Lune jumped to his feet, his senses screaming at him to move despite the exhaustion crawling over his body.
His blood ran cold as his head whipped in the direction of the roar.
A massive shape moved in the near distance.
The creature stood at least six meters tall, its body plated in jagged, rock-like armour that gleamed with a dull, iron hue. Six jointed limbs carried its mass with terrifying speed. Its face was a nightmare of serrated mandibles and shadowed sockets that burned a faint, hellish red.
It moved unnaturally fast.
Before Lune's eyes, it seized a skeletal scorpion in one claw and snapped it in half with a brittle crunch that echoed across the ruins. Another scorpion lunged, only to be swatted aside like a pebble, its body hurled through a crumbling wall. In the span of a few heartbeats, it tore through four, then five of the creatures, each one destroyed with effortless, brutal efficiency.
Lune ducked back, his heart hammering against his ribs. His hands clenched white-knuckled around his glaive.
'What the fuck is that?!'
He had nearly died fighting one scorpion. If that thing so much as looked his way, he'd be a red smear on the clay.
'I need to get away…'
He dared to take one last glance. The beast stood over the last scorpion's corpse, its mandibles clicking. For a single, breathless moment, it was still.
Lune didn't linger.
He broke into a sprint, boots slapping against the clay as he darted in the opposite direction.
Dust stung his eyes as he ran, but he forced himself to scan the horizon. The ruins were a shattered maze, but one landmark stood out.
A half-collapsed tower, jagged and leaning, but still standing, towered over everything else.
'If there's a temple out here, I'll see it from up there!'
He turned sharply toward it, legs burning as he poured every ounce of his strength into them.
But he didn't get to create much distance as a sudden shriek rang from behind.
A piercing, metallic cry split the air, so sharp it felt like a needle in his brain. Lune's blood turned to ice as he glanced back. The creature's head was turned, its burning sockets locked directly on him.
For an instant, there was silence. Then its limbs clicked, snapping into motion, and it surged forward at an immense speed.
"Seriously?!" Lune cursed, "Can't have a moment's rest in this damn place!"
The monster tore through the ruins, collapsing every wall it touched, as if they were made of sand. Stone exploded under its weight, the tremors rolling under Lune's boots. The clicking of its claws grew louder and faster, a horrifying rhythm that matched Lune's panicked pulse.
The tower loomed closer with each step.
His lungs felt as if they were on fire, each breath was a ragged gasp, becoming harder and harder with each moment.
Then, the creature's sound shifted.
The fast clicking sound subsided for a moment, giving way to something else.
Lune's eyes widened as he realised…
'It's about to lunge!'
The tower's entrance was right in front of him.
With a final, desperate burst, he dove through it, skidding across the cracked stone floor.
His eyes instantly found a spiralling staircase, winding up into the darkness above.
He didn't think. He just ran.
He took the steps two, then three at a time, his body fueled by pure adrenaline.
Behind him, the monster hit the entrance with an ear-splitting crash, tearing through the stone archway. Dust rained down as its massive body forced its way inside, the whole tower groaning in protest as if trying to keep the creature away.
The thud of its steps shook the spiral staircase, each impact rattling the ancient stone beneath Lune's feet.
He could feel it closing the distance faster than he could climb.
Then, a sudden crack echoed through the tower.
A step gave way beneath the monster's immense weight, crumbling into dust. For a split second, the rhythm faltered. Then another step broke, and another, until the entire section of staircase below it collapsed in a thundering cascade of falling stone.
The beast shrieked as it plummeted, swallowed by the debris.
But Lune's relief was short-lived.
Lune's relief, however, was short-lived as the collapsing stairs were now chasing him. Every step he took disintegrated a moment later. He threw himself upward, his vision scanning ahead, until he saw a half-standing platform jutting from the wall just above.
In that moment, the step beneath his feet crumbled.
"No, no, no—!"
With a desperate cry, he lunged forward.
His glaive clattered away as his left hand shot out, fingers hooking the rough edge of the platform. Pain screamed through his shoulder as his full weight yanked down, but he held on.
He gritted his teeth and swayed his body to claw the edge with his other hand, lifting his body up and over the edge with the remaining of his strength.
For a moment, he just lay there, staring at the fractured ceiling.
Then his gaze dropped downward.
Through the giant hole in the tower's side, he saw it. The beast was already clawing itself free from the rubble, its armoured body scarred but horrifyingly intact. It clicked its mandibles, dust drifting from its shell as it scanned the ruins.
Lune froze, scared to even breathe.
But then, with a final, frustrated shriek, the monster turned away. Its limbs carried it out of the tower and into the night, each step a distant tremor until it vanished into the gloom.
Only then did Lune let out a shaky breath. He collapsed onto his back, the jagged stone biting into his shoulders. The half-standing walls framed a view of the night sky and the distant horizon.
Far away, the colossal sand monster continued moving, each step sending a faint tremor through the world.
"That… was close," he whispered, his voice raw.
He let his eyes flutter shut as he simply focused on breathing, enjoying a moment of peace. Exhaustion took hold of him faster than he could've expected, dragging him down stronger than fear or instincts could.
The last thing he felt was the faint trembling of the earth as sleep claimed him.