The passage beyond the gallery led them into another cavern, and the change in environment was immediate and repulsive. The air grew thick, humid, and heavy with the smell of rot and decay. The ground beneath their feet was slick with a thick, viscous mucus that made every step treacherous.
The source of the slime soon became apparent. The cavern was a vast plain, and moving slowly across it were creatures of impossible scale. Giant snails, each the size of a small car, their fleshy, mottled bodies leaving glistening trails behind them. Their shells, colossal spirals of calcite, shone dimly in the crystal's light. They were the titanic, slow-moving grazers of this subterranean world, their huge, rasping mouths scraping fungus from the rocks with a sound like grinding stone.
"Stay clear of them," Ethan ordered, his voice tight. "Don't get cornered."
The crystal's map showed their path leading directly across the cavern floor. As they began to navigate the treacherous terrain, avoiding the monstrously slow beasts, they realized they were not alone.
Something fast skittered in the shadows.
Ethan held up a hand, and they froze. He swept his headlamp beam to the side. A pack of creatures, each the size of a wolf, detached themselves from the darkness. They were a nightmare fusion of insect and reptile, with chitinous, segmented bodies, six spindly legs, and sharp, clicking mandibles. They moved with a horrifying, fluid speed.
Before they could react, the pack of insectoids swarmed one of the giant snails. The attack was swift and brutal. They scrambled onto its massive shell, ignoring the thick, defensive mucus, and began tearing at the creature's soft, exposed flesh with their mandibles. The snail let out a low, vibrating cry of agony, a sound that shook the very air, but it was too slow to defend itself.
It was another savage spectacle of the underworld's food chain. But this time, they were in the middle of it.
"Back," Ethan hissed, beginning to pull Maya's travois away from the carnage. "We go back."
But as the first pack feasted, another swarm of the insectoid predators emerged from the darkness ahead, drawn by the kill, cutting off their path. Then, more movement to their left. Another pack. To their right, yet another.
They were surrounded. Trapped on a battlefield of monstrous slugs and their lightning-fast predators.
The crystal's light, their trusted guide, had led them here. It pulsed steadily in Ethan's hand, its map still indicating a path straight through the heart of the chaos. It wasn't a guide to safety. It was a waypoint. And they had just arrived in the feeding ground.
A high-pitched chittering sound rose from all around them as the predators, having finished their first meal, turned their multifaceted eyes upon the new, warm-blooded creatures standing in their midst.