### 166

The fireball skims your back before impacting against a distant wall. Your swift reflexes have saved you from injury but now you find yourself lying face down in the seething carpet of insects. You feel them creeping and slithering across your skin, then your psychic senses tingle with a sudden realization. These are no ordinary insects; in fact these are not insects at all. Your sixth sense tells you that they are merely a clever illusion created to panic and deceive you. Confident in this knowledge, you get to your feet, ignoring the mass of creepy-crawlies that are attached in clumps to your body. Then, in a matter of seconds, the insect horde fades and vanishes, the illusion dispelled by your disbelief in its existence.

Turn to 281.

Text copyright © 1991 Joe Dever.
Illustrations copyright © 1991 Brian Williams.