"Voices!" Mia hissed, her eyes wide, hope warring with the sheer terror reflecting the Maglite's beam back at Axel. "Behind these boards!"
Axel didn't need convincing. The monstrous CRASH that echoed from just around the last bend in the historical tunnel was the Juggernaut's calling card, and it sounded like it was delivering itself C.O.D.
They had seconds, if that.
"No time for knocking!" Axel yelled, already ramming his shoulder against the ancient, rotting planks.
They groaned but held. "Mia, that brick trick of yours – any chance you can 'suggest' these boards take a rapid, unscheduled vacation?"
Mia, pale but resolute, focused on the barricade. Her brow furrowed in concentration. Axel could almost feel the air crackle around her, a subtle pressure building. One of the thicker planks visibly wobbled.
[SYSTEM ALERT: Juggernaut proximity: Critical! Impact imminent!]
"Mia, now!"
With a small, choked cry of effort, Mia thrust her hands forward. The boards didn't just break; they exploded inwards as if hit by a miniature battering ram, showering the space beyond with splinters and dust.
For a split second, Axel saw a tableau of shocked faces, wide eyes, and makeshift weapons on the other side before he grabbed Mia's arm and bundled her through the opening.
They stumbled and fell into a surprisingly large, dry chamber, landing in a heap just as the Juggernaut's monstrous, roaring visage filled the hole they'd just made in the tunnel wall. Its one visible piggish eye fixed on them with malevolent glee.
"Seal it! Seal it now!" a panicked voice yelled from inside the chamber.
Axel scrambled up, Maglite finding new targets. Several figures were already moving, shoving a heavy steel cabinet and what looked like a reinforced library cart towards the breach. He saw a flash of familiar dark hair.
"Mia!" a young man's voice cried out, full of disbelief and overwhelming relief. He was lanky but moved with a wiry strength, already heaving a loaded crate towards the makeshift barricade. His eyes, wide and earnest, found Mia's.
"You're alive!"
"Kai!" Mia gasped, relief flooding her face even as she pushed herself up to help.
The Juggernaut roared, one of its massive bone-and-rebar fists smashing through the remaining tunnel wall around their entry point, trying to widen the hole. Dust and debris filled the air.
"System, any bright ideas beyond 'run away screaming'?" Axel muttered, looking for something, anything, to help reinforce their new, fragile sanctuary.
[SYSTEM TACTICAL ADVICE: Temporary Barricade Integrity: Low. Juggernaut possesses Siege-Breaker capabilities. Recommend identifying structural chokepoints within current chamber for fallback defense or creating diversionary stimuli away from barricade.]
"Diversionary stimuli?" Axel looked around. The chamber was some kind of old storage depot or forgotten lecture prep room, filled with dusty equipment, old anatomical charts, and metal shelving.
His eyes landed on a heavy, old-fashioned projector on a wheeled stand. An idea, stupidly dangerous but potentially life-saving, sparked.
"Kai, Mia, everyone, keep that barricade up!" Axel yelled, already moving. "I'm going to give our big ugly friend something else to think about!" He grabbed the projector stand.
"Axel, what are you doing?!" Mia cried, as he wheeled the clattering projector towards the far side of the chamber, near a section of wall that looked slightly less reinforced than the others.
"Improvised Tactics, remember?" He positioned the projector, then, bracing himself, kicked its stand hard, sending it crashing loudly against the far wall with a clang of metal and shattering glass.
He then grabbed a loose metal rod from a broken shelf and began banging it rhythmically against a large ventilation duct.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The furious smashing at their entry-point barricade paused. The Juggernaut's guttural grunts and sniffs indicated confusion. It relied on sound and vibration.
"It's working!" a new voice, female, calm but strained, called out. Axel glanced over. An older guy with short, grey hair and intelligent, assessing eyes – Professor Armitage, he presumed – was directing two students to wedge more debris into the main barricade.
Beside her, an older woman, equally composed despite the circumstances – Dr. Hanson? – was checking on a younger student who looked about ready to faint.
The Juggernaut, drawn by the new, louder, and more persistent noise Axel was making, began to pummel the wall near him. Cracks spiderwebbed across the brickwork.
"Okay, new plan!" Axel yelled, backing away as the wall began to bulge.
"Everyone get clear of this side!"
Just as the Juggernaut's fist punched through, sending bricks flying, Kai was there.
"Mia said you were… something else, Chancellor!" he said, a wild, almost joyful grin on his face despite the danger. He wasn't holding a weapon; his hands were outstretched, palms facing the breach.
"Let me give it a real push!"
A shimmering distortion appeared in the air before Kai's hands. The debris around the Juggernaut's fist seemed to resist its next inward thrust. The Juggernaut roared in frustration.
[SYSTEM SCAN: New Awakened individual detected – Kai. Ability: Kinetic Field Manipulation (Tier 1 – Raw). Potential: High. Current Output: Moderate, Unstable. Chancellor Nurturing Protocol applicable.]
"Nice party trick, Kai!" Axel yelled. "Keep it busy!" He looked at Mia. Their eyes met. A new understanding, a new alliance forged in the heat of battle and shared terror.
The immediate threat of the Juggernaut breaking directly into their midst seemed, for the moment, contained by Kai's struggling defense and the sheer thickness of the wall it was now trying to demolish piece by piece. The sounds were terrifying, but it was buying them precious seconds.
Mia rushed to Kai's side, her own hands outstretched, her face tight with concentration. The pressure against the Juggernaut seemed to increase slightly. Other students, emboldened, were now helping reinforce the original barricade, their fear slowly being replaced by a desperate, unified resolve.
Axel took a moment, his System cataloging the scene. About eight survivors in total. Kai, clearly a powerful (if raw) telekinetic. Mia, her own telekinetic impulse and intuition growing.
The two sharp-looking professors. A few other students, wide-eyed but holding makeshift weapons. No obvious "slaves" or overt signs of the darker societal collapse here, just a group of terrified but resilient people.
This wasn't just a room anymore. It was the first congregation of Atheria University's… new student body. And its Acting Chancellor, like it or not, had just enrolled them all in Survival 101.
The wall the Juggernaut was attacking groaned, a large crack snaking its way upwards. Their respite was going to be short-lived.
"Professor Armitage, Dr. Hanson," Axel called out, his voice taking on an authority that surprised even himself.
"Report! What's our current defensive posture, and what other exit strategies does this glorious new lecture hall possess?"
The Age of Awakening had well and truly begun. And class was officially in session.