The sounds of the Syndicate guards from the other side of the rubble were like a death sentence. They were trapped in a tomb, a tomb they had dug for themselves.
"How long will it take them to clear this rubble?" Liora asked in fear, her voice almost lost in the dusty air.
"Not long," Grak answered. For the first time, his voice held a note of weariness and defeat. "They'll have mining equipment. At most... half an hour."
Half an hour. Their entire lives had been condensed into just thirty minutes.
Mara slammed a fist against the wall. "Dammit! We were so close!" She looked at her injured hand; the bandage wrapped around it was now soaked red with blood. "What now? We just sit here and wait for them?"
"Perhaps we have to," Kael said. He had sat down on the ground, cleaning his swords. His face was still calm, but there was a strange emptiness in his eyes. "We fought well. But not every battle can be won."
"You're saying this, Kael?" Mara asked in disbelief. "You, who never gives up?"
"I'm not giving up, Mara," Kael said, wiping a speck of dust from his blade. "I'm accepting the truth. We're exhausted. Liora is weak. You're injured. And I... I am at my limit too. There is no way out of here."
His words extinguished the last remaining spark of hope. Liora buried her face in her knees. Grak set his hammer down on the ground and let out a long, defeated sigh.
Aarav looked at them all. Kael... who had been a symbol of courage for him, was giving up. Mara, who was always ready for a fight, was filled with anger and helplessness. Liora, who always tried to hold everyone together, was herself broken.
A strange anger rose within him.
"No," he said softly.
Everyone looked at him.
"What 'no', boy?" Grak asked.
"No. We can't give up," Aarav said, his voice a little louder now. "Kael, you taught me that strength lies in balance. Is this part of that balance? Giving up before the fight even begins?"
Kael looked at him, no answer in his eyes.
"Mara," Aarav turned to her. "You said you always have a 'Plan B'. Where is that Plan B now?"
Mara looked away.
"And Liora," he said gently. "You said we shouldn't be afraid of shadows. But that's exactly what we're all doing now. We're letting that fear overwhelm us."
He stood in the middle of them. His clothes were filthy, his face was smudged with soot, but in his eyes, there was a fire that began to rekindle their own fading courage.
"This is what I used to do in my old world. I would hide. I would give up. But not anymore," he said firmly. "As long as I am breathing, I will not give up. What if we don't have half an hour, what if we only have one minute? Then I will fight in that final minute too."
A long silence fell. Only the sound of digging from the other side of the rubble could be heard.
Finally, Kael gave a faint smile. "You are absolutely right, Aarav." He stood up. "A warrior remains a warrior until his last breath."
Mara took a deep breath and stood up as well. "Alright. Then we fight. But we need a plan. A plan so good it'll make those Syndicate guards tremble in their boots."
"A plan?" Grak said. "There's no way out of here. We're trapped in a box."
"Then we'll make our own way," Aarav said. He closed his eyes again.
'Blade Sigil… show me again…'
He began to feel the structure of the chamber. The walls... the ceiling... the floor... what was beneath the floor?
He felt it. Directly beneath their feet, there was another tunnel. Small. Narrow. But it was there.
"Down," he said. "Right under our feet, there's an old maintenance tunnel. It's not very strong."
"So what? How do we break through this floor?" Mara asked.
Everyone looked at Grak's hammer.
"No," Grak said, shaking his head. "If I strike here, the sound will reach them. They'll get here even faster."
"So what do we do?" Liora asked, a new hope in her voice.
Aarav looked around him. He saw the huge, broken steam pipe that had fallen from the ceiling. There might still be some pressure left inside it.
He got an idea. An incredibly dangerous, insane idea.
"Grak, can you bend this pipe?" he asked.
"Bend it? I can make it dance like a doll. But why?"
"Mara, your steam-gun," Aarav said. "It has a small, high-pressure nozzle at the bottom, right? The one you use to clear blocked paths?"
Mara understood. "Yes. But it's a one-shot device. And it's very difficult to aim."
"And Kael," Aarav looked at him. "I need your swords. Both of them."
Kael, without asking any questions, handed him both his swords. "Be careful. They are not just pieces of metal."
"So this is the plan," Aarav said, gathering everyone close. He explained his entire, crazy plan to them.
"This... this might actually work," Grak said thoughtfully. "But if our guess is wrong..."
"...then we'll die in a very spectacular way," Mara finished for him, and this time, a real, courageous smile was on her face.
---
They didn't have time. They all got to work.
Grak, with all his might, lifted the giant pipe and placed it on the spot where Aarav had indicated the tunnel was. He aimed the mouth of the pipe down at the floor.
Mara took out the small, sharp nozzle from her gun.
And Kael showed Aarav how to wedge the swords into the ground to act as a fulcrum.
Liora, still weak, watched them all. She couldn't fight, but she decided to do something else. She closed her eyes and, with her remaining strength, she willed the Aether to form an invisible shield around them—a shield that could muffle the sound, just a little. It was a small contribution, but right now, every little thing mattered.
"Ready?" Aarav asked everyone.
Everyone nodded.
"Mara, now!"
Mara placed the high-pressure nozzle on the pipe's release valve and pulled the trigger. A sharp *phsssss* sound was heard, and the nozzle shot into the pipe. It focused the last remaining pressure in the pipe onto a single point.
The pipe began to tremble. A small crack appeared in the floor.
"Aarav! Kael!" Mara yelled.
Aarav and Kael, at the same time, used Kael's swords, which they had wedged into the ground, as levers, pushing up from under the pipe to apply pressure on the floor.
For a moment, nothing happened.
And then, with a low cra-ack, that section of the floor caved in downwards.
A small hole had been created, just big enough for one person to get through.
"Quick! Before they hear the noise!" Grak whispered.
One by one, they began to jump into the hole. Liora went first, then Grak, then Mara.
Aarav was the last. Just as he was about to jump, Kael stopped him. He placed one of his swords in Aarav's hand.
"This," Kael said, "you earned today."
It wasn't a broken blade. It was a warrior's honor.
Aarav took the sword and jumped down.
But as he landed, he saw something they hadn't expected.
This was no empty maintenance tunnel.
The walls of this tunnel were covered with the same black symbols of the Shadow Syndicate. And in the air... there was a strange, familiar scent.
In the darkness, a short distance away from them, lay a body. A Syndicate guard.
But his death hadn't been from a sword or a hammer. His entire body was withered and dried up, as if all the life had been drained from him.
"Gods..." Mara said in fear. "This... this isn't the work of the Crawlers."
Just then, right in front of them, two red eyes opened in the darkness. But these weren't the eyes of the Crawlers. These were intelligent, cruel eyes.
"So at last," a voice that was clear, musical, yet filled with venom, came from the darkness. "Tideborne... we finally meet."
A tall figure in a black robe stepped out of the shadows.
It was the Master.