The tunnel smelled like blood, rot, and death.
Yuche barely noticed the stench anymore, that was pretty much how everything smelled since he walked into this Hotel.
The underground passage shook violently every few seconds while roots groaned overhead and concrete cracked somewhere deeper beneath the hotel. Several times, dirt collapsed from the ceiling hard enough that soldiers behind them had to shove someone out of the way before anyone got crushed.
None of it mattered.
Yuche moved through the darkness quickly, metal floating silently around him in jagged pieces torn from pipes, walls, and abandoned equipment. Beside him, Lingyun's flames lit the flooded tunnel in uneven flashes while Chenghai stayed several steps ahead like he was physically trying to outrun whatever waited at the end.
Nobody spoke... there was nothing useful left to say anyway. What could they say? That Rouxi would be fine? That all this was probably nothing? That she hadn't been eaten?
