The lizard man shaman floated with his tail wrapped around himself. He was gigantic, way bigger than the other Sleezenaks. I’d guess the shaman was eight feet tall and weighed five hundred pounds, easily, most of that weight in his massive tail.


    My eyes went to the power crystal at the end of his staff. That thing was so huge that it might get me to 100%. The power crystal flashed in time to the drumbeat. I felt a little tingle at the back of my neck. I was around magic, real magic.


    Could I get that power crystal in the staff without waking the shaman up? It was doubtful. I could find other power crystals, but I couldn’t find more Khannas. If I could escape with her, it would be worth leaving such a big crystal behind.


    I kept my voice to the barest whisper. “Opal, ax mode.”


    My multitool went from bow to ax. The arrow went back into my quiver. If those lizard men woke up, I would have to bash my out.


    I severed the leather ropes binding Khanna to the statue.


    Her eyes were wild with fear, and I noticed the tearstains on her cheeks.


    My adrenaline was singing in my ears, and the rage felt like an inferno inside me. I wanted to murder every one of these fuckers.


    I put my finger to my lips.


    She nodded, quickly, and we were about to leave when the drumming stopped—the sudden silence felt like a slap in the face. The flashing red lights in the lizard god statues eyes and from Mr. Floaty’s staff all winked out. The only glow was from my hood.


    That darkness felt as ominous as the quiet.


    Then Mr. Floaty’s staff lit up. And the hissing started.


    The lizard men were coming alive, unwinding their tails.


    I caught hold of Khanna’s hand. “We’re leaving.”


    Then the slippery, slithery voice of Mr. Floaty erupted in the air above us. “Sakata will not allow it. All praise Sakata!” His staff lit up, though the light was strange. It hurt to look at it, like it wasn’t supposed to exist at all. And the other Sleezenaks didn’t mind at all.


    It was funny, but I missed the drumming.


    The first Sleezenak to come out of his alcove got my axe in the head.


    I chopped his skull in half, spraying the wall with gray brains and black blood. The stink that followed nearly made me puke. The Sleezenaks themselves didn’t smell much like anything, but their blood smelled like an overflowing porta-potty in hell.


    Sure, I killed one, but we were surrounded by hundreds.


    “Khanna and Sid Marshall cannot make it through them all!” Khanna wailed.


    If these things were nocturnal, and if they were sensitive to light, I thought I might have the perfect way to escape.


    “Opal, light up the suit, as bright as you can, every square inch!”


    Suddenly my survival suit turned into a blinding beacon. Even I found it too bright.


    Khanna grunted in pain.


    But it had the desired effect. The Sleezenaks retreated into their alcoves, claws held up to their faces to block out the light. Even Mr. Floaty hissed in pain.


    But me and Khanna were running our asses off, sprinting down the stone corridor.


    One lizard fuck reached for me, and I chopped off his hand at the wrist. Another bumbled out, and I cut off his head with a single swing.


    Khanna lunged forward and snatched his harness off his body. On it hung a stone knife and a hatchet. She managed to through the harness on before tossing the hatchet into a lizard man in front of us. Her ax struck his eye, and he went down, but she got more knives, more hatchets, as we made our mad dash down the hall, tossing some, keeping others.


    The minute we made it to the archway of the stone city, everything went dark. Khanna clung to me, hyperventilating.


    “Opal, what happened to the suit?”


    Magic detected. A darkness spell, focused on you, has created a void of light. This unit has configured the Paraxen survival suit correctly. Unnatural darkness will affect the Sleezenaks as well. Adjusting settings to compensate. The closest enemy fifteen feet and closing.If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    I had an idea, however dumb. “Opal, we’re going to keep running, but you have to tell me if I’m about to hit anything. You can sense any obstacle, right?”


    Correct. This unit can scan for obstacles.


    I was running blind, but I was running, and we crossed the stone city with a ton of help from Opal. If I started to run at an angle, she would let me know, and if there was a crack or a rock on the floor, she’d warn me.


    Better yet, we outran the darkness. Suddenly, my suit was blindingly bright all over again.


    Behind us came a storm of hissing.


    Flying above the rest of the Sleezenaks, was Mr. Floaty, the red crystal glowing.


    For a second, I thought about turning my ax into a spear and throwing it at him, but I couldn’t lose that tool. It had become critical to our survival. Stopping to fire arrows also didn’t seem like a good idea.


    But Khanna had an extra ax. She flung it and Mr. Floaty had to stop to smack it away.


    It was all the time we needed. We fled up the sloping passageway, past the abyss to our right, and back to the hole and the statue there.


    For a second, I thought the statue was going to come alive to stop us.


    But no, it wasn’t drumming, its big red eyes were dark, and it was just lifeless stone for a second. Wait. Red eyes?


    “Opal, are there power crystal in that statue?”


    Negative. No power crystals detected except for the 5X crystal in the shaman’s staff.


    I didn’t know what the 5X crystal was, but it sounded good.


    Khanna and I were about to head up the steps when a whispery voice slithered through the air. “Stop!”


    There, in the corridor, was the Sleezenak shaman, or whatever, standing on his clawed feet, pointing his staff at me. “You, Bright One, have stolen Sataka’s Flesh. He will reclaim her, for she is now marked. I am Enak. It is the name that shall be on your lips when we devour your hindquarters. For you too are marked.”


    How did this guy speak English? That was what I heard anyway.


    But it was clear that Khanna heard something else. “You claim Khanna? No one has claim on Khanna, except Sid Marshall. I spit on you. I spit on Sakata!”


    But how was she able to understand him? Magic…it had to be. If he could mark us with that magic, then he would be able to find us, which meant even if we escaped, he could find us.


    Khanna didn’t actually spit at him, but she did throw an ax.


    It went end over end toward his face. With a flash of his staff, Enak knocked it away.


    But by that time, I had grabbed Khanna and sped away, my legs glowing. Throwing over one of my shoulders, I leapt up to the second row of steps, far away from Enak and the rest of his lizard buddies.


    Dozens of Sleezenaks tried to follow up the stone staircase. However, the minute they left the darkness, they hissed and shrank back, clawing at the light.


    With Khanna still on the shoulder, I raced out of the hole and down the path leading back to the Dinosaur Swamps. Now that I knew where I was going, I could really turn on the speed.


    Khanna clung to me as I sprinted across the swaying wooden walkways.


    We were nearly to the Fodoron Obelisk when the drumming started again, and now that I knew where it was coming from, I couldn’t get the image of the fat lizard man statue’s eyes, flashing red with every pulse.


    When we reached the end of the wooden walkway, I sat Khanna down, so I could rest. We were both sweating and out of breath.


    I had a moment of quiet, and then, a shivering, shaking Khanna threw herself onto me, holding my tight.


    It took me a minute to realize she was weeping. “Sid Marshall, oh, Sid Marshall. It froze Khanna’s blood, to be there, to be with those things, with Enak telling Khanna his evil plans.


    Come the darkness, they were going to take Khanna to another statue of Sakata, in a secret place, and they would feast on me. Khanna’s feet, her legs, her hands, her arms. They would’ve eaten Khanna alive, Sid Marshall.”


    “Never,” I said, kissing her head. “Not while I can still breathe. I won’t let anything happen to you, I promise.”


    “Enak’s voice, his words, how can we both understand him? How can that be?”


    I squeezed her tight. “That was magic. Tell me what happened to you.”


    The huntress clung to me as she went over her very strange day. It had started the night before, when she’d been thinking about joining us. The Sleezenaks had come for her, had broken through her defenses, and grabbed her. They could see better than she could in the night because of their eyes.


    She’d tried to fight them off, but there had been too many. They had taken her to their lair, where she met Enak, at the little Sakata Chapel, where I’d found her. Thinking back, the courtyard had been ornate. Enak had told her about her fate, and that she should be grateful—being a part of Sakata’s Feast would make her immortal.


    That part made me shiver. I thought back to what Opal had said about the Sleezenaks eating sentient beings.


    She said that when the drumming started, it was so loud, she thought it would kill her or drive her insane. She had clapped her hands over her ears. The red light of the shaman’s staff was awful, even worse than the absolute darkness that she’d experienced before the drumming started.


    Enak had called it Sakata’s Heartbeat, and he explained that it kept their enemies away as well soothed his wives, so they could rest in the darkness, unmoving, lulled to sleep by the drumming.


    Yes, Enak was the only male. All the rest of the Sleezenaks were female. It wasn’t like I could tell. They weren’t mammals, and so, there were no mammary glands. And I wasn’t too interested in studying what they had between their legs.


    Khanna had given up hope. Then I had appeared…


    She pulled back to gaze into my eyes. “Why did you come for Khanna?”


    I had to grin. “Because Khanna wasn’t there to help me start my morning.”


    For a second, I was gifted by her shy smile, and then she started to cry again. “Khanna is so sorry. Khanna did not come to live with Sid Marshall when he asked. Khanna not trust your other bitches. But Khanna trust Sid Marshall now. Khanna trust him forever and ever!”


    Then she was grasping me. “But we not safe yet. Khanna think Enak mark us in some way. Khanna is afraid for when the darkness falls. They will come for us.”


    I eased her back. “Yes, the Sleezenaks will come for us, but we’ll be ready. I have a plan.”


    Khanna looked at me with complete trust in their eyes. “Sid Marshall is the bright one. Sid Marshall will keep Khanna safe. All will be right.”


    “All will be right,” I agreed.


    It was late afternoon by that point, and we only had a few hours of daylight left.


    For whatever reason, the skies between the sectors had synced up, which was good and bad. If time flowed differently between the sectors, we could’ve had days to improve our defenses. As it was, we only had a handful of hours. But I hadn’t lied. I did have a plan.


    If they really wanted to eat me, well, two could play at that game.