I could feel my skin sizzling underneath my coat; Nightmouth's plague was about to devour us. We wriggled and pushed ourselves further back as if the ground would somehow open up to let us in. Why not? It had happened once before.
'Can't take much more of this!' Asher gritted.
I'd never thought I would die this way; at least I could take solace in knowing that it would be quick. I forced my eyes shut tightly again, only reopening them when I heard Violet call out in confusion.
'You're doing it again, Jake!'
I had no clue what she was talking about until I saw them falling all around us like gentle snowflakes. Large glowing orbs that seemed to pop whenever they touched something. I prayed silently, hoping that I hadn't just summoned the destroyer. Words couldn't describe how much I hated that thing. While it had saved me last time, it'd also killed hundreds without so much as batting an eye.
'Well, this is different.' Nightmouth's plague was suddenly quelled as a spherical barrier formed around us, and I couldn't help but stare up at its pointy-eared head.
Violet laughed. 'Is it a rabbit?'
'I think so.' Similar to my other spectral saviours, this one didn't speak. It did bear a permanent off-centred grin made up of joined orbs of light, though.
'It's more like a star constellation.' Asher noted.
As we struggled to stand up to take a better look, we toppled over each other like drunkards in a late-night bar. The floor was rolling away beneath us, and whichever direction we leaned, we ended up moving that way, much like one of those large Zorb balls back on Earth.
Violet punched Asher in the arm. 'Stop it already!' He didn't listen, though; instead, he kept leaping from side to side and bouncing against the elastic matter of the barrier that was protecting us. 'I said, stop it! If Jake's barrier fails on us, we're all done for!'
The situation was already tense, and Asher seemed determined to make it worse. 'Fine.' He huffed, choosing to sit down with his arms folded and legs crossed like a child having a tantrum. 'What's your plan for getting us out of here then, hotshot?'
Violet looked over at me, and her eyes were filled with admiration. It was unsettling. She wouldn't be feeling that way for much longer, though, not with the plan I had for getting us out of here.
'What the hell's going on?' Asher demanded. He was the first to see the spectral rabbit's spring-like feet appear out of nowhere and start to extend, revealing two powerful legs made of light. He stared at Violet and then at me as he noiselessly pleaded for answers.
I couldn't reply, though; once again, I had no control of my voice, but I could still move my body. I smiled wickedly while pointing at Asher with my index finger before raising it to meet my lips. Then he nodded like a bull, having received the barely veiled message to be quiet.
When the rabbit's legs were finished growing, I felt myself being pulled closer to the strange barrier. There was already a powerful connection between us, and somehow I knew that I could control the entity this time.
The spectral rabbit crouched as if it was preparing to call upon vast quantities of energy. And if Asher and Violet thought I was crazy now, they would have a fit after seeing what was to come next.
'Please, no.' Asher squealed.
Violet just laughed at him as she braced.
When the rabbit jumped, it did so with such force that we could see a ripple of dust spreading out in our wake. The pair of them were now tumbling around the sphere as clothes would jostle around in a washing machine. And the momentum had them pinned to the bottom of the thing with every metre that we climbed.
Violet slapped my face before pointing at the sky, and I realised I'd been miles away when I saw that Nightmouth's acidic fog was blocking our path. In my last-minute attempt to slow us drastically, I hadn't warned Asher and Violet, so they crashed into the top of the sphere before falling back down.
In seeing them lying there, unmoving and helpless, I was filled with a sense of urgency. So I pressed my hands firmly onto the sides of the barrier while allowing whatever magic I had inside me to flow into it. At least, I hope it worked that way; otherwise, I was wasting my time.
It turned out to be the latter. And now, we were falling fast with a monsoon of black corrosive rain splashing at us from what seemed like every angle. Then something too quick to see reached down from its stormy disguise to swat at us, and, suddenly, we found ourselves pinging off the building's ruined stone and snapped metal fixings like some twisted version of an old pinball machine.
I must have hit my head repeatedly, and by the time I'd shook off the groggy haze, I noticed that we were plummeting through Runazia's endless twilight sky. We'd somehow bounced our way out of the tower and were free of Nightmouth's grip.
'Jake!'
I looked to see what Violet wanted and realised that we were heading straight back down. Not only that, our barrier was still letting us feel the cold wind. And the more she tried to open her mouth to talk, the more the gales seemed to make her gums wobble.
When she pointed through one of the clear patches of the sphere, I glimpsed the steep sandy dunes that were eagerly awaiting our landing. I didn't even want to consider what was about to become of us when we struck the ground at such a high velocity. It couldn't be anything good, that was for sure.
Violet's jaw dropped, and she had to snap it shut. 'Oh, come on. How are you doing this?'
I still had no idea, but it felt good to do something that others could not for once.
Hundreds of baby spectral rabbits started to appear and disappear beneath us in quick succession, each one slapping tiny paws against the bottom of the sphere with all of their might before flashing back behind the others to do it again. They'd somehow created a curved slope for us to sail down, and it was an incredible sight to behold.
When we hit the ground, we bounced a little, sending plumes of sand and stone flying into the air until we landed again and skidded to a halt. We'd made it out, but I felt so weak now that our spectral rabbit guardian was starting to flicker and develop tiny holes throughout its body. Even our spherical barrier at its core began to suffer from the occasional tear where orbs struggled to stay fused.
The rabbit lost an ear next as some of the orbs started to dissipate in groups. And it was becoming apparent that the summoned entity's active timeframe was similar to before; we wouldn't have long before our saviour was gone for good.
An obnoxious rumbling startled me, and as I looked back to where we'd just came from, I sighed with exhaustion. Nightmouth was right behind us again; only this time, the entire northern horizon appeared black. Even the sky in that direction seemed to be unnaturally bland, without so much as a hint of light. It was now a race to see who could reach Jasper first; we'd only have to hope that he was still alive by the time we got there.