Elara ran hard across the outer slopes of the sunken basin.
The six-legged pack she had drawn was still behind her, their harsh calls echoing between the black spires. More than thirty of them moved in a loose, aggressive mass, four-eyed heads fixed on her position. She had stopped trying to thin them out. There was no time left for that. The only task now was to reach the tomb entrance with as many of them still committed to the chase as possible.
She cut between two broken pillars and risked a glance toward the northern approaches.
Ryzek was coming.
The Veyrani cultivator flew low and fast, crystalline ridges along his arms catching the dull light. Behind him the terrain was in chaos. A massive magma-plated beast — far larger than anything she had pulled — thundered after him in heavy, ground-shaking bounds, crimson veins glowing along its body. Several flickering distortions kept pace around it: Phase Stalkers, high-level ones, harrying the larger creature even as they pursued Ryzek. Other shapes moved in the dust and broken stone further back. He had brought serious weight with him.
Their eyes met across the distance for a fraction of a second.
No words were needed. Both of them were still running. Both of them had living bait locked onto their trails. Stopping was not an option.
Elara angled sharply toward the eastern face of the tomb.
The partially buried structure rose ahead of her, dark mineral slabs stacked in ancient, eroded tiers. The secondary fissure they had used before — the one where the outer formations had degraded — was still there, a narrow black cut in the stone. She did not slow. The six-legged hunters were closing again, their speed superior on open ground. One leapt from a side ridge and nearly caught her heel. She twisted, let it overshoot, and forced a short burst of flight that carried her the final distance.
Ryzek reached the fissure only moments after her.
He dropped from the air in a controlled descent and went straight into the opening without hesitation. Elara followed hard on his heels. The moment they crossed into the colder, stagnant air of the tomb corridor, the sound of the surface wind cut off. In its place came the heavy, overlapping noise of too many large bodies arriving at the same point.
The bait followed.
The first of the six-legged hunters forced its way into the fissure behind them, snarling, spines raised. More piled in after it, scrambling and snapping as the narrow entrance bottlenecked their numbers. From the northern side came heavier impacts — the magma-plated beast slamming against the outer structure, stone cracking under its weight. Phase Stalker distortions slipped through gaps in the chaos. The corridor that had been quiet and deadly with traps now filled with the noise of competing predators forced into the same confined space.
Elara and Ryzek did not wait to watch.
They moved deeper into the tomb at a fast but controlled pace, following the route they had cleared before. Behind them the entrance erupted into violence. Creatures that would normally avoid one another were suddenly packed together under pressure, blood-scent, and territorial rage. The sounds of claws on stone, heavy bodies colliding, and short, furious cries rolled down the corridor after them.
Still no sign of Lian.
Elara kept her senses stretched as far as the tomb’s residual energy allowed. There was no clear trace of him yet among the growing chaos outside. She did not call out. Noise would only draw the wrong attention forward.
Ryzek glanced once toward the rear, four amber eyes reflecting the dim light of his crystal, then focused ahead again.
Power Scale / Cultivation Realms (Quick Reminder)
Foundation Realm (Layers 1–9): Body forging, no external Qi.
Circuit Awakening Realm (Early–Peak): First Qi loop, internal bursts.
Core Condensation Realm (Early–Peak): External Qi release, short flight.
Stellar Circuit Realm (1–9 Stars): True flight, Qi armor, energy projection.
Nebula Dominion Realm and higher: Domain control, galaxy-level power, etc
Power Scale Reminder
Lian Yu: Stellar Circuit Star 1.
Elara Voss: Core Condensation Peak
Keep it as reminders
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