Ares ran.
Branches lashed at his face. His lungs burned. His ribs throbbed with every desperate breath. But the goblin was gaining.
"Faster than me. Stronger than me. I won't make it."
His legs ached, threatening to give out. His vision blurred from exhaustion. Bare feet struck uneven ground, sending jolts of pain up his legs. Too slow. The goblin's snarls grew closer.
Then—
System: WARNING—[ERROR]
A brief flicker of red in his vision. A static-filled message—illegible.
System: WARNING—[TERRAIN HAZARD DETECTED.]
His foot landed on nothing.
The ground vanished.
Gravity yanked him down. The world spun—flashes of jagged rock, twisting roots—then impact.
Pain.
A sharp, numbing explosion rippled through his back as he struck the cold, uneven stone. The momentum sent him tumbling down a steep, rocky incline. His body scraped against rough walls. Something cracked—his ribs? His arm? His skull throbbed with white-hot agony.
Then—silence.
Dust settled in the still air.
Somewhere above, faint screeches echoed. The goblin lingered at the edge—but it didn't follow.
It knew better.
Down here, something far worse was waiting.