[”Fight…”]

In Dao of the Divine, combat had always been a turn-based thing. An orderly rhythm of strategy: deliberate choices, calculated moves, the luxury of time to breathe. But this thing, whatever it was, waited for no one.

I didn’t even have time to roll for initiative as Mei shoved me aside, a wordless yell escaping her lips. A breath later, a lumbering swing carved through the space where I had been standing. I felt the rush of air as it passed, the rancid stink of decay in its wake. Too close. Far too close.

The movement sent us scattering, the creature’s massive form forcing me to stumble backward in a graceless shuffle. My feet slipped twice, each step a desperate scramble to get away. It wasn’t elegant, but it was survival. I’d take it. Just like I’d take whatever slim thread of fortune seemed to be watching over me.

By the time I found the balance to look up, the thing’s attention was no longer on me. It had turned toward Mei.

A snarl like splintering wood tore from its throat, a guttural sound that echoed down the hallway.

Mei was already moving, her retreat quick and sharp, each motion precise but edged with tension. A clumsy, sweeping strike came at her, and she ducked, darting to the side as the creature’s rotten limb smashed into the wall. The thing wasn’t fast, not like the soldiers we’d faced earlier, but it was relentless.

Another snarling swing, and Mei only just managed to dance out of its reach. With each step, she was leading it away, her every movement buying me time. But there was only so much hallway to dodge down. She couldn’t flee forever.

Yet I merely stood there, frozen for half a heartbeat, as its limbs tore chunks out of the walls in its mindless flailing.

Where Detached PoV dulled the worst of my panic, it didn’t silence the steady drumbeat of reality that thrummed through me. I knew I should chase after her, should do something to help, but the truth pressed against my chest like a stone: what the hell was I supposed to do?

Mei, smaller and quicker than me, was barely staying ahead of the thing. Its swings gouged through the hallway, each blow carving out splinters and debris like a child tearing paper. She darted, ducked, and twisted, but her movements weren’t graceful. They were frantic. Desperate.

I, on the other hand, wasn’t fast enough to fight that thing. I wasn’t strong enough. I wasn’t enough.

It wasn’t cowardice—not really. It was something colder than that, something clinical. Detached PoV told me the truth with callous clarity. The thing wasn’t fast, but it didn’t need to be. It wasn’t smart, but it didn’t need to be.

It was a death sentence on rotting legs. A walking inevitability.

“Just leave the brat.” Liang’s voice slithered into my mind, low and smug. “She’s served her purpose. Dead weight at this point.”

The words grated against me, like splinters under the skin. I wanted to tell him off, to rail against his callousness. But the worst part was how much sense he made.

I’d already taken one, less-than proverbial, bullet that night, and it hadn’t ended well for me.

This was Jim all over again. Just... less deodorant and more teeth.

Another roar ripped through the air. The creature lunged forward, its bulk smashing into a stray cabinet, tearing through it in a spray of shattered wood. Mei barely slipped past, her blade flashing as she buried it between the creature’s ribs. It sank deep, but it didn’t seem to matter. The thing didn’t even stagger. If anything, the attack merely left her one weapon shorter.

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I couldn’t fight it.

And yet.

Watching Mei retreat step by step, her small figure dwarfed by that hulking monstrosity that once more turned towards her, made my stomach twist.

I hesitated a moment longer, saw her stagger back against the wall underneath guttural snarls, her eyes wide with terror, and then I moved. Because if I didn’t, she wouldn’t make it. And if she didn’t make it, well—what kind of story would that leave me in?

A singed piece of wood lay at my feet, jagged and sharp, blackened from the flames but solid enough. My hand moved before I could think, fingers curling around it.

Liang’s voice hissed in protest.

This is dumb, Detached PoV told me with startling clarity, each word heavy as an anvil.

But even so, I charged.

I wasn’t some hot-blooded protagonist. I didn’t scream as I rushed at the creature. That might have bought Mei a second or two to slip away, but I didn’t want its attention—not fully. If anything, my legs screamed at me to stop, my senses told me to turn around, and my heart hammered a single refrain: I don’t want to die.

I hadn’t wished to die when I confronted Jim either. But sometimes, your body just moves regardless of your wishes.

So, when the thing raised its arms to crush Mei, cornered and helpless, I lunged—my smoldering piece of wood raised in front of me. I didn’t swing it. The wood didn’t feel sturdy enough to bat around, and I didn’t trust myself to possess any strength that the creature would feel.

Instead, I thrust the splintered end forward like a spear, aiming for the shadowy hollow of its armpit.

I found my target with more speed than I’d realized. I had been sprinting as fast as I could and then some.

The impact jarred through my hands, an explosion of force that nearly wrenched the weapon free. Splinters bit into my palms, and the smell—Gods, the smell—hit me like a wave as I impaled the thing. Rot and bile, death and damp earth. I didn’t have time to breathe or recoil; my momentum drove me forward, slamming me into the creature as it stumbled forward.

We hit the wall in a tangled mess of limbs, its rotten bulk a heavy, unyielding weight against me. It was nothing short of a miracle that Mei managed to slip away in time, faster than I could track, but I didn’t see where she went. I didn’t care. The only thing I knew, the only thing I felt, was the overwhelming, suffocating presence of death in front of me.

The stench of all things buried pressed against my senses, thick and cloying. Gagging, I kicked and flailed to get myself off it, wheezing for breath as my knees scraped against the floor. My head swam, and the world around me blurred into nothing but smoke, ash, and the sound of Mei’s frantic footsteps as she appeared at my side, hurriedly trying helping me to my feet.

She half succeeded.

We scrambled back together, hands and feet scrabbling for purchase on the scorched wood. I couldn’t take my eyes off it, couldn’t even blink.

Please be dead. Please be dead...

And then it twitched.

A sickening lurch, like a puppet with half its strings cut.

Shit.

“Please be dead and stay down,” I hissed through clenched teeth.

With the piece of wood still lodged deep inside its armpit, the creature began to stagger upright in a grotesque parody of life. Each motion was wrong, a snap and a shudder like some broken thing learning to move for the first time.

“We need to get away,” Mei breathlessly whispered beside me. Her voice was barely audible over the creak of wood and the crackle of distant flames, but I could feel the dread in it, coiled tight like a spring.

She wasn’t wrong. My head screamed to run, to pull her along and disappear before that thing could lurch fully to its feet. But before I could, something caught my eye.

There. Just beside us, a faint line of artificial light tracing a jagged crack in the wall.

It started around waist height, weaving its way up toward the ceiling above the creature. A ceiling, charred black and sagging under its own weight, that looked like it was a single breath away from collapse. I blinked.

Anyone who’d played enough games would recognize the signs. The lever conveniently placed next to the chandelier. The explosive barrels perfectly stacked near oblivious enemies. The precarious rock pile balanced on a ledge.

I didn’t think. There was no time to think.

I slammed my foot into the crack, putting every ounce of my weight behind it. The wall groaned like an old tree in a storm, and for half a heartbeat, nothing happened.

Then everything happened.

The ceiling gave way with a sound that wasn’t so much a crash as a roar. A tidal wave of charred beams, flaming debris, and dust surged down the hallway, swallowing the creature whole. It was deafening, blinding, and choking all at once, and I barely had time to yank Mei back before the chaos reached us too.

We stumbled, coughing and gagging on the acrid smoke and ash, but when the dust began to settle, the hallway ahead was an impassable mound of rubble.

A single tense second, and two screens flickered across my eyes.

//Enemy Neutralized//

//Combat Essence Increased//

//Environmental Kill//

//Combat Essence Increased//