The sensation under my feet was…unique, to say the least. I sure as hell felt something moving beneath the ground. And yet, it wasn’t like a tremor or an earthquake. It felt slithery and smooth—like a conveyer belt was moving just beneath us.

“Spears at the ready!” Zutto cried, her expression stony.

“What about me?” Callie cried. She stood on one leg, her face lit with fury.

A thought occurred to me. I wedged the handle of my axe under my armpit and pulled apart the strings on my [Cat Pack], reaching inside. Ah, there it is. Seconds later, I retrieved the sword I’d put in there so long ago. I felt terrible that I couldn’t remember the name of the catgirl who gave it to me. The family heirloom could finally be put to good use.

“Callie!” I called, tossing the sword so that it landed at her feet.

Despite her injury, she was quick to retrieve it. She cocked a suspicious eyebrow but turned ahead to where the sand was shifting.

“I’m scared,” Cannoli said behind me.

“It’s okay, Cannoli,” I whispered into her ear. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”

I had no idea if that was true. I hated not knowing where this thing was going to show up, what it looked like, or what it could do.

“What’s the Chikara like, Zutto?” I asked.

Zutto paused, her eyes shifting left and right. “We know very little, save for it burrowing to await its prey. We know it by its mandibles and beady eyes.”

“The sandstorm is it digging?”

“Yes.”

Oh, great.

Just as she answered my question, the cloud of sand dissipated, and the outline was gone. Silence swept over the group. My knuckles went white as I gripped the axe’s shaft. My shield was close to my chest, straps tight against my forearm. It was getting harder to breathe.

“Ahhh!”

I turned on my heel with the group to see the arm of a catgirl submerging beneath the sands. One of the hunters dropped her spear and slid over to grab the hand, but she was too late. Following her loss was the crunch of bone and the tearing of flesh. The hunter dug fruitlessly at the sand.

“Serena, come back here immediately!” Zutto bellowed.

Serena wouldn’t listen. Fear painted the faces of the catgirls, and with slow steps, they backed away from where Serena was digging.

“Shyla! Shyla, please!” Serena dug her hand into the dune. “I think I got her! Somebody help me out!”

“Serena! Get the hell away from there! Now!” I yelled. “You’re going to get pul—”

Serena stopped, her eyes widening. “Saoirse, help me!” Her arm was sucked below ground and her cries filled the air, piercing the ears of everyone around her.

I swallowed hard as I watched Zutto and two of the hunters rush to her side, taking hold of her free arm and yanking her in the opposite direction. Another crunch came and whatever was beneath the sands, at last, released her.

At least, it released what remained. Blood poured from Serena’s side. The entire limb had been severed, bits and pieces of muscle and bone held on by thin strands of glistening flesh.

The ground shook as Zutto and the other hunters towed her toward us. It wasn’t like the smooth slithering before, though. This time it felt like the plates beneath us were colliding. The rumbling brought me and many others to our knees. Cannoli fell with me, and I caught her as she did, carrying her with one arm beneath her legs and the other against the middle of her back.

Cannoli’s teeth chattered. Her hands trembled. She reached for my neck, and I stood with every ounce of strength I had, stabilizing my stance against the quaking sands. She buried her head into my shoulder and soaked my clothes with her tears.

Shit. What the hell do we do? How the fuck are we supposed to fight this thing?

“Bally! To the sky!” Ravyn cried, loosing her familiar into the air.

Ball hovered over the dunes before sharply turning upward, gaining altitude with terrifying speed. Ravyn’s hands glowed with fire as Ceres and Zahra took opposite sides of her, their poleaxe and katana at the ready.

“Matt,” Keke said with an arrow nocked across her bow. “We might have to make a run for it. We don’t have the means to fight this thing.”

“You can’t be serious,” I said. “And leave this monster out here to swallow someone else up?”

“You have to choose your battles, Matt. Knowing when it’s a losing battle is the first key to success.” How was it that Keke could be so calm in this situation? Or Ceres, Zahra, or Ravyn for that matter? Even at a distance, I could pick out the terrified expressions on Lara and Destiny’s faces. There wasn’t a hint of fear or apprehension in Keke’s tone.

“We can’t run from this,” I whispered. “Cannoli, I need—”

“Please don’t let go!” she squeaked. “I-I can’t!”

Shit.

“[Farsight]!” Ravyn cried. At her command, the hairs on my skin stood up and what felt like a cool breeze swept over me from head to toe. Ravyn turned to her right and pointed a few meters away. “There! It’s coming!”

Ravyn, Ceres, and Zahra moved like lightning. The world slowed for a split second as the girls leaped away. A sizable pair of mandibles erupted from the ground where they’d been standing just seconds before, spraying sand in every direction. As quickly as they’d appeared, they vanished with an otherworldly scream.

“It’s moving again!” Ravyn said, Ceres and Zahra reassuming their positions beside her. “There!” She pointed to Serena and the other hunters. “Get away! Fucking now!”

Serena was still prone on the ground, pale with blood loss. Zutto was squatting next to her, trying to drag her to her feet. The other girls had abandoned the task.

“Zutto! You must move!” Ceres screamed.

The mandibles appeared once more, flanking Serena. Zutto jumped back, gasping for air. I froze. The twin blades sliced through the catgirl without effort, severing her top and bottom halves. The look on Serena’s face as her top half was dragged underneath by the Defiled was haunting.

Cecilia snatched Zutto’s wrist. “You know the drill. We run! Now!” Spit flew from her lips, landing on Zutto’s face.

“We can’t outrun it yet! We need a plan!” Callie shrieked, hobbling to Zutto on her broken leg.

Another sickening snap. We all watched in horror as blood oozed out of the lower half of Serena’s body. My stomach twisted into knots, and I worried that at any moment, I would puke my guts out.

“Saoirse, damn you!” screamed another girl.

“D-Don’t say that!” Cannoli squeaked. “Saoirse watches over us. I know it! We’ll get out of this!”

“You’re a moron!” bellowed one of the other hunters. “Let the foreigners play as bait.”

“We leave as a group.” Zutto yanked her arm away from Cecilia. The Ejderha’s eyes were wild as she looked over us. “All of us. Together.”

“Quiet!” Callie screamed next, hands choked up on the sword. “Shut up and listen!”

Silence swept over us again. Sand found its way between the crevices of my leathers, tucked inside by the winds. Spots were beginning to appear in my vision. I was thirsty, and my breathing was growing dry and ragged.

We’re going to get picked off one by one if we keep going like this. How the hell do we distract this thing?

“Matt,” Keke hissed. “We need to leave. Now.”

“Alright. Agreed,” I muttered. I kept my voice low. “What do you suggest we do?”

Keke’s gaze traveled downward. “Someone needs to be bait while the others run away.”

“[Summon Earth]!” Lara said some distance away. A string of sand circled her form, merging into a chunk of solid rock that rotated around her shoulders.

“What are you doing?” Tristan asked.

“I’m going to pull it out of the ground!”

“Sister, is that a good idea?” Destiny asked with palpable concern.

“Yes! Trust me!” After the sand completed the first boulder, it created a second chunk that hovered at Lara’s shoulders. The two large stones rotated in perfect symmetry.

All I could do was hope she had some idea of how to solve this problem.

“Okay! Here I go!” Lara raised her arms.

Damn it! Not so loud!

Just as the words escaped the [Conjurer]’s mouth, Ravyn pointed at the ground beneath Lara. Tristan went pale. They were too far for me to do anything about it, especially with Cannoli in my arms. The entire world moved in slow motion, and it had nothing to do with Zahra’s Perception.

Tristan dove through the air at Lara.

The ground quaked, and the Defiled rose from the depths of the sands again, its pointed black mandibles glistening in the sunlight. As it closed in around Lara, I caught her mouth moving. For a split second, it looked as if multiple sheets of rock covered Tristan’s body. The pincers clamped down on him, and—as my breath caught in my throat—the twin blades bounced against his form with a clang.

Tristan and Lara fell into a tumble, rolling a stone’s throw away from where they’d stood. I breathed a sigh of relief as Tristan released Lara, and they stumbled back to their feet.

“[Scorching Ring]!” At Ravyn’s command, beams of light fired down from where Ball was. I stared wide-eyed as the beams missed one by one, toasting the sand momentarily. Until, at last, one struck its intended target. “Gotcha, fucker!”

Clicks and screeches filled the air, nearly causing me to drop Cannoli. I gritted my teeth and shut one eye as the noise permeated the air. Each of the girls put hands over their ears, save for Zutto.

And then something else began to happen. Micro-sensations rumbled beneath the ground as the beast dove back underneath the sand.

Oh, what the hell is happening now?

Something was moving to my left. When I looked down, I gasped. The shriveled head of a catgirl rose from the sand. Two hollowed-out eyes looked up at me, its mouth hanging open in a frozen state of fright. The ears were chewed up, and what little strands of hair it still bore stuck out of its skull like a doll’s.

A bead of light appeared in one of the eye sockets as legs sprouted from the base.

“Keke—”

Before I could even finish my sentence, an arrow pierced the monstrosity’s temple. The… thing fell over on its side, its black, stick-like legs squirming erratically out of the carved-out neck.

As I turned to thank her, my voice caught. Dozens of the demented catgirl skulls were rising to the surface, surrounding us.

“We need to leave! Now!” said Keke.

“I must agree! We cannot fight this as we are!” Ceres supported.

Callie was still wounded. Getting back to the city alone would be impossible for her, no matter how stubborn she was. Keke’s mention of bait echoed in my mind, and for a second, I thought of leaving Callie behind to give us an escape. I immediately pushed the notion aside, ashamed for even entertaining it.

“Retreat! All forces fall back to Rājadhānī!” Zutto said, gesturing to the city.

“We can’t leave you guys like this,” I countered. “All of us together, right?”

“Go, you fool!” Zutto screamed at me. “I will carry Callie back to the city!”

“Zutto—” Tristan began.

“May Rājadhānī prosper again!” Zutto cried, shifting Callie’s arm over her shoulders. “Now run!”

I stared at her for a long few seconds. Thank you, Zutto. “Okay,” I murmured aloud. “Hang on, Cannoli. We’re going to make a run for it.”

“Okay,” I heard her whisper into my chest.

“Split up!” said Keke. “Confuse it!”

“Mattaku!” Ravyn said somewhere to my right, with Ball flying beside her.

As I ran, I watched as Ceres, Zahra, and Keke covered everyone else’s retreat, slicing and shooting down the ranks of the catgirl heads rising and jumping out of the sands.

Most of the hunters kept up with us, but Zutto and Callie were nowhere to be seen. When I chanced a glance over my shoulder, I saw them sitting together, talking.

Why aren’t they running?

Zutto rose to her feet with a wry smile. Callie followed shortly after. The girls stood back to back, weapons drawn. Zutto speared an approaching head, and Callie managed to slice a second one in half. Both screamed blood-curdling battle cries. My running slowed.

“Matt!” Cannoli said, tears streaming down her cheeks.

No. They’re buying us time. There’s nothing I can do for them now. Don’t go back, Kelmer. Don’t.

Cannoli and I were falling behind.

“Matt!” Keke screamed. “What are you doing?”

I’m sorry, Zutto. I’m sorry, Callie.

I faced forward and ran, leaving Zutto and Callie to their fates. I never looked back.