[ ALERT: ENEMY MOBILIZATION – ELITE UNITS EN ROUTE ]
The System's calculations flared red across its core. Twenty-eight hostiles converging from the rear, six ahead. Host injury index rising. Yun Xue's body was limp in Shen Yuan's arms, blood dripping steadily from her lips. The host's breathing rate was falling, pulse thread-thin.
We must discard the liability, it projected, cold and precise.
Shen Yuan's grip on her only tightened. "She's not a liability," he muttered through gritted teeth. "We're not leaving her."
[ SURVIVAL PROBABILITY: 6% ]
The System refrained from arguing. Logic was wasted energy when the host was already bleeding himself hollow. It focused instead on pathing overlays: corridors narrowing, suppression levels peaking, enemy movement vectors closing from three angles.
They would be caught before the next chamber.
Far from the tunnels, Han Fei wiped blood from his eyes and raised his sword again.
Bone Court enforcers closed in a tightening ring, boots crunching over the branded captives' dead. Only nineteen of his group remained, their bodies trembling with exhaustion, blades chipped to useless edges.
"Hold the line!" he shouted, voice raw but steady. "If we fall, they all die in there!"
The branded captives roared in answer, a sound more defiant than strong. They closed ranks, shoulders pressed together as the first enforcer charged.
Han Fei met the strike with a parry that sent shock through his arms, ducking low and driving his blade through a gap in the enemy's armor. A killing thrust—clean, efficient, the way Shen Yuan had taught him.
The enforcer dropped with a scream.
"We're still here!" Han Fei yelled, raising his sword high as the others surged around him. "Make them bleed for every step!"
For a heartbeat, the branded captives believed it.
The corridor bent sharply and ended in a barrier of writhing crimson light.
[ BLOOD GATE DETECTED – SOURCE: BRANDED SOUL MATRIX ]
The System scanned the barrier, parsing glyph sequences faster than human thought.
Bypass method available. Required host qi output: one-hundred-thirty-seven percent.
Shen Yuan stared at the barrier, jaw clenched. "I won't survive that."
Correct.
Yun Xue stirred weakly in his arms, eyelids fluttering. Her hand fumbled for the daggers at her belt. "Then… I will."
Shen Yuan's head snapped toward her. "No—"
She tore free before he could stop her, slamming her daggers into the barrier's anchor glyphs. The backlash struck instantly, hurling her off her feet as blood burst from her mouth.
The System's alerts spiked.
[ INJURY LEVEL: CRITICAL – ORGAN FAILURE IMMINENT ]
Shen Yuan lunged forward and caught her as the barrier shattered, crimson shards scattering like dying fireflies.
"Yun Xue!"
She didn't respond, only a faint exhale against his shoulder.
[ ALERT: ENEMY MOBILIZATION – ELITE UNITS NOW 19 SECONDS BEHIND ]
"Move," Shen Yuan ordered the survivors hoarsely.
Han Fei's arms shook as he blocked another blow, his sword reduced to jagged metal.
An enforcer's spear punched through the chest of the captive beside him. Han Fei yanked the dying man backward before the body could fall and break their formation.
"Close the gap!"
The branded captives pressed tighter, their backs almost touching now. Han Fei could see the hopelessness in their eyes, but he refused to let it reach his own.
"They think we're prey," he said, voice loud enough for all to hear. "So let's show them what happens when prey bites back!"
A ragged cheer went up. They surged forward together, slamming into the Bone Court line with a ferocity born of despair.
For a moment, the enforcers faltered.
The survivors staggered through the shattered Blood Gate, boots slipping in the slick crimson residue. Shen Yuan lowered Yun Xue carefully against the wall, her breath shallow and uneven.
"We can't stop," one of the survivors whispered. "They're right behind us—"
"I said move!" Shen Yuan snapped, voice carrying a hard edge that brooked no argument.
The System pathing overlay flared with new routes.
[ NEXT INTERSECTION: 112 METERS – UPWARD ACCESS TO ARRAY CHAMBER ]
We must maintain momentum. Elite units will overtake us otherwise.
Shen Yuan hoisted Yun Xue back into his arms, ignoring the tremor in his legs. "Go," he told the group, spear haft in his free hand. "I'll take the rear."
They obeyed. Fear burned out argument as completely as fire devours paper.
Han Fei's sword caught in the ribs of an enforcer and snapped in half.
He dropped the useless hilt and snatched up a fallen spear.
"Push them back!"
The branded captives obeyed, their screams echoing across the plaza as they drove the Bone Court forces back a single, blood-soaked step.
For a moment, Han Fei thought they might hold.
Then the next wave hit.
An enforcer slammed into his side, sending him sprawling. Pain lanced up his ribs as he rolled and came up swinging the stolen spear.
"We're still here!" he shouted through the blood in his mouth. "You're not taking us yet!"
The stairwell beyond the Blood Gate was a steep, narrow spiral. Shen Yuan climbed it two steps at a time, lungs burning, Yun Xue's limp weight dragging at his shoulders.
[ DETECTION RISK: 94% – CRITICAL ]
Boots pounded against stone behind them. The survivors ahead stumbled, pulling each other upward in blind desperation.
At the top of the stairwell waited another gate, heavier than the last, Bone Court seals etched deep into its surface.
The System ran calculations even as Shen Yuan set Yun Xue down and slammed the haft into the seals.
Administrator-level credentials required. Bypass impossible.
"Not impossible," Shen Yuan growled, flooding what little qi he could muster into the strike.
The gate shuddered but held.
"Again," he rasped.
[ HOST QI OUTPUT SUPPRESSED: 93% ]
Han Fei dragged one of the wounded back into formation as the branded captives' line faltered.
The plaza was littered with bodies. Only eleven of his fighters remained standing.
"Hold the line!" he shouted, even though he could see in their eyes how close they were to breaking.
He caught the gaze of a young branded captive barely old enough to wield a sword. "You're still breathing," Han Fei said. "That's all that matters. We keep breathing until the end."
The boy nodded shakily, clutching his weapon with blood-slick hands.
Han Fei turned back to the enemy.
"Come on, then!" he roared. "Come and try us!"
The gate shattered with a deafening crack, suppression glyphs exploding in a burst of light.
Shen Yuan stumbled forward, shielding Yun Xue with his body as the survivors poured into the chamber beyond.
[ ALERT: ENEMY UNITS 14 SECONDS BEHIND ]
The chamber was a wide intersection of corridors, each lined with suppression glyphs that fed toward the Nexus' core.
"Which way?" one of the survivors asked, panic fraying their voice.
Shen Yuan scanned the paths, the System's overlays flaring as it computed.
[ ARRAY CHAMBER VECTOR – 721 METERS ]
"Forward," Shen Yuan said. "We don't stop again."
Han Fei planted the stolen spear and met the next enforcer head-on, driving the weapon through its chest with a snarl.
Around him, the branded captives fought like demons, but they were too few.
Han Fei's arms trembled as he yanked the spear free and raised it again.
"We're still here!" he shouted, voice breaking. "We're still here!"
Shen Yuan pressed through the corridor, spear haft clenched in white-knuckled hands, the survivors close behind. Yun Xue's breath fluttered against his shoulder, faint as a ghost.
The System's calculations were grim.
[ SURVIVAL PROBABILITY: 5% ]
But they were still moving.
And until they stopped, that number meant nothing.