The Runner stood tall, chest rising and falling slowly, its tongue licking at the fresh blood dripping from its jaws. Its glowing eyes turned to Johnquis, almost smug.
Johnquis glared at it.
"Don't look at me like that. You're the one dragging me into hell like a damn toy."
The Runner tilted its head, then made a low grumble that almost sounded like a laugh.
"Oh, you think this is funny?"
Johnquis pointed at the ground, breath still shaky.
"That was five floors down! Five! I almost died!"
The Runner stepped closer and crouched, ears twitching. It gave a playful nudge to Johnquis's side with its snout.
"Stop that. I'm not petting you. You just murdered like what thirty Eaters? You're eating up half my grind like a greedy parasite."
The Runner grunted again and leaned closer, almost pressing its forehead to his.
Johnquis sighed, pushing its face back with one hand.
"I swear… You act like a beast, but you fight like a demon ballerina with legs made of steel."
The Runner blinked, then raised a leg and mimicked a short, spinning kick.
"Oh my god. You're showing off now?"
The Runner spun again and struck a small piece of rubble, sending it flying like a soccer ball straight into an Eater corpse's head.
Crack!
"Okay, okay! You win!"
Johnquis laughed, waving a hand.
"Just… stop pulling me around like a meat kite next time, alright?"
The Runner let out a low huff and finally sat.
Johnquis leaned back against the wall, catching his breath.
"Maybe you're not so bad."
The Runner's ear twitched once.
"…But I still hate you."
The Runner gave a faint growl of approval, almost like a chuckle.
Gripping the chain between them, Johnquis muttered,
"Alright, let's get moving before more show up. We're only halfway through this cursed place."
The Runner stood, licking its teeth, eager for more.
Johnquis stood too, dusting himself off.
"Next time you jump down five floors, I'm cutting this chain. I swear."
They moved deeper. The bond between them wasn't perfect but it was starting to feel real.
They made their way through the bloodstained corridors, stepping over ruined desks and shattered glass. The walls were cracked, spray-marked with blood trails and faded chalk notes from a time when this place still held laughter and lessons.
Johnquis walked slower now, every muscle sore. He looked at the Runner dragging its claws lightly along the lockers, tail swaying casually.
"You really enjoy this, huh? All that chaos. The biting. The leg stuff."
The Runner looked back and gave a low, amused grunt. Its ears twitched again, always alert.
Johnquis rolled his eyes.
"You know, if you weren't chained to me, you'd be eating Eaters on your own like it's a damn buffet."
They reached a stairwell. Half of it was caved in.
Johnquis looked up the collapsed stairs and then at a hanging metal pipe overhead.
"Figures."
He fired his grappling hook into the support beam and swung up, using the wall for momentum.
The Runner, of course, just leapt.
"You cheating bastard!"
Panting as he pulled himself up.
"I had to swing like Spider-boy, and you just… jumped."
The hallway upstairs was different. Desks were stacked against walls like barricades, and dry blood was smeared across chalkboards.
Johnquis tapped a broken picture frame on the wall—an old class photo, cracked but visible.
"Kids used to sit here. Learn. Dream."
The Runner stared at the photo too, head slightly tilted.
Johnquis softened.
"You ever wonder who you were before this? Or were you born a monster?"
The Runner didn't reply, obviously. But it looked at the picture longer than Johnquis expected.
He continued down the hallway, brushing dust off a locker, then paused at the faint sound of something metal in the distance.
The Runner froze, ears pricking.
Johnquis raised his hand slowly.
"Wait… Did you hear that?"
A metal clang echoed again, coming from the next building. The cafeteria.
Johnquis checked the time.
[1:29:16]
"Time's moving fast. We only got half an hour to finish this. If we make it before the limit, we get a full five stars. Not bad, right?"
The Runner shot him a look.
"That look says I'm a slowpoke, and you just want to drag me along again? Better cut it out."
The Runner gave him a sad look back.
"What! You almost killed me earlier! Argh! Enough whining. Let's move to that cafeteria. The guild sets these time limits so we don't waste the whole night on one quest. They want every damn hour pushed hard."
Johnquis shot his hook into a beam and swung through a broken window. The Runner followed.
Johnquis stepped carefully over an overturned table, his boots crunching through a mess of shattered trays and bone-dry food packs. The cafeteria looked like it had been hit by a hurrican. Folding chairs tossed everywhere, tables broken in half, and bodies long decayed, some still in their school uniforms.
Holding a sleeve over his face, he said,
"This place smells like death and expired milk. And not even the powdered kind."
The Runner crept ahead, quiet now, its usual erratic energy toned down. It sniffed the air, claws clicking lightly against the tile floor. Its eyes darted toward the kitchen doors at the far end of the room.
Johnquis watched it.
"You sense something?"
The Runner didn't respond but didn't move either. Just stared at those doors like something was watching back.
Johnquis sighed.
"Alright. Let's take a look."
They moved between the wrecked lunch counters, past a vending machine that had been smashed open. Johnquis paused by a cold storage door hanging off its hinges. Inside, the room was dark, filled with racks and bags of preserved supply meals.
He squinted.
"Was that… a footprint?"
A footprint. A heavy one. Deep impressions in the dusty tile. And smeared drag marks long and wide, like something massive had been hauled through here.
A sudden rumble shook the air.
THOOM.
The entire wall behind the kitchen counter shuddered. A deep, groaning weight moved behind it.
Johnquis froze.
"That's… not Level 1."
The Runner tensed beside him, claws out, shoulders hunched, legs ready.
Another THOOM. This time, closer.
A tray clattered off the counter. The hanging kitchen lamp swung back and forth.
Johnquis backed up slightly.
"Okay. Runner… we might wanna—"
The wall burst open.
Metal counters went flying like paper. The stone tiles cracked under the force of the thing stomping through.
It was enormous.
An Eater, at least twice the height of a man, shoulders like a wrecking ball, plated skin like rusted armor, thick and gray. One of its eyes was missing. The other glowed with that deep, unnatural violet.
Its name appeared in Johnquis' vision.
[High Eater: TANKER]
[Threat Level: 2]
[Feed Value: +1000]
Johnquis stared.
"Oh fuck me."