Round 138

Silra slammed the emergency access panel shut with a clang that echoed through the darkness, momentarily muffling the sound of rushing water. The air was stale and thick with the smell of damp concrete, and the corridor had become a death trap—water was climbing fast, and those arcs between conduits were growing more aggressive by the heartbeat. A chunk of concrete detached from the ceiling overhead, plummeting past her shoulder before smashing into the water mere feet away.

She quickly assessed Jeane's condition, noting the faint blue tint to her skin and the labored breathing. The sorcerer was barely maintaining her shield magic, visible through translucent flesh as a flickering blue light—barely 10% integrity remained, pulsing erratically with each shiver. "We need to get you out of here, now," Silra said, her voice firm despite the urgency.

Jeane's teeth chattered violently as she tried to maintain focus through brain fog from hypothermia. "You said sixty seconds!" she snapped at Silra, her words barely coherent around the shivering. "Not fifteen minutes of freezing my demonic tits off while maintaining shield magic on empty reserves! And don't you dare suggest we 'share body heat'—my lactating breasts are not your personal radiator, you perverted elf!"

Silra stripped off her wet shirt without ceremony—hypothermia didn't leave room for modesty—and pressed Jeane against herself skin-to-skin while calculating thermal transfer rates based on body mass difference and ambient temperature. The sorcerer's skin was like ice, and Silra gritted her teeth against the shock of it. "This isn't personal," she muttered clinically as Jeane tried to protest, already shivering uncontrollably despite her own higher metabolic rate.

The water continued rising, now halfway up their thighs and still climbing. The electrical arcs between conduits were intensifying—each discharge sent sparks dancing across the water's surface, closer to touching distance with each pulse. Silra knew they had maybe twenty minutes before the corridor flooded completely, and probably less time than that before hypothermia rendered them both unconscious.