Kaine woke up choking. His lungs burned as if he had inhaled acid. He rolled onto his side and coughed until his throat was raw, spitting out thick green mucus that tasted like chemical.
Around him, the others were waking up too.
Davos groaned nearby. Yuki let out a small, broken whimper. Rook was on his hands and knees, throwing up green liquid. Marcus was already on his feet, swaying but standing, his sword still clutched in his hands.
"Sound off." He rasped. "Everyone."
"Here." Davos grunted.
"Alive." Yuki whispered.
"Fuck." Rook spat.
"Here." Kaine groaned.
Jin didn't respond.
Kaine pushed himself to his knees, and looked around. The walls were still pulsing.
Jin was still in the center of the room. She wasn't moving. The black veins had spread across her entire body now. Her eyes were open but blank, green fluid was leaking from her nose and mouth.
"Jin!" Marcus rushed to her side, and checked her pulse. "She's alive. But her pulse is weak."
"Kaine." Davos turned to look at him. "Heal her."
Right. That's what healers did.
Kaine crawled towards Jin on his hands that wouldn't stop shaking. His medical kit was still attached to his belt, but when he tried to open it, his fingers didn't cooperate. Marcus opened it for him, taking out bandages and disinfectant.
But Kaine wasn't looking at the supplies. He was looking at Jin's wound. The wound on her arm was gray and soft. The back veins were pulsing on their own.
Kaine raised his hands and cast a healing spell. The glow of his magic touched her skin but slid right off. He tried again, pushing harder. But nothing happened. The infection didn't even slow down.
"Kaine, is it working?" Marcus asked.
"I.." Kaine's voice cracked. "I'm trying. I just need…"
"It's not working," Rook cut him off. "Look at her. She's getting worse."
He was right. The black veins were spreading even faster now, crawling up Jin's neck towards her face.
"Try harder!" Davos barked.
"I am!" The words came out as a shout. "I'm trying, it's just…it's not…"
The magic flickered and died again. His mana pool was empty.
"Fuck." Marcus ran a hand through his hair. "Okay…okay, we'll…we'll use potions. Yuki, do you have any healing potions?"
"Two." Yuki whispered. She pulled out two small vials of red liquid from her belt. "Low grade. They won't…"
"They'll have to work." Marcus took them from her and poured them down Jin's throat.
But nothing happened. The black veins kept spreading.
"Shit."
Then a deep growl echoed through the chamber. Everyone froze.
"We need to move." Rook said. "We need to find another exit or..."
The wall at the far end of the chamber split open like a torn flesh, and a dozen of plague wolves poured out.
"Formation!" Marcus shouted. "Davos, front! Yuki, Rook…"
The wolves attacked before he could finish. Davos blocked the first hit. Rook's arrows were shaky. Yuki stumbled mid-spell, but Marcus was able to kill one.
But they were too slow, and weak in front of those wolves. Kaine could only watch them failing. They were all dying, and there wasn't a single thing Kaine could do about it.
Then suddenly, Davos roared and smashed a wolf's skull. Rook stood up, despite the wound in his leg and shot an arrow straight at the wolf's eye from ten feet away. Yuki's next spell was faster, and colder, freezing two wolves mid-air. Marcus was also moving faster now.
They were still poisoned but they were fighting back. The battle lasted for about five minutes, but it felt like hours. By the end, a dozen of dead wolves littered the floor, their bodies were dissolving into black sludge.
But the team's health was worse than before. Davos had claw marks on his arms and chest. Rook's leg was mangled. Yuki had a bite on her shoulder that she was clutching with one hand, and Marcus had too many cuts to count.
"Kaine." Marcus said. "Heal what you can."
Kaine wanted to both laugh and cry. His mana pool was empty. Even if it wasn't, he had already proven that his magic was useless. But he tried anyway.
He crawled to Davos first, the closest one, and placed his hands over the claw marks. He tried to cast a spell, the light that formed was barely visible. It touched the wound but nothing happened.
"It's not working." Davos said. "Save your strength."
"I can…"
"It's not working. The infection is too strong. Your magic can't touch it."
Kaine moved from one teammate to another but he failed everytime.
"Stop." Marcus caught Kaine's wrist as he tried to cast the spell again. "Stop. You're just wasting mana."
"I have to…"
"You have to stay alive." Marcus's grip was gentle despite his words.
Then Jin started convulsing. Green foam bubbled from her mouth and nose. The black veins had reached her face.
"Jin! Jin, stay with us!" Marcus shouted as he ran towards her.
Her skin was turning gray, her fingers clawed at the floor.
"Do something!" Rook shouted at Kaine. "You're supposed to be a healer, so fucking heal her!"
"I can't! There's nothing I can do, I'm sorry, I'm…"
Jin stopped moving. She closed her eyes, then snapped them open. They were solid black, there was no white, no iris. And then she screamed.
It wasn't a human sound. It was something between a shriek and a death rattle. Her body started to change. Her skin turned gray and peeled away in wet chunks. The flesh beneath was gray and rotten. Her bones cracked and reformed.
"Back!" Marcus scrambled away. "Everyone back!"
The thing that had been Jin stood on its feet, and lunged at them. They fought with everything they had. But it wouldn't stop. Finally, Marcus's blade took its head off.
The body collapsed and began to dissolve. Marcus stood over the spot where she had been, his breathing was ragged, and his whole body was shaking.
"She's gone. Jin is gone." He whispered.
Nobody responded. They just we gathered together in the center of the chamber, with their backs to each other, watching the walls for new threats. Their wounds were getting worse. The black veins were spreading even faster now.
Kaine tried one more time to heal them but failed again.
"It's okay." Marcus said. "Atleast, you tried."
Hours passed. Their condition was getting worse.
"Kaine, if we don't make it out of here… tell my sister I'm sorry." Marcus told him.
"Don't." Kaine shook his head. "Don't talk like that. We're going to…"
"We're going to die." Marcus cut him off. "All of us know it. The message said 72 hours, but look at Jin. She didn't even make it two hours."
"The guild will send a rescue team." Kaine said. "When we don't report back, they'll…"
"They'll mark this dungeon as unknown threat level and close it off." Rook interrupted. "They won't send anyone in until they know what they're dealing with. That could take days or even weeks."
"Then we hold out until…"
"Until what?" Davos laughed bitterly. "Look at us. We're dying."
He wasn't wrong. The infection was spreading faster. They huddled together in the center of the chamber, waiting for rescue that wouldn't come in time, hoping for a miracle that didn't exist.
Marcus sat with his head in his hands. Davos stared at the spot where Jin had been. Yuki was crying silently. Rook had his eyes closed.
But Kaine felt no pain. He looked down at his hands. They should have been shaking. They should have been covered in black veins like everyone else's. They should have been showing some sign of the infection that had killed Jin and was killing the others.
But they weren't. His skin was pale but healthy. There were no black veins, no gray flesh and leaking liquid. He rolled up his sleeves, checked his arms, his legs, and everywhere he could see. But there was nothing.
"Why am I not sick?" He asked himself, but everyone heard him.
They all turned to look at him, and they all had only one question in their mind.
Why wasn't he sick?
He had been exposed to the same mist, breathed in the same poison, and spent hours in the same chamber. But while others were dying, why was Kaine completely fine?