Defeat only applies to those that stop fighting.

~Lugh, God of Battle and Craft

A waterfall of sand cascaded down from the sky onto the fountain in the center of the city. Structures filled the entire landscape, but all were in various stages of disrepair. Because of the amount of sand blowing about and how ancient the place was, the avenues were only noticeable because they were clear of debris.

Boom!

The gate shut after Crow stepped in, and he was pretty sure the wall behind him encircled the city even if he couldn’t see that far. Not sure what to do, he headed for the fountain in the center of the city. Sand continued to fall into the fountain’s basin. It was there that Crow spotted a placard.

Somewhere in this city is a clockwork door—your way out. Not tricks or gimmicks. The door exists… you just have to find it.

“Pfft, like I’d fucking believe that!” Crow shouted. “Go on, send out the monsters.”

There was an awkward silence, and even the falling sand seemed to slow down. It was so noticeable that Crow felt it and laughed. Despite all that, he knew he wouldn’t like what was going to happen next.

Tik-tik-tik.

The sound wasn’t noticeable at first, but then he saw the black objects falling down with the sand. One wiggled free and landed near Crow’s feet. It was a clockwork scorpion, and the ticking sound was its tail as it swung back and forth like the pendulum of a clock. The thing’s body wasn’t any bigger than his fist, but that barbed tail had a sickly yellow glow. Not one to hesitate, he crushed it under his boot. The tiny cogs and springs broke through, and it left a yellow grease stain.

He crouched down to inspect it in more detail, but shortly after, he saw more of the things climbing to the edge of the fountain’s basin. All of them were pointed toward him and their tails swaying back and forth.

As he watched, the basin had nearly filled to the brim with sand, and it writhed full of those little clockwork creatures. There were now dozens of the things looking toward him, but he couldn’t make sense of why they didn’t attack. Standing up, he felt the sand crunch underfoot, and then there was silence. The ticking sound stopped, and every barbed stinger was pointed at him.

“Shit.” Crow turned and ran while the clockwork scorpions swarmed after him like a tide. Not even hesitating, he activated both his Ghostly Aura and Ghost Steps, and he practically glided down the streets without disturbing a single grain of sand. The only downside was he barely had any time to peek inside each building to see if he could find this supposed door.

After thirty minutes of fruitless searching and being chased, he remembered he could do something those scorpions couldn’t. Running right at the wall of the building in front of him, he closed his eyes when he phased through it. He tumbled over some broken furniture, and while he was getting up, he could hear the little bastards smashing against the wall. Looking around, he ran toward the next wall and did the same.

Three times in a row was his current limit. So he started pacing himself so that he could regenerate enough mana to escape if needed. An hour later, he hadn’t seen any scorpions since he passed through the walls but didn’t go looking for them either. He used the falling sand to help guide him in his search.

Provided the Clocktower didn’t cheat, he felt this challenge wasn’t so hard. Not that he’d say that out loud.

“You paying attention?” Crow asked inwardly.

*I am, but I don’t have your memory. Nin fell asleep again.* Lily told him.

If Nin wasn’t a dragon, Crow would worry about how much that girl sleeps. Regardless, Lily worked just as well as Nin.

“Be my second set of eyes. This doesn’t feel like the previous challenges.”

*It is more like a training course. I’m going to guess this is a challenge for your Ghosting technique.*

Crow stopped and slowed his sliding momentum by placing his hand against a wall. “You little genius!”

Parts of the wall crumbled and fell. The moment those pieces of stone hit the ground, the sand all around Crow burst open, and scorpions flooded out. He reacted quickly but saw that the little clockworks all struck the stone and not him. So he ghosted through a nearby wall and left the area immediately.

*What happened?*

“It is the sand. Those buggers didn’t disappear. They just went below ground, waiting for someone to disturb the sand before they blindly strike.”

*How do you know it’s the sand?* Lily was diligently doing her job and asking so she could fill him in if things went wrong.

“I thought it might be the vibrations, but I’m pretty sure Ghost Steps doesn’t completely prevent my steps from creating vibrations. It just prevents me from disturbing the ground beneath my feet. So as long as I don’t disturb the sand more than a steady breeze, they won’t come. That’s partly conjecture. The main point is I need to maintain Ghost Steps at all times. Now, before they interrupted me, I believe you are right—the exit is probably inside a sealed room.”

At about the one-hour mark, the sand stopped falling. That meant the scorpions stopped falling too. While that should bring him a certain amount of joy, he could only feel a sense of dread. He moved to a spot where he could see the fountain and wished he hadn’t

His eyes grew so round that more white than color showed, and he broke out in a cold sweat, unable to move. Those tiny scorpions were swarming together and forming a larger structure that could be seen over the smaller houses. Crow watched in horror as those little things interlocked together and eventually realized it was creating the mother of all clockwork scorpions.

“Time’s up,” he muttered to Lily and then ran at top speed through the buildings. Phasing when he could, smashing through when he couldn’t. He had to find that door and fast.

Tick-tock. Tick-tock.

That thundering sound caused him to shudder.

The Mother Clockwork Scorpion’s tail was taller than all the buildings, and it swayed back and forth like its smaller version. It was that back and forth that caused the tick-tock sounds. As if the tail had eyes, it suddenly stopped and pointed right toward Crow.

“What the fuck!” He shouted and ghosted into a building and turned right.

BOOM!

The walls behind him exploded, and in their place, the barbed tail had drilled into the ground far enough that he could see the barbed end at all. Despite not having any mana left, he ghosted through the wall ahead of him, forgetting to pay attention to where he was at.

As the ghostly light disappeared, he stepped onto sand dunes and saw that he had somehow exited the city. That wasn’t the worst part. Since he was out of mana, his feet hit the sand, and it was like the entire world was coming to an end. Billions of scorpions rose up and—

Crow was staring at the Clocktower’s door.