[Location: Penalty Zone]
"Alright… desert bastard…" My voice cracked like a whip in the dry night air, but the words still scraped out of my throat. "If I can't kill you… Then I'll survive you. That's the quest, right? Just survive."
Bravado. A paper-thin veneer lacquered over the shattering wood of my body. My legs trembled with every shift of weight, wobbly stilts jammed into the sand. My throat was a strip of fire, my tongue cracked and swelling, each swallow like glass shards grinding against raw flesh. My stomach was a pit, clawing itself hollow after two hours of enduring this cursed zone's endless punishment.
But the wyrm didn't give a damn about speeches, defiance, or human grit.
