Round 134

The walls' breathing stopped, a more ominous silence than the rhythm it replaced. Halie's corrupted right arm pulsed with cold fire, tendrils writhing beneath translucent skin—20 seconds until coordination fails completely. Jeane maintained her 20m barrier radius around Silra despite arcane strain building from downstairs proximity.

"You're proposing we gamble our entire operational advantage on a sixty-second window while feeding upstairs intelligence exactly what it needs for complete divine magic countermeasures," Jeane said, her wings trembling visibly from the strain of containing Silra's corruption. The air between them crackled with barely controlled power.

Halie shook her head, the gentle face now set in grim determination. "I understand your tactical assessment clearly now—you're saying that maintaining this channel for sixty seconds feeds the enemy intelligence upstairs exactly what it needs to develop permanent resistance against divine magic." She held up her corrupted arm, tendrils writhing beneath translucent skin. "But here's what you're not considering: if we let Silra lose her arm and retreat with containment intact but without resolving the floor acid issue, we'll have to navigate that nightmare again later with even less advantage."

The grinding noise from below grew louder—some mechanism preparing to crush them between walls within minutes. The fungal tendrils in the ceiling quivered with anticipation, their tips probing at the newly exposed flesh like grasping fingers. Jeane's flame magic resistance was dropping from prolonged exposure, and maintaining the barrier radius around Silra's corruption cost more power every second. They needed a solution fast before Halie lost coordination in her arm or the walls closed completely.

"Fine," Jeane hissed through gritted teeth. "But if this goes sideways, I'm blaming you for the brilliant tactical decision-making that got us all corrupted and squished."