She hunted the climbers down until only a few remained, and by then the battle had lost its structure. The hunters had become the hunted. Their confidence had rotted into panic, and panic was killing them faster than Yenna could. They were not weak. That much was obvious. Their gear was decent. Their levels were higher than Kael's official floor position by a wide margin. Their coordination had been solid before the lights began dying.
But fear had hollowed them out.
Not ordinary fear.
Something sharper.
As if a ghost was chasing them.
A man tried to flee into the darkness with a torch in hand, only for its flame to snuff out halfway through his first turn. He screamed, dropped the dead torch, and reached for another from his belt. His fingers found the handle just as the darkness peeled them off.
Another climber fell to his knees and raised both hands. "Wait! Wait, we can talk!"
Yenna's saber passed through him.
"No," she said.
