Chapter 183: Cat and Mouse
By then, Kael was left with so little mana that if he even tried to form a wind blade, he would be knocked unconscious almost instantly. So, he had no choice but to rely on his natural speed alone.
The only problem was that he was far too slow compared to the creature, so, it would probably catch up to him in a matter of seconds or perhaps even sooner. If it did, there would be no way out of it, since he had no means to increase his speed or widen the distance between them. That was why, he was going to place his trust in Aerisyl's speed instead.
Ignoring the pain coursing through his muscles, he pushed his legs beyond their limits and kept running toward the entrance leading up to the second floor itself.
After a while, he felt a bad premonition.
He glanced to the side and saw one of its paws sweeping toward him. Judging by the trajectory, he would still be able to dodge it, if he reacted immediately.
He was about to do just that when his foot caught on something lying across the ground, causing him to lose his balance at the worst possible moment.
The incoming blow slammed into his waist with such overwhelming force that it felt as though one or two bones had shattered on the spot. His body was sent flying sideways before crashing heavily against the ground several meters away.
'Fuck it!'
He rolled helplessly across the rough stone before finally coming to a stop in a barely sitting position.
As blood spilled from his mouth, he forced his weight onto his knees before struggling to push himself back to his feet.
The moment he tried to take another step, however, his body swayed slightly, while an unbearable pain bloomed from his waist and spread through his lower body, making it difficult for his thighs to move at all.
'No! I... I can't stop! Not yet!'
Even so, he forced himself to keep running as fast as his broken body would let him.
Behind him, the creature lunged once more, each of its heavy steps powerful enough to make the entire floor tremble beneath them, then however, the sound of its footsteps vanished into thin air.
Kael didn't even try to look back this time to find out why, instead he kept searching the ground ahead for another crater.
'I can't afford to slow down now... not when doing so would be the...'
Then however, he came to an abrupt halt.
A massive shadow loomed over him, making his eyes widen instinctively.
Was he imagining things, or had the very beast he had been trying so desperately to lure away somehow appeared right in front of him while blocking the path ahead?
As it turned out, if he wanted to go any farther, he would have to make his way through it first.
'Tsk... can't even run peacefully these days.'
The wolf-like beast stared down at him with dark malice for a long moment before opening its maw, revealing rows of razor-sharp teeth along with those gruesome ripped tongues writhing inside its mouth.
Drops of sweat trickled down his skin.
'Here we go again.'
To his surprise, however, the creature didn't surge toward him anymore, neither did it attempt to clamp its jaws around him. Instead, a brilliant glow gradually gathered deep inside its mouth before condensing into the shape of a massive fireball.
'It possesses a natural affinity?'
Just when it was about to release it at him, however, the fireball abruptly wavered before dissipating on its own, vanishing into thin air as though it had never existed.
Kael was dumbfounded for a moment.
Huh?
His expression turned blank.
'Did it just fail to use its abilities? Or was that merely a fluke to scare me off?'
As he was deciding his next course of action, the creature gathered raging flames inside its mouth once again as though refusing to accept its earlier failure. The sphere continued to swell little by little until it reached a terrifying size that radiated a distinct heat even from a distance.
Unlike the previous attempt, however, the creature didn't fumble this time, releasing the fireball the moment it had fully condensed.
It tore through the air straight toward Kael, intending to engulf him completely, or rather burn him into nothing but ash where not even a trace of him would be left behind.
'Crap!'
It seemed the beast had no intention of eating him anymore, so, there was no reason for it to leave him unharmed either.
So, it had decided to burn him alive!
'Are you taking revenge because I sliced those filthy tongues of yours?'
He didn't regret doing that one bit, though. If anything, he felt completely satisfied.
The bastard truly deserved it... how dared it even think of dragging its disgusting tongue across his wife's beautiful face?
Taking a soft breath, he threw himself to the side and barely avoided being burned alive on the spot. However, the sphere of flames crashed into the place where he had been standing only a moment earlier before erupting outward, the violent explosion hurling him high into the air.
Soon enough, he crashed awkwardly into the nearby wall before sliding down its surface and falling heavily onto the ground.
After sitting up, he looked around for the monster, however, his gaze was drawn toward the place where the fireball had struck instead. Nothing remained there except a massive crater, surrounding stones had been blackened by the intense heat, thin trails of smoke continuing to rise from their scorched surfaces.
Just as he was about to stand up, however, a sharp pain pierced through his legs out of nowhere, making him unable to move.
'Ah!'
Looking down, he noticed the tip of something sharp protruding straight through his left thigh from the ground.
'When did...'
Before he could even process what had happened, the creature's paw slammed into the side of his chest, breaking his ribs apart and throwing him away like a ragdoll.
'...that happen?'
His body crashed headfirst into the floor some distance away, the impact almost snapped his neck before his body rolled across the rough floor several times, finally coming to a halt on his back.
His vision spun violently as pain spread throughout his battered body, but before he could even gather enough strength to catch his breath, the beast was upon him. Its clawed feet stomped down on his sprawled legs one after another, crushing the bones supporting them and making sure that he would never be able to resist or evade its attacks anymore.
'I can't be a... bother to them.'
He was about to let out a terrifying scream, but he clenched his fist so tightly that his nails dug into his palm while biting down on his own lips until blood dripped from them, swallowing every bit of the unbearable pain instead. Even then, drops of tears slid down from the corners of his gray eyes.
Unable to move his legs anymore, he turned his head to the side.
There, inside the circle, Aerisyl was sitting in the middle of it, staring at his battered body with a hint of hopelessness lingering within her emerald eyes. She was holding Valentina's hand with one hand while gently touching Seraphina's face with the other.
As an incandescent glow surrounded them, her lips parted as though she was saying something, but not a word ever reached his ears since he was simply too far away.
In the next moment, the three of them disappeared into countless sparks of light.
'Finally, they left...'
Only then did Kael return his attention toward the creature, which had pulled its paw away from his shattered legs. Without even turning around, it somehow realized that some of the humans had disappeared.
But it was already too late.
'Still, its senses are no ordinary joke.'
The beast stared at him with malicious bloodlust burning in the depths of its eyes.
In response, Kael forced out a crooked smile on his bloodied face and said, "Are you angry? Oh, you better be... if it weren't for your special preference for fresh food, none of us would've made it out, after all. That's why you shouldn't be so picky about what you eat, instead you should quietly swallow whatever is given to you without any complaints. I hope this failure teaches you a valuable lesson, or else you'll keep losing your feast like this... until one day, the only thing left for you to eat will be dirt."
Of course, there was no point in saying those words to a mindless beast that wouldn't understand a single meaning behind them, but he had nothing else left to do at the moment. But to his surprise, the creature seemed to be listening rather attentively, or perhaps it was simply deciding what to do with him next.
Whatever the reason, the time it spent standing there was still enough, so Kael pressed his palm against the ground and tried to lift his upper body.
At that moment, something thick pierced straight through his back before bursting out through his abdomen, lifting him high into the air while leaving his body skewered upon it in a mere second.
"Arghhh!"
This time, he had no intention of suppressing his pain anymore.
As blood filled his mouth, he looked down from above and noticed the creature raising its head while opening its mouth wider and wider until it could reach the height where he was hanging.
'It's listening to my advice... color me surprised.'
However, there was nothing he could do to stop it.
His body had gone completely numb, his muscles refused to respond no matter how hard he tried. The only thing he could still feel was the unbearable pain coursing throughout his body.
In the next moment, whatever had skewered him vanished into thin air, letting his body fall straight toward its gaping mouth.
As the wind whistled past his ears, he closed his tired eyes and let out a quiet sigh.
'Perhaps... that's... all I can do.'
What a joke of an assassin he was!
'If only...'
Just as its mouth snapped shut around him and its torn tongues lashed out to wrap around his neck, someone snatched him straight out of its jaws at the last second.
Holding Kael over his shoulder, Valric landed on the ground nearby, sliding forward a short distance before turning around in one swift motion. The soles of his boots carved several scratches across the ground.
Its jaws snapped shut on empty air with the harsh sound of grinding teeth, its burning eyes shifting to the side.
Without wasting even a moment, Valric adjusted his footing and dashed toward the teleportation circle with everything he had.
After failing to devour its prey, the creature twisted its massive body around and charged after them as well.
At first, there was still a considerable amount of distance separating them, but the creature's massive body soon became an advantage during this desperate chase of cat and mouse, allowing it to cover far more ground with each stride and close the gap little by little until it almost caught them several times already.
Even so, Valric somehow managed to keep pulling away each time by relying on nothing but his own speed, though that was only possible because this creature was far slower than the other one. If that had not been the case, both of them would've already died the moment it arrived.
Realizing it would not catch them that way, the creature raised countless thick spikes tipped with razor-sharp points from the ground ahead of them, blocking the path like a deadly maze.
Although there was no way to predict when or where those spikes would emerge, Valric neither slowed down nor hesitated for even a moment, only avoiding those he could while letting the rest tear through his greaves, pierce his armor, or sink straight into his flesh, yet none of them managed to stop him.
When even that failed, several blazing fireballs were launched toward them in rapid succession.
Since Kael was hanging over the leader's shoulder, he noticed the surrounding light changing every time flames gathered inside the creature's mouth, giving him the chance to warn the leader at the last moment. Working together, they managed to evade the first few by changing direction in wide curls.
The last one, however, came from an unexpected angle, striking the ground directly behind them and sending both men tumbling across the ground.
Even then, Valric never loosened his grip on Kael, causing both of them to roll across the floor together before he forced himself back onto his feet in one swift motion.
He did not allow himself even a second to recover before breaking into another sprint, pushing every last bit of strength left within his body as though his whole life depended on reaching that destination.
As time passed though, his breathing became ragged, his lungs cried out for air, his legs begged him to stop, but there was no time left to listen to any of it.
The teleportation circle was right before him now, no more than two or three metres away, so he could not let himself falter at the very end.
All he had to do was reach it now.
Unfortunately, the creature also caught up to them after leaping forward, its enormous body soaring through the air as its wide-open mouth lunged toward both of them.
Just before it could swallow them whole, however, Valric took the greatest risk yet and poured every last shred of strength remaining in his body into his legs.
In the next moment, he tightened his grip around Kael and threw himself forward, slipping straight out of its jaws once again.
The creature, however, did not close its mouth this time, almost as though it had expected him to do exactly that. Instead, it thrust its body forward in the same instant with its jaws spread wide. Although it could not match the man's burst of speed, the distance between them had become so short that it managed to catch up to their suspended figures before either of them could step into the teleportation circle.
Its mouth filled with countless razor-sharp teeth snapped shut around Valric's legs, the fangs sinking deep into them, shredding his armor apart and slicing both of his legs clean away from the rest of his body.
Because of the momentum from that final leap, Kael's upper body, which had rested over Valric's shoulder until then, was thrown farther ahead than him, forcing him to witness everything with his own eyes.
His expression was filled with horror.
'H-he knew... he knew it.'
The two of them crashed into the teleportation circle together, while Valric's body fell over him, though the man still managed to support himself with both hands instead of collapsing completely.
From where he lay, Kael could clearly see Valric's face. It had turned so pale that he looked no different from a corpse, drops of blood trickled from the corners of his nearly blood-red eyes, swollen veins bulged beneath them like tangled roots. An expression filled with overwhelming exhaustion was written all over his face.
Kael sat frozen like a statue for a second.
Just how much strain had he put on his body to end up looking like a corpse?
He narrowed his eyes, only to find blood flowing out at an alarming rate from the severed stumps of Valric's legs and soaking the ground beneath him in crimson.
He was speechless for a moment.
Valric was wounded... gravely wounded.
Despite being one of the most astounding healers out there, however, Kael couldn't do anything to ease the man's pain, only because he didn't have any mana left.
At that moment, a hoarse voice resounded in his mind, snapping him back to reality.
"Hurry!"
Without wasting a moment, Kael reached out and touched Valric's hair while picturing the first floor in his mind, preparing to activate the teleportation circle.
However, it was already too late.
The creature opened its enormous mouth, lowering its head over the two motionless men as its jaws descended around them, its maw large enough to swallow both of their bodies in a single bite.
Kael's pupils shrank violently.
'No, no, no... Why now? Why? We were so close.'
It came closer and closer, bringing a giant shadow over them, but there was still no sign of the sigils of the circle glowing yet. That meant their travel through the floor hadn't begun yet, or perhaps it had failed because of a sudden interruption.
Was it because someone was still outside the circle?
As it turned out, even though Valric had managed to drag him over, his torn legs were still sprawled outside the edge of the circle, if only by a few inches. Although, if Kael withdrew his hand from him now, he would still be able to escape on his own.
'No, not like this. I don't want it to end like this. What's the point of struggling this whole time if we are just going to die here?'
Fuck!
In the next moment, those monstrous fangs tore through their flesh and crushed their bones in a single bite, or at least that was what Kael instinctively braced himself for.
However, nothing happened.
Much to his surprise, the creature had frozen in place like a statue carved out of stone, its body remaining motionless, not even the slightest twitch passing through it.
A moment later, a cold wind swept across the hall, making his skin crawl while the light throughout the dungeon flickered violently all of a sudden.
The wind was so unnaturally sharp that it grazed across his face, leaving behind faint cuts that stung against his skin.
Kael felt a strange presence surrounding him, one so overwhelming that it made every instinct in his body scream in warning, making him lift his head unconsciously to search for its source.
However, the moment his eyes found it, a cold shiver ran down his spine. At that moment, if he had been standing, perhaps he would have staggered back by then.
There, some distance away and high above the creature, hovered something wrapped in darkness, or perhaps everything around it had been swallowed by darkness because of its presence. A deep purple aura bloomed around it like the petals of an enormous flower, some whiplashing through the air.
Not a single part of its body was visible, making it impossible for Kael to determine what kind of being it was supposed to be, but one thing stood out clearly. Near one side of the darkness floated an enormous eye, or perhaps an eye-shaped purple light that resembled a wide net woven from strands of purple spidersilk that constantly shifted. It blinked in and out of reality without any pattern, as though it existed and vanished at the same time.
It was at least the size of his arm, with a vertical slit and a dark pupil that shifted at its centre, staring down at everything below with merciless indifference.
'W-what in the world... is this thing? A creature? A spell?'
Every one of Kael's senses begged him to look away, so he tore his gaze from it without another thought.
He had no idea where it had come from, nor what kind of existence he had just witnessed, but one thing was certain. It was not something that could be taken lightly, especially when the monster standing before them had been petrified by nothing more than its presence.
'Well, why should I care? Whatever its purpose is, it doesn't seem to have anything to do with us. If anything, it just saved our lives. Maybe I should at least show some courtesy as a form of gratitude.'
Grabbing Valric's hand once more, Kael pulled him fully inside the circle before focusing his thoughts on the first floor.
At the same time, he smiled faintly and said, "Thank you, Mr. Eye. Now, if you don't mind, I'll be taking my leave."
He could've sworn that the pupil narrowed ever so slightly at his words.
In the next moment, an incandescent light burst from the sigils beneath them, engulfing both of them before their bodies dissolved into countless sparks of light that disappeared from the hall.
At last, Kael and Valric had finally escaped.
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(Chapter Ended)
To be continued...