Chapter 35: Burden and struggle

The corridor stretched, straight and bright, but it did not feel like progress. It felt like punishment measured in meters. He could see the end far ahead, the exit door a distant rectangle that looked insultingly close but refused to become near. And each step, he’d feel he walked back instead of forward. As if the door itself was taunting him.

Then something loud clicked behind them.

A heavy echo, like the slamming of a metal latch the size of a coffin lid.

Kael’s head snapped around.

Walls of steel began slamming down, one after the other, in neat brutal intervals. Not random. Not chaotic. A deliberate mechanism. The corridor behind them started being carved into segments, chopped into sections like a butcher dividing meat. The walls were approaching steadily, and Kael could tell they would reach them by the time the trial ended.

He had expected some kind of closing trap.

He did not expect it to be so literal.

“Fuck!” John cursed and tried to rush forward.

His foot snapped like a twig.

It happened so fast it looked stupid. One moment his leg was there, the next his ankle buckled under his own weight, bones giving up under the armor’s curse like they were made of chalk.

“GAhAHAH!” John howled like a madman, and in that shout Kael saw flesh tear at the corners of his mouth, cheeks splitting from the strain. John probably did not even feel it. Or maybe he felt everything and the forbidden tag simply made him too volatile to process it like a human.

“Get rid of that damn armor!” Kael shouted.

“No!”

“Your foot is busted for fuck sake! Throw that shit away!” Kael howled.

“No! This is too damn good to waste! Help me up!” John snapped, eyes wild.

Kael hesitated.

If he helped him, they were both stuck. Kael’s own items were still cursed. He needed to drag them out first, remove the burden outside, then come back if he wanted to play hero. If he tried to lift John now, Kael would collapse with him, and the steel walls would finish the conversation.

“I can’t,” Kael said, voice flat. “The item I have makes me too heavy.”

“THEN THROW IT AWAY!” John screamed, spittle mixing with blood. “MY ITEM IS FAR BETTER! This one makes me immortal! Even if my bone is exposed! If I just make it outside I can recover! Throw that trash away and help me!”

Kael stared at him for half a second, unable to hide the disgust.

“Are you listening to yourself right now?” Kael asked.

“You fucker!” John’s eyes sharpened into something ugly. “You wanted to do this since the first place! To get me to let down my guard then kill me here!”

“I didn’t do any of that,” Kael said, and resumed moving, dragging himself toward the exit with slow punishing steps. “Just stay put. I’ll remove the curse outside and come help you.”

“No! Help me now!” he howled some more, as rabidly as he could. Frothing both blood and foam at the mouth.

Kael ignored him and kept trudging forward.

The rage in John’s eyes was too visible to ignore, but a broken leg and a cursed chest plate made rage useless. Kael had already been planning ways to either get rid of John or separate himself from him the moment they left the trial. Sure, being welcomed into the Sun Clan was a bonus Kael did not mind. But if more people like John stuck to him, it would be nothing but trouble. The tower was already enough.

Call I cruel, or merciless, even ruthless. But that is the price one has to pay to survive. He would only be unjust to himself if he were to help those who stank of betrayal.

Then the hammer’s forbidden effect struck again.

A ringing boom snapped through Kael’s skull like a church bell being swung inside his head. For a second he felt like he had been hit by a cannonball. White noise flooded his ears. His vision blurred at the edges, and his knees nearly buckled from the sudden shockwave of heat and vibration.

He forced himself upright and kept moving.

“COME BACK!” John howled behind him, even with the bleeding mouth and the ruined leg. He struggled forward, dragging himself, driven by greed more than pain.

Kael did not look back again.

Every steel slab that slammed down behind them made him wince. Not from fear of the noise, but from the knowledge that the walls were closing distance. The exit door was not even ten meters away now, but it felt like it needed a lifetime. Each step was a negotiation with gravity, each breath a stolen coin.

Then a notification flashed in front of him.

[Brokk’s Hammer destroyed [Sledgehammer]]

Kael’s eyes widened.

Bits and pieces of his sledgehammer fell through holes in his backpack like dead metal shedding itself. The loss hit him strangely. Part irritation, part relief. The hammer’s curse making him lighter by destroying his gear felt like a mockery.

He did feel a bit lighter, yes.

But it was risky.

If he lost the crowbar, fine. If he lost his torchlight and other gear then would hate himself. If he lost the rune which burdened him so much at the exit… then he would hate the tower and himself at the same time.

The howling behind him was not helping him focus, and Kael kept ignoring it, bracing for another mind reeling boom while pushing himself closer to the door.

“Fine, fucker! Get out first!” John shouted.

Kael glanced back in time to see John struggling to remove the chest piece.

“I told you I’ll come back for you, just wait!” Kael shouted.

“You think I’ll fucking fall for that,” John spat.

He unequipped it.

The change was immediate and unsettling. John’s bloodshot eyes cleared like someone flipped a switch. His breathing steadied. His face regained a human expression, and he looked down at his busted foot like he had only just noticed the fact that it was broken.

“Fuck what happened?” John said, tone almost casual.

Kael’s skin crawled at the act.

No one woke up from that kind of frenzy and said what happened like they had spilled a drink. Kael was no fool. John knew exactly what happened. He was baiting him. Trying to pull Kael into reach… and thinking that it might just work.

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