Screams As.
The sounds came first
Sparks.
Metal on bone.
Screaming that didn't know what shape it wanted to be.
---
Then underneath all of it—
One soldier on the ground.
His back flat against the dungeon floor.
His body not moving the way a body should when it wants to move.
Pinned.
---
The lizard man on top of him.
Its tail coiled around his leg.
One claw pressing his left arm into the stone.
The other his right.
He was spread open.
Nothing between him and it.
---
Its eyes lit up.
Yellow.
Bright.
---
The chaos around them didn't slow.
But for him it went quiet.
The explosions.
The gunfire.
The screaming.
All of it dimming.
Pulling back.
Like the world was narrowing to just this.
Just the face above him.
Just the mouth opening.
---
The teeth were white.
Long.
Each one coming into focus separately.
His eyes moved across them without meaning to.
Reading each point.
Each edge.
---
Sweat came out of him slow.
Not from effort.
From something draining.
Something leaving before it was asked to.
---
His eyes shook.
He couldn't stop them.
---
The jaw descended.
---
The first tooth found his cheek.
Then the others followed.
His scream entered the chaos and became part of it.
Indistinguishable from everything else already screaming.
---
The lizard man straightened up.
Stood over him.
Its mouth dark and wet.
Pieces of what had been there before.
It looked behind it.
---
The gunfire found it.
Multiple shots.
It went down.
---
The battle ended the way battles end.
Not cleanly.
Just the noise stopping.
Just the movement stopping.
Just what was left standing left standing.
---
Minjun got up.
Looked around.
---
The drones still hovering.
Cameras rotating.
Finding each face.
Each body.
Cataloguing.
---
Far away in the dark room the screens showed everything the cameras found.
Faces of men in suits watching.
One of them typing slowly.
Not urgently.
Just noting.
He turned his head toward the man beside him.
Sharp eyes.
Thin face.
Watching the same screens.
"We've confirmed two deaths so far."
Flat.
Professional.
The way you say something you expected to say.
---
Back inside—
Minjun moved through what remained of the formation.
Each face.
Each body still upright.
Each one carrying the fight somewhere on them.
Torn fabric.
Blood dried and fresh.
Eyes that had seen something they hadn't seen before today.
---
One of the soldiers pressed a small bottle into his hand.
Purple liquid inside.
Thick.
He looked at it a moment.
Then drank.
---
The system appeared.
Glowing softly in front of each of them.
Game-like.
Indifferent.
*Health potion effects: 79%.*
*Confirmed kills: 25 Lizardmen.*
*Mana levels across collective party: functional.*
*Members lost: 2.*
---
Minjun read it.
Let it sit.
---
He looked at them.
All of them together now.
Tired in the specific way that comes after something real.
Not exhausted.
Hollowed.
---
His voice came low.
Even.
"We're not done yet."
A pause.
"It took some of us."
Another pause.
"We carry that. We own the consequences of their actions going forward."
---
"Yes sir."
Thirteen voices now.
Not fifteen.
One sound still.
Just smaller than before.
---
They moved forward.