Zayn walked over to the edge, rolling his shoulders.
He crouched to take off his boots, already fantasizing about how nice it would be to float for a bit, maybe forget about being almost eaten by a worm,
But then he blinked.
Sothing shifted.
The reflection on the lake surface — Bran’s arms mid-splash, the overhanging vines, the soft glimr of the soul-lit ceiling — it all... stuttered.
Like a broken fra in a painting.
Then everything changed.
Zayn jerked back instinctively as the water beneath Bran vanished — not drained or splashed away, but gone — a sudden collapse like the lake had never been there.
Bran yelped mid-laugh and dropped with a hard thump onto wet mud that stead as if the liquid had been violently evaporated.
The trees lining the far end of the lake withered.
The leaves crumbled and fell like ash.
The tall grasses around them turned brittle in seconds, browning, curling, then collapsing into gray powder.
Zayn stumbled away from the edge. "What the hell?!"
"I didn’t do that!" Kara shouted, already moving her staff in tight, defensive circles.
Stones lifted from the ground around her, orbiting like angry moons.
"Was it the guardian? Did we offend it?" Tobias was flipping through his notes, desperate for answers. "I didn’t draw on the vines! I swear!"
Bran sat in the mud, dazed and shirtless. "...Did the lake betray ?"
Zayn helped him up, tugging him away from the rapidly decaying edge. "Co on, water prince. Out of the puddle."
Elisse’s face had gone pale.
She stood, unmoving, staring at the dead trees. "This... I can feel the soul rot."
Tobias looked up sharply. "What?"
She didn’t take her eyes off the withering landscape. "It’s when energy gets pulled out of living things so fast that the body doesn’t have ti to die properly. The soul gets... burned. The trees, the grass — they weren’t just drained. They were emptied."
Kara cursed under her breath and slamd her staff into the ground.
A protective do of rock jutted up halfway around them. "I don’t think we’re alone anymore."
Zayn looked around, trying to find the source — anything that might explain why a paradise had turned into a graveyard in seconds.
Then his eyes landed on the lakebed. Or rather, what was left of it.
A pit.
Circular, deep, carved unnaturally into the ground where the water had been. Like a plug had been pulled from the world itself.
And from that pit... sothing crawled.
It started as a shadow.
Then a shimr of movent. Then a sound — like skin dragging against stone.
It rose.
Not fast. Not with anger. But with hunger.
It looked like a man, at first glance.
Humanoid.
Bare-chested with long limbs and a crooked posture.
Its skin looked wet, but it wasn’t water — it was reflective like a pool of oil.
Its face had no features, just a slight concave impression where eyes might have been.
As it stepped forward, mud hissed and dried beneath its feet.
Bran, now fully upright and deeply regretting every decision that had led him to dive into mysterious dungeon water shirtless, whispered, "I... vote we go."
"Agreed," Tobias said.
In the next mont the creature snapped its fingers, the air shifted like a thunderclap had cracked silently between them.
A stone wall erupted from the earth behind them, slamming into place where they’d co in.
The natural exit — gone. Just smooth, unbroken rock.
No seams. No light from the tunnel. No way out.
"Uh..." Bran blinked. "That’s... new."
Kara spun toward the wall, slamd her staff against it, and closed her eyes. "No good. It’s magically sealed."
"Great," Zayn said, letting out a sigh and raising his hand in mock celebration. "We’re locked in a glorified crypt with a soul-rotting nightmare that hates lakes. Anyone bring snacks?"
Tobias was already thumbing through his soul ter, the dial swinging wildly.
Then it stopped with a click, and his expression dropped like soone had unplugged all the color from his face.
"Okay," he said. "Okayokayokayokay — this thing... is the dungeon boss."
"What?!" Elisse’s voice hit a new octave.
"But this is just a D-rank dungeon, right?" Bran said. "We were barely even trying till five minutes ago!"
Tobias showed them the ter. "It’s registering just below B-rank power levels, maybe sothing around peak C-rank. This isn’t so typical ’stab-the-glowy-core’ goblin king. This is... an apex mutation. Like sothing corrupted the dungeon structure itself."
"Love that," Zayn muttered. "Love being trapped in a boss room with a cheat code monster. Truly, love that for us."
Bran raised his greatsword. "Well, I say we still kick its — "
Then the monster moved.
There was no wind-up.
No sound. No dramatic flaring of power or warning glow.
One mont, it was ten feet away, just standing there with its weird, glossy skin and featureless face — and the next, it was inches from Elisse, its long hand extended, palm wide like it was about to cup her soul and drink it like morning coffee.
Zayn didn’t think.
He moved.
In that breathless instant, he yanked two souls from the Soulforge — burning with white-hot gold — and pushed them into his sword.
Flas of soul energy roared along the blade, brilliant and wild, casting dancing gold across the ruined lakebed.
"Back off!" Zayn shouted, and swung hard.
The monster paused, hand still hovering over Elisse’s shoulder — and then turned.
Zayn’s blade should’ve cleaved it in half. At the very least, it should have burned the thing, seared away so of that slick rot.
Instead, the golden aura flickered — sputtered — then died.
Like soone had poured ice water over the forge fire in his soul.
"What the hell?" Zayn gasped. "It snuffed it — "
The creature extended its arm lazily and backhanded him.
Zayn barely had ti to brace.
The blow launched him backwards like a thrown doll, smashing him into the cavern wall with a loud CRACK.
Dust rained down. His vision spun. His breath left him in a single ragged exhale.
"Elisse!" Kara shouted.
Bran didn’t wait.
He tackled the monster to the side with a full-body shoulder charge, buying Kara enough ti to grab Elisse and pull her away.
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