Round 92

Jeane moved with practiced efficiency, her crimson eyes scanning every inch of the shattered Starheart fragments as she held them at arm's length. The sweet-sick scent intensified, and the fungal growths on the walls quivered in visible excitement, their movements becoming more frantic as the walls' synchronized breathing accelerated into a distinct counting-down rhythm.

"I examine the Starheart fragments carefully while maintaining distance," Jeane reported, her voice tight with controlled anxiety. "No visible corruption contamination despite Silra's 1% per minute airborne transmission rate specifically targeting elven genetics exactly matching what she calculated earlier. The sweet-sick scent intensifies again, fungal growths quivering faster as walls' synchronized breathing accelerates into counting-down rhythm before..."

Silra moved with a different kind of precision—tactical and desperate. She pulled out her tools, her teal eyes fixed on the growing darkness between them and the rapidly closing walls. "I pull out my tools while maintaining distance," she hissed, voice strained but controlled. "Three meters exactly because every centimeter closer accelerates transmission rate by 0.1% per minute specifically targeting elven genetics like the ancient texts documented before we even entered this cursed place. The walls' synchronized breathing pattern reaches maximum speed now almost excitedly as that low hum counts down thirty seconds between..."

The grinding noise intensified, walls inching closer with each passing second. The air grew thicker, heavier, the atmosphere itself seeming to pulse with anticipation. Jeane's flame flickered dangerously low, barely maintaining its hold against the encroaching corruption. Silra's arm twitched, dark veins spreading further up her shoulder as she fought to maintain her grip on her tools.

"Thirty seconds," Silra calculated coldly, her voice barely audible over the grinding stone. "Walls closing at 5cm per second—total crush in forty-five seconds if we don't find a solution. The fungal growths are definitely reacting to proximity now, accelerating their own expansion patterns specifically targeting exposed skin..."