Chapter 55 : flight
The shaft was narrow and stifling, and the air was heavier than outside, saturated with a pungent mixture of heat, sweat and putrefaction. Silence was just an illusion - a veil stretched between them and the beating heart of the dungeon.
The ground beneath their feet was becoming increasingly organic. Chitinous growths covered the walls, pulsing faintly like a visible circulatory system. Each step sounded like an echo in a living trachea.
Erika was still leading the way, her gaze hard, her jaws clenched. Isaac, barely a step behind Rémi, observed everything with the same surgical precision. He noted shapes in the shadows, variations in the light, the rapid breathing of certain members of the group. The intensity was rising. The dungeon thickened.
- We’re getting close to the core, that’s for sure," Maëlle breathed, resting her hand against the wall. The mana is... denser. I’m having trouble breathing.
Jonah was already reloading his weapon, his fingers trembling slightly. He glanced at Isaac:
- You feel it’s going to get bad, don’t you?
- It’s already going badly. We’re just realizing it," Isaac replied laconically.
And he was right.
A shrill scream suddenly erupted from the bowels of the dungeon, echoed through the organic walls. A high-pitched, prolonged, non-human scream, which slowly turned into a vibration in the ground. A signal.
Erika stopped dead in her tracks.
- Formation! Defensive 180! It’s an ambush!