I awoke in dimness, Kasp leaned over Fridolf with a weakening moonlight crystal in his hands. Both seemed unmoving, as if awaiting something, but then I saw that Kasp had his hands on Fridolf’s heart. He appeared solemn and sombre. His body language was unmistakably shook.

I sat up and Kasp noticed me.

“You’re awake? How unfortunately late. Fridolf passed away.”

I tried to find words, but Kasp was faster than I was.

“No need to speak any words. I knew him for years, you never even heard him speak.”

I held my peace, stood up and knelt next to Kasp.

Fridolf’s face was exhausted and pained. His death had not been peaceful. Sickness had ravaged him quickly. He held something clutched in his hand, a leather cord running out of it, apparently some kind of pendant. Kasp took it from him and stowed it in his pocket.

“Looks like I’m the last one left. At least we can now execute our plan, huh?” Kasp held back much sadness, not necessarily tears, but still enough to tell a story. He stood up. “Let’s wake the others. I do not wish to see my friend rot.”

The others agreed that time was of the essence. We made a few last preparations, one of them being to inter Fridolf under a pile of carefully chosen rubble that would leave the least gaps, then poured sand and dust over it all.

Sarita got into position to play the bait, I prepared the spell, reading from the booklet I had been given. The formulae were simple enough – the arcane glyphs that order the magic into spell are after all universal – only the syntax was oddly chosen, but still, I could make it work.

I gave the signal and Brad and Kasp kicked the sack of rubble off the scaffolding. It fell onto what could be called a telekinetic platform I had created, transferring the downward force over to the fallen pillar. The force acted upon my body and my veins, my blood felt like the gears of a cargo crane. I stood there like between two great boulders seeking to crush me between them, but with formulae in mind and staff in hand I held them. Steadily, the pillar rose up, almost all the way to the ceiling. Sarita dashed forward, ducking beneath the pillar before it had even cleared her head.

With “HEYA STUPID BEAST!” she made a ruckus and ran through the halls. Kasp and Brad headed over to the room with the slit in the wall to observe her in the hall of wells.

“She’s fast, where did you find her?” Kasp asked as he obviously saw her rush by.

“She’s some chieftain’s spoiled daughter. We helped her escape from an arranged marriage. That’s about it.”

I heard her scream around, mostly curses directed at the bodugii, trying to gain its attention.

“She’s running too far.” Kasp said, still kneeling on the floor to look through the slit. “She might not come back in time.”

It took little more than that, and the other two exclaimed loudly what was happening. The bodugii was crawling back out of the wells, they relayed it to Sarita. I heard her hectic scampering coming down the hallway. The spell was holding up nicely, but its weight still wore down on me.

Sarita appeared in the antechamber; her face panicked. She dashed towards me and I saw just behind her the maw of the many-legged monstrosity, less than three yards between the two.

“COME ON!” Brad yelled behind me.

Sarita gave it her all, closing the last yards to the pillar and whizzing past me with a mere hair’s width between the two of us, just in time for me to drop the pillar as the beast’s maw to lunge forward. A sickening scraping sound was heard as the many tons of stone hit the monstrosity’s skull, forcing it to the ground, just an inch from Sarita’s heels. It let myself fall backwards, only noticing then how sore my veins actually were.

Roaring and screaming, the bodugii still struggled.

Sarita, laying panting on the ground, yelled in desperate protest. “Why isn’t it dead yet? KILL IT!”

Brad took a heavy boulder from amidst the rubble and started bashing the beast on its head. Still pinned, it tried wriggling free. Its wedge-shaped head made its way backwards. “It's getting free! KILL IT NOW!”

I stood up, took my staff in hand raised it above, readying it for a strike into its eye. With an exerting scream, I brought it down, only for the beast to pull its head back in the last moment.

With a THUD and a gust of air that carried the dust of ages into our eyes, the pillar fell down on the floor. For a moment, I though us at least safe from the monstrosity, but then I noticed what had not been the case before we lifted the pillar: it did not sit flush with the wall. A sizeable gap was between them, at which shortly after, the beasts nostrils poked into our hiding spot.

Kasp grasped immediately what was still just a fear in the back of my mind. “Shit, it’s going to move the pillar!”

Sure enough, the nostril retreated and soon after, I could see the bodugii's claws stem against wall and pillar and with titanic strength, push the two apart with a worrying grinding sound.

“RUN!” Brad had not tell us twice. Sarita was already up the stairs, Brad pushed the slow gisrin along, I still stood there, as if I could have a good idea to safe us all. I did not.

The gap was almost big enough for the bodugii to squeeze itself through when I got myself moving. I heard a sudden whipping sound, then felt a pain like a broomhandle through my left leg, it failed me and I fell forward onto the stairs. I looked down and saw one of the bodugii's spikes protruding from my thigh. Its whip-like tail with many more spikes like the bristles of a brush disappeared out the doorframe. I felt someone tugging me, Sarita had come back and was pulling on my robes to get me back up.

“WHAT ARE YOU LYING HERE?! RUN!”

I managed to get myself together, but the shock of seeing such a deadly weapon had somehow dulled my senses, even the pain. I stumbled up the stairs, following Sarita's nimble form dashing up before me.

I heard the beast follow us, but the winding stairwell seemed to give it trouble. Could the tight spiral be too much for the monstrosity?

The bodugii behind us hissed and we arrived in the crumbled building above.

“What now?” Brad asked with an accusing time directed at me. “Why didn’t your trap work? Why isn’t its head mush?”

“I didn’t know its skull was this thick. We need to find another way out.”

Sarita was already franticly digging in the rubble with her bare hands. A tiny hole was already found at the top of the pile of rubble, leading outside onto the streets of the city.

Kasp tried to get her to stop. “The bodugii will know we took the other way out. The only way is to split up when it smells us up here. Then at least two of us can get away while it is distracted.”

I had to interject. “No. If people escape out the bottom way, they’d still have to get past the bodugii up here anyway. We should all take the upper path, I go last. If it comes for us, I can hold it off for a moment. I’m not going to make it far with this anyway.” I pointed to the spike protruding out of my thigh, the pain of which was now starting to bore its way back into my consciousness.

The others seemed to realize only then that I had in fact been hit by the monster. Sarita looked most concerned of all. “What if we carry you? We can’t abandon you!”

But Brad put a hand of her shoulder. “It really is our best shot.”

At that moment, I hadn’t really ever thought about this very much, but I then remembered the many things I always wanted to say to some people; my parents, my sister, Leandros, Corbula, many, many more. I wanted to recite many such words to Brad and who to tell it to once he had made it back home, but the sound of the bodugii pushing away rubble and devouring a corpse set me back into the situation at hand. “We need to move as long as the beast is still distracted.”

The others nodded and joined in with Sarita. Soon enough, we had made the hole wide enough for all of us to crawl through just beneath the crumbled ceiling. While Sarita and Brad were digging, I was being tended to by Kasp, who had some bandages in his backpack. There was not much time for anything but wrapping them around my legs, pressing down on the wound to quell the bleeding.

I kept the spike on me. At worst, it would serve as an impromptu weapon, at best it would be a souvenir. The pain in my leg remained and every movement seemed to squeeze the wound for more blood. The bandages were thoroughly red quickly and there was little time nor point to do anything more about it.

We heard the others from outside yelling to us to hurry up. Kasp crawled through ahead of me, then he let out a scream and ran as fast as his short physique allowed it. “IT’S COMING OUR WAY!” He was out and already running towards the others. I poked my head out but even before I could see the bodugii in the darkness, I heard its many feet crawling over and along the stone walls.

I pulled my head back in, the others yelled my name. I answered as loudly as possible. “GET OUT! I’LL FIND A WAY!” Then the monster was already at the opening of the pile of rubble, sniffing and scratching for a way in. I backed away.

Ice flowed through my veins. I was locked in again. I sincerely hoped the others would get out in time. As for me, I would have to content with my situation for now and sat down against a wall.