Fastest Hero Alive Ch 16

Warning, This chapter is rated PG-13 because of some instances of graphic violence, you have been warned.
The moment my feet hit the ground on the other side of that fence, I wish I could have been any place else. It was like a magic fog covered the area and blinded people to what was on the other side so that when you’re outside, it doesn’t look that bad but once you’re inside, it’s about a hundred times worse. Hell hounds walked along the ground, ripping people apart and furies picking up others; dropping them into pools of lava or just letting them hit the stone ground. Then, these people would just magically reform without a scratch and some new painful thing would befall them. It was hard to watch, but we didn’t have much choice. Hades hated unwanted quests, especially living ones and most of his minions were ordered to kill them on sight. We had to move slow, hiding behind rocks or ducking behind geysers of smoke; it wasn’t an easy thing to do because the furies seemed to see everything when flying as high as they could before dropping another person to their everlasting suffering. What really worried me were the hell hounds, they were big, had sharp teeth, great hearing, and could sniff out the living if they really tried, but most of the time they didn’t have to unless something alerted them; something we would try to prevent.

“Does anyone know how to find Tanalus?” asked Malcolm once we found a spot to catch our breath.

“I know how to find him,” Erika said, “that fruit is the only living thing in this entire field and I can track it. The stronger the feelings of life get, the closer we will be.”

“So where is he from here?” I asked. Erika closed her eyes and moved her hand around as if she were a dousing rod looking for water. Her arm even shook when it hit a certain direction.

“It is over that way, straight ahead.”

I looked in the direction she was pointing and noticed a small cave. Maybe if we could get to it we could at least hide from the watchful eyes of the furies. “Cover me.”

Malcolm put an arrow in his bow and looked around. “Go now,” he said and I went running in a mad sprint into the cave. I took a quick look to see if anyone noticed but everything was still as grim and painful as before. I waved my arm telling the next person to come and Erika ran in after me. She stumbled on a rock and fell to the ground; a hell hound lifted its head and looked around with its ears perked up like a wolf hunter its prey. It began to sniff in our direction and was getting closer to Malcolm with every step. Erika was still on the ground to scared to move and from the hounds angle he couldn’t see her. Right now however I was more worried about Malcolm.

Then, I heard some more rocks fall from somewhere else and I saw a middle aged man fall to the ground. This got the attention of the hound and it chased him down and grabbed him by the leg. It started to drag him off to places unknown, but I saw a smile on his face. It felt that him knowing he saved our lives from that monster was enough for him to endure whatever pain was going to happen next and it made me sad. I didn’t know who that man was but he didn’t deserve to be here.

Malcolm got up shortly after when I signaled to him the hound had left and as he ran, he grabbed Erika by the arm and they followed me into the cave. It was pitch black up ahead but Erika pulled some seeds out of her pocket. She sprinkled them with water and they grew into some kind of glow-in-the-dark vines that wrapped around her arm.

“These are a special kind of plant I have been working on; they’re my bioluminescent arm light. Here, all you have to do is place them in your hand and put some water on them.” Erika explained as she passed around two or three seeds to me and Malcolm. We did as she instructed and the vines wrapped around our arm to light up the darkness of the cave. “I am getting the strongest felling down this tunnel, come on and follow me.”

As Erika walked down the twisting paths of the cave, Malcolm walked in front to make sure nothing surprised us and I was watching our backs. There wasn’t a lot of room to fight if we had to and I think we were all a bit nervous. Plus those lines from the prophecy kept ringing in my ear. ''Leaving one to remain, instead of the three. ''