Perilous Pursuit

'Run, run, run! Don't look back!' Thanatos thought, his skull jostling on the mage's shoulders.

'Faster! Faster! I would have yelled if I had lungs, but this way I'm not disturbing your eardrums as much.' He thought as they raced through the cave, desperately trying to get away from the monster.

The mage sprinted like her life depended on it, which, technically, it did.

Her legs moved like pistons, her lungs worked like bellows, and her chest heaved like a seesaw.

With Thanatos bouncing on her back, she zoomed around corners, avoided outstretched claws by the skin of her teeth, and prayed that they'd outrun the monster.

"I think we lost it!" she gasped as they turned a corner, catching her breath.

The pair exhaled in relief, thinking they had outrun the beast.

But just as they started to relax, the ground beneath them shook once more.

This time, the roar of the monster echoed through the caves like a bass guitar with a bad attitude, sending shivers down their spine—well, at least the mage's spine.

With a blood-curdling scream, the mage took off again, Thanatos clinging onto her back for dear unlife, his silent thoughts echoing in his imagination: 'RUN! RUN! RUN!'

Clinging tightly to the mage's back, Thanatos felt an uncomfortable mixture of embarrassment and enjoyment.

'Okay, this mage might be a chump, but she's a lucky chump. The way she's dodging those attacks, it's more like she's tripping over her feet and just happening to avoid getting clobbered by the monster.

'… But she's gotta have some magic up her sleeve, right? Or am I giving her too much credit? If I had a voice, I'd ask her myself, but for now, I can only wonder. But hey, I'm not gonna complain about this ride. Her body is pretty damn soft for someone so rough-and-tumble,' a perverted smirk stretched across his face.

****

'Keep it together, keep it together!' The mage repeated this mantra in her mind, as she darted through the labyrinthine corridors.

The clamor of the pursuing beast echoed in her ears, her breath ragged and harsh.

'Oh gods, we're gonna die!' she thought, a chilling wave of terror washing over her.

'I should've paid more attention in combat magic class!' she chastised herself. 'But no, I had to focus on stupid divination and runic research. What good are runes now when there's a monster trying to eat me alive?! If only I knew some powerful offensive spells, we might've stood a chance.'

'I'm just a teacher at the academy. All I wanted to do was to explore this ancient ruin for research. That's why I recruited those adventurers—to protect me and handle any potential threats. But I never expected to face such a powerful and relentless beast! Gods, if only I had known... But there's no time for regrets now. We have to survive somehow.'

'If my students could see me now, they'd laugh themselves silly!' She continued in her head.

The mage cursed her luck. But before she could finish her thought, the monster appeared, its immense body blocking their escape.

The beast leaped overhead with a deafening roar, its sharp claws scraping the rock walls, and landed in front of them, blocking the way forward.

In sheer panic, the mage dropped Thanatos from her back, stumbling and falling to the ground.

"Come on, think!" she urged herself. 'You can't die here! There has to be a way out of this!' her mind raced with desperate thoughts as she tried to come up with a solution to escape from the beast blocking their path.

Thanatos, still unable to speak, pointed frantically to the ground. The mage stared at him in confusion.

"What do you want? Are you trying to tell me something?" she cried, her voice rising in desperation.

Thanatos, realizing she didn't understand, slammed his hand on the ground continuously.

The mage's eyes widened in realization. "You want me to immobilize it?" she gasped. Thanatos nodded frantically, his skull bobbing on his shoulders.

With hands trembling, the mage grasped her staff tightly, determination searing in her eyes.

She whispered something, and the cavern floor beneath the monster transformed into a slippery, greasy surface.

The beast, unaware of the treacherous terrain, attempted to give chase, but its massive legs slid out from under it.

It crashed to the ground, momentarily stunned, but quickly regained its footing.

The mage, undaunted, continued to cast, solidifying the substance around the beast's legs, trapping it in place like a statue.

The monster thrashed about, its roars shaking the very foundations of the cave.

But Thanatos, now fully mobile after reattaching his legs, quickly scooped up the mage and took off at a breakneck speed.

The cavern floor began to split beneath their feet, the monster's struggles causing the entire structure to collapse.

Thanatos leaped over gaping fissures, barely avoiding the crumbling stones and falling debris.

Behind them, the monster plummeted through the fractured earth, its roars silenced by the rubble that entombed it.

The mage's thoughts churned as they fled the collapsing cave:

'Incredible! How did he know to do that? This monster is no mindless beast—it's intelligent, resourceful, cunning. I've never seen a creature like it. And his plan was nothing short of genius. But what's he doing with me? Is he an ally or another danger?'

Her heart pounded with adrenaline and confusion, as they raced deeper into the caverns.

****

Thanks to his spectral vision, Thanatos could see the subtle changes in the magical energies, or 'magicules,' that surrounded the monster.

And as the creature stood there, he noticed that the magicules beneath its legs were less dense than usual.

His mind traveled back to when he and the mage first fell, and he had the idea to recreate the scene, he just had to wait for the right moment.

To find a place of weakness. And when he did, he exploited it fully.

'Ha! See, I'm not so weak after all!' Thanatos thought, a smirk on his skull as he sprinted with the mage in his arms.

'Okay, so I'm small and fragile, but I'm still pretty charming, aren't I? And now I'm the hero! The one who saved the damsel in distress. This is a legend in the making! Ahahahaha!' his mental laughter echoed in his mind, a giddy cackle that would've been terrifying if it wasn't so dang amusing.

Thanatos, smirking as he sprinted with the mage in his arms, heard the cavern floor collapsing behind them.

The ground gave way, the monster's tomb collapsing into oblivion.

Thanatos' reactions and vocabulary seemed unnatural for someone from Earth, especially for an author well-versed in the English language.

But for a being whose spirit longed for adventure, such details were trivial. In his mind, he was the triumphant hero, having saved the mage and escaped the crumbling cave.