Chapter 13 — Flight Through the Mire
The first tendril lashed out so fast Ethan barely registered the movement before it slammed into the water where he'd been standing a second earlier. Mud and spray erupted around him.
"Move!" Marcus barked, shoving Lily ahead as the group turned toward the way they'd come.
The breeder let out another low, rolling growl. The sound vibrated through Ethan's ribs like it was inside him. Behind it, the smaller pale creatures began to scatter in all directions, vanishing into the fog.
Not good.
Rowan took point, hacking at reeds to clear a path, his blade flashing with water and bits of stalk. The marsh wasn't made for running—every few steps, someone stumbled or slid, and each splash felt like a beacon.
Another tendril struck, this time curling around a dead log and snapping it like kindling. The smell of rot and something coppery filled the air.
"Don't let it cut us off!" Lily called, loosing an arrow over her shoulder. It vanished into the fog without a sound.
Ethan's system pinged in his mind.
[Amplification Roll: 412x]
The rush hit instantly—his muscles seemed to coil tighter, his steps lighter.
But it was still random. 412x wasn't enough to turn him into a force of nature. It was enough to make survival a little less impossible.
He drew even with Selene, who was moving slower than the rest, her robe dragging in the muck. "Faster!"
"I'm trying!" she snapped, though her eyes never left the fog behind them. "It's herding us."
A tendril whipped in from the side, this one catching Marcus's shoulder and yanking him sideways into waist-deep water. Rowan was there in a heartbeat, hacking through the slick appendage before it could drag him under.
The breeder let out a higher-pitched cry—sharper, almost angry. The surface of the water rippled in every direction.
"They're coming," Selene said.
The first of the pale young burst from the fog ahead, landing on all fours in the path. Its mouth opened—not to roar, but to screech, the sound stabbing at Ethan's ears.
Lily's arrow silenced it, but three more took its place.
"Keep moving!" Marcus yelled, swinging his axe into the nearest one. Bone cracked under the blow, but the creature didn't stop moving until Rowan finished it with a sword thrust.
They broke through a wall of reeds onto firmer ground, the fog thinning just enough to see the outline of Norhollow's low boundary fence ahead.
Almost there.
Ethan turned back to check their rear—just in time to see the breeder stop at the edge of the deeper water. Its tendrils writhed, but it didn't follow. Instead, it stood perfectly still, watching them.
Selene noticed too. "It's not chasing us past this point."
"That should make me feel better," Ethan said, "but it doesn't."
They didn't slow until they were through the gate, the muddy stink of the marsh replaced by the damp, earthy smell of the village fields.
Norhollow's night watch stared at them wide-eyed, taking in the mud, the blood, the weapons still wet. One guard finally asked, "What in the hells did you bring with you?"
Ethan's answer was short.
"Trouble."
If you want, I can make Chapter 14 about the group reporting what they saw to Norhollow's mayor and getting met with denial, as if the town doesn't want to believe there's a breeding ground so close—hinting at a wider conspiracy.