Ethan watched Leo's health bar swing up and down in sharp, unsettling spikes, and although Kiara was doing everything she could to stabilize him, the whole situation still felt dangerously close to unraveling.
Without wasting a second, Ethan pulled out of the fight, circled wide around the cluster of monsters, and slipped into the cave entrance they had crawled out of. The narrow opening led into a long and suffocating corridor, and as he moved deeper the passage suddenly widened into what looked like the remains of an ancient prison, the stone beds and iron fittings long collapsed and rotted by time. The oppressive atmosphere pressed against him, and with the instinctive sense that lingering here would end badly, he immediately turned and sprinted back toward the others.
"Everyone, fall back to this spot. Leo, pull the mobs and retreat," he shouted as he emerged from the cave.
