Dominic stepped out from behind the pillar with slow and deliberate move. His muscles coiled tight.
He wasn't charging in like a true warrior, far from it. His legs still trembled, and fear clung to his ribs with every breath. His body screamed at him to turn back, to flee.
But the desire—the hunger—to seize this chance was bigger than his fear.
He needed this kill.
He swallowed his saliva, steadying his mind. The foreign power pulsed at the back of his thoughts, like a second mind waiting for direction.
Dominic focused on it, on that jagged arrowhead sigil, and the moment he willed it, something inside him clicked into place.
A sharp rush tore through his limbs. The world stretched, thinned, and then snapped into a new, faster clarity.
His body felt light.
"Blitz…" he didn't know the ancient language, but the word formed anyway, instinctively.
He moved.
To an outside eye, it would have been a blur like a smear of motion vanishing from one side of the chamber and appearing on the next.
To Dominic, his steps felt fluid, swift, but still entirely under his control.
The monster jerked its head, sniffing sharply. But it was too late.
Dominic flashed past it and slashed his knife across the creature's body. A thin spray of dark blood followed the motion, and he was already gone again, sliding behind another pillar before the monster even registered the strike.
The beast roared, spinning wildly, its claws smashing stone. It sniffed again, confused and panicking.
Dominic held his breath while crouched low. His heart hammered, but now it hammered with exhilaration, not terror.
The crescent-shaped sigil on his hand pulsed softly, wrapping him in a muted stillness.
"Cloak."
Its influence was subtle but absolute. The monster's eyes swept directly over his hiding spot, and yet its senses slid past him as if he weren't even there.
A laugh bubbled up in Dominic's chest. He really was invisible to the monster. This power was amazing!
He crept out again, fingers brushing the pillar as he circled. He did another focus on "Blitz".
And he began his attack.
He slipped out from behind the pillar again, channeling the sharp rush of "Blitz" through his limbs.
He closed the distance in an instant and carved his knife across the back of the monster's knee before it even sensed him.
Then he blurred away, vanishing behind another stone pillar as the creature spun around with a roar of frustration.
It whipped its head left and right, claws raking the ground, but Dominic was already preparing his next strike that was far too fast for it to track.
Dominic's breaths were sharp and shallow, his injuries were hurt again, but he didn't stop. He repeated the attack.
The monster grew more frantic with each slashes, stumbling and turning in useless circles, and howling in anger and pain.
Dominic's grin stretched wider with every pass.
"This is awesome!"
Dominic paused for a moment, breathing hard as he watched the creature.
It was clearly weaker now. Its movements were more sluggish and its snarls more strained. Dark red blood that looked thicker and murkier than human blood pooled beneath its body and smeared across the cracked stone floor.
"It's bleeding out…" he thought with triumph warming his chest.
But as he focused his gaze, that excitement slowly dimmed.
This wasn't a creature on the verge of death. Weakened, yes. Slower, yes. But its eyes still burned with feral rage, its breath still roared from its throat, and its stance— even though it was unsteady—was far from falling.
It wasn't going to die anytime soon.
Dominic clenched his teeth. If he was just waiting it could mean giving the Labyrinth time to throw something else at him. He couldn't afford to drag this out. He needed to finish it now.
He stepped out again, readying himself. His fingers tightened around his knife as he called for the power of "Blitz", feeling for that sharp rush again. Then he charged.
But then suddenly it vanished.
Dominic's entire body locked up in the middle of his step. The strength in his limbs evaporated. His legs went stiff. His breath jittered. Even his thoughts stuttered in place as if he just lost all of his energy.
"What… what happened?"
His eyes went wide in disbelief, but before he could even gasp, the monster's head snapped toward him.
It saw him.
For the first time since this fight began, those glowing eyes locked directly on him with perfect clarity.
"N–No—" Dominic choked out.
"Blitz" and "Cloak" were gone at once.
All the strength that had carried him through this fight was gone.
He felt like an empty shell.
"Damnation!" he cursed in his mind, panic clawing up his throat.
The monster lunged.
Its massive hand clamped around his neck, it lifted him off the ground before hurling him across the chamber with a furious snarl.
Dominic crashed into the stone floor shoulder first. Pain burst through his body.
He felt his already-broken ribs crack again.
Something in his arm also broke.
A strangled cry came out from him before the impact forced the air from his lungs.
He lay there, trembling, breathless, and powerless. Realizing that he had nothing left to rely on.
The monster stomped toward him, yellow eyes blazing with rage born from humiliation from Dominic's attacks earlier.
It looked at Dominic as if finally recognizing the tiny, fragile thing responsible for its pain.
Then it pounced.
Its arm swung like a hammer.
Dominic barely saw it through the haze of agony and panic before the blow struck his legs.
A sickening crack echoed.
"AAARGH!"
The scream ripped out of him, raw and desperate. White pain exploded up his spine, drowning his every thought.
The monster reared back, its vertical jaws peeling open, a guttural roar filling the chamber. Its voice vibrated against Dominic's bones, spreading terror through his chest.
Dominic's breath hitched.
He knew. He knew he was going to die.
He had been too reckless. He was just a child handed new powers and mistaking himself for a true warrior who had faced the danger of Labyrinth.
Just because he gained new powers, he thought he suddenly became strong and thought he could kill a monster by himself.
But he couldn't. He was still just a thirteen-year-old boy.
"Damnation…" The word throbbed through his skull as blood trickled down his temple.
"Why… Why now? Just when I finally got the power I wanted…"
Through his blurry vision, he saw the monster's vertical mouth close in, ready to clamp over his face and tear it apart.
He couldn't move or lift his arms. The certainty of death pressed against his skin.
Then—
FWOOOOSH!
He heard a sharp, slicing wind piercing the room.
A small, point-tipped object streaked through the air.
It struck the monster directly in the side of its head.
The monster froze.
A moment later, frost burst outward from the point of impact in white, crystalline patterns that raced across its flesh.
The ice spread fast crawling along its limbs and body.
In seconds, the monster was encased entirely in glittering, frozen crystal. Trapped in the middle of its snarl.
Dominic could only stare as the frozen monster towered above him like a statue.
Someone had just saved his life.
—