"The line between victory and death is drawn in blood."
As we went further in the dungeon, the smell of rot intensified in the air. The Titan was just a small beginning. And now we face horrors hidden in the dark. A chattering noise came out of the cavern. My breath hitched. Then they came.
Pale, elongated creatures slithered from the shadows. Skin stretched tight over gaunt, inhuman forms, their hollow eyes burning with unnatural hunger. Reapers.
"Spread out! Don't let them surround us!" Allen bellowed, swinging his sword as the first Reaper lunged at him.
Steel bit into flesh. The beast shrieked, its limbs flailing wildly as Allen hacked through its torso. Black ichor sprayed, sizzling upon contact with the ground. But for every one that fell, two more took its place.
I clenched my fists, making my mana react. Gravity poured around me, building a crushing field that pulled down nearby Reapers. Their bodies twitched, bones snapping under the pressure.
"They're not stopping!" Alan shouted, releasing arrow after arrow at the swarm.Sara weaved between attacks, her daggers flashing. One Reaper caught her ankle with a sickle-like claw. She shrieked, falling back. Blood poured from the wound.
"Nora!" I screamed.
The healer rushed forward, a golden light emanating from her palms. But healing required time, and time was something we didn't have.
Then, the real horror began.
A shadow loomed over us. Larger than the Reapers, with jagged limbs and a swollen, pulsing chest. The Reaper King.
"Dodge!" Allen yelled, but it was too late.
The King slammed the ground. We were sent flying by the shockwave. I hit the cavern wall hard, pain flaring through my ribs.
Screams filled the air.
Sara lay motionless, her body crumpled like a broken doll. Alan crawled toward her, blood pooling beneath him from deep gashes across his back.
Nora reached them, hands shaking as she tried to stitch the wounds. But the King wasn't done. It stomped forward, its gaping maw splitting open. A grotesque tongue slithered free, dragging Alan closer.
"No!" I threw out my hand, reversing gravity beneath Alan. He shot upward, barely escaping the creature's grasp.
Allen charged, his sword flashing with a bright silver light. He aimed for the King's chest, but the monster swatted him aside as if he was a toy. He hit the ground with a sickening crack.
"Fall back!" he gasped. "We have to—"
The Reapers swarmed him.
Their claws ripped into his flesh. His cries were guttural, raw. Blood sprayed in thick arcs as they tore into his body.
I couldn't move. I couldn't breathe.
"Kael, we need to get out of here!" Nora jerked my arm back into reality.
Allen's eyes met mine. A silent order.
"Run."
My heart pounded against my chest. I gritted my teeth and sent my mana flailing out into the void, hoping for some miracle that would give us just enough. Gravity buckled down on the Reapers, compressing them a little further into the earth, creating an opening. Allen leapt up to his feet and took off with us.
We ran until our lungs would burn from it, the monstrous screeches echoing behind us. Our boots splashed through puddles of filth, the tunnel narrowing into suffocating darkness.
"There!" Nora pointed. A fissure in the rock. A small opening barely wide enough to squeeze through.
I dove in first, pulling her in after me. Allen followed, his eyes wide with panic, gasping for breath. We landed hard, our chests shaking and breathless.
Silence.
I pressed my ear to the stone. The creatures continued to search, their guttural clicks echoing through the tunnel.
Nora clutched her knees, her whole body shaking. "We left them."
I swallowed the bile that rose in my throat. "We had no choice."
Allen wiped the blood from his face, his face grim. "We're not out of this yet. But we fight another day."
In the darkness, we waited. We weren't safe. Not yet.
But for now, we were alive.