Chapter 79: Alone

Leon moved his lamp across the two passages before lowering it to check his hand.

The scrape had stopped bleeding, though it still stung whenever he flexed his fingers. His knees were also sore, but after moving his legs a little and standing properly, he was sure that he could still walk without any problem.

He brushed the remaining grit from his trousers and checked his bag. Both bottles of water were still there, along with the snacks he had packed. His phone had also survived the collapse, though there was no signal.

Leon put it away and tried the radio one more time.

And of course... Nothing.

’I guess it’s find the others first, then find a way out.’ He said in his mind.

The Great Swordsman stood beside the fork with its sword lowered. Leon glanced back towards the collapsed entrance, but there was no light moving through the gaps. He could still hear the occasional distant sound from the other side, but there was clearly nobody close enough to answer him.

Since that was the case, there was no longer any reason for him to keep holding back here.

Leon summoned the second Great Swordsman beside the first. A moment later, the Skeleton Mage appeared behind them, followed by the two Skirmishers.

With all five summons standing around him, the narrow passage immediately became rather crowded.

"You stay with me," Leon said to the first Swordsman before pointing towards the other. "Take the front, but don’t go too far."

He sent one Skirmisher down each branch, giving them simple instructions to inspect the nearby ground, look for movement, and return before going beyond the first turn. There was no point in sending them too far when he didn’t even know what was ahead.

The Mage remained close enough for Leon to reach.

"Use detection." He commanded.

It raised its staff, and as the spell formed, Leon watched the two openings in case anything came out before the Skirmishers returned.

Through his connection with the Mage, he suddenly became aware of something moving beyond the wall to his left.

Leon looked at the Swordsman beside him.

It hadn’t reacted.

’Wow, could the skill always do this? Or did it somehow improve?’ He questioned without any reply.

He concentrated on the information coming from the Mage and found that there were two moving presences, both separated from them by a stretch of solid rock. He couldn’t see what they were or even tell exactly how large they were. One moved a short distance before stopping again.

"Can you sense those?" Leon asked.

The Swordsman turned its skull towards the wall, but Leon felt nothing useful through their connection.

He frowned.

Earlier, he had assumed that the Swordsman was looking towards the blocked gallery because it could sense the people on the other side. With all the voices and impacts passing through the rubble at the time, he hadn’t considered the possibility that it was simply following the sounds.

Leon directed the Mage to use Detection again, and surely, the two presences were still there.

’So the thick rock blocks their senses, but not the spell.’

That changed things for sure. The spell had turned out to b useful after all.

The first Skirmisher returned from the descending branch. Through their connection, Leon understood that the slope was passable, though fallen stones had narrowed it farther down.

The other Skirmisher returned shortly afterwards. Its route curved around the rocky outcrop and opened into a wider area, with a smaller opening along one side.

According to the Mage’s Detection, the two moving presences were somewhere beyond that wider section.

That didn’t mean the route led directly to them. The spell showed Leon where something was moving, not how to reach it, so there could still be another wall or blocked passage between them.

Still, it was more information than he had on the other route.

Leon pointed towards the curved passage.

"That way. Check the ground as you go."

The second Swordsman moved ahead of them, while one Skirmisher followed a short distance behind it. The other remained at the back to watch the route they had already passed.

Leon stayed between his summons, with the first Swordsman beside him and close enough to catch him if the floor shifted again. The Mage moved on his other side.

They slowly made their way around the bend.

The passage opened into a low chamber. Pale veins running across the ceiling gave off enough light for Leon to see the uneven floor, but he kept his lamp on anyway. Loose fragments of stone were scattered across the middle, while a narrow opening along the right wall disappeared behind a tilted shelf of rock.

The Skirmisher at the front suddenly stopped. Something scraped against the stone beyond the far end of the chamber.

Out of tehre, a Ridgeback Lizard emerged from between two rocks, its armoured spine brushing against the edge of the opening as its head turned towards the Swordsman at the front.

Another scraping sound came from the narrow side passage.

Leon stepped back before either creature could advance.

"Barrier. Across there."

The Mage turned its staff towards the side passage. A broad, translucent barrier formed between the tilted shelf and the chamber wall, completely blocking that approach.

The second Ridgeback pushed into view just as the barrier settled into place, causing its snout to strike the invisible surface.

The creature pulled back before shoving forward again, its claws scraping against the stone floor as it tried to force its way through.

At the other end of the chamber, the first Ridgeback charged.

The Swordsman at the front stepped to the creature’s left, allowing its head to sweep past its hip. Its great sword came down immediately after, striking the exposed joint behind one of the lizard’s front legs.

The leg folded beneath it.

Before the Ridgeback could turn its body around, the Swordsman pulled its blade free and drove it upwards beneath the creature’s raised jaw.

Very simple and straightforward. The swordsman had discovered a perfect strategy, and it seemed it wasn’t going to change what wasn’t broken.

Leon almost wondered if it already knew the weakness and openings.

The lizard collapsed, its tail thrashing across the floor.

Beside Leon, the Mage was already preparing its next spell. The barrier remained across the side passage while flames gathered along the head of its staff.

The second Ridgeback backed away from the obstruction. It lowered its head as it searched for another way around, exposing the thick scales behind its skull.

At a moment’s notice, the barrier disappeared, and at the same moment, the Mage released its attack.

The Fire Arrow crossed the chamber in an instant and struck just behind the creature’s jaw, burying itself deep inside its neck. The armoured scales stopped the spell from passing completely through, but the arrow had already gone far enough.

The Ridgeback dropped almost immediately, fire spreading out from the wound, moving beneath its jaw and across its neck as the arrow collapsed into flames.

The Swordsman at the front pulled its blade out of the first lizard, and just like that, the fight was over.

Neither creature had managed to reach Leon, and the Swordsman standing beside him hadn’t even needed to raise its weapon.

Leon looked towards the burning body.

’Grade Three Peak.’

The training room hadn’t given him anything living to test the Mage’s spells on, so until now, he hadn’t known exactly how effective its Fire Arrow would be against a real creature.

Now he had his answer.

The flames quickly ate through the softer flesh around the wound and spread along the lizard’s underside. Its scales blackened and split apart as the heat continued building, and within seconds, much of the exposed flesh had already burned away.

Leon took another step back before looking towards where the barrier had been.

"Could you have moved that back with us?" he asked.

The Mage turned towards him, and through their connection, Leon understood how the spell worked.

It could keep supplying the barrier indefinitely, but once it was created, it remained fixed in that position. If the Mage wanted to place it somewhere else, it would have to dismiss the first one and cast another.

’So I can’t just walk around behind it.’

It was still very useful, especially since maintaining it cost Leon nothing. He simply had to choose the right place for it before or during a fight.

A bitter smell soon reached him.

Leon pulled his collar over his nose as smoke gathered beneath the low ceiling and spread away from the burning Ridgeback. He had been standing well away from the flames, but the air was already becoming unpleasant.

Then he noticed how slowly the smoke was moving.

They were underground, with no open sky or breeze to clear the chamber.

’It’s still fire.’ He thought to himself.

The flames had been created using Spirit Energy, but that didn’t mean the burning body had stopped consuming oxygen.