Counting Seconds

We ran as fast as we could, Aurelius effortlessly slicing through anything that neared him. Once we reached the entrance a Nequam sprang out of the doorway, crashing on top of the both of us. We struggled frantically, trying to unpin our hands, when Alati was swiftly upon the Nequam that breathed a toxic stench into our faces, and threw it into the nearby flames.

Aurelius jumped up quickly, pulling me along with him. Once up he released my hand to grip his sword with both of his hands, allowing him to swing freely at the Nequam that fell over themselves to greet us on the stairway. As Aurelius covered what was up ahead I kept an eye on our back, mostly using my powers to push away anything that got too close to us, and slashing at the things that disregarded my attempt. The stairs were steep and twisted around the walls of the tower, giving me the view of my family fighting below in the open, round corridor.

When we had finally reached the top, Aurelius kicked the door open, the room full of Nequam. We sliced through them, standing back to back, causing the ones I cut to burst from the inside out while the ones Aurelius cut through just slumped to the floor. Once all of the monsters were destroyed we stood in the middle of the room taking one second to breathe, then another to glance at one another approvingly. Yet, at the top of the tower Nequior was no where insight. We glanced about the room, but it was completely empty, only a lighted lantern hanging from the ceiling casting our shadows across the floor gave any sign of a person being here. Aurelius began running his hand along the wall, looking for anything to help him find Nequior.

"Surely he's around here somewhere." I muttered, glancing about. There were no other room within the whole tower, only stairs, this room, and the open space bellow. I then noticed a small crack on the wall across from the door way. "What's this?" I asked, walking closer to it. I traced the long, thin crack with my own finger.

Aurelius came up behind me, layering his hand on op of mine to touch the crack, when the crack began to give off a hissing sound. We both backed away as a hole began to emerge from the wall, when out of nowhere a long limbed hand reached trough, grabbing hold of my dress, pulling me into the discovered entry way.