THE BAIT:
The clicking had stopped.
A crooked smile stretched across the monster's face—enough to unsettle even gods.
Teeth. Jagged. Too many. Rows of them filling a grin that shouldn't exist on something without lips.
The boy and the creature faced each other in silence.
The monster's red slits hadn't moved from him since he'd thrown the blade.
No one even dared to blink.
Just breathing in the corridor. Five sets. One wet and rattling from Raska's broken ribs. One shallow and fast—Lili's panic barely contained. Three heavy and exhausted—Welf, Bell, the boy.
The boy's breath was the calmest of all.
Even though the cleaver was gone—thrown, deflected, lying somewhere in the ash behind him.
No weapon.
Seconds dragged. The moss-light flickered once. Steadied.
Then—a shift.
The creature moved first.
Legs drove into ash. Both of them. Same instant. The space between them collapsed.
The boy cut left.
The creature adjusted mid-charge, mass dragging after the new vector.
He snapped right.
Red slits tracked. Momentum committed.
Left again—
The creature was already leaning right when he cut back. Half a second it couldn't take back.
The boy dropped.
Slid low. Under its legs as it thundered past overhead.
One scythe came down anyway. Caught his right cheek mid-slide. Skin parted. Blood welled hot and immediate across his jaw.
He didn't feel it.
Came out of the slide already standing. Boots finding purchase. Already running. Not away from the creature—toward where the cleaver had fallen.
His hand closed around the hilt without slowing.
Kept running. Straight line. No hesitation.
Toward the corridor ahead. Toward the wider chamber beyond Floor 7's killbox.
The creature landed behind him. Twisted. Red slits locked.
Pursued.
No assessment. No pause. Limbs driving into stone, clicking spiking back to life—tick-tick-tick-tick—the sound of something that had found what it wanted and wasn't letting go.
Bell stood still. Guarding the three behind him. Eyes wide—caught between horror and disbelief.
The Hestia Knife was in his hand. Stance spread and ready.
He watched the boy run. Watched the creature give chase.
His head turned.
Found Lili kneeling beside Raska. Frozen. Blue liquid sloshing in shaking hands.
His eyes told her what his breath couldn't carry.
Sorry. I'm going to help him.
Even before Lili could process what had happened, he turned and ran.
Following the blood trail on stone. Following the clicking. Into the corridor where darkness swallowed the moss-light.
Lili's eyes went wide. Already watering.
Her mouth opened—no sound came—he was already gone.
She couldn't even—
Three shapes vanished. Boy. Creature. Bell.
The corridor swallowed them whole.
Silence settled.
Ash drifted in the phosphorescent light. The moss-glow steadied. Just breathing now—ragged, uneven, coming from people who'd barely survived.
Welf stared at the empty corridor.
"What the actual hell just happened?"
The words died in the ash.
Nobody answered.
Raska lay against the wall. Grey hair dark with blood. Breathing wet through broken ribs.
Her eyes fixed on the corridor.
He'd done it again. Thrown himself at the thing meant to kill him. Bait.
She didn't understand it. The boy had stood for Bell in that square—defended him when Bell barely knew he existed.
The trust. The respect. She couldn't tell where it came from.
But Bell—no hesitation. Straight into the same danger. Putting himself between death and strangers like it was breathing.
So... that's why...
She tried to move. Couldn't. Her body wouldn't answer. The corridor stayed silent and she could only watch them disappear into it.
Again.
Lili's hands shook around the potion bottle.
She tipped it toward Raska's mouth. Blue liquid hit teeth. Spilled down her chin. Ran into ash already dark with blood.
She steadied the bottle. Tried again.
Her head turned toward the corridor—toward where Bell had gone. The motion pulled her shoulders with it. She dragged her focus back.
Tilt. Swallow. Spill.
Salt water fell from her jaw into the blue.
She forced the opening between Raska's lips wider. Poured slower this time. More went in than out.
Her eyes flicked to the corridor again.
Raska's body tensed. Unwilling. Hands clenched as the potion brought life back into damaged tissue.
Lili took another bottle. Faster now. Hands still shaking but moving quicker anyway. Working against the pull. Against the need to stand. To run. To follow where he'd gone.
The second potion went in better than the first.
Blue light bled through the worst of Raska's wounds. Her breathing evened. Still wet. Still rattling. But stable.
Raska's eyes didn't move from the corridor.
And the darkness ahead stayed silent.
---
They ran.
Raska first. Welf behind. Lili last—legs shorter, breath coming harder, but keeping pace anyway.
The corridor opened ahead. Floor 7's tight green-tinted stone giving way to Floor 8's wider passages. The phosphorescent light steadier here. Brighter.
Scythe marks scored the walls.
Deep gouges scarred the stone — fresh enough that the corridor still seemed to remember the strike. Long parallel lines. Obsidian dragged hard and deliberate.
A few blood droplets on the floor. Dark red. Already drying.
Raska's eyes tracked the marks. Followed them forward.
The corridor narrowed ahead.
Walls closing in. Barely wide. The ceiling dropped lower.
The scythe marks disappeared here. In their place — impact craters. Broken stone. Chunks missing from the corridor sides. The thing had been too big for the narrow space and had forced through anyway, trading precision for momentum.
Past the narrow section, the corridor widened again.
A small intersection.
The walls bore no more wounds. Whatever chased ahead had finally found space to move.
The blood droplets stopped too.
Raska slowed. Eyes scanning.
The trail had gone cold.
Ahead—the path split. Three corridors branching. All wide enough now.
Welf stopped beside her. Breathing hard.
"Which way?"
Raska's jaw set.
He hadn't run to escape. He had led it — dragging the monster toward ground where walls could no longer save it.
Floor 8 had chambers. Large ones. The kind where—
Sound.
Boots. Multiple sets. Running toward them. Fast. Panicked.
Raska's hand went to her side. No weapon. Just instinct.
Three figures burst from the left corridor. Adventurers. Light armor. Weapons drawn but not raised. Eyes wide. Looking back over their shoulders while running forward.
Not watching where they were going.
The first one slammed into Lili.
Full speed. Center mass. She went down hard. Stone meeting back. Air leaving lungs.
The adventurer stumbled. Fell. Scrambled on hands and knees. Still trying to move forward. Still looking back.
The other two swerved. One hit the wall. Bounced off. Kept running.
Raska's hand shot out. Caught the scrambling adventurer by the collar. Yanked him up.
"Where are they?!"
Her voice cut through the panic. Flat. Sharp. Command.
The adventurer's eyes found hers. Still wide. Still terrified. Mouth opening but no sound coming yet.
"WHERE?!"
"That thing—two guys—they're fighting it—"
His voice breaking. Shaking.
Raska's grip tightened.
"Second left! The Depot! Don't go near—"
Then his eyes actually saw them.
Raska. Blood soaked through her shoulder and ribs. Dried already. Grey hair matted dark.
Welf. Greatsword in hand, breathing hard. Blood stained clothes. Shoulder wrong.
Lili on the ground. Small. Battered.
His face went white.
"—oh shit, you're WITH them?!!!"
Not a question. Recognition. Horror and understanding hitting simultaneously.
Raska released him.
Turned. Ran.
Welf followed.
Lili got her feet under her. Ran too.
The adventurers scrambled backward. Then forward. Away from where the party was heading. Still fleeing.
Their voices fading behind:
"They're insane—"
"Did you see—"
"—that thing's gonna—"
Gone.
The corridor ahead curved. Widened further. Light ahead. Not phosphorescent. Open space beyond.
They rounded the corner.
The Depot spread before them.
Massive. High ceiling—fifteen meters, maybe more. Rock formations scattered throughout. Natural pillars. Open ground between them. Ash-dusted stone stretching like a valley carved into the Dungeon's gut.
And in the center—
Movement.
Bell and the boy. Circling. Boots finding purchase on stone. Weapons raised.
The creature between them.
It moved different here. No walls to redirect off. No ceiling to swing from. Just open ground and two targets that wouldn't stay still.
Bell's left hand came up. Palm forward.
He stood still. Focused.
White light gathered around his hand. Particles swirling. Sparkling like stardust caught in motion.
A soft sound built in the chamber. Faint. Like a bell ringing distant and getting closer.
The boy kept moving. Circling. Drawing the creature's attention. Keeping it focused on him.
The white particles intensified. More gathered. The sound louder now.
The creature's red slits flicked to Bell. Recognized the threat.
"FIREBOLTTTT—"
White light and electric flame erupted together. A column of fire wrapped in sparkling particles. Aimed straight at the creature's chest — at the pulsing magic stone visible through translucent hide.
The creature twisted.
Mid-release.
The beam carved through the space where its chest had been half a second before.
The beam caught two scythes mid-swing — and they vanished in white fire. Obsidian stumps smoking where the limbs had been.
The creature landed ten meters away. Chest intact. Magic stone still pulsing.
Raska stopped at the chamber entrance. Eyes locked on the fight.
The creature was shedding its weapons one by one, the battle carving it down toward something final. Raska had taken one on Floor 7. Bell just took two more. Three gone. Five left.
Lilli hesitated — awe rising first, hope following before she could stop it. Her chestnut eyes kept widening, unable to keep up with what she was seeing.
"They are... so fast..."
The creature's red slits swept across Bell and the boy. No longer tracking with patience. With calculation.
With something else now.
Welf stood beside Raska. Greatsword raised. Watching.
His voice came quiet. Uncertain.
"…Are we actually supposed to jump in there?"
The question hung in the open air.
The creature's clicking resumed.
Slower this time.
Deliberate.
Tick... tick... tick...
---