Something happened.
The ground shuddered as the vines reacted to her desperate slam. She didn't stay to watch, it'd be the end of her if she did.
She twisted her body, ignoring the electric pain screaming up her leg, and rolled sharply to the side.
Good thing she did.
A thick vine, black and glossy and thrumming with life, whipped down with a howl of displaced air. It struck the stone where her hands had just been, carving a wicked gash into the cavern floor deep enough to hide a hand inside.
'That would have been me.'
The thought was sick and made her stomach clench, however she didn't have time to marvel. As the vine, failing to catch its prey, recoiled with a savage snap, it collided terribly hard with the helmeted head of the knight.
A wet, metallic crunch echoed through the cave as the knight staggered backward, its grip on her ankle vanishing instantly.
The girl didn't look back. She shoved herself upright, legs wobbling, lungs already shriveling from the effort.
Her battered arms flailed for balance. Her ankle, screaming, ever-so-barely held under her weight.
She ran anyway.
Behind her, the knight gave a muffled, guttural snarl — the first noise it had made so far — and slammed its trapped arm free of the stone with a hideous wrenching sound. Shards of rock rained down.
It clutched its masked face for a second before lowering its hand.
The black steel of the helmet had been cracked, just enough to reveal a thin, ragged gash across it... and behind that, part of a face. A single eye, glossed over and furious, stared out from the ruined mask.
It locked onto her.
The girl, half-turning as she fled, saw it all in one blurry instant.
The knight shifted its weight forward, froze, and jolted back just as another wild lash from the vine nearly caught it across the chest.
The sentient plantation wasn't attacking it specifically. It was still searching, mindlessly flailing for the prey it thought it sensed.
Tangled in the chaos of thrashing vines, the knight was momentarily pinned in place.
The girl pushed herself harder, staggering forward, her breath coming in ragged gasps. She didn't know how long that advantage would last. Seconds, maybe less.
She stole one last glance over her shoulder.
The knight glared at her from across the tangle of vines, hatred radiating from its one exposed eye like a physical force. Then, it turned and began marching toward another part of the cavern, disappearing into the gloom of the unilluminated darkness.
It was retreating. For now.
The girl stumbled to a halt, letting her body sag against the nearest wall. She didn't relax, she physically couldn't relax, but a deep, tremulous sigh escaped her lips.
'Move, move! It's not over!'
But her body only trembled uncontrollably in response.
The narrow hollow she had been aiming for was right there. A small, circular, dark tunnel in the cavern wall, just barely big enough for her to squeeze through. A knight in full armor would've gotten stuck, or at least slowed down badly.
Small blessings.
She gathered herself, took a deep breath and began to move again. She ducked into the hollow and pressed forward, dragging her battered body along its uneven path.
The further she went, the narrower it became, walls brushing against her shoulders. The air inside was damp, clinging to her skin in an unpleasant film.
After a few dozen steps, she noticed a myriad of different colored lights gleaming ahead, she almost smiled but just ended up shivering. After a few dozen more she emerged into a new space.
It was much smaller than the previous one, but the atmosphere changed sharply. Rows of beds — or what used to be beds — stretched in stiff, unnatural lines. Rusted metal frames, cracked mattresses leaking pale stuffing, decrepit and unused. Some had been knocked over, but most were still strangely neat.
The strangest part wasn't the beds, though. It was the crystals.
They erupted from the beds, the walls, the ceiling. Jagged, vibrant shards of blue, pink, and violet light, their surfaces glowing in the cavern's oppressive dark. Some crystals were small as teeth, others big enough to split the bed frames in half, forcing their jagged growths through the rusted metal like it was butter.
The air smelled faintly sweet here. In the center of the room, something else waited.
At first glance, she froze.
'Not again...'
The memory of the earlier fight surged up inside her, and her hands twitched toward the floor without thinking. Ready to slam and call the vines if she had to.
But the gelatinous spider didn't move.
Carefully, on trembling legs, she crept closer.
The gelatinous body, bloated and vile, sat motionless in the center of a shallow crater. A perfect, hexagonal hole had been punched straight through its core. The edges of the hole were too clean to be wild rending the vines had inflicted. Something else had killed it.
And inside the hole, nestled deep within the ruined spider-thing's remains, something else remained.
A small, wavering flame. It was a deep purple and black, barely larger than her first, floating in the gaping cavity of the creatures wound, suspended impossibly in the air.
The small lick of flame didn't waver with any breeze. It made no noise. It gave off no heat.
The girl stared at it.
It was strangely beautiful. A thing that didn't belong, a living contradiction.
A sensation creeped up her, the same sensation that caused her unintentional sizing up with the inhuman knight not long ago.
'Stupid, it's stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid.'
Her feet moved anyway, scraping softly against the crystalline-dusted floor.
Closer now, she could see the flame wasn't even really a flame, it was more of an orb that was leaking purple and black, the colors themselves. Something about it made her skin prickle.
Her hand lifted against her will, a fingertip extended, trembling slightly.
Her finger met the flame.