Chapter 26: Survival

The chamber was a symphony of desperation.

The clang of steel against steel, the sharp 'twang' of a bowstring, the ragged, gasping breaths, it was all just noise.

A chaotic performance unfolding around me while I stood in the wings, a detached observer behind an invisible pane of glass.

Marcus was a whirlwind of frustrated energy, his daggers seeking any gap in Tobias’s formidable defense.

Tobias, a mountain of grim resolve, met each strike with a heavy, ground-shaking parry of his claymore.

The stone beneath their feet was a web of fresh cracks.

Lily, perched high on a crumbled pillar, was a statue of cold focus, her arrows flying with a precision that was slowly eroding into panic.

Below, Evelyn was a ghost at the edges of the fight, her knuckles white around her staff, her entire body trembling, paralyzed by a fear so profound it seemed to have stolen her very breath.

And I just watched. I leaned against the cold, unyielding stone of the wall, arms crossed, my mind racing down paths they were too frantic to see.

Damn, this was hard. Near impossible.

Every variable was a knot, every potential solution led to a dead end painted in blood.

“Allen, damn it, do something!” Tobias’s voice was a raw, frayed rope of sound, snapping across the chamber.

My eyes met his. His face was a mask of desperation, clinging to the ghost of a concept that had already died.

“I will ask again, why?” My voice was calm, a flat lake amidst their hurricane.

His eyes widened, his lips parting in sheer disbelief.

“Because we’re a team, you idiot! We need to—”

Team.

The word was an empty shell now. I’d seen how quickly such bonds vaporized when survival was on the line.

It was the first thing to go, every time.

I tilted my head, my voice dropping, meant for him alone.

“You still think that matters? If you do, just look at Marcus and think again.”

Rage and pain warred on his face, but Marcus gave him no time to answer, forcing him back into the deadly dance with a flurry of strikes.

Thwip!

An arrow embedded itself in the stone an inch from my foot.

I didn’t flinch. I looked up at Lily. Her face was a storm of confusion and fury.

She didn’t understand my stillness. She saw it as betrayal, as cowardice.

With a slow exhale that seemed to draw all the sound from the room, I took a single step forward.

The crunch of debris under my foot was deafening.

“I don't want to kill any of you," I stated, my tone as level as a judge's gavel.

The unspoken second half of that sentence hung in the air.

Unless it becomes necessary and unavoidable.

“Allen... please.” Evelyn’s voice was a fragile thread.

Her eyes, wide and glistening, held a desperate, foolish hope.

I held her gaze, seeing the kind of person I could never afford to be.

“I'm sorry, Evelyn.”

Her hope shattered, her face crumbling.

The fight intensified. Tobias roared, a raw sound of fury and exhaustion, his claymore carving a deadly arc.

Marcus, panting, rolled clear, his answering slash nicking Tobias’s arm.

Tobias lunged at Marcus, their blades clashing with a force that shook the ground beneath them.

Evelyn hands were shaking as she casted a protective shield around herself.

Blood, shockingly red, spattered the grey stone.

They bled. They screamed. They were destroying themselves.

A primal part of me, the part that remembered a time before I lost my parents, screamed to intervene.

But the logic was cold and absolute.

And then what?

If I helped stop Marcus, the dungeon's decree wouldn't vanish.

We'd just be a smaller group, staring at each other over the same bloody chasm.

The fight would continue until one was left.

And if I hadn't found another way by then... I would have to kill the victor.

Which would be easy, but I didn't wish to fight any of them.

Not unless it was truly necessary. And it wasn't yet. Not until I fully understand the situation.

“Allen’s got the right idea. Just sit back and let us do the dirty work, huh?” Marcus laughed, a crazed, brittle sound.

He flashed me a grin that didn't reach his eyes. I offered nothing in return.

“Shut up, Marcus!” Lily’s hands trembled as she drew another arrow.

The fray was unraveling them all.

I could see it clearly now. Their movements were growing sluggish, their strikes wilder.

The scent of sweat and blood was thick in the air.

The initial chaos had condensed into a grim, exhausted ballet between three people who had been allies an hour ago.

Tobias and Marcus were locked in a brutal stalemate, both flagging, their weapons feeling heavier with every swing.

Lily was a flicker of motion, her arrows still precise but fueled by sheer panic now.

Evelyn had sunk into a corner, her magic spent from futilely trying to heal everyone, a stupid, beautiful kindness in a place that rewarded only cruelty.

She was just trying to delay the inevitable.

They were all just walking corpses, fighting for a version of 'survival' that had already been stripped of all meaning.