I lay flat on my stomach at the bottom of the steep decline, panting through gritted teeth while the black goo actively burned into my cheek.
Warm blood trickled down my temple, dripping straight into my stinging eye, but I didn't blink. I just stared through the concussive haze, watching hundreds of chaotic, overlapping golden shimmers paint the dark stone ahead of me.
Human footprints.
[I wasn't crazy…] I thought, letting out a ragged, painful breath. [Entropy is actually down here…]
My paranoia was completely validated, but the victory tasted like copper and bile.
And before I could even try to push myself up off the slippery ground, the noise in the cavern shifted.
The steady ta-ta-ta clicking echoing from the depths accelerated. The wet, rhythmic tapping abruptly fractured into a frantic, high-pitched chattering, while the low, guttural snarls twisted into raw, deafening shrieks that physically vibrated against my teeth.
