Chapter 2 – First Binding
Kael dodged to the side, hitting the floor with his shoulder, then his hip. The Scourge's claws scraped against the metal pole he had been standing by, leaving deep gouges in the steel. The sharp, high-pitched sound echoed through the train, metal scraping against keratin.
He rolled over, causing his bag to tangle around his arm. He quickly pulled it free and dropped into a crouch, his breath rapid. The creature turned to follow him, its hind legs flexing.
"Hey!" The teenager was back on his feet. Blood soaked through his jeans, but the golden armor still covered his chest. He slammed his fist into the side of a seat. The metal frame was dented.
"Over here!"
The Scourge's head snapped toward the sound. Kael quickly realized what the kid had done, elicited aggression and opened an opportunity. Clever.
His phone buzzed.
ALTERNATIVE BINDING VECTOR DETECTED.
SAPIENT ENTITY WITHIN RANGE: SUBJECT #847 (BLADEWARD CLASS)
OATHBINDER SKILL: PACT FRAMEWORK
EFFECT: ESTABLISH MUTUAL OBLIGATION BETWEEN SAPIENT ENTITIES. ENFORCE TERMS THROUGH SHARED SYSTEM ACCESS.
His pulse pounded in his chest. The System wanted him to bind the teenager, creating a pact of mutual obligation. He glanced at the kid, sixteen, bleeding, with armor flickering as the Guard Stance drained its energy. Then he looked at the Scourge, circling, ready for another attack. Finally, his gaze settled on the crowd at the far end, silent and frozen.
The framework clicked into place in his head. One combatant couldn't hold this alone. The armor would fail. The kid would die. Then the creature would tear through everyone else. But two people working together, one fighting, one directing, changed the probability curve.
Kael stood up.
"Listen to me," he said. The teen looked at him, keeping his hands raised with clenched fists.
"I can help you kill it," Kael continued. "But you have to agree to follow my instructions. Exactly. No hesitation."
"What?"
"My class lets me create binding agreements. I give you tactical support. You do what I say. We both survive."
The Scourge lunged at the kid. He dodged left, barely. Claws raked the seat where he'd been standing. Foam exploded into the air.
"How do I know you're not—"
"You don't. But your armor's fading, and that thing's faster than you." Kael kept his voice level. "Decide now."
The teenager's jaw clenched. His eyes flicked to the creature, then back to Kael. "Fine. Yes. Whatever."
Kael's phone flared white.
PACT ESTABLISHED.
PARTICIPANT A: KAEL DREN (OATHBINDER)
PARTICIPANT B: MARCUS LYLE (BLADEWARD)
TERMS: TACTICAL DIRECTION IN EXCHANGE FOR COMBAT EXECUTION. DURATION: UNTIL IMMEDIATE THREAT NEUTRALIZED.
ENFORCEMENT: ACTIVE.
Heat rushed through Kael's chest as a realization clicked. Something solidified between him and the kid — Marcus. The name surfaced vividly in his mind. He understood it now: the kid's class, his active skills, and his health status.
A new interface overlaid his vision. Translucent gold text hovering at the edge of his sight.
MARCUS LYLE: HP 73/100. STAMINA 41/80. GUARD STANCE: 12 SECONDS REMAINING.
Twelve seconds. Then the armor would drop.
"When I say move, you go right," Kael instructed. "Take three steps, then turn and strike the left flank with Power Strike." Marcus didn't hesitate. The Scourge charged as Kael observed its gait and how its weight shifted before each lunge.
"Now."
Marcus broke right. Three steps, exactly. The creature overshot, claws skidding on the linoleum. Marcus spun and drove his glowing fist into the Scourge's ribcage. The impact cracked its bone. The creature shrieked, a sound that scraped the inside of Kael's skull. It twisted mid-air and landed hard, purple blood spraying across the floor.
MARCUS LYLE: STAMINA 28/80.
The numbers dropped fast. Power Strike costs more than Guard Stance. Kael's mind calculated the equation: stamina pool versus damage output versus time until the creature adapted.
"Back up. Five steps. Don't let it corner you."
Marcus moved. The Scourge recovered and circled. Its movements changed. More cautious now. It had learned the kid could hurt it.
Kael's phone buzzed.
STRATEGIC SUPPORT ACTIVE. ANALYZING ENEMY PATTERN.
PREDICTION: ENTITY WILL ATTEMPT FEINT ATTACK WITHIN 8 SECONDS.
Eight seconds. Kael's eyes tracked the creature's posture. Its tail lashed left, but its weight leaned right.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
"It's going to fake left and go right," he said. "When it moves, drop low and strike upward. Aim for the jaw."
Marcus nodded, sweat streaming down his face. The golden armor shimmered as there were five seconds remaining on Guard Stance.
The Scourge feinted left but Marcus held his position. The creature whipped right, exactly as Kael predicted. Marcus dropped into a crouch and swung upward, putting his whole body into the punch. His fist connected with the underside of the Scourge's jaw. The creature's head snapped back. Teeth shattered. Purple blood and fragments of bone sprayed across the ceiling.
The Scourge hit the ground and didn't move.
THREAT NEUTRALIZED.
COMBAT ANALYSIS: EFFICIENCY RATING 71%. STAMINA EXPENDITURE OPTIMAL.
Marcus staggered. His armor vanished. He dropped to one knee, breathing hard. Blood still seeped from the claw marks on his thigh.
Kael moved to him. "You're injured."
"I'm fine."
"You're bleeding. Sit down."
The crying woman stepped forward. Her hands trembled as she retrieved a scarf from her purse. "I can— I can wrap it to stop the bleeding."
Marcus let her. Kael stepped back and looked at the breach. The blue light still poured through. His phone displayed a new text.
DUNGEON ENTRANCE REMAINS ACTIVE. ADDITIONAL ENTITIES PROBABLE.
RECOMMENDATION: EVACUATION OR FORTIFICATION.
Kael scanned the train car. Twenty-two people. One injured combatant. No clear exit except through the breach or back through a locked emergency door.
His survival projection updated.
CURRENT SURVIVAL RATE: 24.7%
Better but still terrible.
The man in the business suit approached. "That thing you did. The pact. Can you do that with others?"
Kael looked at him. "Depends. What's your class?"
"Merchant. Trade something called 'Resource Optimization.'"
"Combat capability?"
"None."
Kael's mind turned. Merchant class. Resource management. He filed it. "Not useful right now. But later, maybe."
"Later?" The man's voice pitched higher. "We need to get out of here now."
"Where? The tunnel? That breach?" Kael pointed at the glowing hole. "We don't know what's on the other side."
"So, we just sit here?"
Kael's phone buzzed before he could answer.
SECONDARY BREACH DETECTED. SECTOR 7-ATLANTA EXPANSION IN PROGRESS.
ADDITIONAL DUNGEON ENTRANCE: 300 METERS NORTH.
His stomach clenched with unease. Two breaches, just three hundred meters apart. If this pattern continued, others would likely occur. "We're in a spawning zone," he said quietly.
Marcus looked up from where the woman was tying the scarf around his leg. "A what?"
Kael's mind mapped out the metro tunnels, station spacing, and population density above ground as he noted, "The System's turning this section of tunnel into dungeon territory with multiple entry points and sustained entity deployment." He understood that "this isn't an isolated incident."
"You mean this is happening everywhere?" the woman asked.
Kael met her eyes. "Yes."
Beyond the still-warm corpse of the Tunnel Scourge, the breach continued its steady pulse of blue light. It cast long shadows across the train, animating the frozen fear on the passengers' faces like a silent-film projection from some alien world.
Kael's mind didn't rest. The awareness of the secondary breach just 300 meters north gnawed at him, demanding action where hesitation pooled. They had no reliable escape route, and potentially more creatures lurking just beyond this initial horde.
"This ain't working," Marcus groaned, pulling himself up with the pole's help. His thigh glistened with a fresh bandage, courtesy of the woman, which would hold but not for long if more came.
"We need a decision," the man in the suit insisted, pulling at his collar. Sweat dampened the fabric despite the chilly air from the breach.
Kael turned to Marcus. "Would your class give you any extrasensory perception?"
Marcus pressed his lips together. "Not listed. I would know if it did." He rubbed his temple beneath the golden armor’s vanished remnants. "But I feel like I can predict sometimes, you know?"
Kael nodded. "Stay focused on that feeling. We need the edge."
The woman who'd aided Marcus approached Kael hesitantly. "What should we do? You seem to have a plan."
Kael surveyed them; their fear was like static, present in every twitch and murmur, but not insurmountable. "We fortify ourselves here. Hold our ground if more come. But we can't fortify like this. These lights, the open breach, the unknown beyond. It's a no-win scenario."
"Then what's your angle?" the suit asked, skepticism soaked in cynicism.
Kael ignored the man's tone. "I want to use Marcus’s abilities with mine. The System… the System is a framework, and frameworks respond to manipulations, deliberate actions. Marcus, you spearhead anything that charges. I’ll strategize and manipulate the equilibrium." Kael's gaze moved over the petite young girl clutching a pink backpack, who huddled with her mother, eyes wide. "Each of you, be ready. Actions have weight."
He pulled back and stepped cautiously close to the nearest window, peering at ground level through the gap beneath the torn roof. The darkness outside vibrated with potential movement, shadows flickering against the breach light.
"So," Marcus pushed off his brace against the pole and tested his balance, grimacing as weight bore upon the wound. "What now?"
“We create a defensive strategy," Kael said. He looked to his phone, no new alerts, just that cold rank, ~8,200,000, mocking him silently. "I need to explore more Oathbinder options, perhaps forge a pact with anyone whose actions alter probabilities.” He gestured with his phone. "You're my vantage point on combat. Others can provide resources or information."
A clatter rang from the breach, more metal shifting, more entities possibly shifting into their realm. Fear tried to crawl up his spine, but his mind resisted letting it peak.
The man in the suit furrowed his brow more deeply but didn't give in. His words were hard and reluctant, like stones grinding between teeth. Kael believed he could be more persuasive once they discovered a clear strategic voice amid the chaos.
The door at the far end of the train loomed, as did the woman, visibly steeling herself. "So... it's fighting or fortifying?"
"Essentially," Kael said, looking back toward Marcus. "And if we're attacked again and can't manage defender roles, we double back on what works and try reinforcement." If panic thickened around them, it would crush them faster than any Tunnel Scourge.
"Alright." Marcus squared his shoulders, fallacies of age past set firm in the lines of his brow. "I'm game, only because I want to live." Marcus' words appeared to be a contagious influence, weaving into Kael's strategic framework, either as sources of power or as potential protectors.
"Then, let's get ready," Kael instructed. "Clear this train, and secure rear positions. We've seconds, perhaps minutes, until reinforcements breach. Then it's adaptation, war tactics, rhythm, and movement. This is our dojo." His tongue felt wrought iron as he laid out the map of action steps.
They began, hushed with steps and movements. The hulk of the creature cooled into decay, its pupil-less eyes now dried, disc-like, watching them silently in judgment.
The train carriage, once a space of perpetual forward motion, stood as an island of variables pressed amidst encroaching uncertainties. Even the air hung poised, wrapped in paradoxes, present and future unrealized, woven into possibility by their next decisive action.
Guarded, they embedded readiness into their posture and positioning; resolve grew stronger into resilience.
