Round 139

The chamber air settled into stillness after the fire died, heavy with the stench of burned flesh and magic gone wrong. Halie knelt beside Jeane's prone form, her blue-grey eyes fixed on the sorcerer's charred arms while keeping a wary gaze angled toward the approaching hooded figure. The ground rumbled again beneath them—Zha'thik was breaking through something structural now, his approach audible in grinding stone and tearing metal.

Jeane forced herself conscious despite the agony screaming through every nerve ending, vision blurry but Halie's silhouette clear enough. Stupid cleric getting too close to the tendril, she thought desperately, and what the fuck is this shadow-woman doing extinguishing my fire? Her arms were ruined beyond recognition from wrist to shoulder, blackened flesh already peeling away in places that still somehow conducted pain directly to her brain.

The hooded figure took another step closer, her smile visible now but unnerving in the dim light. "I can heal those burns," she offered, voice soft and carrying an undertone of something ancient. "But I require compensation for my services."

Halie's jaw tightened. "Thirty seconds," she said, voice measured with barely contained anger. "That's how long it'll take me to get Jeane through that door." (She gestured toward the ornate barrier at the corridor's end.) "If you're serious about helping, prove it by keeping that thing"—she jerked her chin toward the descending tendril—"occupied for those thirty seconds. Otherwise this conversation is over."

The ceiling shadow paused its descent, swaying slightly as if considering Halie's words. Behind them Zha'thik roared again, closer now—the sound of something massive breaking through concrete and rebar. The ground bucked under their knees.

Jeane tried to speak but managed only a pained hiss through clenched teeth. Her vision was tunneling, consciousness fighting to stay present against the overwhelming agony and magical exhaustion. Thirty seconds, she thought distantly, or we're all dead anyway.