The canyon floor had become a churning sea of sand and teeth. The worms, drawn by the initial disturbance, were now in a frenzy, their massive bodies erupting from the depths in terrifying displays of power.
The air vibrated with their deep, grinding roars. The path of stones that had seemed so clear before was now a treacherous, shifting obstacle course.
"Don't stop!" Jacob yelled, his voice strained. He was surprisingly agile for his age, leaping from one rock to the next with a desperate energy, but the pace was taking its toll.
His breath was coming in ragged gasps, and his movements were becoming less precise.
X, running just behind him, felt a strange shift in his own perception. The panic was still there, a cold fire in their veins, but it was being pushed aside by that same icy, analytical calm that had taken over during the fight with the scorpion.
The world seemed to slow down. X could see the trajectory of every leaping stone, the pattern of the worms' eruptions, the subtle shifts in the sand that telegraphed a new attack.
A worm burst from the sand directly in front of Jacob, blocking his path. Its maw, a gaping vortex of crystalline teeth, was wide enough to swallow him whole. Jacob skidded to a halt, trapped.
Without a moment's hesitation, X's body acted. It was another flash of inexplicable skill, a ghost of muscle memory from a forgotten life. X grabbed a loose, flat stone from the rock he were on, and with a flick of the wrist that felt as natural as breathing, sent it spinning through the air.
The stone skipped across the sand to the left of the worm, a sharp, distinct series of taps.
The worm, blind and guided only by vibration, reacted instantly. Its massive head swiveled towards the new sound, giving Jacob the opening he needed. He scrambled past it, his face pale with shock and exertion.
"How did you" he started to ask, but X was already moving past him.
"No time!" X shouted, the words feeling like someone else's. "Follow me!" X took the lead, no longer just following but actively forging a path. The strange, slow-motion perception held.
X saw the route ahead not as a series of individual jumps, but as a single, flowing line of movement. X's body responded, moving with a grace and confidence that was utterly at odds with his conscious mind.
They leaped, twisted, and slid, their feet finding purchase on the most precarious of holds, their balance perfect.
They were nearing the far side of the canyon, the steep cliff wall tantalizingly close, but the largest of the worms is a true behemoth that must have been ancient, erupted from the sand, cutting off their final escape route.
It was colossal, its body as thick as the ruin X had sheltered in, its head blotting out the sun. It let out a deafening roar that shook the very foundations of the canyon.
They were trapped.
The path behind them was gone, the stones swallowed by the churning sand. The cliff was ahead, but the monster was in the way.
Jacob raised his rifle, his hands shaking from exhaustion. "It's too big!" he yelled. "The gun won't even scratch it!"
X's eyes darted around, taking in the scene. The worm, the cliff face, the scattered rocks, and then, something else.
High up on the cliff wall, directly above the worm, was a section of loose, fractured rock, an overhang that looked dangerously unstable.
An idea, born of that same strange, instinctive knowledge, flashed into X's mind. It was insane, and impossible, but It was their only chance.
"Jacob!" X yelled, pointing at the overhang. "Shoot it! The rocks above it!"
Jacob stared, his eyes wide with disbelief. "That's a hundred yards! And it's a moving target! I can't make that shot!"
"Yes, you can!" X insisted, the certainty in his voice absolute. "Aim for the large fissure running through the center. A solid hit there will bring it all down!"
How did he know that? The knowledge of rock mechanics, of stress fractures and load-bearing points, it was just there, as clear and certain as the knowledge of hieroglyphs.
Jacob, seeing the unwavering conviction in X's eyes, seemed to make a decision. He trusted the instinct he couldn't understand.
He knelt, bracing the rifle on his knee, taking a precious second to steady his breathing. The giant worm began to move towards them, its approach a slow, inevitable earthquake.
Jacob fired, the crack of the rifle was sharp and clean. For a heart-stopping moment, nothing happened. Then, a spiderweb of cracks appeared on the rock face around the fissure.
A few pebbles fell. The worm paused, its head tilting as if confused by the new vibration from above.
"Again!" X screamed.
Jacob worked the bolt of his rifle, chambered another round, and fired. This time, the effect was catastrophic. With a deep, groaning crack, the entire overhang gave way. Tons of rock and debris rained down, a man-made avalanche.
The giant worm, directly beneath it, had no time to react. It was buried in a tidal wave of stone, its death roar a muffled, grinding crunch that was abruptly cut short.
The dust cloud was immense, choking the air. When it finally began to settle, the path to the cliff was clear. The monster was gone, entombed beneath a mountain of its own making.
The other worms, as if sensing the death of their leader, began to retreat, sinking back beneath the sand. The canyon fell silent once more.
X and Jacob scrambled the last few yards, hauling themselves up onto the solid ground of the canyon rim. They lay there, gasping for air, their bodies trembling with adrenaline and exhaustion.
After a long time, Jacob pushed himself into a sitting position. He looked at X, his face a mask of disbelief, respect, and a deep, unsettling fear. "Throwing the stone, knowing where to shoot, who are you?" he asked, his voice barely a whisper.
X looked at his own hands, hands that could throw a stone with pinpoint accuracy, that could channel a strange energy, that belonged to a mind that knew things it shouldn't. The void of amnesia was no longer empty. It was filled with ghosts, with echoes of a life of impossible skill and knowledge.
"I wish I knew," X said, and the words were the most honest and terrifying truth he had ever spoken.