My hand, holding the flame-touched stone, grips the groove in the door as I shake off all thoughts of fleeing. I am a warrior, proud and sure hearted, I will not flee in the face of the unknown.

It is better to die on one's feet than to live eternally on your knees.

As I touch the cool stone though I feel the twinges of pain from my scrapes and pause, reality forcing me to take a moment to reassess this decision. Clearly my skills as a warrior are not what they were or I would not have fallen and harmed myself as I did. Unwarranted pride can only lead to misfortune and death. How many young geniuses die from this great enemy?

With a deep sigh I lower my hand, taking a moment to consider my options and go over my plans once more. What can I do that I have not yet done to improve my chances?

Immediately I look down at the little light in my palm, shining gaily in the gloom and feeling somehow precious. Initially I thought such a thing would be a boon, allowing me to see my foes. But when I reconsider perhaps that is just my mind seeking comfort at the cost of danger? Perhaps I should truly dim this for now so that my exit doesn’t flare for those outside? They may miss a doorway opening but if it is as dark out there as it is in here then this light will draw eyes like nothing else I could possibly do.

I run my thumb over it trying to figure out how to turn off its luster. I am wary of succeeding too well though, concerned that if I am not careful I may turn it off in a more permanent way than I might wish. I shake this thought from my mind though, there are other unlit stones I can replace this with if so, and I shouldn’t make problems for myself when I have enough already.

[Slumber]

After intoning what seems appropriate I wait, hoping that would do something to quiet the light, but nothing happens. Clearly there is more to it than mere words.

Thinking back to that spark I try to feel for the same energy within the stone and myself, and after a moment I faintly feel it. It is different, harsher than what left me and somehow… foreign. But I can clearly feel the power within the flame.

I try to quench it, in the same way I pushed energy in before, but feel resistance. The flame may have been lit by me, but clearly it is sustained by the stone itself. Like a spark from flint used to start an inferno, it will take more than another spark to contain the blaze since it has had time to feed and grow.

Like instinct I try to simply draw the light out instead of simply ending it and feel it flow back into me, with some effort. I can feel it wants to but it requires something, a trigger of some kind. Once again I speak…

[Consume]

Immediately it has effect and I wince, the flame within flowing into me with a heat that had been lacking from the stone itself. It enters my veins through the hand I am using to hold it, flowing through my body like itchy scalding water and making me feel very uncomfortable.

I open my eyes as the pain settles and begins to recede, realising the light from my palm has faded only the light on the wall remains. I consider quenching that one as well, but the memory of pain and the dimness of its glow make me decide not to. I am not afraid of pain when needed, but I am no masochist to suffer without good reason.

Turning to the door, pitch dark now with only the tiny light on the other side of the room to illuminate, I grip the groove and push.

I feel movement, but it is a minor thing. This door is clearly heavy, little more than a giant stone placed in the way. I push on it more and feel it shift slightly before settling back where it was.

Continuing to push for a moment with no results I pant, then stop, shaking the ache from my hands and arms and loosening up my body for a second attempt.

This time I approach the door in the center, pushing directly outward. It is clearly the right move, the door shifting noticeably as I push. It shifts outward a few inches, then a foot. Light pours in from above then, almost startling me enough to stop, but then momentum takes its course and the doorway falls outward and down to the ground.

BOOOOOOM!

The massive stone door falls to the ground with a thump, erasing any benefits of stealth I may have considered.

I squint as the noonday light suddenly fills my vision, nearly blinding after the dim illumination inside the sealed room.

A crisp and cool wind blows past me as it flows into the formerly sealed room, smelling of trees and nature as well as the musky scent of animals and murkiness of recent rain.

Looking around as my eyes adjust I see a clearing outside the fallen doorway, perhaps fifty feet long and thirty wide, full of undisturbed wild grasses and flowers. Trees fill the edges of the clearing with no roads or paths obvious among them.

But those things can be studied more later. More immediately noteworthy is that I am not alone.

Startled by the falling door and staring toward me in wary alertness are three strange creatures. Quadrupedal and lizard like, the creatures are covered in a shell made from interwoven plates, each surprisingly uniform in size and shape as they form a long bowl shape on their backs. Their snouts out front are long and mouths full of a near random assortment of teeth, most of them very visible as they snarl at me in their startled anger. Their claws are small and harmless looking, clearly used more against bugs and dirt than as weapons.

Wary, I try to decide if there is something I can do to avoid a fight with these creatures. That armor looks problematic to deal with, and even without it they are each about the size of my waist even on all fours, giving them a massive advantage in mass and power.

Before I can run or even retreat backward further into the room the frontmost creature, which appears to be the alpha of the small group, decides I am clearly a threat to it and its territory and charges toward me.

Rather than just running though it does something strange, falling forward and rolling itself into a kind of wheel, showing the use of those uniform plates as it bites its own tail and begins to spin toward me at ever increasing speed! It starts about thirty meters from me, and after about ten its speed begins to tear up the grass, the friction of its movement too much for the sod and grass to deal with!

My choices are simple. Step back into the room or step out and battle it in the open.

It is an easy decision though. The doorway isn’t wide enough for me to fight freely while providing more than enough room for the creature to charge through. Staying here, or going back inside, would be to trap myself and force a direct confrontation with the creature. One that I am dead certain I could not win.

If I can not retreat, and I can not fall back then…

I step forward, falling into the same combat stance as before. My left hand raises, forming a blade as my body turns slightly to the right with left leg extended to provide a smaller profile.

Several steps toward the approaching creature allow my posture to reform, power to flow in and instinct to take over. However I underestimated the speed of the creature and when it gets close I can do but perform a series of complicated steps to avoid it.

As I do I take a closer look, noting that the plates do not connect perfectly, leaving a gap at the side of perhaps a foot in diameter, through which the creatures eyes and head could be seen, allowing it to see where it is going. I can also see its belly, condensed as it is by its position it still looks far softer with its thick fur than the thick metal-like plates of its back.

With surprising control, the creature does not do as I expected and crash into the wall, instead tilting on its side slightly and turning a graceful U-turn right before entering the Room before rushing away about twenty meters back to where it started.

Still in wheel form it growls at me, rolling forward and back threateningly as it tries to break my nerve or make me flee. I don’t though, having seen its speed I know there would be no worse decisions. It can easily catch me, and it would roll me flat. I wouldn’t stand a chance against such ability, not as I am.

A minute passes, then another, and I just continue to wait. There is no point in me attacking it, doing so would draw me closer to the other Armordillos, as I decide to name them, which could trigger them to attack along with my current foe. I believe I stand a chance against one but multiple would be a challenge I do not currently have the capacity to deal with.

Eventually its nerve snaps and it spins at me again, it's furious charge once again tearing entire clumps of weeds from the ground as it skids toward me at phenomenal rate! I stand there with seeming nonchalance, my plan decided already when I noticed the gap. All I need is to show the same skill I had when inside, along with the willpower not to panic when faced with several hundred pounds of metal and speed hurling at me at speed.

I wait as it gets closer. And closer… I tense up as it is just a few meters ahead then… I side step with complicated skill, putting me just beside it as it passes!

With a familiar movement I of my body twisting, I turn myself to the left as my right leg rises facilitating a perfect stab across my torso, one that really does come at a difficult to avoid angle. In my palm is the stone, which smashes into the gap as if it were made for it, striking the creature directly in the head!

Stunned by the powerful blow it flinches, releasing its tail from its mouth and uncurling as it seeks to avoid the damage. It fails though, its speed and error enough to turn it and put it into a now entirely unintentional roll on its side, spinning and landing hard on its softer underbelly and head before bouncing off the fallen door and hitting the rock face to its side with enough remaining velocity to cause serious damage.

As it lies there dazed I turn to look at the other two creatures, prepared for them to join in, both of whom have lost their nerve and have taken this chance to flee, turning into balls as they roll into the trees on the opposite side of the clearing. It is clear I am now seen as ‘threat’ instead of ‘prey’ and they want nothing to do with me. They have seemingly no loyalty toward the fallen creature, leaving him to his fate as he would surely have left them to theirs.

Movement behind me causes me to turn and remember that the first creature is not dead yet, merely dazed. Not wanting to give it the chance to recover I move over to it swiftly, using one foot to roll it fully onto its shell like back to expose its furred belly and head.

I lift a foot then and with no hesitation I stomp down on its head with all my weight and might. It squeals at the injury and attempts to roll to the side to avoid further blows so I kick again, striking it on to its back once more. I then kick again. And again. It takes a dozen such kicks before the creature finally ceases its struggles, as I pant with the exertion of it. I am relieved when its breath fades, the light leaves its eyes and it passes away.

I finally allow the stress to affect me and grow pale, the weakness in me catching up now that adrenaline is gone. I fall to my ass beside the creature, almost hyperventilating as my vision goes briefly black.

That was too dangerous. The creature was clearly stronger and faster than me, and if my side step had been even slightly mis-timed this creature would have utterly destroyed me in a single charge.

I must get stronger, much stronger, if I intend to survive this place…

Turning to the creature, I decide that I shouldn’t let this corpse go to waste.