I slipped Sam’s strange contraption into one of the vacant dagger pockets and started a light jog in the general direction of the farm. I could hear footsteps pounding around the room above me, and I felt my heart race. 

Slamming my fist into the wall next to me, I focused all my attention on the pain in my hand rather than my racing thoughts. Panic gets you killed, and I couldn’t afford to die when I was so close to finally being free. 

Since they were so close, they were bound to hear my movement, so my only chance was to make a run for it and not look back. 

Assassins didn’t just have weapons; they had drones and familiars. Each device and animal was trained to sniff out and attach themselves to targets, sniffing them out faster and swifter than the human eye or nose could. Being in such close proximity to assassins meant that if they started in pursuit, unlike back at home where they couldn’t display their entire force to keep up appearances, here underground, where no one could hear my screams, I was going to be met with the full force of what damage an assassin could do.

I took in a few breaths and patted myself down. There weren’t any treats in my bulletproof full-suit coverings, but my neck, head, and parts of my hands were exposed, so I had to fix that. My gloves were suitable for grappling and quick work with daggers, but things would get dangerous fast, so I needed to cover all exposed skin. 

As scratching and whining started on the trap door above me, I calmly pulled a balaclava from a concealed zipper and pulled it over my head. Making sure to tuck the excess flaps into my collar, I pulled gloves from another concealed pocket in my pants and pulled those over my current gloves. These completely covered my fingers and went to my wrist, giving me an extra layer of protection for my vital areas. 

I patted myself down again and heard a dog biting down and whining as it tried to wrestle with the trap door. It could smell me down here and had picked me out before the human assassins had realised that I was down here. Good, I had a few seconds. 

Satisfied with my full coverage, I took in a deep breath. I couldn’t mess this up. I had to run precisely where I needed to go. If I stopped for a second, I would be fighting against opponents who wouldn’t give it a second thought to rip out my jugular. 

Based on what I remembered of the map. I needed to keep heading west if I wanted to hit the farm. BiBi always had difficulty getting away from his chores as he was such a sweet guy and couldn’t say no to a genuine request from his parents. I was sure I’d be finding him tilling the soil at a field somewhere, so as long as I hit overgrown mushroom-filled tunnels Westward in these catacombs, I was sure to come out in one of the country roads that cut through BiBi’s Families’ farmlands. 

I breathed in deeply, and as I did, I knew the hound above me heard me. It paused as if its ears had pricked up, listening for anything unusual. 

Steadying myself and my heart, I bent low, getting myself in a sprint position as I visualised the tunnels I was looking for. I kept my eyes focused ahead of me, reminding myself not to look back for anything because I knew that some of those familiars were not to be tested. 

“Lions and tigers and bears, oh my,” I said aloud, breaking the tension by reminding myself of an old children’s story, and kicked off, sprinting down the corridor as fast as I could. 

In the distance, a howl could be heard, and just as I thought, it was followed by a blood-curdling screech. The sound of wood crashing and something heavy thudding down made all the hair on my body stand on end, but it didn’t stop. I was running out of time, and the last thing I wanted was a distraction. 

I pounded through corridor after corridor. There was only one way to defeat a familiar: to run it out. Each familiar was controlled by magic via the radius of the proximity of the tamer. Depending on the magical level and the size of the familiar, the radius could be as small as one metre, so as far as one kilometre. I have yet to meet anyone with a further radius than that, so I knew that if I kept moving as far as possible from their tamers, I would be able to outrun them. 

Once the familiar reached the magical radius, an invisible barrier would bar it from going further. No matter the size or power of the familiar, once the radius was reached, it was like an invisible leash pulled them back and got them on the edge until their tamer caught up with them, and then the radius extended further. 

The first attack I felt was tiny pinpricks all up and down my back. Some’s wasp was trying to slow me down. However, it would have been effective if my suit wasn’t bulletproof. It still hurt like hell, and as the wasp swung around and lunged at my face, I was so glad that I put on my bulletproof gloves as I could swat it away from my face. Only my eyes were exposed; however, I didn’t doubt that to serve its master, the familiar wouldn’t hesitate to stab me right in the eye. 

A scratch could be heard as the wasp cried out from being swatted, and I saw it swing around with a vengeance. However, as I kept going, it suddenly yanked back. Its radius had been reached within what looked like 3 metres from where I started. 

I felt a surge of relief, and I shook myself out of it and pushed myself on faster. Just because I couldn’t hear or feel another attack doesn’t mean another familiar wasn’t close behind. 

Just as I steeled myself and turned around a sharp corner, I heard a growl and found myself pushed down as something heavy barreled itself into me. I forced myself to summersault, throwing off whatever creature had reached me, and for a second, came eye to eye with a large black Doberman. It growled low, and as intimidating as it was, I had grown up around so many of them. I knew it was just doing its job, and it was doing a damn good job as is, but I couldn’t agree to play this game of fetch with me being the ball. 

“I’m sorry,” I said and spirited to the side. The dog followed me with ease, barking as I swerved side to side, staying just out of reach as I made my way towards a wall with a ladder. Just as the dog made another lung for me, I jumped and grabbed hold of an upper rung of the ladder and quickly scaled up the rungs. 

The poor dog yelped and danced around the bottom of the ladder, which made my heart ache. I remembered playing with dogs just like this one, and I had half a mind to give it a treat just to reassure it that it did indeed do a good job finding me. 

However, a bright light caught my eye, and all thoughts of the dog left my mind as I saw what was slithering down the corridor only a few metres behind the dog—a Basilisk. 

I pulled myself entirely out of the trap door and slammed down the lid. Thankfully, the size of the whole was too big for the basilisk. However, that creature was powerful enough to break through walls, so I had to be on my way and fast, as it had seen me up here and would follow me very soon. 

As I sprinted down this upper tunnel, I reviewed my notes on Basilisks. These fearsome creatures came in many varieties. There were tiny reptiles that people often kept as pets, and then there were these otherworldly giant beasts found in World 255 by traders who were surprised to discover an entire world of undisturbed jungle land, teaming with life. The vast reptiles were gentle beasts, more interested in laying in the sun, curled around mountainsides, than attacking passersby, as they mainly died on sharks and whales in the oceans of that planet and had little to no interest in tiny insects like humans and mostly ignored us for the most part. 

One or two humans had managed to tame and keep basilisks as familiars; however, their upkeep was very expensive, as you had to be able to serve up a shark once a week, and only the elite had this kind of money. 

Only one person that I knew had a Basilisk as a familiar: the Chief of Police, who kept her familiar off the grid in the fountains and reared surgeons off the coast to feed her precious right hand. 

If the Chief Police’s familiar was here, that meant that the Chief of Police was nearby, and that was terrible news for me, as the Chief had a notorious reputation for being ruthless to runaways. 

I pushed myself to run faster, my heart beating and panic rising. I tried to swallow a few times to push down the feeling of death and dread that was creeping up. However, it was no use. I felt like I was staring down the barrel of my demise, and I couldn’t seem to run fast enough to escape it.