CHAPTER 23: "THE SLAUGHTER"

His entire body was trembling.

Not from cold. From shock. From the complete and utter impossibility of what he was watching.

Will and the Marble locked in combat.

The creature was moving like it was made of lightning. Its claws came at Will from six different angles simultaneously. Swords met claws—orange sparks exploding, shattering stone, illuminating the cavern in brief moments of blinding light.

Will moved like he was dancing. His blades intercepted attacks that should have been impossible to block. His feet repositioned him constantly, denying the creature the solid target it needed.

But behind them—

ARLEN was still impaled.

His body was pinned to the stone outcropping, the creature's tail still embedded through his side. He was trying to crawl, trying to move, but the wound was catastrophic. Blood pooled beneath him.

"I... I can still..." Arlen was gasping, his hand reaching toward his bow, trying to draw one more arrow even though moving was clearly causing agony. "I can still..."

His hand dropped.

His breathing became shallow.

Then stopped.

One more body.

Speed wanted to scream but couldn't. His throat was closed. His lungs weren't working. He was trapped in that state between breathing and drowning, suspended in absolute horror.

Keal was somewhere under all those rocks.

Speed couldn't see him anymore. The massive stones covered him completely. There might be a hand visible, or might just be rubble. Speed couldn't tell. Didn't want to look close enough to confirm.

The creature's tail whipped around again—not at Will, but at the cavern wall.

It cracked stone like it was paper.

Will was bleeding now. Multiple wounds. His shoulder, his arm, his ribs—the creature was getting faster, or Will was getting slower, or both. The demonic blade was glowing brighter, drawing more power from somewhere deep, but even with both swords and heterochromatic eyes, Will was struggling to keep up.

The creature's claw came down.

Will blocked.

The creature's second claw came down.

Will blocked again.

The creature's third claw—

It connected.

SHING.

The blade deflected it, but barely. The claw raked across Will's armor, leaving a deep gash that suggested only the angle saved his life.

Will stumbled backward.

His foot slipped on blood.

Rudo's blood, maybe. Or his own.

For just a moment—one critical, terrible moment—Will was vulnerable.

The creature's eyes locked on that moment of weakness.

All of them. Every single one of the creature's dozen eyes focused on the one opening in Will's defense.

The Marble pulled back.

Gathered power.

Its claws came up.

Aimed right at Will's back.

The killing blow.

SPEED (behind the rock, eyes unfocused):

He was in denial.

This wasn't real. It couldn't be real. People didn't just die like this. Not Rudo. Not Vex. Not Arlen. They were warriors. They were trained. They were supposed to survive things like this.

But Rudo was dead.

Vex was in pieces.

Arlen was impaled.

Keal was crushed.

And Will was about to be killed, and Speed was going to have to watch it happen, and then the creature was going to come for him, and he was going to die in this cavern with these bodies, and nobody on Earth would ever know what happened to him.

He was going to disappear. Just cease to exist.

His phone would die. The last charge would drain away, and there would be no way to contact anyone. No way to let his family know. Just... gone.

Speed closed his eyes.

He heard Ronaldo's voice—faint, distant, like it was coming from underwater.

"Can you hear them? The voices?"

And he heard Will's voice, from memory, from the beach:

"If you want to live... come with me."

Speed's eyes snapped open.

His heart rate accelerated. His pupils dilated.

Everything seemed to slow down.

Not actually slow down. Just become clearer. More focused. Like his entire body was hyperaware, like his nervous system was running at a frequency that was slightly out of sync with reality.

His forearm burned.

The mark. The sigil. The thing he'd noticed that morning and hadn't understood.

It flared.

RED turned to GOLD.

The light was blinding.

Speed's vision went white for just a moment.

Then it cleared.

And everything was different.

He could see every detail of the cavern. Every stone. Every shadow. Every moment of Will's final vulnerability playing out in slow motion in front of him.

Speed didn't think. Didn't question. Didn't hesitate.

He BOLTED FORWARD.

His legs moved faster than they'd ever moved before.

Faster than a nineteen-year-old boy should be able to move.

Faster than possible.

He left golden afterimages in the air behind him.

The world was still in slow motion. Will was still stumbling. The creature's claws were still descending. Time was still moving at normal speed except for Speed, who was moving at something else entirely.

Speed crashed into Will.

Both of them went sliding across the cavern floor, Speed's hands gripping the captain's armor, pushing with every ounce of strength he had.

The creature's claws came down.

Three of them raked across Speed's back, leaving deep, bleeding wounds that would haunt him for the rest of his life.

Another one caught his arm, tearing through skin and muscle.

But Speed and Will were moving. Moving away from where the killing blow would have landed. Moving just enough to survive.

Time sped back up.

Speed gasped, suddenly aware of pain, suddenly aware of the world moving at normal speed again, suddenly aware that he was bleeding and that hurt and that he should have been dead.

Will stared at him in absolute shock.

For one moment—just one—Will's cold, calculated expression faltered.

WILL (standing, breathing hard, his heterochromatic eyes blazing): "Then run faster next time."

Speed collapsed, gasping, his wounds burning.

He'd saved Will.

He'd moved faster than should have been possible.

He'd done something.

And it had almost gotten him killed.

Will turned back to the creature.

Both his katanas raised.

The red and blue aura mixing into CRIMSON BLACK SMOKE.

The air distorted around him.

WILL (voice deep, lethal): "I'm ending this."

And Will moved.

Not fast like Speed. Different fast. Will's speed was calculated, precise, a master's speed. Will's speed was a katana that had been sharpened for years, finally being used for what it was designed for.

The creature tried to turn—

But Speed had bought them just enough time.

Just enough for Will to get in range.

Just enough for the killing blow to connect.