Round 122

The binding pulsed again, weaker this time, and Halie gasped as pain lanced through her chest like a physical blow. Thirty seconds, she thought frantically, maintain for thirty more seconds before it collapses completely. Then what? They couldn't stay here—the outer door wouldn't hold much longer. But the corridor ahead held its own unknown dangers, multiple doors yawning open like dark mouths waiting to swallow them whole. No time to scout each one individually, no way to know which held immediate threats and which were simply...

Trap after trap after trap. This entire complex was designed as a fucking dungeon for magical experiments gone wrong—of course every corridor was lined with death traps just waiting for idiots like them to stumble into range. The flickering light sources cast long shadows across the stone floor, and Halie's eyes widened as she noticed something moving in the darkness beyond the first junction—a shape? A figure? She couldn't tell through the magical exhaustion blurring her vision.

Focus, she told herself desperately, maintain the field for thirty more seconds. Then we move. Forward or backward didn't matter—either direction led to potential death. But staying here meant certain death when Zha'thik finally broke through that outer barrier. The binding pulsed again, weaker still, and Halie felt her knees buckle slightly before she caught herself against the wall.