The staircase was wet.
Not with water.
With blood.
Thane stepped first, boots landing in a dark smear that hadn't yet dried. Behind him, Seren stopped at the threshold, blade drawn. Mira covered her nose. Sova nocked an arrow without a word.
The walls were slick stone.
Iron veins.
A faint pulse vibrated through the air—thump… thump… thump—not fast, but steady. Rhythmic.
"Is that…?" Mira started.
Thane nodded once.
"A heartbeat."
The sigil at the foot of the stairs wasn't floating.
It was carved—deep into a pillar of flesh-bound stone.
And it was bleeding.
Floor B10 had no corridors.
No puzzles.
No split paths.
It was one vast chamber.
Circular.
Walled in bone and wrapped in muscle-like tendrils pulsing with every beat. The floor was soft. Uneven. Living.
And in the center of it all, hanging from chains, was the boss.
The Heart That Hunts.
It didn't look like a creature at first.
Just a mass of limbs.
Too many arms, too many legs, all folded inward around a swollen core that beat visibly—red light pulsing between skin folds, seeping steam.
But then the eyes opened.
Dozens.
All around its body.
And it screamed.
The sound knocked them off their feet.
Mira hit the ground hard, already casting Ward Veil to muffle the next pulse.
Sova rolled behind a bone spike and loosed an arrow—it hit, embedded, then dissolved like wax on contact.
Seren surged forward without hesitation, her blade flashing silver-blue in the red light. She reached the creature's body just as the legs unfurled—
And was kicked twenty feet backward.
Thane moved slowly.
He didn't rush in.
He watched.
Every heartbeat caused a shift in the room's gravity—every pulse bent mana slightly inward toward the core.
A trap.
The entire chamber was feeding power to the boss.
Not fire.
Not heat.
Pressure.
He stepped forward and lifted a hand.
Scorch Zone.
The area around him burned.
But the fire curled upward—toward the ceiling—pulled by some unnatural force.
He narrowed his eyes.
"I see."
"Mira!" he called.
She looked up, bleeding from the cheek.
"Cast a static anchor spell at the ceiling—above the boss!"
"What?!"
"Now!"
She obeyed.
Anchor Lash.
A glyph snapped into place overhead—freezing the gravitational twist for a heartbeat.
That was all Thane needed.
He cast Flame Arc and Magma Sword back to back, the arc breaking one of the creature's outer arms, the sword driving straight into its rib cage.
The Heart shrieked.
It retaliated with tendrils tipped in bone. Sova cut one before it reached Mira. Seren took another to the thigh, cursed, and kept fighting.
Blood sprayed.
But not from the team.
From the walls.
The chamber bled with each wound dealt to the Heart.
"It's connected to the room!" Mira shouted.
"It is the room," Thane corrected.
He pressed his palm to the pulsing floor.
And whispered.
Burning Chain.
Flame Arc.
Scorch Zone.
He didn't stop.
He layered them.
One on top of another, fire spiraling through the floor like veins catching flame.
The boss howled.
Its skin cracked.
The chains holding it began to creak and strain.
It dropped one arm.
Two.
Its eyes bled.
Seren used that moment.
She leapt, blade raised, and struck the central chest-eye dead on.
It burst.
And the Heart's core was exposed.
Thane stepped forward.
Meteor.
He couldn't cast it yet.
Not fully.
Not even close.
But the shape of it…
The essence…
He whispered its name.
And shaped it with Flame Arc and Lava Geyser as one.
The fire spiraled.
And slammed into the boss's heart.
Everything stopped.
The boss convulsed once.
Twice.
Then collapsed inward—imploding as its stolen magic was turned against it.
Chains snapped.
The floor heaved.
And the sigil appeared.
Floating in the air.
The fight was over.
They didn't cheer.
They didn't speak.
They just stood.
Breathing.
Burning.
Bleeding.
Later, when they sat around the fire at the safe zone, Mira finally asked:
"What did you do at the end?"
Thane looked into the flame.
"I remembered something."
"Something about what?"
He looked up.
Eyes glowing.
"About who I'm supposed to become."
📈 Level: 7
🧪 EXP: 41 / 220
🎯 Stat Points: 1
📜 Meteor Blueprint Progress: 4.1%