Adrian woke to the sound of sand shifting.
At first he thought it was part of a dream the kind where walls closed in and shadows pressed down but then the vibration reached his bones. He jerked upright, eyes darting to the fire. Or what was left of it. Just a bed of dying embers, their faint glow smothered under a wave of mist that curled hungrily at the camp's edge.
Zane was already standing. Swords drawn.
Of course he was. Adrian realized with a shiver that the guy hadn't moved all night. Not once. He stood there like a sentinel carved from stone, waiting for this exact moment.
The mist boiled. It didn't roll lazily like fog anymore it churned, alive, twisting itself into shapes that clawed and reached before falling apart again.
"Up," Zane said flatly, voice like cold iron.
Adrian scrambled to his feet, sparks flaring instinctively around his hands. Lyra was faster, already on guard with her daggers raised, her gaze sharp and unblinking.
The dungeon trembled again. A low hum pulsed through the floor, climbing up Adrian's legs, his ribs, even his teeth. It was like the whole place was breathing, and they were trapped inside its lungs.
"I swear this place is alive," Adrian muttered, swallowing hard. He hadn't meant to say it out loud.
"It is," Zane replied, never looking at him. His eyes were locked on the mist. "And it's hungry."
Adrian's skin prickled. The way Zane said it, not like a guess, not like a fear. Like a fact.
Then the fog split.
Figures stepped out, first one, then three, then more, bodies shaped like men but warped, stretched thin, with smooth white masks instead of faces. Their hands ended in claws sharp enough to glint in the faint light.
Adrian's heart thudded. His sparks danced higher, brighter, itching for release. "What the hell are those?"
"Doesn't matter," Zane said. He shifted his stance, blades gleaming. "They bleed."
The first creature lunged straight at him, a blur of claws and vapor. Adrian barely had time to blink before Zane's swords crossed, steel ringing as he deflected the strike. The thing hissed a sound like tearing glass but Zane stepped forward, calm as death.
One clean slash.
The figure burst apart into mist with a shriek, dissolving into the fog. Adrian exhaled in shaky awe… only to choke it back when the air grew colder. The mist thickened. And three more shapes peeled free.
Adrian's palms buzzed with crackling power. Fear pressed heavy against his chest, but under it was a spark of something else excitement.
Zane hadn't been wrong. This dungeon wasn't just stone and monsters. It was alive.
---
The first three came fast.
Adrian barely got his hands up before one was on him. Its claws carved sparks as they raked across the stone where he'd been standing a second ago. He threw himself sideways, hit the ground hard, and flung a bolt of lightning wild. The crackling arc seared through the mist-thing's chest. It shrieked, staggered, then collapsed into vapor.
Adrian scrambled back to his feet, breathing steady.
"Focus!" Lyra barked. She slid under another's swing, both daggers flashing upward. The creature split from groin to throat, bursting apart in a hiss of smoke.
"Yeah, thanks, I am focused!" Adrian shouted back, though his voice broke halfway through as another lunged at him from the side.
He reacted late, too late claws raked across his ribs. The pain lit his body on fire. Hot blood spilled down his side. Adrian gasped, clapping his hand to the wound, then lashed out instinctively with his other. Lightning exploded point-blank into the monster's mask. The blast knocked it backward, half its head shattering before it dissolved into nothing.
His knees buckled. For a second, the room tilted.
Then Zane's voice cut through, steady and sharp as steel.
"On your feet."
Adrian forced himself upright, swaying, blood soaking his shirt. His vision swam, but when he looked toward Zane, he froze.
The boy moved like a machine. Two blades, two arcs of green, cutting clean through everything that touched him. He fought without hesitation, without wasted movement, each strike efficient and final. Monsters crumpled around him in heaps of mist.
And for just a moment, Adrian forgot the pain. His chest tightened with something else fear, awe, he couldn't tell which.
Then the dungeon roared.
The ground split open, sand slipping, and a shape far larger than the faceless ones hauled itself into the chamber.
Adrian's breath caught. It was massive, hunched, its hide fused with stone, arms ending in scythe-blades that scraped sparks across the floor. Its faceless head turned, teeth jagged in a grin too wide. A system screen popped into existence Infront of him.
[D-Rank Monster: Abyssal Reaver]
"Oh hell no," Adrian whispered. His sparks dimmed. His whole body went cold.
And then a second roar split the air. Another reaver, just as huge, tore free of the opposite wall.
Two.
Two of them.
His heart plummeted. They had nearly died killing one D-rank last time.
"Adrian!" Zane barked. His swords pointed toward the swarm still spilling from the mist. "Hold the line!"
Adrian gawked at him. "What line?! I am the line!"
But there was no time to argue. The swarm pressed in, a tide of faceless claws and shrieks. Sparks flared around Adrian's hands as he raised them again, gritting his teeth. His blood ran warm down his side, his arms already heavy. He didn't care.
Because if he dropped, they all dropped.
Adrian's pulse thundered in his ears. He couldn't breathe right, couldn't think right. The wound across his ribs burned every time he moved, but if he stopped moving, he was dead.
The swarm pressed in faceless creatures with claws like knives and bodies that dissolved into mist only after being torn apart. They weren't fast, but they were relentless, piling on with shrieks that clawed at his skull.
Adrian lashed out with his sparks, arcs of lightning snapping from his fingertips and bursting through the fog. One monster crumpled, another staggered. He had killed dozens but more always closed the gap.
"Too many," he muttered, stumbling back. His heel hit stone. He was being pushed into the wall.
The nearest faceless one lunged, claws outstretched.
Adrian flung a desperate bolt. It struck, but the thing kept coming, its momentum carrying it forward. He barely ducked aside, the claws scraping down his arm and opening a line of fire across his flesh.
Blood sprayed. He bit back a scream.
"Hold the line!" Zane's voice cut through again, calm, cold, commanding.
Adrian wanted to scream at him. You hold the damn line! I'm dying over here! But when he risked a glance, his words shriveled in his throat.
Zane was already face-to-face with one of the Abyssal Reavers. The monster's scythe-arms came down in an arc that could have split him in two. Zane met it with both blades, sparks screaming as steel clashed against stone. His boots carved trenches in the floor, but he didn't falter. With a twist, he redirected the scythe and drove his other sword up, carving a gash across the creature's chest.
It roared, a sound that shook the walls.
Lyra was already on the other. She danced between its strikes, daggers flashing like shards of starlight. One scythe missed her by inches, carving through the air. She slid under the follow-up swing and buried both blades into the reaver's leg. It staggered, bellowing, but she was already gone, retreating into the shadow.
They fought like demons. Like the rules didn't apply to them.
And here Adrian was, barely holding his guts in.
The swarm surged again, dragging his focus back. Claws raked the air, and he shouted, hurling a storm of sparks that burst in a web across their ranks. Several shrieked and dissolved, but more pressed in, one swiping across his thigh. His leg nearly buckled.
Blood soaked through his pants, hot and sticky.
"Shit, shit, shit—" He blasted another with point-blank lightning, the force of it throwing him back into the wall. His head cracked against stone, stars bursting across his vision.
For a moment, the world tilted. He saw Zane parry another strike, Lyra roll away from a scythe, the mist boiling thicker, hungrier.
And then claws raked across his shoulder.
Adrian screamed. His knees hit the ground, his sparks flickering. The creature loomed over him, white mask blank and staring. Its claw lifted for the kill.
Move. Move, damn it!
He forced his arm up, lightning sputtering weakly from his palm. The faceless one lunged—
Steel flashed.
Zane's blade took its head off cleanly. The body dissolved into mist before it even hit the ground. Zane didn't even look at him. He was already turning back toward the Reaver, swords dripping with black ichor.
Adrian gasped, clutching his shredded shoulder. Blood poured hot between his fingers.
He should have been grateful. Instead, he was furious. Furious at Zane for saving him. Furious at himself for needing it. He had been training from birth, was regarded as a prodigy, but in front of real talented people he was nothing.
The thought settled into his mind, but he refused to give up, if he wasn't talented he would train ten times as hard as everyone else.
"I've got it," Adrian growled, sparks crawling stubbornly across his blood-slicked hand. He forced himself back to his feet, teeth clenched against the agony. His body screamed at him to stop. He didn't.
Another faceless one came. Adrian met it head-on this time. He ducked low, sparks exploding around his fist, and drove it straight into the thing's chest. Lightning tore through it, splitting it apart from the inside. It shrieked and dissolved, leaving him gasping for breath, blood dripping down his chin.
See? I can fight too.
But his victory lasted only a heartbeat. The second Reaver charged.
The floor shook under its bulk. Its scythe came down in a blur aimed for Lyra. She dove aside, rolling, but the strike clipped her leg. She cried out, blood spraying across the stone as she tumbled.
"Lyra!" Adrian shouted, his throat raw.
Zane was already moving, intercepting the second strike before it could finish her. His swords crossed, stopping the scythe inches from her skull. His boots dug deep into the floor, muscles straining. The veins in his neck stood out like cords, but he didn't give an inch.
Lyra gritted her teeth, forcing herself upright, blood streaming down her thigh. She raised her daggers again.
Adrian felt like the air was being crushed from his lungs. How were they even standing? Every one of them was bleeding, torn, half-broken. And yet they kept fighting.
The swarm pressed in again. Adrian staggered, sparks flaring in a wild storm. His vision blurred red from blood dripping into his eyes. He lashed out anyway, every bolt powered by fury and desperation. One monster dissolved, then another, but their claws tore his skin raw. His arms were shredded, his side was soaked, his body one walking wound.
Still he fought.
Across the chamber, Zane and Lyra moved like a storm. Blades flashed, steel met stone, blood splattered across the walls. Zane ducked a scythe, slashing deep into the reaver's leg. Lyra leapt onto its back, both daggers driving into the nape of its neck. Black ichor poured like tar as it screamed, collapsing onto one knee.
The first Reaver surged at them from the side. Zane spun, catching its strike with a snarl. His blades rang as they crossed the scythe again, sparks flying in showers. Lyra tore her daggers free, flipping off the first monster's back, and rolled to land beside him.
"Together!" she shouted.
They moved as one. Zane's blades cut low, cutting the hamstrings of the first Reaver. Lyra struck high, driving her daggers into its throat. The monster convulsed, gurgled, and collapsed in a heap of dissolving mist.
One down.
The second roared, swinging wildly, smashing stone into rubble. Zane darted inside its guard, both blades flashing. Lyra came in from the other side, her strikes precise and merciless.
Adrian staggered toward them, every limb trembling, sparks flickering weakly. He didn't know if he had anything left, but he wasn't going to watch from the sidelines.
The Reaver's scythe swung wide. Adrian raised both hands, screaming as he poured all his mana into one last blast. Lightning erupted, a storm of raw power that ripped across the monster's chest. It staggered, shrieking, its body convulsing under the current.
"Now!" Adrian roared, his throat tearing with the effort.
Zane leapt, blades crossing in a perfect arc. Lyra's daggers struck at the same moment. Together, their blades carved through the Reaver's neck.
The monster's head toppled. Its body collapsed. The chamber fell silent except for their ragged breathing.
Adrian dropped to his knees, his sparks gone, his body bleeding from a dozen wounds. Zane stood like a statue, both swords dripping. Lyra limped, her leg a ruin of blood.
They had won. Somehow, against all odds, they had won.
And then the mist stirred again.
Adrian's stomach turned cold as three shapes stepped free of the fog. Larger. Heavier. Wrong.
The first was a hulking beast of bone and sinew, its spine arched like a scorpion's tail tipped with a serrated blade.
The second was covered in chitin, four arms ending in hooked claws that scraped the floor as it walked. Its face was a hollow pit that screamed with a thousand voices.
The third was the worst. Thin, skeletal, its body stretched impossibly tall, its arms dangling like nooses. Its mask was cracked, revealing rows of jagged teeth beneath. The air itself warped around it, mist bending as if trying to flee.
[D-Rank Monsters Detected]
Adrian's heart stopped.
And then Zane screamed.
"Lyra!"
The sound tore through the chamber, raw, desperate, unlike anything Adrian had ever heard from him before.
But Adrian didn't know why.
Not yet.