Kyen flew from the mouth of the canyon. His feet skidded as he hit the dirt of the path and bolted.
Fiends exploded out of the crevasse behind him. Shrieking and seething, the horde flooded onto the mountainside like a wave of black bodies.
Arms pumping at his sides, legs flashing over ground, Kyen glanced back. The forerunning fiends spread out. Their mouths leered as they gained on him, closing in from either side.
Kyen picked up speed. He reached the turn where the path descended along the top of the ridge. His feet pounded around the bend, slipping once in the gravel, but he caught himself on a hand and pushed himself faster. The fore-running fiends pounded at his heels.
The nearest lunged.
A spike of rock burst from the ground between, impaling the fiend midair. It shrieked and writhed, but several other fiends flashed past.
Kyen pulled the last arcstone from his pocket; its bead of power was the size of a droplet. Clenching his jaw, he gripped it and looked over his shoulder. The bulk of the horde overflowed the path behind him, gaining fast. His eyes flickered gold for a moment.
The path exploded into a mine-field of spikes. They jutted into the air, stabbing fiends off their feet, breaking up the surge of the horde and slowing them for a moment. The remaining fiends streamed around their impaled counterparts, two taking the place of every one that’d been impaled.
Kyen sprinted hard down the rest of the ridge. Ahead, the path met the cliff before diving down its face as the staircase. As he ran, he stole a glance at the arcstone. Only a pinprick of light remained in the center. With a grim set to his jaw, he put on an extra burst of speed. Pebbles flew as he ran for the stairs, but the fiends outstripped him on either side, pelting to reach the cliff first. He slid to a stop at the staircase and lunged down, bounding and scrambling down every zig and zag.
Fiends surged to the cliff top, colliding with the forerunners and knocking a few of them off the edge. Others leapt down headlong, their bodies dropping on either side of Kyen. He left the stairs at the bottom to find grinning fiends blocking the path. He veered off onto the ledge that spanned the breadth of the cliff.
The fiends growled and loped after him.
Extending a hand, Kyen dragged two fingers across the rock wall next to him as he ran. Light flashed from the line he marked. A deep thud through the rock followed. Fiends, running along overhead and outstripping him, leapt down to block the ledge’s exit.
Kyen stopped, whipping his fingers away from the wall. As he did, the arcstone flew out of his hand in a shower of glass dust.
Fiends crowded the cliff top, and several clambered down to join the growing crowd on either side of the ledge.
Breathing hard, Kyen sized up the fiends closing in from either side. The fiends in front leered at him and stalked closer. Those crowding the precipice overhead grinned down. Those behind watched him with lolling tongues. He backed to the center of the ledge.
A deep crack resounded from deep inside the cliff. Its top spat out a puff of dust in a long line, startling several of the fiends back. One ran forward anyway and leapt at Kyen from above. It pummeled into his back. They both tumbled to the ground and fell from the ledge. Kyen twisted to catch the lip, but the fiend dropped into open space. With a shriek, it plummeted.
Dangling from his arms, Kyen planted his feet against the cliff face. He started to hoist himself up but froze halfway.
A dozen grinning fiends crowded forward to meet him.
He glanced down.
The fiend thrown into the air hit the ground—a spray of giant boulders, sharp rocks and shale. A ragged tree stuck out an angle from the cliff side.
With a final look at the fiends, Kyen let go. He shoved off the cliff-face with his feet, propelling himself into the open air. He twisted around and free fell for the tree. His body hit the trunk, but the spindly tree bowed and snapped. He plummeted the rest of the way to the base of the cliff. He landed on the talus slope, toppling through the shale, and rolled up to a crouch amidst a small landslide. Winded and clutching his ribs, he pushed himself into a run. The fallen fiend charged out of the rocks after him.
The horde on the ledge let off a chorus of angry wails as it scrambled after him. They jostled their own over the edge in their haste. None heeded the bits of stone clattering down from the cliff top or the cascades of dust streaming down its sides.
When the horde swept onto the slope, it broke amongst the rocky, boulder-studded ground like black water over river pebbles.
Kyen fled ahead of them, weaving between the rocks. At the base of the slope, he vaulted up a house-sized boulder and clambered to the top to look back.
The entire horde filled the talus slope. Their wails rang back and forth through the valley.
Kyen’s stormy gray eyes tracked along their approaching ranks to rest on the cliff face.
Another deep crack resounded through the earth. The ledge of the cliff suddenly exploded as the face of the cliff split away from the mountain. A sheer slab, it tipped forward. Its bottom splintered and the cliff sank into itself, crumbling as it collapsed.
Kyen turned and, leaping from the boulder, entered the trees.
An earth-shaking thud threw him off his feet and grew into a thunder of crashing stone that roared over the wailing of the horde.
He scrambled back into a run, stealing one glance back.
The cliff face had disintegrated into a landslide. Boulders careened ahead of an avalanche of rock and dust. A great slab rode the center of it, pulverizing everything on the talus slope as if it were made of clay. The horde’s shrieking changed to wails of terror as the landslide bit into its rear flanks. They tried to escape off either side of the slope but the mass of crashing stone engulfed them.
Kyen pelted through the trees; trunks flashed past. The ground quivered under his feet, and the roar intensified to a deafening pitch. A handful of fiends reached the forest behind him, escaping as the landslide swallowed up the others and slowed at the base of the hill.
The trees parted, and Kyen burst out onto the sands of the glittering lake. He stopped at the edge of the water and looked back.
The remaining fiends burst out of the trees in pursuit. They stopped when they saw him, their grins stretching wide.
Several boulders, the last of the landslide, crunched into the grove behind them, shaking and toppling trees. In their wake, the largest of all—a great slab-like tower—collided with the boulder at the bottom of the slope. The boulder splintered to bits, and the slab catapulted upright, crumbling as it cleared the treetops.
The fiends poised to pounce.
Kyen watched them with a grim set to his jaw.
A shadow fell over them all.
Like a falling pillar, the slab slammed down on Kyen and the fiends. Its furthest rocks hit the surface of the lake, throwing out a spray of water. A tidal wave of dust, brought down by the landslide, engulfed everything.