They tried sleeping.
God knows they tried. Muscles screamed, lungs burned, exhaustion clawed at their bones. But no matter how heavy their eyelids felt, their bodies refused to surrender. It was like something deep inside was screaming: Stay awake no matter what.
Victor was on watch duty, seated near the broken doorway with his shield braced against his knee and his hammer laid across his lap. The air pressed in on him. His senses were stretched thin, every scrape of stone too loud, every shifting shadow a threat waiting to move. He tried to piece together the known and the unknown, but the ruins offered no answers, only silence and the feeling of being watched.
Then he heard it.
Soft. Slow. Sloppy. Yet consistent.
Step. Step. Step.
Victor's breath hitched. He strained his ears. It wasn't wind. It wasn't rubble shifting. It was… footsteps.
"Uh… guys?" His voice cracked. "Something weird is happening. Wake up."
Raul was the first to stir, his eyes snapping open like blades unsheathed. He rose in one fluid motion, daggers whispering against his palms. "Yeah," he murmured, voice low, sharp. "I sense it too. And it's coming toward us."
Arin jolted awake, hand on his sword. His lips curved faintly, humor bleeding through tension. "Knew something was up. I bet it's those creepy statues. Pretty common in those light novels."
Victor blinked, panic flickering in his eyes. "Light what? Are you still sleeping, or did you hit your head?"
Arin smirked. "Nothing. Just rambling. Arm up. Stay sharp. Anything can happen."
The steps grew louder. Clearer. Closer.
They extinguished the fire, plunging the hall into darkness. Shadows pooled like ink, crawling across cracked walls. The three of them moved into formation, Victor first, shield raised, hammer gripped tight. Arin and Raul flanked him, blades gleaming faintly in the moonlight bleeding through shattered windows.
Step. Step. Step.
The sound was wrong, too heavy, too hollow, like stone grinding against stone. And yet… it walked. Slow. Sloppy. Consistent.
Victor swallowed hard. "Guys… what's the chance it's just another lost person like us?"
"Zero," Arin and Raul said together.
Victor groaned. "Figures."
The steps stopped.
Silence stretched, thin, fragile, heavy.
Then something moved through the broken doorway.
A statue.
One of those human-shaped figures they had seen scattered across the ruins.
But this one… wasn't still.
It walked.
Stone scraped against stone with every step, a dry, grinding sound that set teeth on edge. Its body was fractured, deep cracks spiderwebbing across its stone flesh, fissures crawling and splitting like veins under strain. Chunks flaked away as it moved, crumbling into dust that smeared the ground like ash.
Its limbs bent wrong, joints grinding as if they had never been meant to move at all. Each motion looked forced, violent, as though the thing were tearing itself apart just to take another step.
Its face was smooth and empty, a sculptor's unfinished work, no expression, no mercy. Hollow sockets stared ahead, dark and dead.
Until they weren't.
Something stirred inside them. A dim, sickly light bloomed behind the stone, slow and deliberate, like a corpse remembering how to hate.
And it was looking straight at them.
Purple light flared in its sockets, burning like ghostfire.
It raised its sword.
And rushed.
"Get ready!" Arin barked.
The statue moved like a storm given form, fast, crushing, unstoppable. Stone thundered against the ground as it charged, its massive frame defying its own weight. The blade in its hands screamed as it cut through the air, a blur of silver carving a killing arc straight for Victor's head.
Victor roared, planting his feet as Guardian's Stance snapped into place. His body locked, muscles screaming as his shield came up just in time. The impact landed like a falling wall.
The floor cracked.
Sparks exploded across the shield's surface, scattering like fireflies before dying against the stone. The force drove Victor back a half-step, boots grinding against the rubble. Pain shot through his arms, up into his shoulders, rattling bone and breath alike, but he held. He always held.
Raul was already there.
He slipped into the opening Victor created, moving low and fast, daggers flashing in tight arcs. One strike bit into the statue's flank. Another followed immediately. Then a third. Steel shrieked against stone, sparks spraying as the blades carved shallow grooves across cracked marble flesh.
Too shallow.
The thing barely noticed the wound.
"Damn it!" Raul hissed as the statue twisted with unnatural speed. Its sword swept back in a brutal horizontal slash, the edge tearing through the air toward his ribs. Raul wrenched himself away at the last instant, feeling the wind of the blade graze him as it passed, close enough to kill.
Stone dust hung in the air. The statue reset its stance, cracks along its body glowing faintly, grinding forward once more, unhurried, relentless, already preparing to strike again.
Arin lunged, Timed Step carrying him into perfect rhythm. His blade slashed at the statue's arm, steel ringing against stone. Pain shot up his wrist, sharp and brutal. He gritted his teeth, ignoring the sting, and struck again. Nothing. Just cracks.
"Too hard!" Arin snarled, dodging another swing.
Victor roared, muscles bunching as he swung the hammer in a brutal arc. The weapon came down like judgment, smashing into the statue's shoulder with a sound like mountains breaking. Stone exploded on impact. Fragments tore through the air like shrapnel, clattering and skittering across the hall. The statue lurched, its frame fractured, but it did not fall.
"Blunt weapons! It's working!" Raul shouted, already moving, sliding low beneath the statue's guard as the massive blade whistled overhead.
Victor's grin was savage, all teeth and breath. "Then let's dance."
The statue lunged again, faster than it had any right to be, sword flashing in a killing blur. Victor met it head-on. Shield locked. Stance unshakable. Sparks screamed as steel slammed into stone, the force rippling through the ruined hall.
Raul darted behind it, a shadow in motion, daggers carving quick, shallow cuts, harassing, distracting, pulling its attention apart. Arin flanked from the opposite side, sword biting into joints and seams, his movements tight and precise, each step timed to the statue's commitment, slipping just beyond reach before striking again.
Still, the statue did not slow.
Every blow it threw shook the hall. Every swing gouged trenches into stone floors and walls alike. Its movements were wrong, jerky, uneven, as if driven by something that didn't understand flesh or balance, yet they were fast. Brutal. Lethal.
Victor roared and swung again.
The hammer fell like thunder.
Stone cracked. Splintered. Shattered.
The statue's head burst apart in a violent spray of shards, fragments exploding outward as the body froze mid-motion, then collapsed in a grinding heap.
Silence followed.
Victor stood over the remains, chest heaving, sweat and dust streaking his face. His hammer gleamed dully, slick with stone powder darkened like dried blood. "Hell yeah."
Raul smirked as he wiped his daggers clean of all the dust. "Finally."
Arin exhaled, slow and steady, only now realizing how tightly he'd been holding his breath.
Then they froze.
Because the shards… moved.
The fragments crawled across the floor like insects, twitching, writhing, pulling together. Slowly. Sloppily. But surely.
The statue's head began to reform.
"FUCK!" All three cursed in unison.