The great slashing filaments of metal flew forth, right at her sides and neck. Scorio felt the blood drain from his face, his stomach clench and knot, was about to cry out, when the blades slammed into Lianshi and knocked her to the side.
Leaving not a mark.
Terrified, she scrambled to her feet and rushed past the sixth set of blades as they burst out to slam into her again, knocking her away but again failing to cut her skin. With a cry, she collapsed beside Leonis, who immediately helped her rise.
“Nice power,” said the massive man as Scorio felt his panic subside.
“Thanks,” said Lianshi shakily. She rose, clawed her hair away from her face, then stared morosely at the dark incisions in the walls. “I hate this room.”
Naomi’s eyes narrowed. “You partial to the others?”
“You know what I mean,” said Lianshi irritably. “You ready, Scorio?”
“Yes. Here I come.” A deep breath. He held it, his heart pounding like a fist upon a skintight drum, and then exhaled. With a flex of his will, he ignited his Heart, felt his vitality and strength increase immeasurably, and then summoned his power. Black scales flowed over his arms, across his shoulders, and his form changed further, growing leaner, taller, more graceful and lethal.
For a second, he considered shredding the emerging blades with his white-tipped claws, but then discarded the idea.
Clutching his wounded arm to his chest he crouched, focused himself, and then ran forth.
The first set of blades flickered out, but he saw them coming, swayed aside, and raised his left leg so his foot wouldn’t be shorn off. The second forced him into a diving roll, and he came up at full speed, mostly in control, to hurl himself through the third, twisting to the side again as he leaped high, the blades whispering out in a crosscut beneath him.
He landed heavily, his balance made ungainly by his wounded arm, and lurched through the fourth. Not enough control; he saw the blades scything forth, but didn’t have the balance to evade them. With a cry of rage, he slammed his claws down and into the slender wires, mangling them and causing a great screech and shower of sparks to emerge from the incisions as he bent and crushed them out of shape.
To stand there, gasping, and stare at the ruined trap.
“That’s one way to do it,” said Leonis matter-of-factly.
“How did he move that fast?” Scorio heard Lianshi whisper.
“Stay focused.” Naomi was clearly unimpressed. “Two more to go. Gather yourself.”
Nodding, Scorio turned to the remaining traps. A deep breath. His Heart was about to gutter out. A crouch, then he burst forth again. Evaded the fourth set, ducking low, then threw himself into a dive that carried him between two horizontal slashes to come up in a roll next to his friends, turn, and slam his back against the far wall.
“Yes!” Leonis pumped his fist into the air. “Third room down, with only one wound dealt to the lumbering idiot.”
“You did amazingly well,” said Lianshi, bending down to scrutinize his wound. “Don’t denigrate yourself.”
“Everyone remember the plan for the next room?” asked Naomi, turning toward the door.
“Stay alive?” asked Scorio, catching his breath and straightening up. Once more he set to filling his Heart, and he could vaguely sense the others doing the same.
“That, yes,” said Naomi. “There was more to it, however.”
Lianshi squared up to the door. “I’m ready.”
“On my mark,” said Scorio, moving up beside Naomi who shifted back into her Nightmare Lady form. Leonis and Lianshi took the lead. “One. Two… three!”
The four of them broke into a run, bolting toward the door and pouring themselves into it to emerge in the far chamber. Scorio ignited his Heart as he burst through, felt the speed and strength pour into him, and redoubled his efforts.
He caught a flash of the porous gray walls, as if carved through the heart of a mass of ashen coral. The smooth wooden floor. Recessed lights in the ceiling above, providing ambient illumination.
The four of them sprinted forward, two abreast, and immediately the corridor began to slope downward, doing so far faster than it had with Scorio’s original wounded crawl. In a flash, they’d reached the midpoint, and the hallway tilted up to a forty-five-degree angle.
None of them slowed; Emberling power fueled their limbs, charged their bodies with burning might. They powered up the growing slope as the far edge rose the curving wall toward the distant door.
But the slope grew precipitous almost immediately; the sheer violence of its rising nearly pressed Scorio down upon its gleaming surface through centrifugal force. Leonis let out a cry of alarm as his feet went out from under him, and a second later Lianshi fell to all fours.
Immediately Scorio shifted into his scaled form and slammed his burning claws into the wooden floor. The Nightmare Lady did the same, further anchoring herself with her bladed tail. Lianshi slid down, trying to arrest her fall, feet connecting with Scorio’s scaled shoulders; Leonis did the same, a little less adroitly.
No encouragement needed to be yelled. Both of them gathered themselves then leaped off their companions, a final, desperate lunge for the door that had appeared above them as the floor swung up to meet its lower edge.
Scorio braced against Lianshi’s jump, but the pressure was slight; a second later he was climbing up, sinking his talons into the ground as he hauled himself up the near-vertical surface, the Nightmare Lady skittering up past him, the sharp nails of her feet digging in with equal efficacy as her talons, and together they hauled themselves through the black doorway, and into the next chamber.
Chapter 72
Scorio crawled out through the iron wall to collapse upon massive flagstones of dark stone. For a moment he simply lay there, gasping for breath, but then he heaved himself upright with his good hand, immediately sweeping Coal into his Heart once more as his scales retreated under his skin and the translucent flames guttered out.
They’d entered a large hexagonal chamber, the walls adorned with ancient carvings depicting garlands, heroic figures doing battle against fiends, all of it worn and eroded by the passage of time.
In the center of the room, their foe stood on all fours, a beast as large as a cart, horned and bristle maned. Its head was vaguely porcine, its snout flanked on each side by three tusks that swept down from the edge of its jawline.
Gasping, catching his breath, Scorio rose to his feet. The beast was studying them, a dim intelligence in its rheumy eyes. It was repulsive. Its face glistened, its skin swollen as if it had been basted in honey and recently pulled from an oven. Its forelegs looked more like arms, hugely muscled but dwarfed by the prodigious shoulders and massively deep chest.
It sneezed, gave its huge head a vicious shake, and then clawed at the ground, scoring deep grooves in the hexagonal stones.
Nightmare Lady was up, sweeping out wide, tail lashing behind her. Leonis summoned Nezzar from the air and moved to take the center, swinging the club about him as he moved so that it warped the air and made it moan.
This was the beast that killed Jova the first time round. How had she gotten this far as a Char?
Scorio inhaled deeply and focused on drawing more mana into his Heart. Steeled himself against the constant frustration that came from watching more than half of everything he drew upon vent itself from the cracks.
With a violent squeal, the boar fiend flung itself forward, its prodigious strength such that it didn’t run so much as spring forward, again and again, each leap covering ten feet at a bound.
Come on, come on! Scorio swept ever more Coal into his reservoir, cursing its depth and stubborn refusal to ignite.
Lianshi let out a cry and sprinted past Leonis, right at the incoming boar. The move was so counterintuitive, the sight of her rangy form so absurd compared to the horrific bulk of the fiend, that Scorio let out a cry of alarm, started to run forward. But then she stopped, crossed her arms before her face, and turned away.