The moment stretched, taut as a drawn bowstring. Below, the colossal Blight Nexus pulsed, its sickly light reflecting in their wide eyes. The drone creature that had turned towards them remained unnervingly still, its multi-faceted eyes seeming to bore into their hiding place. It knew.

  "We can't wait," Edmund whispered, his voice tight. "It knows we're here. Whatever we do, we do it now."

  Borin nodded grimly, hefting his pickaxe. "The anchors. Disrupt the geothermal feed."

  Isolde took a shaky breath, the psychic pressure from the Nexus a physical weight against her skull. "The energy flow… it feels… expectant."

  "Lyraen, with me," Edmund decided quickly. "We draw the drones, create an opening for Borin. Isolde, stay back, support where you can, target the main energy conduits if you see a chance, but conserve." The last word was emphasized, a plea as much as an order.

  She nodded stiffly, gripping her rowan staff. The faint thrum of the deflection ward Borin had given her earlier, tucked beneath her tunic, offered meager comfort against the overwhelming presence across the cavern.

  With a final exchange of grim looks, they moved. Edmund and Lyraen slipped from the tunnel mouth, angling towards the left side of the cavern, deliberately making just enough noise to draw attention away from the right flank where Borin began his stealthy approach towards the nearest massive anchor tendon pulsing with corrupted energy. Isolde remained near the tunnel entrance, scanning the nexus, trying to shield her mind from the overwhelming psychic static.

  They hadn't taken ten steps before the cavern itself seemed to react. The low thrumming intensified into a gut-wrenching groan. With horrifying speed, thick, fleshy tendrils of Blight-fungus erupted from cracks in the cavern floor, grasping, blocking paths. Corrosive slime jetted from pulsating sacs on the walls, forcing Edmund and Lyraen to leap back, the rock sizzling where the slime hit.

  "Cave-in!" Borin roared, scrambling away as the ceiling above the tunnel mouth where Isolde stood shuddered violently. Rocks rained down, sealing their only obvious retreat route.

  Then, the drones—the Blighted creatures crawling on the Nexus—detached themselves, dropping to the cavern floor with wet thuds. More emerged, shambling or skittering from alcoves and fissures Edmund hadn't even noticed, their movements jerky but unnervingly coordinated. They didn't just swarm; they moved in distinct groups, cutting off angles, using the newly erupted fungal growths as cover.

  "Edmund, behind you!" Isolde cried, launching a small bolt of green energy that momentarily staggered a crab-like Blighted horror emerging from a fissure near his flank.

  "Borin, path's blocked!" Edmund yelled back, parrying a blow from a drone that wielded a shard of sharpened rock like a crude blade. He saw Borin trapped near the cavern wall by a sudden eruption of thick, grasping Blight-roots.

  Chaos engulfed them. The air filled with shrieks, the clang of steel on blighted chitin, the sizzle of corrosive slime, and the maddening, psychic thrum of the Nexus. It wasn't random; it was a calculated, multi-pronged assault designed to separate and overwhelm. This was a trap, sprung with cold, alien intelligence.

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  Amidst the chaos, a horrifying pattern emerged. While Edmund and Lyraen battled swarms near the cavern's edge, forcing them further from their companions, a different kind of assault focused on Borin and Isolde.

  Borin, trying desperately to hack through the Blight-roots trapping him, found himself facing two heavily mutated Duergar husks. Their skin was like grey, cracked stone, seemingly resistant to physical blows, and they swung corrupted mining tools with devastating force, countering Borin’s attempts to use his knowledge of Duergar fighting styles against them. They weren't trying to kill him quickly; they were pinning him, disabling him, their movements focused on breaking his tools and limbs.

  "Stone take you!" Borin roared, blocking a hammer blow that cracked the stone beside his head. "Filthy mockery!"

  Simultaneously, near the now-blocked tunnel entrance, Isolde faced a different horror. Three figures, seemingly formed from coalesced shadow and Blight-spores, drifted towards her. They didn't attack physically, but as they drew closer, the psychic pressure intensified exponentially. Waves of cold static washed over her, disrupting her thoughts, making her senses reel. She felt them pulling at the taint within her arm, drawing on her connection to the Living Essence, trying to overload her senses or perhaps even turn her own corrupted magic against her.

  "Isolde!" Edmund yelled, seeing her stumble, her face contorted in pain. He tried to push towards her, but three drones intercepted him, attacking with reckless coordination, forcing him back.

  Lyraen, moving with Aelfen grace, dispatched several skittering horrors with precise arrow shots, then chanted words of power, causing thorny vines to erupt from the floor, momentarily entangling the shadow-creatures advancing on Isolde. But more drones immediately swarmed the Aelfen, forcing them onto the defensive, arrows flying, staff whirling in a desperate defense.

  "Borin, they're ignoring me, coming for you!" Edmund shouted, seeing the Duergar knocked back against the wall by a coordinated blow from the mutated husks.

  "Isolde, it senses your magic!" Lyraen called out, their voice strained as they parried a clawed strike.

  Isolde gasped, clutching her head, the psychic assault relentless. She felt the Blight Mind's cold focus directly upon her, a tangible weight trying to crush her will, aggravating the burning pain in her arm until she could barely stand.

  The targeted pressure was too much. With a strangled cry, Borin’s war pick was knocked from his grasp, skittering across the cavern floor. One of the mutated Duergar pinned him against the wall, its dead eyes fixed on him, raising a corrupted hammer for a final blow.

  Isolde, weakened by the psychic assault, faltered. The shadow-creatures pressed closer, their draining presence making her vision swim, the lines on her arm blazing beneath her glove. She managed one weak defensive pulse of energy, barely pushing them back a foot, before collapsing against the rock debris blocking the tunnel, cornered and vulnerable.

  "I can't reach you!" Edmund yelled in frustration, still bogged down fighting multiple drones near the cavern's center.

  Lyraen, seeing Borin about to fall and Isolde overwhelmed, made a desperate choice. They unleashed a powerful wave of natural energy, forcing back the drones surrounding them but leaving the Warden momentarily exposed.

  The Blight Mind, sensing the shift, reacted instantly. Several of the fastest skittering creatures abandoned Edmund and surged towards the momentarily vulnerable Lyraen.

  "Borin is down!" Edmund shouted, seeing the Duergar finally fall under the mutated husks' relentless assault.

  The situation was dire. Borin was down, likely injured. Isolde was cornered, barely conscious, under direct psychic attack. Lyraen was drawing heavy fire. Edmund himself was still fighting for his life, unable to reach any of them.

  The Blight Mind's trap had sprung perfectly. Fragmented, overwhelmed, and facing an enemy that understood their weaknesses, the companions were on the verge of annihilation. The cold, calculating intelligence of the Nexus pulsed in triumph, its victory seemingly assured.