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"Stop twitching, or I’ll take your head off in one clean swipe," Kane said. His voice was a low, dangerous grate, like gravel under a boot.
I didn't stop twitching. I couldn't. I was a rat-thing. A Level 1 piece of dungeon trash with a human brain and a very real fear of being sliced into ribbons. The cold steel of his blade was pressed so hard against my throat that I could feel the microscopic vibrations of his breathing through the metal.
"I... I don't know what you're talking about!" I shrieked. The sound came out as a high-pitched, wet chitter. It was humiliating. I wanted to tell him to go to hell, but my vocal cords were designed for scavenging, not debating.
Kane shifted his weight, pinning my tail against the damp stone floor with the toe of his heavy boot. I let out a sharp, guttural yelp.
"You're not a normal spawn," he muttered, leaning in. He was too close. I could smell leather, old blood, and something like ozone. "Normal rats don't try to negotiate. Normal rats don't look at me with eyes that say 'I've died a dozen times and I'm bored of it.'"
"I'm just hungry!" I snapped, trying to wedge my shoulder under him. "Let me go, and I'll show you where the scrap is!"
He laughed. It wasn't a nice sound. It was the sound of a man who had seen everything in this hole and found it all lacking. He pressed the blade a fraction deeper, just enough to sting.
"Liar. You're a glitch. A mistake. Or maybe a spy for the Broker." He leaned down further, his face inches from mine. His eyes were sharp, calculating, stripping me bare. "Who sent you?"
"Nobody sent me!" I hissed. "I woke up here! I died! I woke up again! I'm just trying not to be a snack for something bigger than me!"
Kane paused. The pressure on my throat didn't let up, but his gaze flickered. "Died? You're talking about the loop. That's a myth for the rookies who go crazy in the deep levels."
"It's not a myth if it's happening to me, you arrogant prick!"
He didn't flinch. Instead, he gripped my scruff with a gloved hand and hauled me up until we were eye-to-eye. The power difference was sickening. I was a handful of fur and desperation; he was a mountain of muscle and gear. I could see the faint scars on his jaw, the way his pulse beat steady and slow in his neck. He wasn't even sweating.
"If you're looping, you've got information," Kane said, his voice dropping an octave. "Information about the Maw's shifts. The traps. The spawn patterns. That's worth more than a thousand rat pelts."
"And why would I give that to you?" I spat, my little chest heaving. "So you can sell it and leave me to get eaten by a Level 10 spider?"
"Because I'm the only thing between you and a very messy death," he replied. He let go of my scruff and slammed me back onto the floor, though he kept the knife poised. "You're a Level 1. You're the bottom of the food chain. I can keep you alive. Or I can turn you into a rug. Your choice."
I glared at him, my mind racing. He thought he had me. He thought I was just a freak of nature with a memory. But I knew this corridor. I'd died in this exact spot three times already. Once by a tripwire, once by a ceiling collapse, and once because a stray bolt hit me in the eye.
"Fine," I whispered, trying to sound less like a terrified rodent. "But I want a deal. I don't go back into a cage. I get fed. And you don't kill me the second I stop being useful."
Kane arched a brow. "You've got a lot of nerve for something I could squash with my thumb."
"Nerve is all I've got left," I retorted. "Now, do we have a deal, or are you going to keep playing with your knife?"
He stared at me for a long beat. The silence stretched, heavy and thick. I could hear the distant roar of something huge moving in the tunnels above us—a sound that made my fur stand on end. We were out of time.
"Deal," he said. "But the second you lie to me, I'll peel you like a grape."
I tried to smirk, but it probably looked more like a grimace. "Fair enough."
He stood up, but he didn't move away. He reached into a pouch at his belt and pulled out a heavy, blackened iron collar. It looked like something used for slave-beasts in the upper rings. My stomach did a slow roll.
"What's that?" I asked, backing away on all fours.
"Insurance," Kane said. "A binding contract. Since you're a 'glitch,' I can't trust your word. This collar links your life force to mine. If you try to run, or if you try to betray me, it shocks your nervous system into a seizure. If you die, I get a notification. If I die... well, let's hope that doesn't happen."
"You've got to be kidding me!" I shrieked. "I'm not wearing a dog collar!"
"It's not a request," he said. He stepped forward, his movement fast and fluid. Before I could scramble away, he had me pinned again, his hand clamping over my head with a grip like a vice.
"Get off me! You bastard!"
"Quiet," he commanded. The collar snapped shut around my neck with a metallic *click* that echoed through the tunnel.
Immediately, a searing heat surged through my spine. I gasped, my body arching as a strange, golden thread of light flickered between my chest and his. It wasn't a physical chain, but I felt it—a tug, a weight, a tether that tied my pathetic little life to his massive one.
Kane stepped back, looking at the glow with a frown. "Interesting. The system is actually accepting the bond. You really are a glitch."
I coughed, shaking my head to clear the dizziness. "I hate you. I absolutely hate you."
"Get used to it," he said, turning his back to me. "Now, start talking. Which way to the nearest safe zone, and why is the air starting to smell like ozone?"
I looked up. The ceiling was beginning to ripple. Not like wind, but like water. The dungeon was shifting. The walls were literally folding into themselves, and the exit we'd just come through was vanishing into a wall of jagged obsidian.
"Uh, Kane?" I squeaked.
"What?"
"The room is disappearing. And we're in the middle of it."
He spun around, his eyes widening as a massive slab of rock crashed down where he had been standing a second ago. The ground beneath us groaned, tilting at a forty-five-degree angle. We slid together, my small body slamming into his armored thigh.
"Dammit!" Kane roared, digging his boots into the shifting stone. He grabbed me by the collar and hauled me upward, pinning me against a protruding ledge as the floor beneath us vanished into a void of swirling purple mist.
We were dangling over a pit of nothingness, held only by his grip on my neck and his own strength against the rock. I could feel his heart hammering against his ribs—not from fear, but from the sheer exertion of holding us both.
"Tell me there's a way out of this!" he yelled over the roar of the collapsing tunnel.
I looked at the void. I'd seen this before. In my second life, I'd fallen into this exact hole and spent three hours being chewed on by blind worms before I finally died.
"There's a ledge!" I pointed frantically to the left. "Ten feet up! If we jump now, we might make it!"
"Jump? Into that?" He looked at the gap. It was a leap of faith, and the wind was howling, trying to rip us away from the ledge.
"Jump or die, Kane!"
He didn't hesitate. He gripped me tighter, tucked my body against his chest, and leaped. For a second, we were flying, the world a blur of gray stone and purple haze. Then, we slammed into a hard, cold surface with a bone-jarring thud.
I felt the air leave my lungs. I was sprawled across his chest, my claws digging into his leather armor. We were alive, but the ledge was narrow, and the sound of something screaming in the pit below was getting louder.
Kane groaned, rolling over to get a better grip on the rock. He looked down at me, his expression a mix of irritation and reluctant respect.
"You're a pain in the ass," he muttered.
"You're a jerk," I wheezed.
He reached down, his fingers brushing the collar on my neck. The touch was brief, but I felt a spark of that golden energy again. He didn't pull away immediately. His gaze lingered on my face, his eyes scanning the strange, rat-like features and the human intelligence behind them.
"You're not just a loop," he whispered, more to himself than to me. "You're something else."
Before I could ask what he meant, a loud *clack* sounded from the darkness behind us. A bolt crossed the air, grazing Kane's shoulder and embedding itself in the rock with a hiss of poison.
Kane reacted instantly, throwing me behind him and drawing his blade in one motion. He looked back into the shadows, where a dozen glowing red eyes were blinking into existence.
"Great," he spat. "Company."
He shifted his stance, the blade humming with a faint blue light. But as he moved, I noticed something. The collar—the bond—was pulsing. A warning. A signal.
"Kane," I whispered, clutching his leg. "They aren't just monsters."
He didn't look back. "What do you mean?"
"They're wearing gear," I said, pointing to the glint of steel and leather among the creatures. "They're hunters. And they're looking for you."
Kane's grip on the sword tightened. He didn't look surprised. He looked murderous. He slid the blade closer to my chest, not to kill me, but to keep me pinned against the wall, his voice a lethal whisper in my ear.
"Not enough," he said. "The information you gave me isn't enough to get us out of here alive. Give me more. Tell me exactly who is hunting me, or I'll let them have you first."