Round 494

The sound was unlike anything Merrin had ever heard before—a groan of stone so deep it vibrated through her teeth and bones. The torrent that followed was a wall of water, rushing down with enough force to knock Varikka off balance despite her dwarf strength. Merrin moved without thinking, grabbing the larger woman's arm and yanking hard toward the gap between collapsing walls.

They squeezed through just as the full weight of the flood hit, the current so strong it nearly ripped them apart. Merrin used every ounce of her rogue agility to shove Varrika ahead while water roared past them in a churning maelstrom.

By the time they stumbled out onto the other side, the water was already waist-deep and rising fast. Merrin spotted the ledge first—a thin shelf of stone barely visible above the rushing torrent.

"Over there!" she shouted, pointing frantically. Varrika didn't hesitate. With a grunt of pain that spoke volumes about her injured ankle, the dwarf woman lunged forward and grabbed the edge, hauling herself up with desperate strength.

Merrin followed, her smaller frame giving her an advantage in the tight squeeze but doing nothing to slow the terrifying speed at which the water was climbing. She scrambled onto the ledge beside Varrika just as the current reached chest height.

They collapsed side by side on the narrow perch, gasping for breath as the waters continued their relentless ascent. The roar of the flood was deafening now, and they could feel the vibration of the collapsing chamber through the stone beneath them.

"That would've been a bitch of a way to die," Varrika panted, her face contorted with pain but relief evident in her voice.

Merrin managed a weak laugh, her dark eyes wide with terror as she watched the waters climb ever higher. "Yeah, drowning in a collapsing dungeon isn't exactly how I planned to go out. Though honestly, I'm surprised we're still alive at all after everything that's gone wrong."