The ruby fragment in Nikos's pocket felt like a warm coal against his hip, its energy subtly boosting his speed as he fled the Shadow Collector. The second tunnel was much rougher, sloping upwards and twisting sharply. He could hear the heavy, frantic breathing and thudding footsteps of his pursuer echoing behind him, urging him faster.
He kept the red box activated, using its beam to illuminate a small, almost invisible crack in the ceiling of the tunnel. It looked like an old, sealed ventilation shaft. With a desperate leap, Nikos grabbed hold of a rusted metal grate covering the crack, placing one foot on the uneven wall for leverage. The effort was immense, and his fingers ached.
Just as he managed to pry the grate loose, a hand, clad in a thick, dark glove, snatched at his ankle. It was the Shadow Collector. "Give me the Ember Orb fragment, Red Boy!" the figure snarled, pulling with surprising strength.
Thinking fast, Nikos aimed the red box at the Shadow Collector's hand. The intense crimson beam struck the back of the glove. Instead of melting the metal, the light caused a jarring, high-pitched whine from the Collector’s uniform, and the hand recoiled instantly, as if shocked. The Cinder Seeker technology was a natural defense against the Shadow Collectors!
Nikos scrambled through the hole just as the Collector recovered. He found himself not in another tunnel, but inside a massive, forgotten ventilation system. The smell of fresh, damp air told him he was close to the surface. He crawled quickly, the rhythmic thump-thump of the ruby fragment's energy guiding him toward a distant sliver of light—a loose vent cover leading back out into the night. His heart hammered, a mix of adrenaline and the thrill of having outsmarted his foe, for now.
