"Get your heads down or you will lose them," Marcus Vance hissed, shoving Silas behind a jagged sheet of warped iron as a volley of hot lead shattered the darkness.The heavy door to the prison armory had been blasted open, but what lay inside was no longer a standard human storage facility. The walls, floors, and ceiling were entirely choked by thick mats of a pulsing, bioluminescent fungus. The strange mold glowed with a sickly, pale green light, and it was actively eating away at the structure. Everywhere Marcus looked, heavy iron gun racks were being dissolved into rusty orange mush by the alien spores."We cannot stay in this corridor, Marcus," Lyra yelled over the deafening cracks of gunfire. She was pressed flat against a fungal-covered pillar, her fingers digging into the mossy growth. "Those rifles they are using are firing entirely too fast.""Those are the Warden's elite enforcers," Briggs shouted from a few feet away, ducking as a bullet chipped the concrete right above hi

"Watch the water, it is glowing too bright to be safe," Lyra hissed, her hand snapping out to catch Marcus by the shoulder before he stepped off the stone ledge.They stood at the entrance of the flooded sewers beneath Cell Block 4, but the familiar human brickwork had dissolved into something terrifying. The sewage had completely merged with a rushing, subterranean alien river. The water was a brilliant, pale blue, illuminated by thousands of long, eel-like predators twisting through the current. Their bodies were translucent, their skeletal structures pulsing with a bioluminescent chill that lit up the entire cavern."Great, more alien vermin," Silas grumbled from behind them, helping a limping Briggs down the wet stone steps. "Can they bite through leather boots?""They will bite through your bones if you linger," Lyra said, checking her crossbow string. "They hunt in packs. Keep your feet out of the deep pools.""We do not have a choice," Marcus said, looking back at the iron ladd

"Run for the pillars or you will be cut in half!" Marcus Vance shouted, his voice instantly swallowed by the mechanical roar of the automated defenses.The stone floor ahead did not lead back to a safe corridor. The blast from the wall had thrown them straight into a fused courtyard where the prison architecture had twisted together with alien ironwood trees. High above on the concrete ledges, heavy automated gatling turrets spun their brass barrels. The moment Marcus stepped into the light, the grid flared red."We are totally exposed out here!" Silas yelled, dragging Briggs behind a block of melted iron. "The guns are already tracking us!""Do not stop moving!" Marcus called back. He threw his arms forward, casting a massive cloud of his shadow shroud to cover the entire center aisle. "I will block the line of sight! Go!"The automated turrets did not care about the dark fog. The internal mechanisms clicked in unison, and a split second later, the courtyard erupted into a relentless

"Let go of the staff or it will drag you into the abyss!" Lyra screamed, her boots skidding across the broken stone as she tried to catch Marcus’s boots.The force pulling Marcus Vance was absolute. The black iron staff remained fused to his palm, acting like a magnet that towed his shadow shroud straight through the shattered oak doors of the central administrative tower. The grand entrance hall was a nightmare of architecture. A colossal, predatory alien banyan tree had burst through the lower levels, its massive crimson roots twisting through the spiral staircases and splitting the marble floors like dry twigs. The air smelled of sap and old paper."I can't break the grip!" Marcus shouted back, his shoulder slamming into a splintered wooden desk as he was hauled up the wide steps. He used his free hand to punch the stone railing, channeling his monster essence to drop his weight.With a loud crack, the magical tension snapped. The red crystal on the staff dimmed, releasing his hand

"Get behind the iron pumps right now or the blast will take your skin off!" Marcus Vance screamed, his voice raw as the red numbers on the crystalline timer dropped down to twenty seconds.The glowing crimson light inside the calcified bone shell was flashing so fast it hurt to look at. Silas and the surviving inmates scrambled backward, their boots slipping on the wet floorboards as they dove behind the heavy metal machinery. Lyra stood her ground for a second longer, her crossbow lowered, before Marcus shoved her behind a stone column."Marcus, you cannot break that bone with raw force!" Lyra shouted over the rising whine of the machine. "It is absorbing everything you throw at it!""I am not going to hit it hard yet!" Marcus yelled back, his teeth chattering violently as he reached down to grip the silver dragon amulet against his chest. "I am going to change its structure first!"Marcus closed his eyes, ignoring the frantic ticking that had now reached fifteen seconds. He did not