COBALT: The Red Phantom (Book One)

Chapter 12: Molve Bait (part 4/4)

          The boy gave a thumbs up. "How's this?"

          "You could lose the mask, it looks even creepier now." Káel panted, gasping for air as his stamina wore out.

          "How rude. That is my face I'll have you know." Phantom nudged his head to the side. "Make a left."

          Káel turned left to face a staircase, grinding his heels into the ground to slow as he closed the small stretch of a corridor. There was a large window leaking the light of day at the top, it's halo transfixing his desperate gaze. 

          Hope. 

          He stopped to look back at his team, the two Molves were almost upon them. "Hurry!" He panted, pointing to the staircase.

          Xavier nodded, then looked behind him and shot a blue orb into one of the Molve's faces, making it stumble and trip the the other Molve that had been running beside it. Puff and Cinder were the first to get up the staircase, followed by Vera and Xavier, then Janiel and Talli.

          The Molves had recovered, and were inches from catching Alestra, she wasn't going to make it. Káel grabbed Phantoms rock from his pocket and held his free hand out towards the Molve. "Rastasnatch!"

          Alestra widened her eyes and ducked, the large fireball that went whizzing through the air just missing her face and colliding with the Molve's, making it trip head over heels. 

          Alestra couldn't slow her momentum in the panicked run, using Káel as a soft landing by tackling him against a wall.

          "Sorry," she quickly panted, ripping him back onto his feet and shoving him at the stairs to keep moving.

          "Quit dawdling!" Janiel yelled, palms on the ground as the staircase filled with a thick sheet of ice.

          Alestra pulled Káel up the staircase while he gawked, barely slipping past a Molves that leap to snatch him, slipping and flailing as it landed on the smooth ice. The second Molve tried to use its fallen comrade as a boost, and readied itself to jump off its friends face, but Alestra muttered a quick spell and a large vine broke through the wall, whipping it in the face mid jump and sending it tumbling down the stairs.

          The Molves scrambled to get to their feet again, angrily watching their prey escape through the window. Vera waited until almost everyone had made their escape, muttering under her breath and forming a small orb of blinding light in her hands. When Káel and Phantom were the last to make their escape, she threw the ball at the Molves and jumped through out to freedom, landing on a slanted shingled roof with a loud sigh.

          A light brighter than day flashed through the opening, then as quickly as it had come it vanished. "That should blind them for a bit." Vera smiled with satisfaction. "We should start heading back now, we only have twenty minutes."

          Alestra nodded, wiping the dirt off her combat suit, but when she reached her chest level, disgust flashed across her face, and she flicked drips of muddy water off her hand. Looking to Káel she found her answer. "Wow, you're as burnt as you are wet."

          Káel remained expressionless, giving off an irritated aura as he took the battered medallion off and held it out to his team. Upon realizing what he was holding, his entire team acted like he was holding a fistful of candy, showering him with hugs and emptied praise, despite the fact he was still sopping wet.

          By using the jutting stones and gaping cracks as handholds, they safely made it down the side of the cathedral, sat on the lush grass counting their points. Vera and Xavier had snagged five, blaming the dark for their lack of a decent haul, while Alestra counted eight that her team had acquired, also putting the medallion onto their pile.