" Amanda, jump, damn it!" Lucian yelled.
Amanda broke down into sobs, bawling her eyes out. She turned into a complete mess.
" I can’t, I really can’t swim!"
Cassius frowned, his eyes narrowing in contemplation.
" If I remember correctly, Amanda could fly. Or at least try to."
During the Chrono evaluation, when Amanda activated her ability, she had levitated for a while.
It was a strange thing to see the proud, Talented girl break down into tears over something so mundane.
" Fly over, why don’t you use your ability?!" Cassius shouted.
" She can’t, for some reason, she can only use her lightning," Talia replied.
" I met her a while back, and we discovered she couldn’t use the full extent of her abilities here. And it doesn’t work on that thing."
Cassius gritted his teeth in frustration.
Lucian glanced at the grotesque spider that was quickly making its way towards them.
The dark creature was swiftly closing the remaining distance.
The gargantuan spider had eight inky black legs covered in thick fur.
Each of its legs was as tall as a fully grown adult man, scuttling grotesquely across the sand.
Its black, beady eyes gleamed with intelligence, its massive pincers clacking together threateningly in seeming anticipation of its meal.
" Shit! What am I even doing?!" Lucian inwardly thought.
" We should be heading for the safety of the burrow."
He quickly turned toward the frightened Talented.
" Amanda, listen to me, jump into the river. I’m going to get you. We’ll pull you across just like we did with Talia."
Amanda looked at him, fear and desperation clouding her eyes.
Then her red irises glazed over.
Cassius quickly recognized what was happening.
" Is she in a trance? Right now, of all times?" Cassius exclaimed in shock.
Talia turned to Cassius with a puzzled look on her face.
" A trance? What do you mean?"
" There’s no time to explain fully, but all you need to know is that some of the Talented can have visions of the future. That’s what’s happening."
Amanda shivered, her eyes regaining clarity.
Her mouth opened in shock.
" I’ve seen it, I’m going to die!"
Lucian dove into the water, then appeared after a while, swimming against the current.
" Jump," he gasped," I’ll catch you. I promise I will. I know it’s hard, but you need to trust me."
Amanda stared at him in disbelief.
"Are you sure?" she asked, her voice trembling slightly.
Lucian nodded confidently.
" Close your eyes and jump, then leave the rest to me."
Amanda took a few steps back, then closed her eyes.
She looked like a child listening to an adult.
Then she blindly ran and leapt into the air.
Then horrifically, at the same time, the spider jumped.
Cassius’ eyes’ widened in horror
" She’s not going to make it!"
Then everything happened fast.
Cassius threw them the hide. Then ran forward.
Talia deftly grabbed the hide.
Samantha’s eyes widened in realization.
" This maniacal fool! Quick, pass me the rope."
The spider’s pincers opened wide, large globs of drool dripping out of its inferno maw.
Then a large furred beast barreled into it, slamming into its body midair.
The sinister pincers caught nothing, clacking frantically in the air.
Amanda landed in the water with a shrill scream, struggling violently.
Lucian quickly grabbed her.
" I’ve got you! I’ve got you, stop struggling." Amanda struggled hysterically, throwing herself on him.
They quickly sank below the surface of the river.
" Is everyone running mad?" Samantha whispered in disbelief.
First, Lucian jumped into the river, then Cassius threw himself at that horrific monster.
And now both of them were in dire straits.
Talia looked grimly ahead.
Beneath the dark waters, Lucian clung to Amanda’s wrist with an iron grip despite her wildly flailing limbs.
" Shit!" Lucian’s eyes hardened with determination.
" Stay calm, find the blade."
He assessed his watery surroundings for the silver blade tied to the hide. He strained his muscles, wrestling against the strong current to stay in place.
A silvery glint shimmered into sight in the distance.
He tugged Amanda close to himself, then swam against the current.
Her struggles had reduced considerably.
Lucian swam with powerful strokes, pushing his body to its limits.
" Just a little further."
Then he grabbed the makeshift rope.
The sudden tug snapped Talia out of her daze.
Samantha was the first one to react.
" Pull!" Samantha shrieked.
The two girls strained against the leathery cord, quickly pulling the duo out of the water.
Lucian crawled onto the muddy bank, dragging Amanda’s unconscious form behind him.
He lay on the ground, gasping for air.
He greedily breathed in lungfuls of air, doing his best to get up.
Amanda was unconscious.
A short distance away, Talia rhythmically compressed Amanda’s chest, administering CPR.
Talia grit her teeth, her brown eyes narrowing in concentration.
Samantha nervously hovered in the background, her attention shifting between Lucian, Amanda, and the furious clash unfolding on the other side of the river.
After a few moments, Amanda gasped and then coughed.
She spat out a mouthful of water, then violently retched on the sand.
She slowly sat up, her chest heaving up and down.
Lucian cast her a furtive glance, taking in her condition.
Just then, a cold, sickening feeling settled in his gut, and with it, a horrifying thought surfaced in Lucian’s mind.
In the adrenaline-filled process of getting out of the watery abyss alive, Lucian had forgotten about Cassius.
He remembered the Talented tackling the hairy monstrosity to the other side of the bank in his beastly form.
Lucian spun around, then his eyes widened in shock.
Cassius was fully transformed.
His beastly form towered over the sand, standing at an astounding seven feet.
His dreadlocks had lengthened into long fur that flowed sleekly down his back.
Long fangs jutted out of the sides of his mouth, and his face had elongated into a wolfish snout.
His hands ended in long, knifelike claws that glinted mesmerizingly in the sunlight.
Samantha and Talia were rendered speechless as well, while Amanda simply looked on in a daze.
On the other side of the river, Cassius was doing everything he could to stay alive.
His claws were ineffective against the giant monster, scraping uselessly off its hide.
" How am I supposed to kill this thing?"
He continued to desperately dodge the spider’s attacks, darting elusively around its humongous body.
His eyes surgically searched the creature’s body for weaknesses, openings he could capitalize on.
" It’s almost thing has no blind spots!"
The deadly dance continued with both monsters probing themselves, watching for the slightest mistake, the smallest hesitation.
And then in the blink of an eye, something in the cadence of the brutal dance changed. The most update n0vels are published on novel⟡fire.net
And when it did, the tempo shifted drastically.