This Beast-Tamer is a Little Strange

The ever-present trembling in the cavern, there even before the abominations arrived, rapidly intensified.

Zareth's ears twitched. "That sound…"

Before he could finish the thought, the tunnel in front of them—once their intended path forward—exploded inward with a sickening crunch. A monstrous limb, gnarled and grotesquely swollen, took down the entire tunnel entrance and much of the cavern ceiling, tearing apart ancient stone and metal supports like parchment.

It was so large, its full body couldn't even fit inside the cavern. Just its arrival caused the ceiling to collapse, sending a thunderous cascade of rubble crashing down behind it.

Dust and debris exploded outward and the ground shook beneath their feet like a magnitude 9.0 earthquake.

Everyone staggered.

The roaring from earlier returned, this time close enough to rattle their bones. It wasn't just a sound—it was a pressure.

Instinctively, all of them began to circulate their spiritual power to stand steady, but it was as if the creature's aura pressed down firmly on them, crushing that resistance flat.

'Nope…Looks like Bea's experimental time is over. There's no way we could fight that.'

"The path we were taking forward is gone. We move. Now." Zareth said as he whipped out the map and mentally traced an alternate route in seconds while hopping onto the back of his contract in a fluid motion. "Move! Left corridor. We'll take the long way around to the core of the relic."

No one hesitated.

His metallic wolf surged ahead, paws clanking with rhythmic beats against the fractured floor. Pete's stone-plate lizard hissed and bounded after him, armor sparking against where its massive stone body rubbed against the walls. Lina clung to her fastest contract, a gigantic moth, which beat massive silk-lined wings to stay ahead of their pursuer. Jamie, crouched low atop his massive fire bear, clutched a limp armadillo in his arms, its breathing shallow, the black corrosion now covering nearly a third of its body.

Kain summoned his Vespid guards, which due to their wind attribute were by far still his fastest contracts.

Without a word, he directed one to grab Serena and another to grab Malzahir. Serena didn't resist, knowing it was slightly faster than any of her current contracts but the Elemental Guardian, she'd already summoned in its wind-attribute form, extended its ethereal wings from its back catching updrafts and boosting the Vespids' speed with pulses of air as it followed closely behind them.

They raced through the crumbling halls, past shattered archways and ancient glyphs flickering with unstable energy with barely a chance to catch a glimpse of their surroundings—just were just trusting Zareth to lead them in the right direction.

Behind them the tunnels were collapsing as something, so massive they couldn't even get a glimpse of its full figure, continued to pursue them.

And was gaining.

Massive stone beams fell in its wake. The tunnel twisted with each of its steps, support structures cracking. The ceiling groaned.

Every few seconds, they'd hear the wet crunch of flesh on stone—or worse, the dragging grind of metal appendages scraping across the floor and walls as it pushed forward through the tight corridor like a parasite, too large for its host, writhing and tearing through its dying shell.

"It's still coming," Lina hissed, eyes wide as she looked behind.

"Faster!" Pete snapped. "We can't fight that thing!"

Kain felt the air whip against his face as he pushed his contracts to speed up, the buzz of the Vespids turning frantic. He glanced back once.

And regretted it.

The tunnel had already collapsed behind them, but something massive was still visible, even through the dust. A maw, partially open. Rows of jagged teeth fused with lengths of exposed piping and wires—some still crackling with purple remnants of source energy. One bulbous glowing frenzied eye could be faintly seen through in the gloom, and when it locked onto him, Kain felt a momentary lapse in his own heartbeat.

No wonder the other abominations scattered when it came.

Ahead, Jamie's bear was slowing down.

"Keep up!" Zareth barked.

Jamie didn't respond.

The armadillo in his arms twitched violently—and then stopped moving.

Black veins exploded across its shell. Jamie barely had time to react as the creature gave one last, weak cry before its entire form stiffened, and then collapsed into a blackened corpse that looked like it had already been decaying in the elements for weeks. The corrupted spots expanded like rot through fruit, leaving behind only its most prominent features to make it barely identifiable.

Then came the pain…Jamie's contract broke.

The sound he made was not what one could think would come from a human—it was like a physical manifestation of an animalistic agony. He spasmed once. Twice.

Then—he fell.

"Jamie!" Lina shouted.

Kain's gaze snapped back, about to summon another Vespid guard to retrieve him, but it was too late.

Jamie tumbled backward off the fire bear as it surged forward, startled. He hit the ground hard, blood flying from his lips as he tried to rise.

But the giant abomination was already there.

A limb—twisted and ending in metal blades—shot out from the dust and caught him before he could rise. It skewered his body straight through along with his contracted bear who had circled back for him like some kind of twisted kebab. It slammed them into the crumbling floor with so much force the stone began to cave in with an even greater pace—revealing a dark chasm below. Then again. And again. Until the harmonious chorus of Jamie's cries and his contract's whimpers faded.

There was a moment of stillness. The echoes of running feet, the wingbeats of the Vespids, even the rumbling of the tunnels faded to nothing but a ringing in their ears.

Lina, who had been the closest with Jamie and, Kain suspected, may have even been more than friends with him, cried out in grief and shock but her contract didn't stop running.

They couldn't stop. Not now.

Not for Jamie.

The creature roared behind them again. As it continued to chase while taking much of the ruins down with its every movement.