For a moment, no one said a word.

  Bran lay limp inside the half-cut cocoon, his skin pale and stretched thin, his white beard matted with dried saliva and strands of silk. His eyes were shut tight, sunken as if weeks of sleep had been forced into him.

  Rayne felt chaotic emotions bubbling inside him as he struggled to comprehend the situation. The others looked equally frozen as John moved his dagger to cut off more of the cocoon.

  The more Bran’s body was revealed, the more Rayne found it hard to believe.

  When he had last seen the man, he had been healthy, giving him advice for the supply quest, and now he looked as pale as a corpse.

  He gasped at that thought.

  “Is he alive?” he managed to ask.

  John bit his lips and planted his ear on Bran’s chest. Everyone held their breaths as the seconds passed.

  Then the man rose with a thin smile on his face. “Barely. His heart is beating. I don't know how he survived when he should have died of thirst in the cocoon. I don’t know if there are any internal injuries, but a stamina potion should wake him up.”

  Rayne immediately pulled out a stamina potion from his belt, feeling like the hand squeezing his heart was finally gone. He couldn’t help but imagine if Bran would have been alive if they had gotten here a day or two later.

  But there was no point thinking of scenarios.

  They needed to wake Bran first.

  John held the blue liquid and uncorked it carefully. Rayne crouched and slipped a hand beneath Bran’s neck, raising his head a little. Bran was light—too light. His body felt like dry sticks wrapped in skin.

  “Slowly,” Rayne murmured.

  John nodded and tilted the bottle. The blue liquid touched Bran’s lips and slid down. Some of it spilled out the corner of his mouth, but they slowly made him drink more.

  As they did so, he saw Shawn, Jason, and the others moving to cut through the other three cocoons one by one. Men moved to pull the soldiers out of them, but when he met Jason’s gaze, Jason shook his head.

  Rayne understood immediately. None of them had survived. If they had gotten captured by the reaver on their first day here, then they had been inside it for over a week without food or water.

  He wondered how Bran had managed to even survive.

  He looked down at his pale body as John poured down over half the vial into his mouth. They waited calmly for him to open his eyes or even shift a little.

  For a moment, nothing happened.

  Then Bran twitched.

  A faint shiver ran through his body, his jaw working weakly before swallowing instinctively. Rayne met John’s eyes and they smiled.

  Bran gulped down more of the potion until none of it was left. John carefully put the vial aside and moved to push Bran against a lump of silk in a sitting position.

  All of them circled around him, waiting for him to open his eyes.

  Kesh took out a piece of dried ration bar. “Think he can eat?”

  “Only if we get him awake enough,” John said softly, and patted Bran’s cheek. “Bran, can you hear us? You’re safe.”

  His breathing deepened by a fraction, but nothing happened. Rayne noticed his eyelids fluttering as if struggling to open them.

  He moved to take out another stamina potion, but before he could, Shawn and the others walked up to them.

  “What’s going on? Is he alive?” Shawn asked, looking down at Bran.

  “Yeah, but barely,” Nate said. “We made him drink a stamina potion and are now just waiting for him to get up.”

  Shawn nodded. “Let’s hope the man knows what the fuck happened to his squad.”

  Rayne felt rage bubbling inside at the nonchalant tone. It was as if the man cared more about the information than Bran’s well-being. But he schooled his expression.

  Shawn didn’t know Bran like they did. Though the man didn’t seem like the type to care for anyone he knew either.

  “He’s waking up!” John suddenly said, making Rayne focus on Bran.

  For a few moments, nothing happened, then his brow twitched. His eyes cracked open—just a sliver of white and a weak glimmer of brown beneath.

  Bran coughed, a dry rasp echoing in the chamber. Rayne moved quickly, taking out another stamina potion close to his lips.

  “Bran, it’s me, Rayne. Drink a little of this.”

  He tilted the vial as Bran’s lips opened. Bran’s throat moved and he swallowed more and more with each passing second.

  Color—very faint—returned to his face. His eyes opened wider, unfocused at first, then locking onto Rayne’s face as if trying to decide whether what he saw was real.

  “...Rayne?” Bran whispered, voice cracked and hollow.

  Rayne exhaled shakily. “Yeah. It’s me. You’re safe. We got you out of the cocoon.”

  “Cocoon?” he muttered, then his eyes shifted to look at the others, pausing at Kesh and Nate before looking up at Jason and Shawn.

  Then he looked to the side at the other soldiers dragged out of their cocoons, and his face paled again. He didn’t speak for a few seconds as if remembering everything, then lowered his head.

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  “You killed the brood reaver?” he asked with a shaky voice.

  Shawn stepped forward. “Yes, we did. Only you survived. The other three died from thirst inside the cocoon. What happened in the dungeon?”

  Bran opened his mouth, but only a dry cough came out. He held his stomach while Kesh crouched next to him with a ration bar.

  “Eat something before speaking,” he said.

  The veteran took the bar from his hand and munched on it in small bites before John passed him a waterskin.

  Once he drank a few times and ate again, some light seemed to return to his eyes.

  Bran raised his head, scanning each of their faces again before speaking. “Did you find anyone else from the squad?”

  “We saw three corpses in another room,” Rayne replied. “But other than them, we haven’t found anyone else.”

  A pained expression flashed across Bran’s face. “So I’m guessing no one made it back to the camp.”

  “No,” Shawn replied and crouched. “It’s been over a week since Axel and his squad entered this dungeon with Mage Casper. But none of them returned. Commander Evans ordered me to find out what happened to your squad. I’m Shawn, a squad leader under Captain Clark Doloris. What happened to your squad?”

  Bran didn’t speak for a moment, taking another sip from the waterskin. Rayne felt it was too much information for him to process at once.

  Then he spoke slowly. “We were almost on our way to the end of the first level when we were ambushed. It happened a few hours into the dive. We dealt with a few swarms of rust bugs and dire earthworms, but didn’t enter any rooms. Axel wanted to map out the dungeon first.”

  “Ambushed by whom?” Rayne asked, raising an eyebrow.

  Bran coughed again, drinking more water before replying. “An apex dungeon monster.”

  “What?!” Shawn drew in a sharp breath. “You aren’t lying, right?”

  Bran shook his head. “I would never lie about that.”

  Shawn cursed while the atmosphere shifted. Rayne glanced at the rest of the men and all of them looked horrified. Only his own party looked confused, other than Jason, who was frowning at the mention of an apex monster.

  Rayne hadn’t seen any mention of that in the journal.

  “What’s an apex dungeon monster?” he asked Shawn.

  “The worst thing in these nightmarish places.” Shawn spat on the ground. “They’re the only type of monsters that can travel between different levels of a dungeon. You don’t want to face one, bastard. You’ll die in one hit.”

  “Yes, there are a lot of theories on why they exist, but they’re normally found in bigger dungeons,” Jason added. “They ambush anyone trying to clear the dungeon. No wonder none of the party made it back. Facing any apex monster means certain death unless you’re prepared.”

  “And we weren’t prepared,” Bran said. “It came out of nowhere and killed three soldiers in the blink of an eye. None of the scouts saw it as it swooped down from the ceiling. I remember Mage Casper, Hobbs, and Axel holding it back while a group of us ran. But most of them were left behind, too stunned by the apex monster. I led them, trying to get out of the dungeon.”

  “Then how did you get into the brood reaver room?” Nate raised an eyebrow.

  Bran frowned. “Halfway through the run, the apex monster caught up to us, probably thinking we were easier prey. We knew we wouldn’t be able to outrun it. It was damn too fast, and I told others to get into the rooms. Apex monsters can’t enter dungeon rooms. But instead of entering one room, we scattered in the rush, and me and a few others found ourselves fighting the brood reaver. There were seven of us.”

  He looked to the side at the three corpses they had pulled from the cocoons. Then lowered his head with a defeated sigh.

  The others were already eaten by the time they got here.

  Rayne had hardly ever seen Bran so depressed, and he wondered how terrifying the apex monster must be.

  “How did you survive? You should’ve been cocooned for days,” Shawn asked.

  Bran raised his head before taking out two vials from inside his dirtied, silk-covered robes. “I had these two potions with me. I drank one completely to heal some injuries and used the other as a food source for the next few days. I also had some peanuts with me. I always carry them. Unfortunately, I don’t think the others had anything on them. They were forsakens.”

  Rayne met Nate’s eyes hearing that. The man seemed to be thinking the same thing he was. Although Rayne had money to buy potions now, just two months ago he’d been in the same position as the corpses lying on the floor now.

  That thought was oddly humbling.

  He suddenly glanced at Shawn, who seemed to be contemplating something. One of his legs was tapping on the ground, and when their eyes met, he said something that made Rayne freeze.

  “We are done with this dungeon. We’re going back and reporting everything to Commander Evans, and he’ll probably send a group of mages to kill the apex monster and clear out the dungeon,” he said matter-of-factly, then looked down at Bran. “You did well surviving up to this point. We’ll carry you back and get you rest.”

  Rayne stiffened. “What?”

  Bran raised an eyebrow. “What about the others? They could still be alive.”

  Shawn ignored both of them, turning toward his own men. “We found one survivor. We confirmed what happened to the squad. Our job was to do exactly that, not commit suicide by heading deeper and fighting an apex monster.”

  Kesh sighed, speaking in a low voice. “You want us to leave the others?”

  “They’re dead,” Shawn snapped. “You might have never faced an apex monster, but they’re as strong as a dungeon boss. No one survived.”

  Rayne glared at him. “Bran survived.”

  “One,” Shawn retorted. “Out of how many? Fifteen? Twenty?” He jabbed a finger toward Bran, who watched everything with a strained face. “And he only survived because he ran blindly and got lucky that the reaver didn’t kill him right away and stored him as future food.”

  Jason frowned. “The others could have run and gotten into dungeon rooms like Bran. If we delay any longer, they might not survive with limited food.”

  Shawn ignored him. “Our task is done. We leave. Now.”

  Rayne’s heartbeat quickened as Shawn gestured to two of his men to pick up Bran. Rayne knew he couldn’t let this happen. If the apex monster had run after Bran and others, Axel might have gotten the rest to safety and could still be waiting for help.

  He glanced at the three corpses on the ground. If a rescue team had come a few days early, they might have survived.

  Hence, he stepped squarely into Shawn’s path, jaw clenched. “No. We can’t leave.”

  The soldiers behind Shawn stiffened, and the man turned with a cold glare, threatening him silently.

  “We are not leaving them,” Rayne continued. “Not until we at least check the whole first level. There could be survivors hiding, trapped, wounded—”

  “I’m not risking my men for ghosts,” Shawn barked. “You might be too stupid to understand, but I’m not losing my men for your sentimental bullshit.”

  Rayne’s fist tightened. “You’re a coward.”

  Shawn bristled, hand flying to his sword hilt. “Say that again, bastard. Say it.”

  Rayne didn’t blink. “You heard me.”

  The air immediately ignited with tension. Jason shifted his weight to the left while Kesh’s face paled. Nate looked between him and Shawn with a frown. And if Bran wasn’t in this condition, Rayne was sure he would have interjected by now.

  He kept his eyes on Shawn, whose hand was on the hilt. His eyes locked onto Rayne as if daring him to make a move.

  And Rayne wondered just that. If Shawn was going to attack?

  ***

  Note - Everything Rayne will do will have consequences, so just read the arc fully first.