The dust had barely finished settling when the group instinctively drew closer together, the echo of the boulder's impact still reverberating faintly through the mountainside. No one spoke for several seconds. The silence wasn't empty—it was heavy, filled with the shared understanding that the mountain was not going to be a passive obstacle. Rather, it was active. Very active.
Dylan was the first to break the silence.
"Okay," he said slowly, rubbing the back of his neck as he stared up the slope, eyes narrowed in thought rather than fear. "Yeah. That thing just tried to kill us. So maybe… we don't just charge up it like idiots."
Max let out a breathy laugh, half relief and half disbelief. "You think?"
