The beetle followed me into the tunnel. I heard its five good legs scratching and clawing on the loose gravel and the iron of the tracks as it pursued me. I knew I couldn't go much further; my hip hurt so badly that every step sent searing pain across my body. My lungs felt like they were on fire. There was no way I could outrun this thing, even as injured as it was. If this tunnel went on for even 300 or 400 yards, I was done for. I only had one choice, and that was to use my remaining energy to try and take the beast out.

  I kept limping forward, not really getting away from the beetle but maintaining distance. I racked my brain, trying to think about what I'd figured out in our brief tussles. Its legs were a weak point and it didn’t matter how big and powerful the thing was if it couldn’t walk. Problem was, I had lost my Grandad’s bat when the beetle had flattened me. Without the Rune powered bat there was no way I could break its remaining legs. Even if I still had it, I doubted I had the agility left to get that close to the monster without being gored by its horns.

  Then there was the beetle’s underbelly. It was still covered in a chitinous shell but it was softer and didn’t turn away my magic like the scales on its back did. I could definitely hurt it with the Zap Knucks. Okay, great, but I still didn't know what to do with that information. It was only by chance I even got a strike on its stomach; how would I get it now? I would have more chance of flipping a minibus than getting the beetle onto its back and exposing its stomach again. Even worse, the beetle knew that I could hurt it, and it would be more cautious about letting me get close to its soft underbelly.

  I was gasping for air. My limp had become more pronounced and I was practically dragging my left leg behind me. My chest felt like it was on fire and my hip had become painfully frozen and immobile. I was quickly running out of options.

  I swallowed down the rising panic and looked around me for anything useful, anything I could use as a weapon, but there wasn't much. There was loose gravel which made me wish I had some Bang Rocks and there were the metal rails that the trains had once driven on. I looked above me and saw that there were long rectangular lights that I guess had once illuminated the tunnels with a lot of metal trunking running between them. Maybe I could yank that off and use it as a weapon? Probably not. I didn't think I'd ever been capable of bending metal, and even if I could, I was in no fit state to try it right now.

  I heard the beetle’s carapace crack open and the wings buzz. I looked behind me and saw that the beetle was trying to take flight, but I must have hurt it more than I thought because half of its carapace wouldn't open. The wings on the other side flapped crazily but couldn't get enough lift to make the Tank Beetle airborne, so it just flapped and limped after me, chittering insanely, pain making the thing even crazier.

  "Come on, Alex," I growled to myself with gritted teeth. "Think, damn it! You can't afford to die down here in some damn tunnel and let a giant bloody beetle eat you!" I spat the words one at a time through my clenched teeth. "You've got people to look after, people to save. Come on, damn it, think!”

  I was looking back over my shoulder at my insectoid pursuer when my boot hit a large screw in the railing. I cried out and stumbled, banging my knee painfully against the metal rail line. I swore loudly and tried to pull myself forward, wrapping my hand around the rail. That's when I realized the rail was made out of metal… metal conducts electricity! I looked over my shoulder and saw the beetle, its feet tapping across the outside of the rails, its low-slung belly grinding across them, its injured leg unable to keep its stomach clear of them.

  "That could work!" I hissed to myself, looking from the rail line to the lopsided beetle.

  I looked at the copper Rune plate on my glove’s fist and tapped them against the rail line. There was an instant spark that lit up the pitch black tunnel. I grinned but my face sobered again as I realized that I too was standing on metal. If I fried those rails, there was a good chance I'd cook myself. The beetle was closing in on me now; I had to think quickly. I looked above me at the metal trunking between the lights.

  "Oh, Alex, you're a damn genius," I said, a half-lopsided grin on my face. Maybe the fear and panic had broken my brain but I suddenly felt a thrill of excitement run through me as the beetle closed in on me.

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  I spun to face the beetle. I used my teeth to rip open the wrist wrap of my right glove, loosened it, and then held it in my hand. Then I looked up at the metal trunking. It was at least ten feet off the ground. There was no way I could jump that, especially with my leg damaged as it was. I swore in frustration. I had one chance at this, and if I got it wrong, I would essentially turn myself into a pi?ata for the beetle, or I would fry both of us. At least the beetle wouldn’t be able to feast on my corpse if we were both dead.

  With that bleak thought in mind, I concentrated, trying to force the image of the rampaging beetle out and envision exactly what I wanted to happen next.

  "Deliberateness. Intention. Deliberateness. Intention." I muttered to myself, repeating it like a mantra. I carefully built the image in my mind. It was slightly easier as I’d pulled off a similar move a few minutes ago in the tunnel. I saw myself standing in the blacked out tunnel. I pictured my hand rising… and then finally, I saw it. I saw the picture so perfectly I suddenly felt certain I could do it.

  I reached up with my left hand, sending all of those intentions and will through the magnetic plate, the Rune coming to life in my palm. I bent my legs, winding up, and jumped as high as I could. I roared as I forced my injured leg to expend every last ounce of strength it had. I flew upwards and suddenly I felt my body go weightless. The Rune yanked me the rest of the way and glued me to the metal trunking overhead. I opened my eyes wide in shock and looked around. My body was dangling 10 feet off the ground, swaying gently. I didn’t know whether to woop in delight or scream in panic. Then the beetle was on me. It was perhaps only eight feet away from me. It stopped for a moment in surprise and stared up at me.

  "Sorry, creepy crawly," I said to it. "But mage is off the menu."

  I activated the shock Rune on my loose glove and dropped it. The plate clanged against the rail, and for a heart stopping moment looked like it would bounce away, before settling against the metal line. With a surge of will, I sent energy thundering through the rail line. I kept forcing more will and intention down to it, not even knowing if it could reach this far, but I held up my hand out to the glove, willing the Rune to expend as much power and force as it could.

  There was a spark and a crackle of voltage, and suddenly the beetle screamed. It threw its head back and I saw its whole body begin quaking and twitching, which turned into full convulsions. I could hear its chitinous plates scraping together as it squealed, smoke rising off of it. The thing jittered and shook, the voltage coursing through its body, almost tearing it apart.

  Suddenly, I felt my will dissipating, my connection to the Rune breaking apart. I couldn't hold the picture in my mind anymore and realized I had to keep enough energy back to keep the Magnet Rune going. So I relented on the Shock Rune and the connection broke abruptly. The crackling stopped almost immediately. The beetle released a strange wheezing noise and then slumped forward, completely still apart from the odd twitch and spasm of its mighty body. A thin trail of black smoke curled up from its charred body.

  I only had a few more seconds of strength left in me. I held on as hard as I could, screwing my eyes shut and clenching my teeth, but I was spent. The Magnet Rune gave way and I fell to the railing below, jarring my already injured leg and landing in a heap. I squirmed away from the train lines, but the buzzing was completely gone. Breathing like I'd just sprinted a marathon, I sat up and looked at the beetle. It was completely still.

  I crawled forward on my hands and knees, picked up the glove, and then dropped it immediately. It was smoking hot and the copper Rune plate had melted the plastic across the knuckle pad. The glove reeked of scorched metal and burned plastic, making me grateful that I hadn’t been wearing it at the time.

  "Oh, damn," I said quietly, and then a hoarse cackle erupted from my mouth as I realised I was still alive.

  Not only was I alive, but I had actually defeated the Tank Beetle! I threw my head back and laughed madly, and then proceeded to vomit. The sound of my laughter echoed down the empty tunnel as did the sounds of my retching. I slumped backward and lay there completely exhausted.

  I'd never been so tired. It wasn't even comparable to the use of the Agility potion. This was something different. This felt like my bones had been cracked open and emptied of their marrow, and my muscles had been deflated to shrivelled-up strings of tissue. I even felt like the moisture had been sucked from me; my lips were dry and my skin felt like it was stretched across my bones, like an emaciated man starving in a desert. All I could do was breathe. My head swam and there was a knot forming at the base of my skull. But I did it, I defeated the beetle and I was still alive. I didn't know which one I was more surprised about.

  So what now?

  I had no idea where I was. I was too weak to even get up. I guess I would just lay here and die quietly. That sounded like a plan.

  Just as my eyes began to flutter shut, I could have sworn I heard the echoing cooing of pigeons and the distant beating of wings…