Chapter 5: Pressure Lines
Vein-light pulsed through the cavern in shallow seams, dim but insistent, turning every surface into silhouette and every shadow into a hiding place.
Rei held still, knees bent and weight centered, letting his eyes adjust while his breath did the real work. Ember Circulation ran low and tight—steady enough to keep his hands from shaking, quiet enough that it didn't steal his attention. The metallic taste in the air sat on his tongue like a warning he couldn't name.
The shadow fox waited near the rubble where the arch had half-collapsed. Its nameplate stayed scrambled. The rest of the HUD offered nothing useful, and Rei refused to stare long enough to turn that into a problem.
He kept his hands up and his distance measured. The cavern felt worked—stone shaped with intent, edges too clean in places, angles that looked chosen. Under his boots, the floor settled in tiny increments. A slow grind somewhere deeper answered each shift, soft enough to doubt and loud enough to remember.
A slick sound whispered across the stone.
Rei's gaze cut down and left.
A darker patch in the floor reflected vein-light in thin, oily ribbons. It shivered once, then split along a hairline crack.
Something surged up.
A leech-like body snapped forward from the seam—thicker than the one from the pool chamber, underside pale and slick, top ridged with hardened dark bands. It moved too fast for its shape, mouth-ring opening wide as it reached for him.
Rei shifted sideways and let it miss by a breath, then slashed across its flank. The cut skated on dense hide and rubbery resistance, but it forced the creature to adjust its line.
Rei adjusted first.
He slid back toward a broken lip of stone, a shallow ledge that cut the cavern floor into a step. The leech had to climb the edge or commit to another lunge. Either way, he'd get a clearer strike.
The creature gathered and launched again, straight at him.
Rei dropped his center of gravity and met it at the ledge. Claws snapped down as the body rose. The impact jolted up his wrists. The leech's mass carried it onto the lip anyway, smearing damp across the stone.
Its mouth-ring opened, teeth rotating as it tried to clamp.
"No chance," Rei muttered.
He turned his hips and used leverage instead of force. Shoulder drove. Angle did the work. The leech slid, lost purchase, and dropped off the lip.
It hit the lower floor with a wet slap, then snapped its body in a whip-like motion, trying to fling itself back up at him from below.
Rei stepped back from the edge to bait the jump. When the leech launched, he stomped hard beside a vein seam where the surface looked thin.
Stone cracked.
The fracture line spread just as the leech's weight came down at a bad angle. Part of its body landed on the ledge. Part of it slid, dragging across the broken seam.
Rei struck.
He raked across the ridged back. This time the cut bit. Black fluid sprayed in a thin arc and steamed where it hit the vein-lit stone.
The leech screamed.
The sound came out as vibration—high and ugly, close enough to make Rei's teeth ache. It thrashed hard, trying to wrap his ankle, trying to steal leverage with slick strength.
A segment brushed his boot and snagged the edge. Rei's balance wavered for a fraction of a second, and the leech surged up to capitalize, mouth-ring widening.
Fear hit him clean and sharp.
Rei froze.
A brief, instinctive certainty landed in his gut—wrong step, wrong angle, and he'd lose his footing. The slick stone would do the rest.
One breath.
He pulled Ember Circulation into discipline and let it anchor him. The current steadied his legs and tightened his focus. His heel found purchase. His weight settled.
The leech's body shifted again, searching for the bite line it wanted.
Rei used the opening his stillness bought him.
He rolled his ankle along the creature's slick body and slipped free of the snag. Then he stepped in and drove both claws down into its back near the head, pinning it to the ledge.
The leech bucked. Rei held.
Pain flared through his wrists. His ribs protested when he leaned into the pin. He kept his breathing tight and steady, and the circulation kept his muscles from failing at the wrong second.
The creature hesitated—just a hitch, a fraction of timing lost as it tried to re-aim.
Rei felt it.
He ripped his claws free and slashed downward in a cross pattern, tearing into the softer underside as the leech turned. The cut opened it like a seam.
Black fluid poured out, thicker now. The body spasmed hard enough to jolt the ledge. Rei stepped back fast, keeping his feet free and his weight centered.
The leech tried to lunge again.
It made it halfway.
Then its body went slack and slid down the ledge, leaving a wet smear behind.
Rei stayed ready for three breaths longer than he needed to. The cavern stayed quiet. Vein-light pulsed on. Stone continued its slow settling.
He let his shoulders drop a fraction.
The claws of his gloves were coated in black fluid that steamed faintly where it met metal and leather.
"Gross," he said, and the word came out thinly amused, mostly tired.
His ribs answered with a sharp flare when he shifted. Rei hissed, then lowered to one knee and chose patience. He slowed Ember Circulation until the current ran smooth instead of tight. The ache didn't vanish, but the edge came off, giving him room to breathe without flinching.
He wiped his claws against a dry patch of rock until the worst of the smear came off. The damp rot smell clung to the gloves anyway.
A soft scrape whispered across stone.
Rei's head lifted.
The shadow fox had moved.
It crossed the edge of the glow in two quiet steps and stopped closer than before, still outside arm's reach. Vein-light caught the pale line of its muzzle and the shine of its eyes. The eyes held him with a calm that made the cavern feel briefly less hostile.
Rei stayed still. He kept breathing.
The fox lowered its head a fraction, then turned.
It faced the cavern wall where the glow thinned and the worked stone looked tightest. The motion carried purpose, like an animal catching a trail.
Rei followed the angle of its attention.
The wall looked ordinary until the vein-light hit it just right. Then a seam appeared—nearly invisible, a junction line where rock met rock by design.
Rei rose carefully, wincing once. He took one step, then another, keeping his weight centered, keeping his hands ready.
He stopped short of the seam.
Air on the other side felt heavier, compressed. The space beyond held itself tighter, like a corridor cut into stone with rules that didn't apply in caverns.
Rei kept his stance and kept his breathing even.
His HUD shimmered at the edge of his vision.
[Dungeon Progress: 14%]
The number held for half a breath.
Then the text tore sideways.
[Dungeon Progress: 9%]
[Dungeon Progress: 17%]
[Dungeon Progress: 14%]
The line blinked hard, as if the display couldn't decide what it was measuring.
[Dungeon Progress: —]
[Progress: Recalibrating…]
Rei's mouth tightened. He kept his hands up anyway. A broken meter didn't make the stone any less slick.
Another update followed, clean and passive.
[Level Up!]
Rei inhaled, then let the air out slowly.
Strength settled through his hands and forearms, steadying the last tremor left by the fight. The ache in his ribs eased at the edges, giving him more room to move without guarding every breath. Ember Circulation held cleaner, as if the current had found a deeper groove.
Rei flexed his fingers once, then again, testing the new baseline.
The seam waited.
Vein-light pulsed, and for a moment the glow on the other side caught something pale—an outline like mist shaped into a fox, translucent enough that the stone lines showed through it. It held still, watching without urgency, then the light shifted and the shape was gone.
Rei glanced back.
The shadow fox stood behind him, closer than it had been, its presence steady.
Rei faced forward again.
He stepped over the seam and into the compressed air beyond.