They kept moving.
The corridor swallowing each step.
Left.
Right.
Left again.
The maze folding into itself.
Dark beyond what the helmet lights could reach.
Dark beyond what the drones could push back.
---
The drone voice came flat into Minjun's ear.
"You're close to the centre of the dungeon."
---
They moved.
In unison.
Each boot finding the ground at the same moment as the thirteen beside it.
The rhythm of it steady in the dark.
The only familiar thing in an unfamiliar place.
---
Then the voice again.
"Something's coming toward you."
A pause.
"It's big."
Another pause.
"It's fast."
"Be careful."
---
No order needed.
Shields came up.
The line formed.
Bodies pressed together.
Shoulder to shoulder.
---
The energy moved through them.
Building.
The white rainbow bubble expanded outward.
Covered all thirteen.
Sealed them in.
---
They waited.
---
The dark ahead gave nothing.
Just dark.
Just the sound of their own breathing inside the bubble.
Their own heartbeats too loud.
---
Eyes adjusted.
Found nothing to adjust to.
Throats went dry.
Hands on shields trembling slightly.
Not from weakness.
From waiting.
From not knowing what shape the next thing would take.
---
Then the sound.
Low first.
Then building.
Then everything.
---
It came out of the dark like something the dark had been holding back.
Hulking.
Massive.
A lizard man but wrong in scale.
Built like a wall that had learned to run.
Screaming as it came.
The sound of it filling the corridor from floor to ceiling.
---
It didn't slow.
---
BOOM.
---
The impact hit the bubble like a fist hitting a drum.
The force of it pushed outward in every direction.
Wind tore through the corridor.
Dust.
Debris.
Everything that wasn't bolted down moving away from the point of contact.
---
They slid back.
Boots dragging on stone.
But they held.
The bubble held.
---
The creature pulled back its right arm.
The claws at the end of it each the size of a man's face.
Long.
Hooked.
Still wet from before.
---
It swung.
The claw raked across the barrier.
Sparks.
Bright.
Gone.
---
Again.
---
Again.
---
Each impact pushing them back another inch.
The bubble absorbing.
Redistributing.
But not infinitely.
---
Minjun's eyes moved.
Found her.
Short black hair.
One of the female soldiers already in position.
Three others lining up beside her.
Reading what he needed without being told.
---
The system moved across their vision.
*Fireball skill — activated.*
*Dark bullet — activated.*
*Dark bullet — activated.*
*Energy harmonizing.*
*Fusion scale — activated.*
*Dark Storm — greater skill — activated.*
---
Minjun's voice.
Loud.
Certain.
"Shields down."
---
The bubble burst.
---
The energy that had been held inside it had nowhere to go but forward.
Dark.
Massive.
A concentrated thing moving at speed.
It hit the creature full in the face.
---
The dust consumed everything.
All of it.
The corridor.
The soldiers.
The creature.
All of it disappeared into the cloud.
---
Silence for a moment.
Just settling dust.
Just breathing.
---
Then.
---
Movement in the cloud.
Something standing.
Something rising.
---
The dust parted around it.
The creature stood.
Half its face raw.
The skin there dark.
Crisped at the edges.
Smoke still rising from it in thin threads.
The smell of cooked meat spreading through the corridor.
---
It opened its mouth.
The roar came from somewhere past sound.
Past hearing.
Into the chest.
Into the bone.
Shaking everything it touched.
---
Minjun looked at what was in front of him.
At what had taken that and stood back up.
---
His voice came even.
"Prepare yourselves."