(Ryuu Lion — Alone)
The Dungeon went quiet.
Not empty.
Not safe.
Quiet in the way a predator stops breathing before it strikes.
Ryuu stood at the center of the collapsed corridor, dust settling around her like ash after a fire. Her ears rang. Her vision pulsed in and out of focus, green edges bleeding into shadow.
She tasted metal.
Her lungs burned.
She forced herself not to cough.
> Assess.
Her left arm trembled violently. Not broken, but deeply cut. Blood soaked through the sleeve and dripped steadily to the floor. Her right leg dragged slightly when she shifted her weight.
Poison.
Not enough to kill fast.
Enough to slow.
Enough to make mistakes.
The walls around her were wrong.
Too smooth.
Too intentional.
The corridor she’d entered no longer existed. In its place stood a circular chamber of Daedalus stone, seamless, every exit sealed. Sigils crawled faintly across the floor like veins beneath skin.
Ryuu knelt slowly, pressing her palm to the ground.
The magic answered.
And recoiled.
Anti-wind layering.
Curse dampeners.
Directional locks.
She exhaled through clenched teeth.
“…You planned this.”
Jura did not answer.
That was worse.
The Dungeon hummed.
Then the floor answered instead.
A soft hiss rose from the seams beneath her boots.
Ryuu’s eyes widened.
Poison gas vented upward in a thin, nearly invisible layer. Not thick enough to panic. Thick enough to accumulate.
She reacted instantly.
Her cloak came up over her mouth. She dropped low, crawling toward the wall where airflow might be weakest.
Her fingers brushed stone—
—and pain exploded.
A needle trap fired from the wall at point-blank range, burying itself deep in her shoulder. The curse ignited instantly, spreading numbness down her arm like ice water.
Ryuu bit back a scream.
She ripped the needle free and crushed it under her heel.
Blood poured freely now.
Her breath shortened.
> Move.
She staggered forward—
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
—and the floor shifted.
Not collapsing.
Tilting.
The entire chamber angled sharply, turning the ground into a slanted kill-plane. Ryuu slid, boots scraping uselessly, barely catching herself on a floor groove carved exactly for this purpose.
Her fingers burned as she held on.
Her strength screamed.
Her Falna flared.
Level 5 power surged through her limbs—and the groove cracked under her grip.
She fell.
Hard.
Her head struck stone.
Stars burst behind her eyes.
For a moment—just a moment—
Ryuu Lion lay still.
The poison crept higher.
Her vision dimmed.
Her thoughts slowed.
And in that terrible quiet, memories came unbidden.
Astrea’s smile.
Kaguya laughing too loud.
Alise standing in fire and refusing to fall.
Bell’s voice, earnest and stupid and kind.
> No.
Her fingers twitched.
Her teeth clenched.
She forced breath into lungs that begged to stop.
“I will not—” she rasped, voice barely sound, “—die in a hole you dug.”
Ryuu rolled onto her side and slammed her palm into the stone.
Not a spell.
Not yet.
Just intent.
Wind whispered—not as force, but as feeling. A thin, controlled current spiraled around her body, redirecting the poison away from her face just enough to breathe.
Her muscles screamed.
Her vision narrowed.
But she was still conscious.
Still alive.
Then—
CLICK.
The sound was soft.
Polite.
The center of the chamber split open.
Ryuu’s eyes widened as the floor beneath her opened, revealing a vertical shaft plunging downward. Warm air rushed up, carrying the scent of grass and distant light.
The 18th Floor.
Her heart sank.
> So this is it.
The chamber tilted fully.
Ryuu slid.
She reached for the edge—
Missed—
And fell.
The walls blurred past her as she dropped, wind tearing at her hair, her cloak snapping wildly. She twisted mid-air, forcing her body to align, absorbing impact the way she’d trained a thousand times to do.
She hit the ground hard.
Rolled.
Skidded.
Stopped.
Sunlight filtered through massive roots above.
Grass bent beneath her trembling hands.
Ryuu lay there, gasping, every nerve screaming, poison still burning through her veins.
Alive.
Barely.
She pushed herself onto one knee.
Blood dripped onto green earth.
Her wooden sword remained in her grip.
Somewhere above, stone ground shut.
And for the first time since the chase began, a voice echoed clearly through the shaft.
> “Good,” Jura said calmly.
“You survived the maze.”
Ryuu looked up, eyes blazing.
“…Come down here,” she whispered. “Say that to my face.”
Jura chuckled.
> “Soon.
But not yet.”
Footsteps echoed far above.
Multiple.
Measured.
Prepared.
Ryuu rose slowly to her feet, swaying, but unbroken.
The hunt had not ended.
It had begun.
Then, the floor stopped shaking.
That was the first thing Ryuu noticed.
Not the pain.
Not the blood.
Not the way her lungs burned as she dragged air back into them.
Silence.
A wrong kind of silence.
Stone dust drifted slowly through the chamber, catching torchlight in pale motes. Broken columns lay where they had fallen, split clean through by controlled detonations. The smell of curse oil hung thick, acrid, layered beneath the iron tang of blood.
Ryuu pushed herself up on one knee.
Her left arm screamed in protest. The sleeve of her cloak was shredded, the leather beneath sliced deep enough that blood ran freely down her fingers and dripped onto the stone.
She didn’t look at it.
She counted.
Bodies first.
One.
Two.
Three.
Evilus fighters lay scattered across the chamber, some unmoving, others groaning softly, trying and failing to crawl away. The execution squad had been larger when the trap sprang.
Much larger.
Ryuu exhaled once, slow and controlled.
> I survived the first layer.
She knew better than to think that meant victory.
A laugh echoed.
Slow. Delighted. Mocking.
“Well done.”
Ryuu turned toward the sound, wooden sword already raised.
Jura Halmer leaned against a cracked pillar at the far end of the chamber, one hand lazily resting on a bloodstained dagger. His hair was damp with sweat, his grin sharp and satisfied.
“You’re stronger,” he said, eyes glittering. “I could tell the moment you hit the ground.”
Ryuu didn’t answer.
She shifted her footing, testing balance. Her right leg burned where a net’s cursed filaments had tightened before she tore through it. Slower than she liked.
Still fast enough.
“You broke three kill-zones,” Jura continued conversationally. “That’s impressive. The old you would’ve died in the second.”
Ryuu’s grip tightened.
“You planned for me,” she said quietly.
Jura spread his hands. “Of course I did. You don’t invite a legend into your house without setting the table.”
A click echoed behind her.
Ryuu spun—
Too late.
The chamber walls split open, stone panels sliding aside with Daedalus precision. More figures emerged. Fresh. Uninjured. Blades already drawn.
Execution squad. Second wave.
Her shoulders sank a fraction of an inch.
Jura noticed.
“Oh?” he mocked. “Did you think that was it?”
Ryuu scanned the exits. Every corridor she could see was blocked. Sigils flared along the floor, anti-magic runes interlocking like a spider’s web.
Her wind magic would be slowed.
Her movement restricted.
Her stamina bled down deliberately.
This wasn’t a fight.
It was a grinder.
Jura pushed off the pillar and began walking toward her, boots crunching over debris.
“You know what the best part is?” he said lightly. “You’re not supposed to die here.”
Ryuu’s eyes sharpened. “Then stop talking.”
She lunged.
The first executioner never saw it coming.
Ryuu crossed the distance in a breath, wooden sword cracking into his jaw with enough force to snap bone. He went down without a sound. She pivoted, blade reversing, catching a second fighter across the throat.
Steel rang.
Curses flared.
Pain lanced through her side as a dagger slipped past her guard. She didn’t slow. She ripped the blade free, blood spraying, and buried her elbow into the attacker’s chest.
Bones broke.
The chamber erupted into motion.
Ryuu moved like a storm forced into a bottle.
Every strike was precise. Every step measured. She used fallen bodies as obstacles, pillars as cover, timing her breath to the rhythm of her Falna. Level 5 strength carried her through blows that would have crippled her before.
But the squad adapted.
Nets flew.
Chains wrapped.
Spells detonated at her feet.
A blast threw her into a wall hard enough to crack stone. Ryuu slid down, vision blurring for a heartbeat.
Jura clapped slowly.
“There it is,” he said. “That look.”
Ryuu forced herself upright, blood running freely now.
“You’re wondering why I’m still standing here,” Jura continued. “Why I’m not joining in.”
She met his gaze.
“You’re afraid.”
He smiled wider.
“Of course I am. That’s why I prepared.”
He gestured casually.
“Finish her legs,” he ordered. “Don’t kill her. She walks.”
Two executioners moved in with weighted blades designed to cripple, not cut clean.
Ryuu’s breath steadied.
Her heart slowed.
> Not here.
Not yet.
She broke left, ducked under a swing, drove her shoulder into one man’s knee. It shattered with a wet crack. She twisted, slashed another across the face, then felt the net tighten around her torso.
Pain exploded as cursed filaments burned into her skin.
She roared—not in fear, but fury—and tore free, ripping flesh along with the net.
Jura’s eyes gleamed.
“Yes,” he whispered. “That’s it. Run.”
The floor beneath Ryuu gave way.
Not collapsing—
opening.
A hidden drop spiraled downward, warm air rushing up to meet her. Grass and light flashed below.
The 18th Floor.
Ryuu fell—
—and landed hard on her feet, knees buckling, one hand slamming into living earth.
Sunlight fil
tered down through the cavern canopy.
For a heartbeat, everything was still.
Then footsteps echoed above.
Jura’s voice drifted down after her, carried by the warm air.
> “Welcome home, Ryuu Lion.”
She looked up at the open shaft, blood dripping onto green grass.
Around her, the execution squad began to descend.
Ryuu rose slowly.
Wooden sword steady.
Breath even.
Eyes burning.
“…I won’t die here,” she said.
