Page 113 of Immortal Origins
Something shifted in the air.
Pressing her body against the blocked passage, she peered into the darkness and listened.
Scurrying. Lots of it.
It was impossible to tell how far or how many ofwhateverwas coming towards her was. She closed her eyes and forced them shut, as they wanted to flutter open with fear. Careful to calm her breathing, she dipped her focus past her feet and into the dirt, the walls, the ceiling until echoes of the hallway illuminated back to her in her mind. She pushed it further andthe images of dozens of centipedes as big as her were scurrying towards her. With black pincers on their faces big enough to tear her limbs from her body, and legs moving so fast they would be on her in minutes.
With little time to think, she looked at the wall behind her and the hall, the way she’d come—her only way out—and the centipedes that filled it. She had no choice but to dig.
Placing her hands on the blocked passage, she pushed her focus into the wall from where her fingertips touched it.
Ten feet. That’s how much space she had between the hall she was currently in, and the one on the other side of the wall.
The centipedes were close enough now that they could see her and their chitters carried towards her in a way that reminded her too much of the Alkijin and her blood boiled. They crawled on top of each other, black beady eyes shining as drool fell from their pinchers that opened and closed with hunger and excitement.
Pulling her fist back, she slammed it against the wall and a large hole burst from the wall.
Not big enough.
She slammed her other fist against the wall and another hole blasted into the space.
Still not big enough.
A few centipedes led the charge, so close she could now see the red sheen on their hard, black bodies and she wondered if that was truly the color of their armor or if they were already covered in blood.
She punched another hole.
Six more feet to go.
A centipede reached her and clamped its jaws around her ankle as she bit down on a scream. Sweat dripped from her temple as she flung a hand at it and the creature burst into bright purple flames as it screamed an inhuman sound and fell to the ground.
She punched another one.
Four feet.
Another lunged for her abdomen but she side-stepped it and its pincers sank into the wall instead. She placed a hand in its underbelly and blasted her fire through the spaces between its armor.
Heart pounding, she punched another hole.
One more.
She turned to look behind her and immediately wished she hadn’t. The swarm was practically on top of her and just as their collective chittering reached an all-time peak, as multiple pincers and jaws opened to attack her, she punched through the wall one more time and the rest of it broke away.
She threw her body through the hole and twirled around blasting the space behind her with flames that shot from the ground all the way to the ceiling in a barrier. The giant insects screamed and withered as their bodies touched it, her purple flames too hot to cross, but she could see them past the flickering of the flames, angrily glaring at her.
Her ankle throbbed and she quickly assessed the injury. No major damage, and no major bleeding. It hurt, but when she pushed herself to her feet, she was grateful she could still use it. She tore a piece from the hem of her dress and wrapped it around the wound as a makeshift bandage. Thankfully, she could still walk.
The hall she landed in looked no different than the others but destroyed the little map in her mind she had been able to make. She had no idea where in the maze she was now, and hoped that she wouldn’t backtrack by making the wrong decision.
All she could think about through the adrenaline was escaping.
As far as she knew, the entire tunnel system was connected and if these were attached to the ones in the palace, she’d just have to find the one that led her out. She just had to keep moving and stay unnoticed until she could find the tunnel that would lead her to safety.
She had one advantage the other Trial Champions didn’t.
She knew the tunnels existed.
Which meant she was the only one who knew there could be a way out.
