Awake late in the night
Tess no longer saw both ends of the red-walled passageway ahead. The beast that bolted forward with its snout open blocked out everything behind it. The ache in her heart came after all her comrade's attacks passed through the beast like through the air. But how was that possible?
She was at the front of their formation and too close to the monster to stop running. She shifted aside and held one sword in its way to rip through its right leg. The beast ran through her sword, and something shifted in her head.
The wind didn't hit her as expected and her sword didn't vibrate. The monster's loud splashes in the water went out in the short moment it moved into her far corner vision. In a heartbeat, its large black figure was behind her, and her heart dropped.
She stamped onto her spikes in the water to stop running. But when she glimpsed behind, her eyes went wide. "Zack, it's right before you!" she screamed.