The air trembled as another monstrous roar shook the cavern walls. The atmosphere inside the rift was suffocating—thick with the scent of ash and damp stone. Lea stood beside Hugo, her mint pheromone flickering faintly around her like wisps of mist, its glow reflected on the crystalline walls that pulsed with eerie, otherworldly light.
"Hugo, behind you!" Lea shouted as a massive creature lunged from the shadows.
It looked like a hybrid between a centipede and a dragon—its carapace glistening black, its segmented body wrapping around stalagmites like a serpent. Each movement made the ground quake, dislodging rocks that clattered down the slopes of the uneven cavern floor.
Hugo turned just in time, his lime-scented pheromone flaring in the air like a burning storm. "Stay back!" he commanded.
