Part 1: Timers, Kings, and Things That Move in the Dark
The second floor could wait. That was the definitive decision Adrian made the moment they stepped back out into the open air.
The shift from the dungeon to the real world felt significantly sharper this time it wasn't just a change in environment, but a total release of a psychological pressure he hadn't fully noticed building while underground. The sky above Stonehollow stretched wide and naturally across the horizon. The daylight was warmer, and the ambient sounds of people were much louder and far less controlled than the hollow, suffocating silence below. It should have felt safer. It didn't. Because now, with absolute certainty, he knew exactly what was festering underneath the soil.
The crowd surrounding the dungeon boundary had easily doubled. No it had tripled.
Word of the emergence had spread faster than anyone could have anticipated, and now the clearing wasn't just occupied by adventurers. Merchants, scouts, opportunists, and desperate people with just enough misplaced confidence to think they belonged here had completely flooded the area. The temporary wooden stalls had rapidly expanded into full commercial setups. Armed guards were now actively posted near the outer perimeter not to protect the dungeon itself, but to manage the volatile mass of people.
Adrian stepped away from the main entrance, rolling his aching shoulder slightly as he exhaled a heavy breath. "Yeah. That's going to get worse," he said, his voice thick with exhaustion.
"It will," Vaelith agreed, his tone flat.
They didn't linger to watch the spectacle.
The town of Stonehollow felt significantly tighter than it had before. It was the exact same streets and the exact same weathered buildings, but now, everything and everyone moved with a frantic sense of purpose. Raiding groups formed faster on street corners. Business deals were made quicker. Even the patrolling town guards carried themselves differently there was less routine to their movements and far more alert tension in their eyes.
Adrian didn't head straight for the comfort of the tavern. Not yet. There was somewhere else he absolutely needed to go first.
Raaandy was standing exactly where he always seemed to be. He was leaning heavily against a wooden support beam just outside a quieter, less trafficked section of the guild hall. His arms were crossed tightly over his chest, and his rugged expression was already fully prepared to be thoroughly annoyed before the conversation could even begin.
"You're back," Raaandy noted as they approached.
Adrian stopped a few steps away, mirroring the man's unimpressed posture. "That tends to happen when I don't die."
Raaandy narrowed his eyes, tracking Adrian's stable form. "Give it time."
Vaelith remained standing a pace behind, silent but inherently present, watching the interaction with an analytical gaze.
Adrian tilted his head slightly. "We went in," he said plainly. "Cleared the first floor."
Raaandy didn't react immediately, his face remaining a stoic mask. But in truth, that total lack of movement was the reaction. "And?" Raaandy asked at last.
Adrian shrugged. "It's not easy harder then expected and it is only floor one."
Raaandy snorted, a sharp sound of disbelief. "That's your professional assessment?"
Adrian gave a small nod. "I try to keep it simple."
Then, Raaandy pushed himself off the wooden beam slightly, his entire posture shifting away from casual annoyance and transitioning into something much more focused. "Good," he said grimly. "Then maybe you'll actually listen."
Adrian crossed his arms over his chest. "That implies I wasn't going to very rude assumsion."
"You weren't," Raaandy replied without a single second of hesitation.
A heavy silence settled briefly between them, thick with unsaid warnings, before Raaandy spoke up again. "You know what kind of dungeon that is?"
Adrian frowned slightly, a dry smirk threatening to break through his fatigue. "The kind that tries to kill me?"
Raaandy stared at him blankly, entirely deadpan. "I'm going to pretend you didn't just say that."
Vaelith stepped forward slightly, drawing Raaandy's gaze. "It is newly formed," the swordsman said calmly. "That is confirmed."
Raaandy nodded once. "Yeah," he said. "And that tells us exactly what kind it is."
Adrian glanced between the two of them, realizing he was on the outer edge of the lore. "Alright. I'm missing something."
Raaandy let out a slow, heavy breath through his nose. "Dungeons don't just show up randomly," he explained. "Not like this. Not in frontier places like this."
Adrian raised a skeptical eyebrow. "It literally did pretty sure it just...popped up."
Raaandy ignored the interruption entirely. "There are two types," he continued, his tone shifting into something pedagogical.
The ambient noise of the surrounding guild hall seemed to fade slightly not because the adventurers had actually gotten any quieter, but because the sheer weight of what Raaandy was explaining pulled their collective attention inward.
"First kind," Raaandy said, holding up a single weathered finger, "is what you're dealing with right now." He gestured vaguely with his hand toward the direction of the town gates and the clearing beyond. "Fifty floors. Monsters respawn every single day. You go in, you clear the room, you come back out. Over and over again."
Adrian nodded slowly, recognizing the loop. "Sounds about right."
Raaandy's grim expression didn't change in the slightest. "You kill the final boss on floor fifty," he continued, explaining the mechanics, "and the whole thing completely disappears." He paused, letting a beat of silence hang in the air.
"And if you don't?" Adrian asked.
Adrian didn't try to guess the answer, and Raaandy leaned slightly closer, his voice dropping into an intense whisper. "It breaks."
The word landed differently this time, echoing with an ominous finality.
"When it breaks," Raaandy said, his delivery deliberate and heavy, "everything trapped inside comes out."
Adrian's expression shifted just slightly, his eyes narrowing as he processed the scope of the threat. "Everything?" he asked.
Raaandy nodded once, confirming the worst. "Every single floor. Every corrupted creature. Every boss that didn't get killed during a raid." He paused again, letting the apocalyptic imagery sink into Adrian's mind. "You're not dealing with a dungeon anymore," he added. "You're dealing with a flood."
Adrian exhaled a slow, controlled breath. "How long?"
"Ten years," Raaandy said flatly. "Give or take."
Adrian glanced back toward the direction of the town gates again, thinking of the greed-fueled circus outside. "And people still treat it like a gold mine."
Raaandy gave a small, humorless smile. "Because it is. And that's the real problem."
Silence settled briefly over the trio as the reality of the ten-year timer anchored itself in the air. Then, Raaandy held up a second finger.
"The second type," he said, his eyes locking onto Adrian, "you'll probably never see in your lifetime."
Vaelith's stoic expression shifted slightly at the mention. He clearly knew exactly what Raaandy was referring to.
"Twenty floors," Raaandy continued, outlining the alternative. "No collapse. No break."
Adrian frowned, his eyebrows knitting together. "That sounds better more stable."
"It's worse," Vaelith said quietly from his position.
Adrian glanced over at the Kensei, surprised, before looking back at the guild veteran.
Raaandy nodded in agreement with the swordsman. "Monsters don't respawn fast down there," he explained. "But the floors... they change." He gestured again, more deliberately this time, tracing a shape in the air. "Different environments. Entirely different systems. People actually build permanent structures inside them. Small settlements. Massive mining operations. International trade."
Adrian blinked once, entirely incredulous. "Inside the dungeon?"
"Yeah," Raaandy said, his voice flat. "And once it's rooted there it doesn't go away. There are only two known in existence," he added. "One in the Ardent Kingdom. One in the Verdant Reach."
Vaelith spoke up again, his voice tight. "They are controlled," he noted. "Heavily."
Adrian nodded slowly, putting the pieces of the global landscape together. "So this one here—"
"Is a timer," Raaandy finished cleanly.
Silence fell over them once more. Then, Raaandy leaned in slightly closer, his voice dropping to a gravelly register that cut through every other sound in the room.
"Dungeons aren't opportunities," he said, staring directly into Adrian's eyes. "They're timers."
The words settled between them, dense and unyielding. Adrian exhaled a quiet, ragged breath. "Yeah," he muttered, his expression pulling into a cynical line. "That sounds about right."
But Raaandy wasn't done yet. "Now," the veteran said, straightening his posture slightly, "here's where it gets even worse."
Adrian almost smiled at the predictability of their bad luck. "Of course it does."
Raaandy's gaze hardened, his eyes locking onto Adrian's with absolute seriousness. "This isn't just about the dungeon itself." He paused, letting his next words carry the full weight of the frontier. "It's about where it chose to show up."
Adrian's expression sharpened slightly as he anticipated the answer. "Shadowfen."
Raaandy nodded firmly. "And what's already lurking out there."
Another heavy pause hung in the air. "Warchiefs," Adrian said, the word tasting bitter.
Raaandy didn't smile. "There are four of them," he said flatly. "And they don't like surprises."
Vaelith added quietly from his position, his voice cutting through the ambient noise like a blade: "Especially ones that violently shift the balance of power."
Adrian leaned back slightly against the wall, running a tense hand through his unruly hair as the disparate pieces of the puzzle finally started to align in his mind. The dungeon. Power. Territory. It was a volatile mix. "And I killed something important," he muttered, his mind flashing back to the massive corpse of the Dread Wolf.
Raaandy gave a single, solemn nod. "Yeah," he said simply. "You did."
The muffled roar of the guild hall returned fully now, pressing in around their quiet pocket of space as if the rest of the world had simply been waiting for their intense conversation to end. Adrian stood there for a long moment longer, his mind working through the tactical realities of their situation.
Then, his focus shifted. "Alright," he said quietly.
Raaandy raised a skeptical eyebrow, waiting for the rookie's reaction.
Adrian turned his gaze toward the distant town gates, looking in the direction of the newly formed structure. "Then we don't treat it like a gold mine," he said, his voice hardening with resolve. "We treat it like a problem."
Vaelith gave a firm nod of approval beside him. Raaandy studied Adrian's face for a long second longer, searching for any sign of hesitation or bravado. Finding none, the veteran let his shoulders drop just a fraction.
"Good," Raaandy said softly.
Because that answer and the total lack of greed behind it wasn't normal for an adventurer.
Part 2 Kings, Beasts, and the Shape of Power
The conversation didn't end when the explanation did. If anything, it shifted. What had started as a simple dissemination of raw information settled into something noticeably heavier...something that lingered just beneath the surface of everything else happening in the crowded guild hall. The background noise returned in full force, with voices rising, deals forming, and arguments starting and ending in the span of mere seconds, but Adrian found it significantly harder to tune out now. Because the dungeon wasn't the biggest problem anymore. It was just the closest one.
Raaandy pushed off the wooden support beam fully this time, straightening his posture as he glanced out toward the open, chaotic floor of the guild. His expression hadn't changed much, but there was a much sharper edge to it now, a deliberate focus hidden behind his usual wall of baseline irritation.
"You asked the wrong question earlier," Raaandy said, his eyes tracking a rowdy group of adventurers near the boards.
Adrian leaned his back slightly against the stone wall. "I didn't ask a question at all?"
"Exactly," Raaandy replied, looking back at him.
A small pause stretched between them. Then, the veteran delivered the correction. "You should've asked who's going to care about this."
Adrian frowned slightly, crossing his arms. "Alright. Who's going to care about this?"
Raaandy gave a small, validating nod. "Better."
Vaelith stepped forward just enough to fully integrate himself into the conversation, rather than lingering a pace behind them like a silent bodyguard. "All major regions will notice," the swordsman said calmly, his deep voice cutting through the ambient noise. "But not all will act."
Adrian glanced over at him. "Let me guess. The ones that act are the problem."
Vaelith didn't offer a smile. "Yes."
Raaandy folded his arms over his chest again, taking over the breakdown. "Start with the Golden Plains," he said, gesturing with his chin. "Since you've already got one of their people standing right here."
Vaelith didn't react to the blunt wording or the subtle jab. He simply spoke with the absolute clarity of an insider. "The Golden Plains is stable," he said. "That is its strength."
Adrian tilted his head slightly, unimpressed by the generic trait. "That doesn't sound particularly impressive."
"It is," Vaelith replied, his eyes narrowing slightly. "Because nothing else is." He paused, letting the philosophy settle before continuing. "Our king, Aurelius Bloomfield, does not rush to act. He observes. He positions. He decides."
Adrian crossed his arms a little tighter. "So he's slow."
Vaelith shook his head once, a firm correction. "He is precise."
Raaandy chimed in immediately: "Which is worse."
Adrian glanced between the two of them, absorbing the grim assessment. "Good to know."
Vaelith's steady gaze remained locked onto Adrian's features. "If the Golden Plains moves," he said, his voice dropping an octave, "it will not be to explore the dungeon." A heavy beat passed. "It will be to control it."
That realization landed solidly. Adrian exhaled a quiet breath. "Right."
Raaandy didn't give him a single second to sit comfortably with that dynamic. "Then you've got the Verdant Reach," he said, steering the map elsewhere.
Adrian raised an inquisitive eyebrow. "The elf place."
"Don't call it that," Raaandy snapped immediately, casting a quick look around the room.
Adrian shrugged. "Noted."
Raaandy continued his explanation, his voice low. "They don't interfere unless they absolutely have to. But if they do—" He cut himself off abruptly.
Adrian waited for the punchline, the silence stretching. "If they do?"
Raaandy's expression tightened slightly, a rare hint of genuine unease flickering in his eyes. "You won't see it coming."
Vaelith nodded once in solemn agreement. "The Verdant Matron does not act lightly."
Adrian frowned at the mounting threats. "That sounds significantly worse than the king."
"It is," Vaelith said flatly.
A heavy silence lingered briefly in their corner of the hall. Then, Raaandy shifted his weight again, a dark glint entering his eyes. "Now we get to the fun ones," he said.
Adrian already knew he wasn't going to like whatever came next.
"Beastkin," Raaandy continued, leaning in. "Northern Wilds."
Adrian's expression sharpened slightly, a specific profile clicking into place in his mind. "Ragnar Blackfang," he said.
Raaandy blinked once, genuinely surprised. "You've heard the name."
Adrian shrugged slightly, keeping his demeanor casual. "Comes up."
Raaandy studied his neutral face for a long second, trying to read him, before finally giving a slow nod. "King of the Hunt," the veteran said, his tone turning respectful. "Tier 4 High." He paused, letting the staggering rank echo. "He doesn't care about politics. He cares about strength."
Adrian let out a quiet, controlled breath. "And the dungeon?"
Raaandy smiled slightly, a cold, sharp expression. "If it makes people stronger he'll watch." Another brief pause hung in the air. "If it creates weakness he'll act."
Adrian nodded slowly, mapping out the logic. "That tracks."
Vaelith added quietly from the side: "Ragnar does not tolerate instability near his borders."
Adrian glanced back out toward the direction of the town gates, his mind traversing the landscape. "And we're right next to that."
"Not exactly, but close," Raaandy clarified.
The collective weight of the continent's major players settled over them again. Then, Raaandy pushed through to the final faction on the list. "Sapphire Coast," he said. "Pirates."
Adrian blinked once, completely deadpan. "Of course there are pirates."
"Of course there are," Raaandy repeated without missing a beat. "Their king Dorian Voss. The Blacktide."
Adrian tilted his head slightly, analyzing the moniker. "That sounds like someone who causes problems on purpose."
Raaandy nodded firmly. "He does."
Vaelith added his own tactical input: "He will not come for the dungeon itself." He paused, letting Adrian look at him. "But he will come for what it creates."
Adrian exhaled slowly, the web of complications finally complete. "Which is worse."
"Yes," Vaelith said.
The conversation slowed slightly there, the weight of everything settling into something far more tangible now. It wasn't just a list of random names anymore, nor was it just a map of distant power. It was pure, unadulterated pressure, pressing inward from every single direction.
Adrian rubbed the back of his neck slightly, his expression taut. "Alright," he said, letting out a dry breath. "So we've got kings, beasts, pirates—"
"And that's just the ones you actually understand," Raaandy cut in smoothly.
Adrian stopped his thought mid-sentence, his eyes narrowing. "I don't like how you said that."
Raaandy didn't bother trying to smile this time. "There are things deeper than all of them," he said quietly, his voice dropping into a solemn register. He paused, letting the chill enter the space between them. "Places no one controls."
Adrian's entire posture tightened slightly as he focused on the veteran. "Such as?"
Raaandy held his gaze for a long second longer than necessary, ensuring he had Adrian's absolute, undivided attention. Then, he said it: "The Abyssal Rift."
The name didn't sound exceptionally loud, and it didn't sound inherently powerful on its own. But the precise way it settled over their quiet corner of the guild hall was fundamentally different. Vaelith didn't say a word, his stoic face remaining perfectly still, which in itself said more than enough to confirm the danger.
"What's down there?" Adrian asked, his voice low.
Raaandy exhaled a slow, heavy breath through his nose. "No one knows for sure," he admitted, his eyes dark. "But there's a name." He paused again, letting the gravity of the secret build. "The Queen of the Black Tide."
A profound silence followed the title. It wasn't a forced or theatrically dramatic silence; it was just incredibly heavy. Adrian didn't ask anything else. He didn't need to. He knew that some things simply weren't meant to be fully understood yet.
Raaandy stepped back slightly from the wooden support beam, the suffocating tension easing just enough for the ambient chaos of the guild hall to settle back into place around them. "So," the veteran said, adjusting his stance.
Adrian looked directly back at him.
"You've got a dungeon," Raaandy continued, laying out the board. "You've got Warchiefs actively moving. And now you know exactly who's going to be watching when things inevitably start going wrong." He paused, his sharp eyes drilling into Adrian's. "Still think this is just a simple problem?"
Adrian didn't answer immediately. His cynical gaze drifted slightly past Raaandy's shoulder not to the frantic crowd, and not to the busy clerks of the guild, but to something else entirely. Something hidden far ahead in their future.
Then, he exhaled slowly, his focus snapping back to the reality of the room. "No," he said softly. A small, heavy pause hung in the air before he added the final realization. "It's bigger than that."
Raaandy gave a single, firm nod of approval. "Good."
Because that answer and the complete understanding behind it meant Adrian was finally starting to comprehend the true scale of the storm brewing over Eryndor.
Part 3 The Ones Who Don't Ask Permission
The guild noise didn't fade this time. It stayed. If anything, it was louder than before voices rising over each other, heavy wooden chairs scraping against the floorboards, and coin changing hands faster than decisions could keep up. But none of it felt particularly important anymore. Not after what had just been said in the shadows of the support pillar.
Adrian leaned slightly against the stone wall, his arms loosely crossed over his chest and his attention completely fixed on Raaandy. "Alright," he said, his voice dropping into a level register. "You mentioned four."
Raaandy didn't pretend not to understand the reference. "The Warchiefs," he said plainly.
Vaelith remained perfectly still beside them, but his focus sharpened slightly at the mention. This part of the region's breakdown mattered immensely to a tactician.
Raaandy shifted his heavy weight, glancing briefly around the crowded perimeter of the guild hall not to check who was actively listening, but out of pure, deep-seated survival habit. Then, he looked right back at Adrian. "Shadowfen isn't controlled," he explained. "Not by kingdoms. Not by guilds. It's divided."
Adrian nodded once, absorbing the grim layout. "Figures."
"Four Warchiefs," Raaandy continued, laying out the baseline. "Each one controls a specific section. Territory, creatures, influence." He held up a weathered hand slightly to emphasize the point. "And none of them share."
That logic tracked perfectly with Adrian's view of human and monster nature alike. He tilted his head slightly, analyzing the dynamic. "And they just... stay out of each other's way?"
Raaandy gave him a flat, entirely unimpressed look. "They don't kill each other because it's not worth it. Until it is."
The absolute truth of that statement landed solidly. Vaelith spoke up quietly from his position, his words precise. "Power balance," the swordsman noted. "Maintained through threat."
Adrian exhaled a slow, controlled breath. "Yeah. That sounds incredibly stable."
"It isn't," Raaandy replied flatly. Then, he continued his breakdown. "The first one," he said, his eyes drilling into Adrian's, "you already know."
Adrian didn't even need to hear the name spoken out loud. "Valdrik One-Eye."
The ambient roar of the guild hall seemed to pull back slightly not because the rowdy adventurers had actually quieted down, but because the sheer weight of the name carried enough subconscious threat to shift their focus.
"He's not the strongest of the four," Raaandy noted.
Adrian raised a skeptical eyebrow. "That's reassuring."
"He's the one that moves," Raaandy corrected immediately, a sharp edge to his voice. He paused, letting Adrian look at him. "He doesn't sit idly on territory. He tests it."
That was significantly worse than a stationary warlord. Adrian straightened his posture slightly against the wall. "And right now?"
Raaandy held his gaze with total seriousness. "You're the test."
A heavy silence hung between them. It wasn't dramatic or loud, but it was crystal clear. Adrian let out a slow, heavy breath through his nose. "Yeah, That tracks EVERYBODY loves to make me there test subject...lovely."
Raaandy pushed forward with the list before the grim reality could fully settle over them. "The second Serathis Coilborn."
Adrian frowned slightly, a specific profile clicking into place. "Goblin."
Raaandy nodded once. "Doesn't fight you head-on. Doesn't need to. Poison, traps, mind control. You won't even know you've stepped into her territory until it's far too late to run."
Adrian nodded back, filing the warning away. "Noted."
Vaelith added his own tactical label: "A strategist."
"Exactly," Raaandy said, nodding in agreement with the Kensei. He held up a third finger, his knuckles scarred from years of conflict. "Third—Gravemaw."
Adrian didn't like the sound of that name immediately.
"Brute," Raaandy said bluntly. "Doesn't think much. Doesn't need to. He commands beasts that shouldn't naturally exist. Mutated. Bigger. Stronger." He paused, letting the scale of the threat register. "If something's coming straight at you and actively shaking the ground beneath your boots, it's probably his."
Adrian exhaled slowly. "Good to know."
Raaandy's hardened expression didn't soften in the slightest. "The last one," he said, pausing briefly to give the name its proper gravity. "Velkan."
"That's the one in Blackstone Castle, isn't it?" Adrian asked, his memory clicking into place.
Raaandy gave a single, solemn nod. "You won't see him coming," he said flatly.
Vaelith's voice was noticeably quieter this time, carrying a deep respect for the danger. "Information control," the swordsman explained. "Assassination. Pervasive influence."
Adrian's mind flickered briefly back to the dark alleyway outside the tavern to the silent girl, the form-fitting clothes, and the perfectly balanced throwing blade embedded in the wood. "Yeah," he muttered under his breath, his eyes narrowing. "That lines up."
Raaandy watched his expression carefully, completely missing nothing about the subtle shift in Adrian's demeanor, but he chose not to press for details. Not yet.
"So," Adrian said after a quiet moment, adjusting his stance. "We've got four problems."
"Four disasters," Raaandy corrected grimly.
Adrian gave a small, cynical nod. "And one of them is already deeply interested in me."
Raaandy didn't look away. "Very."
A long pause stretched between them. Adrian ran a tense hand through his unruly hair, his racing thoughts finally settling into something much more structured and far less purely reactive. He was analyzing the board now.
"Why?" he asked simply.
Raaandy frowned slightly at the question. "You already know why."
Adrian shook his head, a firm refusal of the surface-level logic. "I know I killed the wolf," he said, his voice low and calculating. "That explains temporary attention." He paused, looking Raaandy dead in the eye. "It doesn't explain an obsession."
That distinction successfully caught Raaandy's full attention. The veteran studied Adrian far more carefully now, searching his face with a newfound respect. "You think this is something more than that," he noted.
Adrian didn't answer immediately, because he wasn't merely guessing anymore he was connecting the disparate threads of his reality. The wolf. The dungeon. The precise timing of it all. "Yeah," Adrian said quietly.
Raaandy exhaled slowly through his teeth. "Valdrik respects raw strength," he explained, breaking down the warlord's mindset. "That's his entire system of governance." He paused, letting a beat pass. "You beat something he personally considered untouchable." Another brief pause hung in the air. "Now he wants to see if you're real."
Adrian nodded once, accepting the premise. "And if I'm not?"
Raaandy's stone-cold expression didn't change in the slightest. "Then you die."
It was simple, clean, and entirely expected on the frontier. Adrian let out a quiet breath, the corner of his mouth twitching. "And if I am?"
This time, Raaandy didn't bother to answer. Because he didn't need to; Adrian already knew the terrifying implications of surviving.
The crowded guild hall suddenly felt significantly smaller not in physical dimensions, but in the precise way their options had narrowed down into something much more focused. It wasn't about a massive dungeon anymore, and it wasn't about an entire region. It was down to a singular, bloody direction.
"He's coming," Adrian said, the words a statement of fact rather than a fear.
Raaandy nodded firmly. "Yeah," he said, letting a heavy pause settle over them. "And he's not coming alone."
That part of the warning mattered far more than a single warlord. Adrian pushed his weight off the stone wall entirely, his posture shifting slightly he wasn't tense or rigid, but he was fundamentally different. He was more intentional.
"Alright, sure I should be use to it by now" he said, his resolve hardening.
Vaelith glanced sideways at him, tracking the change in his aura. Adrian looked between the veteran and the swordsman, his eyes clear.
"We don't wait for that," Adrian continued smoothly.
Raaandy raised a highly skeptical eyebrow. "You planning to stop him?"
Adrian shook his head slightly, a cold smile forming on his lips. "No," he said, letting a final pause hang in the air. "I'm planning to be ready."
That answer was noticeably better than anything Raaandy had expected from a rookie. The veteran gave a single, solid nod of approval.
"Good," Raaandy said softly.
Because for the very first time since this madness had begun, Adrian wasn't just blindly reacting to the world throwing threats at him. He was actively preparing to fight back.