The tunnel being a maze meant a race against time. We didn't know where the survivors were and with monsters going around every corner, we couldn't be sure of their safety.
"Let's change plan."
Searching manually by feet would never take us anywhere.
I pulled out my reliable dagger from my pocket and rolled up my sleeve. Searching with my blood was way more efficient.
"Ethan."
Ilyas cautiously held my hand before sighing and slowly taking it back.
"Don't overdo it."
It wasn't his way of forbidding me to use my ability, but rather out of concern for my health. I gave him a small smile, assuring him, and immediately sprang into action.
SLASH!
The smell of iron stung my nose, but with it, information flooded my senses. Every turn in the maze, the location of monsters and more importantly, signs of the survivors.
"They seemed to have built a campfire."
I could detect some burned clothes sprawled on the ground, which made me frown. Building a campfire inside a narrow tunnel like this wasn't a bright idea as it could attract the monster's attention. Even the smell of my blood had already aggravated them.
"Can you locate the direction they're heading?"
"On it."
I focused on the area around the campfire, judging by its still hot temperature, it seemed to be extinguished quickly and left behind to escape monsters.
And my prediction was right. In a small hole in the wall, two children, a boy and a girl around the ages of seven and eight, were cramped together.
"This way."
Without any hesitation, I led my team toward their place. I hadn't found the rest of the group so the children might give us some clues about their location.
Stopping in front of the hole, I crouched down and shone my flashlight inside. There they were, sitting side by side with blank expressions.
"We are here to help you. You're safe now, so can you slowly come out here?"
Hearing my instructions, they shuffled around before crawling out of the hole. Surprisingly, the children were quiet as they came out. Children their age would usually tremble in fear or cry in relief when a rescue team came, so I was amazed by their mental fortitude.
"Are you guys hurt?"
I asked cautiously, afraid to startle them. But contrary to my expectations, the children stayed silent. They stared blankly into the air, unresponsive to my question.
"Can you tell me where your mother went?"
I asked for the second time, but they were still keeping their mouth shut. Even when I touched their shoulder, there were no signs they would open their mouth – which left me confused.
'Um, what should I do?'
I awkwardly glanced at my teammates, asking for help. Ilyas immediately noticed my gaze and decided to take charge of the kids instead. He checked on their condition and said to me.
"They might be too traumatized to speak, it's better not to pressure them."
"Alright."
Raising on my feet, I observed Ilyas taking the children in his arms. He gave them instructions to follow us and gently encouraged them to stay close while patting their heads to calm them down. Although the children didn't respond to questions, they seemed to listen to orders quite well.
With how gentle Ilyas' touch was, a smile formed on my face.
'He might be a great father.'
But that smile didn't last long. A human-sized rat monster showed up from the corner and rushed toward us.
"These monsters really wished for their deaths huh?."
Xain cracked his fist, ready to throw punches again. The rat monster turned its body and whipped its tail. Xain dodged with ease and with one punch, sent the monster flying into the wall. The impact of its skull shattering echoed loud, which triggered the other monsters in the area. Continuous steps of four-legged animals were closing in on our direction.
"Let's leave."
Both Cedric and Xain held one child each, while I carried Ilyas on my back as we left the place in a rush.
There's one thing that caught my eye though.
'That's weird.'
I had scattered my blood all over this sewer, and yet, no signs of the minister's wife or their bodyguards could be detected.
'If the worst scenario happened…'
I glanced at the flowing water in the center of this tunnel. I just hoped my thoughts weren't proven true. With no lead, I just ran to wherever my instinct told me to. Sensing there's no monster nearby, I slowed down.
"Wait."
In the narrow tunnel ahead of us, a monster carcass lay. Two of the bodyguards were espers so I paid no attention to it when I checked the tunnel with my skill – thinking that they killed it – but now I detected movement that wasn't there before.
From below the carcass, a humanoid figure covered in blood rose. Its long hair covered its face, but the clothes it wore definitely matched the description we got from the bureau.
"Mrs. Olman?"
I called out the minister's wife name, but just like her children, she was unresponsive to my call.
Cedric stepped forward, approaching her.
He tapped her shoulder a few times but still received no response. They might be affected by monsters' skill, so we had no choice but to bring them out to the healer quickly.
'The rest are the bodyguards.'
At this point, I had searched the entirety of the sewer. But still no signs of them anywhere.
A heavy sigh escaped my lips, dizziness from blood loss was starting to get me. If we couldn't find them on the ground, it might be possible that they were drowning in the water. The only monster carcass other than the ones we encountered was this one, so even if they hide under it, the amount of bodies didn't match up.
"Dead…"
A small murmur came out from the minister's wife's mouth.
"They are all dead."
"….! You mean the bodyguards?"
DRRKKKK!!
The tunnel rumbled as if an earthquake had struck.
From the corner, a huge rat with three heads charged toward us.