---
But more still swarmed from the canyon. Their numbers were still high.
Sekhmet’s breath hitched. He could not kill them all. He could only buy time. He turned and ran back toward the crack, blood dripping from his mouth, eyes fierce.
"Move!" he shouted into the crevice.
Inside, Lily’s eyes widened at the sight of blood on his face.
Sekhmet did not explain.
He grabbed her wrist again, pulling her up.
"We run again," he said.
The two guards moved, supporting Lily from the other side. Bat Bat fluttered overhead, shouting.
"Run! Run!"
The kobols howled and chased again.
KRAAAH!
Sekhmet’s body felt stronger now, but his mind felt dangerous. He could feel the bloodlust still hovering behind his eyes like a shadow waiting to take control again.
He clenched his jaw and focused on Lily’s hand in his.
Warm.
Alive.
Human.
He would not bite her.
He would not.
They ran into the open field of broken stone again, heading toward the dead trees and boulders beyond, using darkness and uneven terrain to break line of sight.
TapTapTap!
Behind them, kobols pursued, howling, but their formation was less organized now, shaken by losing their leader.
Sekhmet pushed forward, using Blood Control sporadically to throw blood slicks behind them, making kobols slip and fall.
Splat!
A kobol screamed as it fell.
Thud.
They gained distance.
Not enough.
But some.
Then the system’s voice pulsed again inside Sekhmet’s mind, cold and precise.
[Ding! System Notification-
Host chaos energy remains critically low.
Blood intake provided temporary stabilization.
Warning: prolonged exertion will exceed host endurance threshold.]
Sekhmet’s jaw tightened.
He understood.
Even with blood, he was still running on limited reserves.
His body could push only so far before collapse.
And the night was still long.
He ran anyway, because the alternative was death.
Lily’s breath came faster beside him.
Her eyes kept flicking to his blood-stained mouth.
She did not speak.
But Sekhmet could feel her question in the air like heat.
What did you do?
Sekhmet did not answer.
Not yet.
He could not.
He could barely keep himself from turning and hunting the kobols like prey.
He forced his focus forward.
They reached another narrow pass between boulders, squeezing through.
Behind them, kobol howls echoed.
KRAAAH!
Sekhmet’s legs began to feel heavy again as the temporary blood boost faded into exhaustion.
His vision blurred slightly at the edges.
He swallowed, tasting kobol blood still on his tongue.
His throat tightened.
He hated the relief it gave.
He hated that it worked.
He hated that he needed it.
But most of all, he hated how close he had come to biting Lily before the attack.
That memory burned hotter than any wound.
Because it meant his enemy was not only outside.
It was inside him.
And tonight had proven it.
Sekhmet running through darkness with Lily beside him, kobol howls behind, and the system’s warning echoing in his mind as his chaos energy threatened to fail again. At some point she fainted from lack of chaos energy. Sekhmet carried her.
Footsteps hammered stone until even the rocks seemed to flinch.
Woooo...
The wind slid through broken ravines and crooked dead trees, carrying the scent of blood, sweat, and panic. Moonlight painted the purgatory in pale silver, turning every shadow into a hiding place and every ridge into a mouth waiting to swallow you.
Sekhmet ran with Lily in his arms.
Not bridal. Not gentle.
He carried her the way a soldier carried something precious through a battlefield, grip locked, posture tight, pace brutal. Her body bounced lightly with each step. Her head lolled once. Her breath was shallow but steady. She was alive.
That was all that mattered.
Behind them, the kobols howled again.
KRAAAH! KRAAAH!
They were not close enough for Sekhmet to smell their breath anymore, but their voices traveled. Their hunger traveled. Their certainty traveled.
The two guards ran beside him, both injured, both refusing to slow. One clutched his bleeding shoulder with his off hand while still holding a blade. The other’s arm was torn open from claw marks, blood running down his sleeve in dark streaks that the moonlight turned almost black.
Bat Bat flew above them, wobbling slightly from exhaustion and pride.
Flap... Flap... Flap...
"I scout!" it shouted, voice high and childish.
Sekhmet did not answer.
He could barely spare a breath.
His chest burned. His legs felt like they were filled with sand. His chaos energy had been scraping the bottom of the well for too long, and now the well was almost dry.
The system’s warning still echoed inside his mind like a drumbeat.
Sekhmet’s jaw tightened.
"Blood again."
That word carried too much weight now. It was not just a resource. It was not just power. It was like an addiction with a crown.
He forced himself to keep running.
The terrain shifted ahead. The open field of broken stone narrowed into a jagged canyon, not the same one they fled from, but a sibling of it. Two cliff faces rose on either side like cracked teeth. The path between them was uneven, scattered with boulders and old skeleton trees that grew at ugly angles.
Bat Bat circled and pointed down with a tiny claw.
"There!" it shouted. "Hole!"
Sekhmet’s eyes followed the direction. There was an opening in the cliff wall, partly hidden behind a fallen slab of rock. Not a real cave mouth. More like a wound in the stone. Narrow enough that a swarm could not rush through side by side, deep enough that darkness swallowed the inside.
A hiding place.
A breathing space.
A trap, if it had another entrance.
But Sekhmet did not have the luxury of being picky.
"Inside," he said, voice rough.
The guards did not question. They moved first, checking the opening with weapon points and quick, trained glances.
They slipped in, then signaled.
"Clear," one whispered.
Sekhmet ducked and entered with Lily. His shoulder scraped stone. Dust fell onto his coat.
Ssshhh...
Bat Bat squeezed through after him, wings folding like a cloak.