Chapter 32: A New Plan

  There they were.

  Seraphis.

  Ursula. The enemy.

  The cave salamander was so fixated on its prey that it perceived nothing else.

  Everything stretched.

  Not the world — his perception.

  It raced so fast that movement became viscous. Every impulse in the ground lasted one heartbeat longer. Every gust of air hung tangible in the space. The rush reached for him, sharpened everything to the edge.

  He hung in the air.

  Before him lay the misshapen mass he recognized as Ursula — faint residual warmth, barely any rhythm. A flickering impulse in the blood haze.

  Before him rose the cave salamander.

  Almost completely.

  The hole in its chest had closed. Flesh had layered itself anew. The scent of open blood had become duller, thicker.

  Regeneration.

  Its form grew toward the sky before Seraphis.

  In the next second, Seraphis lunged forward.

  His body tensed down to the tip of his tail, then he shot upward with compressed speed. His curved fangs struck the cave salamander’s throat — brief resistance, then they broke through scales and muscle alike. A wet, dull tearing vibrated through the flesh as he bored through with full force.

  Blood exploded in a dark surge.

  Seraphis pierced the throat completely and shot out on the other side, flinging droplets and fragments with him as he landed in an arc behind the lizard.

  The cave salamander froze.

  For a moment.

  Something had struck it from within. A burning pain, deep in the tissue. Warm blood ran down its throat, seeped between scales and dripped heavily to the ground.

  Its fixed gaze on Ursula broke.

  Focus dissolved.

  It blinked, its massive head jerking sharply to the side, as if only now understanding what had happened.

  Then it turned its entire body.

  It turned fully away from Ursula and aligned itself exclusively on Seraphis.

  Their gazes met.

  The cave salamander looked grotesque. Its throat was pierced on both sides, blood running in dark streams over its scales and dripping heavily to the ground. The wound still gaped open, flesh visible, muscle tissue torn — and yet it was already closing again. Slowly. Unstoppably. The edges drew together as if the monster itself were swallowing the damage.

  It did not seem to care in the slightest.

  No twitch. No sound of pain.

  Only that look.

  Seraphis stood opposite it, blood on his scales, his body tensed like a loaded blade. No retreat. No doubt.

  He did not appear intimidated.

  Not in the slightest.

  Between them lay no sound.

  Only the promise of violence.

  The aura of the lizard had changed.

  At the beginning there had been surprise.

  Then a brief recoil.

  Then raw, uncontrolled savagery.

  But now…

  Now it was different.

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  The smell of blood hung thick in the air, heavy and irritating. The wounds had not weakened it — they had awakened something within it. Its regeneration ran at full speed, devoured energy, demanded replenishment.

  Its body demanded substance.

  Its breathing grew deeper.

  Slower.

  Hunger set in.

  No more rage. No blind frenzy.

  Only hunt.

  Its pupils narrowed into thin slits, fixed on Seraphis with cold precision.

  It no longer saw two opponents.

  It saw food.

  And its hunting instinct had reached its peak.

  Barely four minutes had passed, and the situation had already spiraled completely out of control.

  Darek saw the events through Iris’ vision from a bird’s-eye perspective. From above, the forest looked smaller, but the chaos within it was all the clearer. Shattered treetops. Torn earth. Blood drawing dark patterns across the ground.

  His gaze was tense. Too tense.

  Damn. We were far too optimistic. Far too confident.

  Ursula lay motionless between mud and splinters. The cave salamander rose again, larger, more massive, as if the fight had taken nothing from it.

  “What’s going on?” Votaria’s voice cut through his thoughts. She grabbed him by the arm, her gaze burning into his. “What does it look like? Is Ursula okay? She’s not so stupid as to not use her vines, is she? Tell me, Darek. And don’t you dare lie to me!”

  Darek swallowed. He did not need to think.

  “No,” he said calmly, almost too calmly. “She isn’t.”

  The words felt heavy.

  There was no more time for doubt.

  Only one option remained.

  Change of plan.

  He lifted his gaze, his voice becoming firmer. “Ursula is badly injured. If we don’t act, she won’t last much longer. We have to lure the cave wyrm to us.”

  Votaria’s face froze. For a moment she looked as if someone had pulled the ground out from under her feet. Her lips moved, but no words came out.

  Darek forced himself to stay clear.

  “Iris will draw him in our direction. Seraphis will deal with him until we’re ready.” His voice was steady, but inside his chest everything raged. “Don’t worry. There’s no one better at her side right now than him. He is, quite literally, a walking brew kettle.”

  Votaria swallowed. Hard. Her fingers trembled. But she nodded.

  Darek turned inward to Iris. “You heard the plan.”

  Iris seemed absent for a moment, as if she too was grasping the scale of it. Then she shot in a wide arc toward the battlefield.

  Through Iris’ eyes, Darek saw the cave salamander and Seraphis facing one another.

  The air between them was stretched like an invisible rope. No wind. No sound. Only that tense silence before the next eruption.

  The massive body of the lizard rose heavy and dark against the fading light. Blood still ran down its throat, yet the wound continued to close as if it were merely an inconvenience. Its pupils were narrow, motionless, fixed on Seraphis.

  And Seraphis…

  Small in comparison. Slender. Smeared with blood.

  But unmoving.

  His body was tense down to the last scale. No trembling. No retreat. Only focus.

  Darek felt it even across the distance — that condensed stillness, that pause before something exploded.

  The forest held its breath.

  And somewhere deep in his chest Darek knew:

  The next moment would decide everything.

  A sound suddenly shattered the tension.

  Iris let out a shrill screech, a narrow, conical sound impulse that spread like an invisible wave in all directions. It was not an ordinary tone. It was a frequency that did not merely cut through the air, but felt as if it traveled through bone. Like fingernails scraping across a chalkboard — only sharper, deeper, more penetrating.

  The sound vibrated in the ground, in the air, in flesh.

  For amphibians and reptiles it had to be unbearable. Their finer senses, their sensitive perception organs — everything was stimulated at once.

  You could see it.

  The cave salamander visibly flinched. Its pupils contracted painfully, its eyes reflexively squeezing shut. Its massive body twisted slightly, as if trying to shake the sound off physically.

  Seraphis also turned his head aside, involuntarily tightening his muscles. His body twitched minimally, a reflex against the disturbing frequency vibrating through his skull bones.

  The sound lasted only a moment.

  But it tore the silence to pieces.

  Both heads jerked upward at the same time.

  Reflex.

  Rage lay in their gazes, raw and unrestrained, as they fixed on Iris.

  Seraphis’ body tensed instinctively for attack, but in the very next heartbeat he recognized the signature. The frequency. The pattern.

  Iris.

  His gaze changed. Not softer — but clearer. The impulse to strike dissipated.

  Then a voice cut through his consciousness.

  “From here on, Iris takes over. Take care of Ursula!” Darek’s tone was urgent, sharp, leaving no room for argument.

  Seraphis froze for a moment.

  Dissatisfaction crept through him. Defiance. A burning feeling of incompleteness. He had bitten. Pierced. Attacked. And yet the lizard still stood.

  Not enough.

  “We underestimated him,” Darek’s voice continued. “You gave everything. Now bring Ursula to safety. I’m counting on you!”

  Those words hit differently.

  A part of the boiling hatred dissolved, not entirely — but enough to make space. The protective instinct took shape again. Clear. Focused.

  New objective.

  Ursula.

  Cave.

  Safety.

  His muscles reorganized. No longer attack — now retreat with burden.

  But the cave salamander…

  Its gaze had changed.

  Not only rage.

  Hunger.

  When it recognized Iris, it slowly licked its lips. The movement was sluggish, almost indulgent. The holes in its throat were now completely closed. No trace of the piercing remained.

  It screamed.

  A deep, vibrating sound that rolled through the forest and startled birds from the treetops.

  “Damn,” Iris thought.

  Then the cave salamander moved.

  Not staggering.

  Not uncontrolled.

  It shot forward.

  Directly toward Iris.

  With each heavy step it seemed larger. Broader. More dominant. The rage, the hunger, the adrenaline had inflated its body, condensed its presence. Earth sprayed beneath its claws. Trees swayed aside.

  Iris pulled upward.

  The salamander followed.

  Iris darted between the treetops, the shadow of the cave salamander tight beneath him. Every mistake would be his last. Every moment he slowed meant teeth. Flesh. End.

  Darek and Votaria were not ready yet. Ursula lay gravely injured behind them. Seraphis had to buy time.

  And time… was now Iris’ responsibility.

  He must not fight.

  He must not strike.

  He must only survive.

  Nine minutes left.

  Nine minutes in which a monster that knew only hunger was on his heels.

  Now it was his turn.

  Now Iris had to hold the cave salamander back.

  And for the first time in a long while, he wished he were more than just an eye.

  Above them, the moon slid further across the sun.

  The light narrowed.

  The shadows lengthened.

  The solar eclipse drew closer.