The cold had gone from uncomfortable to unbearable.

Kai's fingers had gone numb beneath his makeshift gloves, his breath puffing in frantic clouds as he tried to stamp life back into his toes. Beside him, Bell was hunched, her arms wrapped tightly around her middle, eyes squinting against the wind that tore through the tundra like it had a vendetta. Despite the multiple layers they wore, the chill gnawed at them, merciless and deep.

Looking back and seeing the state of his wife and son, he made a decision. "We need to stop," Zane said at last, his voice low but firm.

They'd been moving for hours across the barren expanse. The tundra stretched endlessly in every direction—windswept plains, stunted bushes, half-frozen puddles, and occasional clusters of frostbitten wildlife. But none of it gave any sign of a dungeon boss.

Tarni and Lily paused a few paces ahead and looked back. Kai was shivering uncontrollably, his face pale beneath the windburn. Bell wasn't doing much better, her breath shallow and her movements sluggish.

Zane spotted a small rise in the landscape nearby, a low hill sparsely dotted with hardy bushes clinging to the rocky soil. "There," he pointed. "Let's get them out of the wind."

With numb fingers and a shared urgency, Bell and Kai tried to help as the rest scavenged what they could—branches, scrub, and a few dead limbs from the low brush. Lily got the Bag of Holding from Zane and found the flint-and-steel as well as some cotton balls that were packed in there with it. After carefully creating a small fire pit with the cotton balls at the bottom, she produced a spark that caught. Then, carefully added small kindling until the fire was ready for the bigger sticks. The rest of them built a windbreak. Tarni used a small waterproof tarp he'd stuffed in his pack, tying it between two bushes to make a crude lean-to. After seeing what Tarni had done, Zane decided to add to it by using a spare unstrung bow from the Bag of Holding to use as a tall pole to connect two more small tarps to, creating a three-walled wind break with the open side towards the hill. Lily kept building the fire—nothing that would draw attention, but enough to warm frozen limbs and keep spirits from sinking any lower.

Kai sighed as the first hints of heat reached his skin. "It's like… a toaster for my soul."

Bell gave a weak smile and pulled her coat tighter. "I thought I was done with cold after chemo," she muttered, more to herself than anyone else.

Zane crouched beside them, placing a hand on each of their shoulders. "Stay put. Stay warm. This isn't a retreat—it's a smart hold. We'll be back for you the moment we find the boss."

Kai nodded through chattering teeth. "Don't let us slow you down. Just... bring back something warm and dead, yeah?"

Tarni snorted. "Dead, I can do. Warm might cost extra."

Lily stepped forward, pressing a small pouch into Bell's hands. "Extra jerky and chocolate bars. Bell tried pushing the pouch back towards Lily. Lilly stepped back. "Use it, you have to. The Fire will help, but you need to keep up your calories."

Bell nodded, eyes meeting Lily's with a quiet gratitude.

Then, just like that, the trio turned and headed back into the tundra, leaving the flickering firelight behind as they disappeared into the windswept expanse.

Kai and Bell sat close, their shoulders touching, watching their breath curl up into the cold blue sky.

"Well," Kai said after a long pause. "Guess it's our job to hold the hill."

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Bell leaned her head back against one of the tarps and let out a slow breath. "Then let's hold it well."

The wind felt stronger the moment they stepped away from the shelter.

Without Kai and Bell to worry about, Zane, Tarni, and Lily moved faster, but the tundra gave nothing away. Just more open ground. More wind. More silence. Each crunch of their boots on the frozen soil sounded like a warning in the vast emptiness.

"Feels like we're walking on the roof of the world," Lily said, pulling her scarf tighter around her face. "But the world's mad at us."

"Cheer up, apparently it's summer," Tarni muttered. "And at least it's not raining."

Zane gave a short laugh. "Mate, don't tempt it."

They kept moving. The terrain gradually began to change—less flat, more broken. Small ridges rose like the spines of a buried beast, and the brush grew sparser, clawing at their legs as they climbed.

Then Lily raised a hand, stopping them in their tracks.

"There," she whispered, squinting across the frost-covered landscape. "Movement. Left side of the ridge."

Zane followed her gaze. At first, he saw nothing. Then—a flicker of motion. A large silhouette moved behind a thin line of boulders, lumbering slowly but purposefully.

"System, Rapid Appraisal," Lily whispered.

A blue shimmer flicked across her eyes. Then her brows furrowed.

"Musk ox," she said.

They stared at each other.

"Wait, it's not a dungeon mob?" Zane asked, frowning.

The excitement faded from Tarni's face "Dam it's just a big, smelly lawnmower."

They kept moving; the terrain ahead was beginning to twist again. A narrow gulley curved off between two frozen hills, shadowed and sharp-edged. It was the first natural cover they'd seen in hours.

Lily glanced back once toward the distant glow of the fire, just barely visible from their elevation. "You think they will be alright?"

"They'll be fine," Zane said, not stopping. "Kai's got sense. Bell's got grit. We've got a boss to kill."

They stepped into the shadows of the gulley, blades drawn and eyes sharp.

A lemming hiding amongst some loose shale watched the three of them in silence.

The wind outside their makeshift shelter howled like distant wolves, low and mournful, swirling through the bushes on the hilltop. But inside, the world felt smaller, warmer. The fire crackled softly in front of them, its flickering light casting long shadows across their huddled forms.

Kai scooted a little closer to the flames and rubbed his hands together. "Still cold," he muttered, "but it feels like my core's not gonna freeze solid anymore."

Bell cracked an eye open and smiled faintly. "Good. Means we're doing something right."

They'd followed all the basic survival tricks—found cover from the wind, stayed dry, built a small fire, and kept close. It wasn't glamorous, but it was working. The sharp ache in their bones had eased, and their fingers weren't stiff and useless anymore.

Kai looked into the flames, thinking. "I reckon the fire might be removing the System debuff."

Bell shifted slightly, the warmth from the fire doing more than just keeping her fingers flexible—it was soothing her thoughts too. "It wouldn't surprise me," she said.

"True," Kai nodded. "I just wish we had seen it coming, I mean, Floor One was a forest."

They sat in silence for a moment, watching the fire burn.

"Do you think they're alright?" Bell finally asked, not looking away from the flames.

Kai glanced at her, then between the small gaps of their makeshift shelter out toward the shadows of the ridge. "Zane's got a bloody Terminator constitution stat, Tarni's as quick as a Ninja, and Lily... well, I wouldn't bet against her in a fistfight."

Bell let out a small laugh. "Yeah. I just hate being the ones left behind."

Kai nodded, then frowned. "We're not out of this yet, though. If something finds us—"

"Then we hold the line," Bell said firmly, echoing her earlier words. She reached over and gently tapped the spear gun resting next to her leg. "And we don't miss."

Kai grinned. "Remind me again how you're better with that than the rest of us combined?"

"I'm a mum," Bell said, eyes twinkling. "I've had practice keeping things in line."

The fire popped, sending a few sparks dancing up into the smoke hole they'd left in the tarp. For a moment, the wind outside seemed to pause—just long enough for them to hear something.

Crunch.

A single footstep in the snow beyond the brush.

They froze for half a second, then Bell's hand found the spear gun. Kai slid closer to the opening of the shelter, peering out carefully.

Another crunch. Closer.

Bell's voice dropped to a whisper. "System... activate Basic Powered Shot."

The faint blue glow shimmered into existence across the loaded spear. The firelight caught it just enough to illuminate the sharp edge of her determination.

Kai drew his machete, heart thudding. "If it's a dungeon mob—"

"Then we remind it," Bell said, calm and deadly, "why it should've stayed away from us."

The wind picked up again. The footsteps stopped.

They waited as the fire kept burning.

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