Round 19

The tower groaned around them like a living thing in its death throes, ancient stone creaking under unimaginable pressure. Dust rained down in thick choking clouds that obscured their vision and clogged their throats, the air inside growing heavy with ambient magic that surged wildly through the corridors. Jeane felt her own spellcasting ability being actively suppressed by the interference—it was like trying to breathe underwater while maintaining complex mental calculations.

Halie gritted her teeth, sweat beading on her forehead as she focused every ounce of her clerical power into reinforcing the already groaning ceiling overhead. The ancient stone strained against her enhanced prayers, cracks spiderwebbing across the surface before her reinforced magic forced them closed with audible pops and groans. "Twenty seconds... maybe thirty if we're lucky," she gasped through clenched jaws. "But the stone is getting weaker by the second. We need to decide—corridor or passage? Because either way, we're moving now before this whole place comes down on top of us!"