The ruins loomed like a corpse half-swallowed by the jungle.
Vines strangled what had once been proud archways. Moss spread thick over toppled pillars. Faded carvings, too worn to make sense of, peered out from cracked stone walls. The air smelled of wet earth and something sour underneath, like rot lingering in corners unseen.
J craned his neck, peering up at the jagged stone above. "Well, folks," he announced, "welcome to Dungeon DLC: Free Trial Version. No map, no save points, no customer support hotline. Play responsibly."
Ravi groaned. "Do you ever shut up?"
"Only when I'm dead," J shot back cheerfully. "And maybe not even then."
Erik ignored both of them. The ex-soldier moved like a man back in familiar territory, shoulders squared, eyes sharp, one hand never straying far from the knife he'd scavenged earlier. Maya trailed close to him, quiet but alert, her gaze flicking constantly between shadows and faces. Other survivors, who had stuck near Erik since the plaza, brought up the rear.
J, he meandered. He whistled a tuneless song under his breath and poked at the moss with his shoe as they crept deeper.
The chamber opened suddenly into a wide hall. Cracks gaped in the walls, vines snaking through. A broken mural stretched across the far side of serpentine shapes etched in stone, their eyes once inlaid with gems long pried free.
The sound came first. A wet hiss, like steam escaping through teeth.J froze, grin sliding into something tighter. From the cracks in the walls and ceiling, they came.
Scaled bodies, long and lean, with claws that scratched the stone as they crawled. Forked tongues flicked, tasting the air. Their eyes glowed faintly, golden embers in dark sockets.Five lizard-creatures clung to the walls like spiders, tails lashing, claws scraping.
"Oh, good," J muttered. "I was worried we wouldn't get the welcome party."
The first one lunged straight for him.
J yelped, stumbling backward. He pitched sideways just as the lizard's claws sliced through the air where his face had been. It slammed headfirst into a crumbling column. Dust sprayed.
Another creature dropped from the ceiling, jaws wide. J ducked without thinking, crouching low. The lizard sailed overhead, hissing, smashing into rubble.
"Ha!" J shouted, more terrified than triumphant. "Flawless technique. Who needs kung fu when you've got… whatever that was?"
No one answered. They were too busy screaming.
The chamber erupted. Two lizards lunged at the other survivors. Erik barked orders, moving like lightning, blade flashing. He caught one across the throat, ichor spraying, then kicked the twitching body off his blade. The two extras shouted, stabbing wildly with scavenged weapons. One managed to pin a lizard against the wall, spearing it through the chest.
J scrambled to his feet and tried to move out of the way.The others were killing, fighting and bleeding.
He was just… dodging.
The lizard hissed and lunged again. J stumbled backward, panic blazing hot in his veins. His foot caught on rubble and he dropped, sprawling. Claws whistled above him as the creature overshot.
Erik's knife buried itself in its skull before it could recover. The chamber went still as last of the creatures were killed.
One by one, the bodies of the slain lizards dissolved into motes of golden light, drifting upward and vanishing. In their place, faint glowing crystals clattered onto the stone floor, beast cores, pulsing with the same golden essence.
Breathless survivors stared at the fading glow. Then at the cores and then at each other. Erik bent, picked one up, and tucked it into his belt. He handed another to the woman who'd helped spear the creature. The rest he divided without a word.
No one looked at J.
He stood in the dust, chest heaving. His hair was plastered to his forehead with sweat. He could feel Maya's gaze, heavy and searching, but she said nothing.
Ravi's voice, bitter and sharp, cut the silence. "Figures, useless. Didn't kill a thing just ran around screaming."
The others didn't disagree. They didn't defend J. They just ignored him. Already moving to regroup, cores pocketed, blades wiped clean.Erik didn't even waste words. His silence said enough.
J forced a grin and dusted himself. "Hey, what can I say? Survival is a skill too. You kill things, I provide comic relief. It's called division of labor."
Nobody laughed. The group pushed on without him, Erik already scouting ahead. Ravi muttered curses under his breath, trailing behind.
Maya lingered for a moment, her eyes still on J. She didn't speak, didn't scold, didn't thank him. Just… watched, like she was trying to see through the smile.Then she followed the others.
J stayed where he was for a heartbeat longer, grin faltering. He looked down at his trembling hands.
"…As long as I stay alive," he whispered under his breath, too soft for anyone to hear. "That's all that matters, sweety."
He forced the grin back on and jogged to catch up. Behind them, the last motes of golden light faded into the ruins.
End