"You’re not listening!" the escort bellowed, voice crackling with strain and fury. "These are Platinum-Ranked Darcbeasts! They are too powerful for you or your mechbeasts. If you want to live, you must get back to the Rift opening now!"
Instinctively, everyone turned to Songred, waiting for his say on the matter. As the captain, it was his decision that mattered most in situations .
But Songred was quiet; his head was low, and his face was full of profound distress as he thought silently.
"What are you thinking about?" Moffrey said. "We can’t just abandon him here."
"You’ll die if you don’t!" The escort retorted and spun around just in time to meet the Blight-Tusk Howler’s renewed charge.
Both his hands shot out, molten fingers sinking into the thick hide around the beast’s skull as he strained to halt its spearing momentum.
—Only for the beast to recover and toss him into a pillar. Mid-flight, the escort rolled and punched outwards. His magma-wreathed fist slammed into the pillar, shattering a chunk of it before he hit the ground hard, rolling to his feet with a grunt of pain.
"Go now!" he yelled at them. "I’ll hold them off till backup arrives."
Before anyone could form a rebuttal or even move, the cathedral wall exploded inward with a thunderous KRAKOOOM!
Shards of stone rained down as they threw up their arms, ducking behind cover or diving to the ground, shielding their heads and faces. Then, when they peeked through their arms and into the settling dust, they saw predatory amber eyes glaring back.
A new Darcbeast announced itself with a roar. From the dust, it slithered out; A serpent-like creature with obsidian scales, each the size of a dinner plate, oscillating over its massive body. It possessed a crown of bony spines, and one its end was a tail tipped with a barbed stinger that shattered a pillar as it moved.
A collective wave of horror washed over the squad. Jethro, in particular, was dread-filled.
"What Darcbeast is that?" Moffrey asked Padva, who was staring with furrowed brows.
"A Spireback Serpent," she muttered with difficulty. "They’re... almost Black Ranks."
The Serpent’s massive head swayed hypnotically as it rose hissed, then it hissed, its jaws unhinging to reveal rows of needle-like teeth.
The team was utterly frozen, trapped between the three Platinum-Ranked Beasts and this new horror. Even if they wanted to run and return back to the Rift opening, they would have to get through the Spireback Serpent.
The Serpent lunged with viper speed, its stinger aimed at Mory. She screamed, her Sunspire’s vines forming a fragile shield to block the pincer. Anson’s Lynx pounced, biting the serpent’s tail, but it whipped back, flinging the mechbeast into a wall.
Moffrey scrambled around the beast as he fired his aether gun, the blasts glancing off the Serpent’s scales. Padva nocked an explosive arrow. Her Panther teleported her to a better vantage point, but the Vulturefiend swooped, forcing her to abandon her shot and throw herself into a desperate roll.
Distracted by the aerial threat, she failed to see the Serpent’s tail coil and lashed out. It struck her across the ribs with the force of a battering ram, sending her crashing into a pile of mould with a cry of pain.
Jethro ducked deeper behind a boulder, heart pounding in his chest while his Gutterling squeaked in panic. He kept telling himself that he wasn’t a fighter— not like the others. His role was support, and he only needed to use the gloves if his own life was in danger.
That being said, he had to get back to his role. Padva and others had fallen. Lizard squeaked, begging him not to go again. Jethro took it out of his pocket and hid it behind a cluster of smaller rocks.
"If you’re so scared then wait here. Okay?"
The gutterling nodded its head— though this time, it was clearly in protest of Jethro’s terms.
But Jethro didn’t have time to argue. He darted out of the cover and hurried to action once again; dragging Moffrey’s Cobra to safety, then Anson’s Lynx. His heart raced, but he kept moving, keeping low as the Serpent’s tail smashed the ground nearby.
Heaving for breath, he turned his head towards where Padva had fallen. A rush of relief washed over him as he saw her already pushing herself to her feet.
However, there was a problem he noticed instantly.
High above, the Vulturefiend had her locked in its sights and she was struggling with regaining herself. It folded its scythe-wings and plummeted like a feathered missile, its talons aimed unerringly for her chests. Jethro’s eyes searched for her mechbeast and saw that the Panther was pinned by a fallen rock, unable to teleport.
No thought went through his head, only an understanding that the Vulture was going for a deathblow on Padva. He sprinted towards her with adrenaline, a raw shout tearing from his throat.
His Gutterling, terrified to leave his side, ran after him, tiny compared to the other beasts in the fray.
The Vulturefiend spotted the interference and lashed out its tendrils, but Jethro dove, rolling under them. He found his feet just in time and tackled Padva, shoving her behind a pillar.
The Vulture’s descending talon caught his upper arm as he pulled her down, tearing through his sleeve and grazing his skin. But he managed to pull her down, shielding her with his body as the beast’s wings sliced the air.
His Gutterling scurried through the ground, squealing with fear as it jumped and sunk itself right into his pocket. FWOMP! And disappeared out of sight.
Padva, groaning, opened her eyes to see Jethro sprawled protectively on top of her. His face flushed crimson as he caught the full look of hers.
Realizing how close they were to each other, he scrambled off her instantly. He found his feet awkwardly before clearing his throat and offering her his hand.
Padva accepted his hand, wincing as she got up. After dusting herself she said, "Thank you."
Though her face was utterly bland when the words came out.
But then again— BLAST!
The ground nearby erupted violently. From the shower of earth and rock emerged not one, but two new Darcbeasts.
The first was a Demonflame Hyena, twice the size of any natural hyena with matter fur covered in unnatural, purple flames. The second was a grotesque fusion: the enormous, hairy body of a giant spider, crowned with the broad, antlered head of a moose— a Horned Widow.
The escort, bloodied and battered but still radiating defiance, turned to see the arrival of the two new beasts. At the sight of them, all that defiance flushed away and his face darkened with the painful realization that there was no escaping this place.
Those two beasts, they were...
Terror filled him, and it filled every member of the squad who had realized the same thing.
"We’re in the most dangerous zone in Darcworld," the escort muttered, magma and blood dripping from his hands. "The Darc Throne Depths."
Then, a blur of green fog struck. The Howler, forgotten in the chaos, impaled the escort’s back with its remaining tusk. The sound was terrible, sickening as bodily organs were stabbed through.
"Ughh!" He cried in agony as he was lifted, feet dangling uselessly. His Liongolem roared, lunging at the Howler, but the Spireback Serpent wrapped its body around the flaming mechbeast, squeezing tight as it held it back.
Just like everyone else, Songred watched helplessly, fearfully and hopelessly. Though his face was paler than everyone else; his eyes were wider.
The terror that had been building within him had shattered his carefully constructed coldness sometime ago. Suddenly, he let out a sob-filled scream, turned and bolted, sprinting down the lane they had come from.
"I’m out!" he cried. "I can’t do this!"
Everyone turned as one, stunned by their captain’s desertion. Moffrey yelled after him. "Captain! What are you doing?"
"I’m leaving!" Songred screamed back, not slowing down, his Direwolf limping frantically after him. "You all can stay back if you want, but I’m getting out! I’m not going to die in this pla—"
SLAAASSHHH! VRRSSSSKKK!
A sudden, absolute silence descended, heavier than ever before, followed by the stunned, horrified gasps of the remaining squad members.
The boy had just been dissected into two neat halves.