Round 156

The walls' coordinated breathing accelerated into a frantic rhythm, living tissue erupting in multiple places along the stone surfaces to form writhing tendrils that reached for them both. Halie stumbled back instinctively but stopped herself mid-step—every second counted for documentation even as her right arm continued its horrifying transformation. The corruption spread visibly across her skin with each passing moment, creeping tendrils of dark purple and black consuming healthy tissue in their path. Her fingers twitched erratically already, coordination failing faster than expected.

The pressure plates beneath them shuddered again, grinding ominously as the corridor began to collapse inward, rubble pouring down like a living avalanche. The air filled with the stench of decay and something else—something ancient and hungry that made Halie's skin crawl despite her holy aura. "I'll seal behind you," she said, her voice steady despite the urgency. "We can contain the corruption together." The cleric began to slowly move towards the wall, her right arm trembling as she strained to maintain control over the spreading fungal tendrils.

Jeane's wings trembled visibly under the strain of maintaining her twelve-meter barrier radius, flame magic resistance dropping dangerously low from prolonged exposure to whatever horrors lurked downstairs. The walls' synchronized breathing pattern stopped completely—everything except that low pulsing hum growing stronger like heartbeat counting down seconds until next adaptation phase. She couldn't maintain this much longer, not with the corruption already spreading across Halie's arm and the walls actively trying to crush them between closing stone plates.

"Seal behind me?" Jeane repeated, her voice tight with barely controlled panic. "You want to PUSH THE CORRUPTION CLOSER? Are you insane? Every second you're in range increases the spread risk—look at your fucking arm!" The sorceress's crimson eyes blazed with desperate focus as she fought against the pulling sensation trying to drag them both downward toward whatever waited below. "We need distance, not proximity! Maintaining this barrier radius requires every ounce of concentration I have left—if you get close enough for that shit to spread through contact, I'll lose control and we'll all be fucked!"