The Remnant twisted mid-charge, its grotesque head snapping toward the sound. It abandoned Victor, roaring as it descended on the doomed man. The Hunter's scream was cut short by a wet crunch that turned Devvyn's stomach.
Victor leapt, and Wills threw out his hands. A blast of air caught him midair, shoving him upward. Victor grunted, scrambling with raw desperation as he was launched out of the hole. He landed hard on the grass, rolling to his side, chest heaving.
“Erkah,” Gaur roared immediately, "close off the chamber.”
Erkah shook his head. “Boss, wait, if I collapse it now, the Echos—”
“Do it,” Gaur's voice cracked like a whip. Spit flew as he shouted. “The haul's worth nothing if we're dead."
Erkah's face pinched with anguish. He closed his eyes, pressed a trembling hand against the ground, and drew power from his earth Echo. The ground rumbled violently, the lip of the opening groaning as dirt and rock sheared free.
They all stumbled back as the hole caved in, dust and stone raining downward in a choking plume. For a heartbeat, silence followed.
Everyone exhaled at once.
“It's done,” Erkah said hoarsely, lowering his hand. His shoulders sagged. “It's dead.”
The ground shuddered again, harder this time. A deep vibration ran through the soil, shaking their boots. And then, muffled but furious, a roar thundered.
And it wasn't from beneath the earth.
“There's more of them,” Devvyn cried out.
Gaur clenched his jaw, then lashed out and kicked a loose stone so hard it cracked in two. “This isn't how I bloody imagined dying,” he growled.
His gaze swept over the ragged survivors. Victor still bent over, catching his breath; Wills, his hands trembling as currents of air swirled faintly around his palms; Erkah with his dirt-streaked face, still pale from collapsing the tunnel; and three others, wide-eyed and breathing hard.
Eight of them left.
Gaur drew himself up, his voice hard and commanding. “Listen well. We're not all going to die in a bloody forest like sheep. We fight smart, move together and get out of here alive. All of us.” He pointed with his axe, barking orders in quick succession. “Wills is good enough with his air Echo. Victor, fire. Erkah, earth.”
His sharp eyes snapped to the remaining three. “You, you, you, what's your Echo bond?”
“Air,” one stammered, raising his hand.
“And you two?”
“Water,” they answered together. "But it's just one lux and I've never really used it to fight." One of them said, and the other nodded in agreement.
“Bloody useless then,” Gaur spat, frustration flashing in his eyes. He bent, snatched two spare axes from the ground, and shoved them into their hands. “Then you're on physical defence. Swing till your arms fall off if you have to.”
He turned to the air-bonded Hunter, jabbing a finger at his chest. “You stick with Wills. Victor makes flames; the two of you keep them alive by fanning the fire. You keep that beast far away from us.”
Then Gaur hefted another axe for himself. He stalked toward Devvyn, pressing one into his chest with enough force that it nearly knocked the boy back. “And you, little thief, you're with me. Try not to die. I've lost enough men today.”
Devvyn's throat was tight, but he nodded. The weight of the axe in his hands felt wrong, heavy and awkward, but there was no arguing. His whistle still pulsed with an icy warning that made his skin crawl.
Gaur rolled his shoulders, adjusting his grip. “Right then.” He glanced at the Hunters, at Victor, then at Devvyn. “I don't know where that damn creature is but we'll have a fighting chance in a bigger space. Here, we're rats in a hole waiting to be chewed. Back to the basin, we'll be on open ground, and hopefully we'll reach the trucks before that thing reaches us.”
The ground groaned again, the sound of claws scraping against rock reverberated not too far away.
“Let's move!” Gaur said.
They moved in a thin line, single file, boots thudding softly against damp earth. The trees loomed tall and black around them, shadows stretching like claws. Devvyn hugged the axe to his chest, the haft slick against his palms, his arms stiff as if the weight might crush him if he dared to lower it.
His eyes darted across the underbrush, to the spaces between trunks where the night bled thick. Then something struck him. Henry's body. He hadn't seen it at the rim of the hole. The thought twisted his stomach. He quickened his pace to Gaur's side. “Henry. His body wasn't at the hole. The Remnant underground ate Ragnar's and the others' heads. But Henry's entire body…”
Gaur's eyes didn't even shift to Devvyn. He just grunted, “Keep walking, boy. Don't look back.”
Devvyn swallowed but the unease burrowed deeper. The whistle at his neck pulsed faintly. Not the bone-freezing terror from before, but enough to make his chest tighten. Then came the sound. A hiss. Long and wet, threading through the afternoon heat. It was just like the one before. Devvyn's pulse spiked.
“Wait,” he rasped, glancing back, then to the others. “Do you hear that? That hissing?”
The Hunters gave him quick, bewildered looks. Wills shook his head. “There's nothing.”
“Not a thing,” another muttered, shifting his grip on an axe.
But the whistle disagreed. Its chill seeped sharper into Devvyn's skin, spreading panic like wildfire. His lungs tightened, every instinct screaming. He turned wide eyes to the others. “I think a Remnant is following us.”
“Boy, you're just rattled, we would hear if that big monster was after us.” one Hunter muttered.
“Bloody imagining things,” another said.
Devvyn opened his mouth to warn them again. Then the trees above exploded. Something lean and terrible lunged from the canopy, moving too fast to follow. A blur of pale, elongated limbs and bone-like spines. Before any of them could react, it seized one of the Hunters. The man barely had time to scream before the creature dragged him upwards in a flailing, thrashing blur.
“HELP! HELP!” the Hunter shrieked, his voice tearing the night as his axe clattered to the ground. Branches snapped high above, swallowed by the dark.
They froze for a heartbeat, every head craned upward, the Hunter's voice cutting short into a gurgle. Then silence. Just the sound of claws scraping bark, something feeding.
“By Ignisara's bloody teeth—RUN!” Gaur bellowed, voice like a whipcrack.
The group scattered forward in a rush, crashing through the underbrush, breathless and desperate. Devvyn picked up his heels and ran, breath tearing ragged from his throat. The whistle throbbed colder still against Devvyn's chest, its warning a steady drumbeat that kept him moving, even as his legs begged to fail.
His axe banged against his side with every desperate stride. He kept his eyes fixed ahead until the air behind him split open with a shriek.
A blur of white bone and black hide crashed down in front of him. One of the Hunters screamed but only for a heartbeat before the Stalker's claws snatched him off his feet, jerking him skyward into the trees. Blood sprayed across the leaves as the Hunter vanished into the dark canopy.
Devvyn skidded to a halt, mud spraying under his boots. His chest heaved, eyes darting, panic cutting through him like knives. No, no, no. He spun and bolted left, his legs moving before his brain could catch up.
“Wrong way, you idiot!” Victor's voice ripped through the dark. Heavy footsteps pounded close behind. Victor had seen him break off and followed. A strong hand shoved between Devvyn's shoulder blades, forcing him forward again. “This way!”
Together they stumbled and tore through the trees, the ground falling unevenly beneath them. Branches lashed their faces, ripped at their uniforms. The forest ended, almost too suddenly. They burst out into the clearing above the basin, chests heaving, lungs burning.
Only the two of them.
Crashing, snapping, and guttural roars rolled out of the treeline. Gaur exploded from the shadows, dragging Wills by the arm, Erkah staggering at his side. And behind them came three Remnants.
The mawfiend burst through first. Each footfall shook the ground, the beast barreling like a living avalanche, its dozens of blinking eyes locking onto them with ravenous hunger. Spittle hissed from its maw, sizzling on the grass.
Two more shadows streaked after it—Stalkers. They ran low and long, their elongated limbs scissoring through the earth with bone-snapping speed. Spines jutted out along their backs, white and sharp as knives, and their glowing eyes glinted between the trees as they darted forward with unnatural precision, their movements more like spiders than beasts.
“TO THE TRUCKS! MOVE!” Gaur bellowed, his voice cutting above the chaos.
Devvyn didn't need telling twice. He and Victor sprinted forward, boots thundering down the slope. They'd come out of another end of the forest, far off from where they packed the trucks. Victor halted, turned back, opened his lighter and threw out both hands, and the earth itself seemed to catch fire.
A blazing ring of flame erupted in a circle between them and the charging Remnants. The mawfiend screeched, halting just shy of the fire, its body lurching with furious hunger. The Stalkers skittered and hissed, pacing along the edge of the flame, their eyes glowing like coals as they tested the barrier.
“Go, go!” Victor's face was twisted with strain, sweat pouring down as he forced the fire higher.
The blaze roared, holding the monsters back long enough for Gaur, Wills, and Erkah to reach them. Together, they all sprinted for the trucks.
