A second serpent rose behind them, its body arcing overhead like a flaming bridge.
Lava dripped from its coils, eating through the stone walkway. Each drop hit the trail and melted through it in under a second, punching holes in the only solid ground between them and the molten river below.
The walkway was dissolving behind them like a fuse burning toward a bomb, and the bomb was gravity and the gravity was terminal.
"MOVE!" Dex barked, voice carrying that Alpha command that shook the air. The command hit every person on the trail at the same frequency, the one that bypassed decision-making and went straight to legs, and the legs obeyed because Alpha commands were democracy's natural enemy and democracy had no jurisdiction on a volcano.
They sprinted.
The trail was barely wider than a table edge. Loose gravel skidded beneath their boots, tumbling into the molten river below.
