I Evolve 10,000 Times Faster

The rift pulsed once.

Then the mist came.

It poured from the swirling vortex like water from a broken dam. It hit the arena floor and spread in every direction, swallowing the stone, the broken stage, and the emergency lights in seconds.

Within ten seconds, the entire locked arena dome was pitch-black.

The emergency lights died. The holographic screens went dead. Every camera in the stadium shut down simultaneously.

From outside the golden barrier, the audience and instructors saw nothing. Just a dome of impenetrable blackness where a bright arena had been a moment before.

Inside, the screaming became intense.

"Everyone shut up!" Holden’s voice cut through the chaos. "Panic kills faster than monsters. Grab the person next to you. Right now."

A hand found his arm. Maeve. Her fingers were trembling but her grip was firm.

"I’ve got you," she said.

"I know. Stay close."

Other hands found each other in the dark. The screaming faded to whimpers and ragged breathing.

"Lyra. Emric. Renna. Sound off."

"Present," Lyra said, her voice steady despite the darkness.

"Accounted for," Emric reported.

"Right here, right here, I’m right here, don’t leave me in this." Renna’s words tumbled over each other.

Holden reached back and found Renna’s shoulder. Then Emric’s shield. Then Lyra’s arm.

"Chain formation. Hold hands. I’m in front. Maeve stays directly behind me. We move southwest toward the maintenance tunnels under the bleachers. Keep moving. Hold hands. Don’t look back."

He started walking.

The black mist swirled around his legs.

Behind him, he could hear the shuffling footsteps of his team and the dozens of freshmen who’d latched onto the chain. Someone was crying quietly. Someone else was whispering a prayer.

Click. Click. Click.

The sound came from everywhere and nowhere. Mandibles. Coming from the mist to their left. Getting closer.

Holden picked up the pace.

"There’s a service door behind the collapsed seating section," Lyra said from behind him. "Approximately forty meters southwest. I noted it during the intermission."

"Lead the angle. I’ll handle the path."

"Five degrees right."

Holden adjusted.

The mist got thicker. He could barely see his own hand in front of his face, and he had Maeve’s fingers wrapped around the back of his jacket. The sounds of monsters grew louder on all sides.

A freshman somewhere in the chain screamed.

"Keep moving!" Holden shouted. "Do not stop!"

Thirty meters.

Something jumped out from the mist to their right. Holden heard it coming a half-second before it arrived. He spun, sword flashing in the dark, and and felt his blade hit the creature’s body.

Thwack.

The shape crumpled without a sound. He didn’t wait to see what it was.

Twenty meters.

The collapsed bleachers appeared from the mist, looking like a dark silhouette against the deep shadows. The pile of bent metal and shattered concrete formed a sharp, uneven barrier.

"There!" Lyra pointed.

Through the dark, they could just barely see a metal door. It was half-covered by a fallen bench. The handle glowed faintly with emergency phosphorescent paint.

Holden reached it first and shoved the door open. Cold air rushed out, carrying the smell of dust and old pipes.

"Everyone inside. Move!"

He grabbed the first two freshmen and physically pushed them through the doorway. Then the next two. Then the next. Emric took position at the door, using his shield to funnel people through. Renna stood behind him, bow drawn, aiming into the black mist even though she couldn’t see anything.

The chain of students poured into the tunnel. Twenty. Thirty. Forty. All of them stumbling over each other in the dark, guided by Emric’s calm voice counting heads.

Maeve was the last one through before Holden.

"Clear?" he asked Emric.

"Forty-one students accounted for. All present."

"Get back from the door."

Holden was about to follow them in when the mist behind him shifted. Like something large was parting it on purpose.

Eyes appeared in the dark. Six pairs. Low to the ground. Glowing faintly purple.

Abyssal Hounds. A full pack. Five meters away and closing fast.

"Move!" Holden shouted into the tunnel.

The first hound burst from the mist at full speed. Holden’s sword caught it across the neck mid-leap. It hit the ground dead.

But the others were right behind it. Four more hounds poured through the gap, streaming toward the open doorway.

They weren’t going to make it.

Lyra stepped past Holden.

Her spear was in her hand. Her eyes were closed. Frost began to crystallize in her hair and along her eyelashes.

"Lyra, don’t," Maeve said from inside. "That technique isn’t stable at your level!"

Lyra ignored her.

She thrust her spear forward and pulled.

The temperature plummeted.

A blizzard burst from Lyra’s body in a violent, screaming wave of ice and wind. It wasn’t a controlled technique. It was raw, unfiltered frost energy blasted outward with maximum force.

The hounds froze mid-charge. Ice crystallized over their bodies in seconds, locking them in place like ugly statues.

The blizzard kept going. It hit the doorway and kept spreading, coating the frame, the walls, the floor. A wall of solid blue-white ice sealed the entrance completely, three feet thick.

Inside the tunnel, the temperature dropped to freezing.

Lyra lowered her spear.

Then she coughed.

She doubled over and something blue and luminous splattered onto the concrete. Frost blood.

"Lyra!" Maeve ran forward and caught her as her knees buckled.

Lyra’s skin was pale blue. Frost crystals formed on her lips with every breath. Her eyes were unfocused.

"Her meridians," she whispered. " They’re broken. Pushed too far."

She collapsed into Maeve’s arms, shivering violently.

"Emric! Renna! Help me get her against the wall!"

Emric and Renna rushed over. They carried Lyra to the far end of the tunnel and propped her against the wall. Maeve pressed her fingers to Lyra’s wrist and counted.

"Pulse is weak but steady. She’s alive. But the frost backlash damaged her energy channels. She needs a real medic, not me."

Renna crouched beside them, her bow still clutched in hands.

"She saved us. She saved all of us. That ice wall is the only thing keeping those things out."

Holden stood at the frozen doorway. He pressed his palm against the ice. Cold seeped into his skin. Beyond the wall, he could hear the mist churning. More hounds. The rift pulsing in the distance.

The ice was thick. Three feet of solid frost. But it was already cracking. Thin lines spread across the surface where something on the other side was testing it.

"Emric. How long does that wall hold?"

Emric closed his eyes and calculated. "Based on the observed density and the estimated force being applied by the creatures outside, I would estimate eight to twelve minutes. Possibly less if larger entities arrive."

"Not enough," Maeve said quietly.

"No," Emric agreed. "It is not."

Holden looked at his team. Renna was shaking but holding it together. Emric was grim but focused. Maeve was pressed against Lyra’s side, keeping her warm. Lyra was unconscious and pale as snow.

Forty-one students huddled in the dark tunnel behind them, terrified and silent.

Holden made his decision.

He turned to a small grate in the wall near the ceiling. A maintenance air vent. The screws were old and rusted. He grabbed the edge and pulled.

Clank.

The grate came free in his hands.

"Where does that go?" Renna asked.

"Back up to the arena floor. Different section."

"You’re not seriously going back out there."

Holden grabbed the edge of the vent.

"Stay down. Keep quiet. Don’t open that door for anyone but me."

"Holden." Maeve’s voice was sharp. "Holden, look at me."

He paused.

She was staring at him with those sharp, knowing eyes. The same look she’d given him a hundred times in the slums when he was about to do something dangerous.

"You come back," she said.

"Always do."

He pulled himself up into the vent and disappeared into the dark.