on montum and speed. That was when, through my aerial vision, I noticed ripples forming in the fog, first above, then along the sides, as if sothing were disturbing that silent void.
My head turned instinctively toward the movent at the exact mont a bad feeling tightened in my chest. At the sa ti, I felt Victor stir, his unease confirming that I wasn’t the only one sensing it.
Still moving at high speed, he opened his mouth to speak, air escaping in an uneven breath. His eyes darted from one point to another, tracking the distortions rippling through the mist, until they finally locked onto .
“B-be careful...” he said, his voice hoarse and trembling, as if every syllable took an imnse effort.
The instant he finished speaking, distortions ford among the pale clouds, and from them, massive crab-like hands burst forth, lunging brutally in our direction. At first, I thought the attacks were aid at the reaction team, and I prepared to act accordingly.
However, at the very last second, the hands shifted their trajectory, I had beco the new target. Even caught off guard, I managed to react in ti. I leapt to the side in an instinctive, agile motion, feeling the cutting wind of the attack rush past as the colossal limb slamd into the ground with a deafening crash, crushing the exact spot where I had been monts earlier.
The assault didn’t stop there. Two more crab hands suddenly erged from my flanks. Those I couldn’t simply dodge, if I avoided one, the other would inevitably hit . Faced with that, I changed tactics.
Black smoke completely engulfed my arms as I twisted my body toward one of the hands, skidding across the ground to buy myself angle and ti. The next instant, the impact ca. The colossal hand struck with brutal force, but I managed to intercept it with my own hands.
The shock rippled through my arms like a wave, making them scream in protest. Holding it back felt like trying to stop a collapsing building, not that I knew exactly what that would feel like, but it was the closest comparison my mind could co up with.
While my arms blocked the crab claw coming from the front, the other one behind kept advancing without hesitation. At that mont, a dense shadow spread beneath my feet, spilling across the stone like ink.
In the sa instant, dozens of black filants erupted from that shadow, writhing through the air before embedding themselves into the crab’s limb. They stretched taut, anchoring themselves to the jagged canyon walls around us, creaking like ropes on the verge of snapping.
I thought I’d have at least a second to breathe. Of course, I was wrong again. The anomaly’s assault didn’t stop for even a mont. A faint tremor ran through the ground beneath my feet, almost imperceptible at first, but far too fast to ignore.
The earth shook harder, and then I felt the ground give way, sinking slowly like hungry quicksand, pulling down inch by inch, as if sothing hidden deep below was about to surface at any second. The air around seed to grow heavier, loaded with suffocating pressure, and before my mind could even react, my senses scread a single warning: imminent danger.
Victor seed to feel the sa chill that ran through my body, because his voice rang out loud and clear through the air.
Victor seed to feel exactly the sa as I did. I noticed a shiver run through his body, his muscles tensing for a split second before he moved in the next. His words rang out loud and clear, sharp as an alarm: “Shit! The ground!” he cursed, his voice tight, almost hoarse, as his eyes swept over the earth: “There’s another one coming up from the ground!”
The mont Victor’s words rang out, my body reacted before my mind could even register the danger. I used the crab’s leg in front of as a springboard, pushing off hard and vaulting over it, hanging in the air by re inches.
In the sa second, the ground beneath erupted violently, cracking with a sharp snap as another crab leg burst out without warning.
It erged exactly where I would have been the next instant, rising over my body. Its claws spread wide in a terrifying motion, grinding as they pulled apart, making it painfully clear that I was the target.
My mind caught up in a flash, and I realized there was no way to avoid the claw completely. So I did the only thing that would minimize the damage. I twisted midair, lining up my foot with the claw that snapped shut around it seconds later.
The next mont, I braced both hands against the claw’s rough surface. They darkened almost instantly as thick smoke billowed from the point of contact. I gathered every last ounce of strength I had and tore myself free, escaping the trap at the cost of one leg.
My body rolled violently across the ground, my face scraping against the uneven surface as dozens of tiny stones slamd into my skin. There was no pain. Just a faint discomfort. And honestly... who cares?
I took a short run-up and launched myself into the air again. Even before I landed, I felt my leg reform almost instantly, as if it had never been damaged. I hit the ground in a skid, my soles tearing through the dust, and imdiately broke into a run.
The crab legs fell behind, shrinking until they disappeared from view as I put distance between us. I kept a steady pace for about two uninterrupted minutes, with no sign of the anomaly chasing us or appearing ahead. That was when the path split.
One passage continued forward, veering slightly to the right, while the other also went forward but curved to the left. I slowed to a stop, my eyes shifting between the two routes as I silently weighed which one to take.
Thunderous crashes echoed again, followed by a roar that was painful to hear. They ca from behind us, along with the sound of rocks crashing to the ground as sothing, most likely the sa anomaly from before, closed in fast on our position.
“This can’t be a good sign!” Rupert growled, horror written all over his face as his eyes darted wildly around the area. He clenched his fists so tightly that his knuckles turned white. A tense snarl slipped from his throat before he spoke again, his voice cracking under the weight of panic and urgency: “Move it... he’s coming back! What are you waiting for?!”
I stood there for a few seconds, letting my gaze drift between the different paths ahead. The silence around us only made the decision heavier, and as I considered each option, the doubt echoed in my mind before slipping out loud toward the others: (But... which way do I go?)
The instant my words echoed in their minds, a new crash tore through the area, far louder than any before. The impact was imdiate: Victor’s, Rupert’s, and Arthur’s shouts blended with those of the rest of the reaction team, forming a chaotic chorus of shock and anxiety that reverberated through the space.
“Are you serious? Does it really matter right now? Just pick one!” one of the reaction team mbers yelled, his voice thick with irritation and panic.
“Just get us out of here!” another snarled, hoarse from screaming.
“Shit! We’re gonna die!” a third shouted, nearly sobbing, desperation dripping from every syllable.
Ignoring the hysterical pleas around , I just shrugged. There was no ti, or certainty, for a better choice. I followed my gut and pointed at one of the paths at random: (Left, then)
With that, I took off down the chosen route. Behind , the reaction team mbers were still yelling, complaints, orders, curses, but I ignored them completely. All my focus narrowed to the run, to the repeated impact of my feet against the uneven ground.
Even so, the sounds followed us. I could still hear the sharp crack of stones breaking loose and shattering on the floor, mixed with the unsettling noise of sothing moving above us, just a bit behind, heavy, vast, oppressive.
In the end, I couldn’t say how long I ran. Any sense of ti dissolved, reduced to nothing but the instinct to keep moving forward. All I know is that, eventually, the noises stopped. No more falling rocks. No more sound of sothing colossal dragging itself above us.
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