Page 72 of House of Lilith

And the next second, when it dissipates, I see a veritable jungle has appeared all around us. There’s a moment of silence as we all stand there, taking it all in. There are strange sounds coming from all directions, the movement of the giant, succulent leaves in the wind, the swaying of the thick vines hanging from the trees, the soft clicking of something from the shadows.

It’s only when I see a vampire guy to my left tense up that my eyes dart in its direction. There’s a crocodile on thick spider legs making its way down one of the trees.

My breathing goes shallow as I watch its movements, suddenly aware of a whole host of them observing us from both the trees and the ground as they slowly close the distance.

I sense some of the players get a move on and my eyes dart to my right, spotting a weapons rack they’re moving towards. Normally, as a shifter, a weapon would only slow me down…

I take a second to assess my fox’s state. It’s ‘the girl’ he has his focus on, standing behind us but close enough for him to catch her scent. And I know he’s not doing it because he’s stupid or reckless. He’s seen the croc spiders and decided they’re nothing to worry about.

Butheis, I think to myself. He’s been behaving so strange lately and I can’t be sure he wouldn’t do something stupid.

So I dart over to the weapons rack, keeping one eye fixed on the creatures lurking from the shadows, moving as if they’re trying to slowly encircle us. If at all possible, I intend on staying the fuck away from them so I reach for something long range. A javelin.

A javelin that gets snatched from me by none other than the asshole prince. For a second, he keeps standing there, the weapon in his hand and a smirk on his face. Then he zaps himself away, leaving me struggling not to start after him so I can break his fucking neck.

Fucking asshole, I think as I throw daggers after him. But I’ve no time to lose, so I pick the next best thing, a chainshot with two heavy metal balls connected by a thick chain. I wrap it around my fist and I follow the other players, who are already taking their positions, getting ready to start moving to the other side of the circle.

There’s a moment of silence during which I throw a glance around me, spotting Romanov standing all the way to the left, preparing to move. I frown.

No weapons? She took nothing?

But it’s at that very moment that one of the players, a short fae-blooded guy, starts charging through the jungle with a loud battle cry.

The next thing I know, a croc spider is kicking its legs off a tree and slamming into the poor bastard.

He thrashes. I watch the legs wrap around him and the crocodile jaw snap open only to close once it’s around his shoulder.

The sound is sickening, making the fae let out a scream that penetrates deep into the bones.

Once it dies down, the Box zaps him out, the rest of the players, as well as the audience, still in shock.

Then we start moving again. And just like that, there’s nothing but the Game on my mind.

*

Panting, I plant my feet firmly on the ground, zero in on another one and swing my arm back, catapulting the chainshot out of my grip.

It whips at the air as it goes, but it hits the target, wrapping itself around the croc spiders mouth and making it come crashing off the tree.

Another one, I think as I glance over my shoulder to see the ground strewn with their corpses, my lips curling into a smile.

But this is no time for gloating. The other side of the first circle is fast approaching and I might only have to kill a couple more to get to it. So I snap out of it, fix my eyes back ahead and keep moving.

It makes me stop midstep, when my fox starts sniffing like crazy.

My eyes snap to my left and I see her jump down from a tree and push herself up, that knife she cut the apples with in her hand and a pile of bloodied croc spider corpses around her.

She notices me watching and for a second, our eyes meet.

My fox thrashes inside me and I almost give in, but the next moment, she’s tearing her eyes away from mine and darting ahead.

It makes me snap out of it.Iwant to be the first to finish the first round. I dart after her, taking one more croc spider down before the edge of the circle draws closer.

I see her leap over the chasm and deftly land on the second circle.

I come to a screeching halt, observing what kind of terrain the currently empty stone surface will birth.

My eyebrows shoot up when I see cliffs burst out, so pointy, they look downright deadly.

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