Natalie and her team were much stronger than the typical group of level twos, but they weren't invulnerable. The dungeon was venting its outrage at their so-called 'transgression'—stealing Malice, a prized soul, from it.

Even bolstered by four other harried delvers, and Malice's arrival, the fight that broke out was chaotic. To say the least. The pack of five hulking obsidian wolves slammed into them, and it was a frenzy immediately.

Natalie was already exhausted from her fight against Malice. Presumably, Jordan and the rest weren't in their best fighting shape either. And against five enraged monsters, each of them nearly a miniboss in their own right?

It was a bloodbath. The most genuinely concerning combat they'd been in thus far, without question. Natalie could hardly keep the attention of all five by herself—though she did, thankfully, keep two. Malice kept another; Jordan and Sofia the fourth. The four rescued delvers occupied the fifth, having broken off and quickly formed their own sub-party. Maybe they weren't the best fighters ever, but they were at least somewhat trained. Even bringing the fight down from five to four was a huge relief.

Finally, the frenzy started to recede, with Jordan and Sofia killing the first, then moving to help other sub-parties, a cascade of victory following. But while the group of ten were left panting and alive, each of them was bloodied, no one spared, all ten of their health pools dangerously low. Natalie looked around, nearly incredulous that they had won without any fatal injuries. Definitely injuries, but none fatal.

She especially was in poor condition, but Liz's regeneration was working away at patching up the worst of it. A quaffed health potion too. The healer looked faint as she alone continued to cast spells after the frenzied fight, her work not over.

Then the ground rumbled, and another series of howls ripped through the air, their source unknown.

"More?" Natalie asked.

"I think," Sofia said, panting. "That it's time we run for our lives."

Natalie hated running from a fight, for obvious reasons; she would much rather stand her ground. Running wasn't even usually a smart idea. It left their backs exposed, a terrible vulnerability in the dungeon.

But as one howl turned into two, three, and four?

Another encounter, of similar difficulty, when they'd very nearly died handling the first?

"Agreed," Natalie said.

***

Leah and her team stood nervously outside the boss chamber, throwing concerned looks toward the arched doorway.

"It should be over by now, right?" Leah asked.

"Who knows?" Adam said. "It's not like boss fights are consistent." He frowned at the entrance despite his words. "Plus," he added, "they might just be taking their time looting."

"I guess," Leah mumbled. "I'm just worried."

To their side, Elliot snorted. "You kidding? You saw what I did, didn't you? They cleared a path here without breaking a sweat. The boss isn't going to be anything to them."

That was true, she supposed. Still, it was her brother's life on the line. And what if they won, but didn't find their missing teammates? That was another major concern.

Abruptly, Leah's nerves were put to rest. The entrance doorway to the boss room slammed open, and, shocked, Leah watched a flood of people pour out. Ten of them. Natalie and her team leading the charge, though also mixed in, Leah's teammates. Namely, a sight that shot through her like lightning: Will, her brother. Alive.

Leah almost couldn't process everything she saw. Joined in with those two groups was also, bizarrely, a woman with dark gray skin, dressed in skimpy armor not dissimilar to Natalie's. She had wild orange eyes, and she was bleeding profusely—though she seemed, nonsensically, excited, thrilled by whatever had given her the wounds.

And she wasn't alone in her injuries. Nearly everyone was bleeding. Natalie, probably since she was the frontline, was in an especially bad condition. Leah's eyes were drawn immediately to her stomach, where five gruesome red lines were etched into her skin. Even with health potions and healing, that might leave a scar.

For the wound to be so visible, either the attack had been incredibly strong and not defended against, or Natalie's HP had faded to dangerously low territory.

Either way, anyone could tell that things had gone exceedingly wrong, inside that boss chamber.

Natalie shared a brief look with Leah, who stared at them, stunned.

"It's time to go," Natalie said. "Run."

"W-What?" Leah asked, shocked.

Howls echoed from the tunnel behind them.

"Run," Natalie growled, shoving Leah forward. "Can't fight. Go!"

***

Ten minutes later, they burst out into the snow. Leah's legs ached, and her heart pounded in her ears. Their grand escape through the winding tunnels of the ash cavern had been at a nearly comical pace—with total disregard for potential danger. It was only thanks to Jordan's memorization of the cave's layout that they were able to retrace their footsteps. Otherwise, they'd surely have plunged headlong into a trap.

They'd left the wolves behind. Natalie had been throwing illusions left and right, sending imaginary doubles of them snaking off in different directions of the cavern. One by one, the monsters pursuing them had gotten turned around or distracted. Illusions were really such a useful ability—and on a competent fighter, no less.

Panting and sweaty, the group made it a few dozen feet into the snow forest before stopping, leaning against trees or even collapsing onto the ground—the latter of which was mostly Leah's team, embarrassingly enough.

"What—" Leah gasped. "What happened? Why were there so many?"

She didn't get an answer immediately, which was fair. Natalie had pulled out a health potion and was greedily downing it. She seemed like she needed it, too. It was a rather gory sight, the amount of blood covering her, made all the more obvious by how much skin her armor exposed. The same for the wolfgirl.

The wolfgirl. Who was also completely unexplained. How had she ended up in the party? She looked like a dungeon monster. Could someone in Natalie's group charm them? It wasn't an unheard-of ability, but definitely a rare one.

"Long story," Natalie panted back in reply. "We pissed the dungeon off."

"You—did what?"

"Long story," Natalie repeated.

Leah opened her mouth, but, after a second, closed it. She chose not to press.

And, hell, she already knew these people were crazy. They were from Tenet. It nearly seemed fitting, all of the bizarre, unexplained things going on.

Instead, Leah trudged over to her brother. She pored over his wounds, fretting like the older sister she was. He was, for the most part, fine. Injured, as everyone who had fled from the boss chamber, but only moderately. That was a huge upgrade from 'potentially dead' as she'd been fearing just ten minutes ago. Leah found herself only relieved. In fact, the emotion crashed into her so hard she had to fight back tears.

"We should really keep moving," Natalie said after an impossibly short minute of catching their breaths. "I don't think we're safe until we're completely out. The dungeon needs time to calm down."

"How is it mad at you?" Adam asked. "Hello? Would like an explanation on that."

"Not giving one," Natalie said tersely. She downed another health potion—though the effects were compoundingly diminutive; it didn't do nearly as much to heal her as the first few had. Adam didn't seem pleased by the response, but really, it was fair. It seemed to be their own business. And they were their saviors, besides. A little secrecy didn't mean much, in face of that. "Now, come on," Natalie said. "Rest break is over."