Isabela ran through the tunnels, her feet pounding against the rocks as she dodged roots hanging from the ceiling and jumped over debris scattered on the floor. On her left hand, half-being dragged behind her, ca Aldric, who scread incessantly in a high-pitched voice of pure terror.
"THEY’RE GOING TO GET US! THEY’RE GOING TO GET US! I DON’T WANT TO DIE DOWN HERE..."
"CAN YOU SHUT UP!?" Isabela yelled back without looking back, focused on not hitting the walls of the tunnel, which had irregular curves.
The skeletons ca after her in absurd numbers, at least fifteen or twenty of them running with unnatural coordination, rusty weapons raised, so even crawling along the ceiling using their bony hands to gain extra speed.
"OH MY GOD, MISS ISABELA, WE’RE GOING TO DIE! AAAAAAAA..."
Two skeletons in front of the group almost reached Aldric, bony hands inches from his legs. He scread even louder, if that was possible, and Isabella sped up, pulling him with such force that she almost dislocated his shoulder, but it took them out of imdiate reach.
They arrived at a larger chamber that opened up ahead, and Isabella released Aldric sideways, making him roll across the floor until he hit a wall. He got up imdiately, grabbing his own backside, which was burning from being dragged across the rough stones of the tunnels.
"OUCH OUCH OUCH OUCH..."
Isabela didn’t have ti to worry about that; she advanced straight towards the skeletons entering the chamber behind them, her sword glowing red from the Valtherion fire along its blade.
She began to cut, one by one, precise and controlled movents, a clean decapitation on the first, a horizontal cut splitting the second in half, a thrust through the ribs of the third.
She tried to stay focused, her breathing controlled, not releasing too much fire because she knew that when she lost control things would explode disproportionately and she didn’t want to collapse the entire tunnel on top of them.
"Go on... don’t explode... don’t explode..." she thought as she fought.
"HELP!" Aldric shouted from the other side of the chamber.
Isabela looked back and saw that he had been surrounded by five skeletons that had entered through a side tunnel she hadn’t seen. The distraction caused her to unintentionally release more fire, the sword exploding in flas so intense that it completely lted three skeletons at the sa ti within a two-ter radius, turning them into pools of molten tal and ashes.
She imdiately retreated, running towards Aldric, cutting down the skeletons surrounding him with swift, sweeping blows, and when the last one fell, she paused to catch her breath, checking if more were coming.
That’s when she noticed sothing strange.
The skeletons she had defeated when she released too much fire, those three that had exploded in flas, had parts completely burned, turning to black ash, and those parts weren’t coming back.
The others she had cut normally were already beginning to rebuild, bones dragging across the ground back to their bodies, but those that had turned to ash remained still.
She understood imdiately.
"Intense fire..." she murmured to herself, looking at the sword still glowing red.
She couldn’t hold back anymore.
She released the control she had been maintaining the whole ti, letting the Valtherion fire flow completely through the sword and her entire body, the temperature rising so high that the air around her began to distort.
He advanced toward the skeletons that were still trying to rebuild themselves and burned each one to ashes, not stopping until there were no more whole bones in the chamber, only remnants of black dust scattered across the floor forming circles where the monsters had been.
It took him about two minutes to burn everything.
When he finished, he lowered his sword, panting, sweat dripping down his face despite the heat it radiated, and waited.
Silence.
The labyrinth stopped sending skeletons. No sound of footsteps coming from the tunnels. Nothing moving in the shadows.
For the first ti since they had separated from the group, everything was quiet.
Aldric lay there on the ground in the most pathetic position possible, head down, backside up, trembling with fear even with all the skeletons already destroyed.
Isabela looked at him with that expression of soone who had lost all patience. "That guy makes too much noise. If it weren’t for him yelling all the ti, we wouldn’t even be running being chased like that..."
With the sword still hot in her hand, she brought the blade close to Aldric’s burned buttocks, which were exposed because his pants had ripped from the friction of being dragged through the tunnels.
"KYA!" Aldric yelled, jumping up, his hands going straight to protect his backside. "WHY DID YOU DO THAT!?... You... you’re insane..."
Isabela wiped the sweat from her forehead, still panting. "Thank you." She almost smiled aloud, but held back the expression and just nodded. "Let’s go."
She lit a fire in her free hand, small flas but enough to illuminate the path ahead, and began walking through the tunnel that seed to continue straight ahead for a while.
Aldric ca behind, limping slightly, still holding his buttocks with one hand, and began to talk about all the worst possible scenarios as they walked. "What if we get completely lost? What if the tunnel collapses? What if there are more of those big monsters? What if we never find our way back and starve to death down here? What if..."
"That won’t happen," Isabela cut in firmly.
"Why?"
She rembered Haru that night when Corvus Arwin had died, that pure white aura around him, that fire unlike anything she had ever seen.
She rembered him defeating Cedrick in the duel, movents so fast she could barely keep up. She rembered him arriving with the airship intact to explode on top of Kaelthar when all seed lost.
She didn’t answer Aldric’s question, only let out a long sigh that carried weariness and sothing like reluctant confidence.
They continued walking in silence after that. The tunnel continued straight ahead without opening into chambers as before, just uneven stone walls with increasingly dense roots descending from the ceiling and climbing up the sides, so as thick as young tree trunks.
Isabela was alert to any sign that could help her get out of there: marks on the walls, drafts, changes in sll or temperature.
That’s when she noticed sothing strange.
The flas in her hand were leaning slightly toward the roots, not rising straight up like normal fire does, but pulled sideways as if sothing were attracting them.
She stopped walking imdiately.
"Aldric, co a little closer to ."
He obeyed, sowhat confused, reaching for the sleeve of her shirt and gripping it tightly. Isabela reduced the flas until she concentrated everything on a single finger, a small, controlled fla dancing on the tip of her right index finger.
She observed carefully.
The small fla was clearly leaning toward the nearest roots, as if it wanted to reach them, pulled by so invisible force that only affected her fire specifically.
She turned to Aldric without taking her eyes off the fla. "Don’t let go of . I think I already know how we get out of here."
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