Free Web NovelChapter 119: Right Track
The ground remained uneven beneath our boots, forcing us to watch where we stepped. Water dripped from the ceiling at irregular intervals, and every sound seemed to echo endlessly through the darkness. The bats above shifted occasionally, disturbed by the light from Ken’s spell, but otherwise left us alone.
After several minutes, I suddenly stopped.
"What?" Ken asked quietly.
I didn’t answer right away.
A small puddle sat in a depression in the stone near my feet. At first glance it looked like ordinary cave water, but something about its color caught my attention.
"Come here."
Ken stepped beside me and lowered the flame in his palm.
The light reflected off the surface. The water wasn’t clear. A faint red tint swirled through it. Blood. Not much, but enough.
"We’re on the right track," I said.
"Yeah," Ken muttered. "That’s what I was afraid of."
We moved on.
The cave gradually narrowed as we advanced. What had once been a spacious cavern slowly compressed into a winding passage of rough stone. Before long, the walls were close enough that Ken and I could no longer comfortably walk side by side.
The air felt heavier there.
More confined.
The ceiling lowered slightly as well, forcing us to pay attention to where we stepped and where we placed our heads.
After another stretch of walking, the tunnel widened again. Not by much, but enough that we could stand shoulder to shoulder once more.
I was about to say something when the entire cave suddenly erupted with noise.
Hundreds of wings beat against the air. The bats hanging above us launched themselves from the ceiling all at once.
"Shit!" I immediately crouched and threw an arm across my face.
Ken did the same.
The cave filled with screeching.
Wings brushed against my clothes. Something smacked directly into the side of my head before bouncing away into the darkness. Another struck my shoulder hard enough to make me wince.
For several long seconds, chaos surrounded us. Then, just as suddenly as it had begun, it ended. The swarm rushed past and disappeared behind us.
I slowly lowered my arm.
Ken looked equally miserable. "You alright?"
"One of those bastards hit me in the face." I replied.
"Good."
"What?"
"If they hit you in the face, maybe they’ll knock some sense into you."
I rolled my eyes and looked ahead.
Then I froze.
A faint light flickered somewhere in the distance.
Both of us immediately crouched lower.
Far ahead, part of the cave disappeared behind a thick stone column. Shadows danced across the wall beyond it, moving in rhythm with what looked like firelight.
A candle. A torch. Maybe another fire spell. Whatever it was, someone was down here.
I raised a hand, signaling Ken to stay quiet.
Voices drifted through the darkness.
"...matter of time before they find us here," a man said.
"They haven’t found us yet," another voice replied. "If you keep your mouth shut, we’ll be fine."
"I only took this job because I thought I was getting paid to rape some chick!" the first man snapped. "Nobody told me this shit would get this serious!"
"Keep your voice down."
"I sliced my arm open in that damned forest!" he protested. "It fucking hurts!"
Forest? He had to be the guy I’d chased earlier.
"Then stop screaming about it."
For several seconds there was silence.
Then the injured man spoke again. "Maybe... maybe we should come clean."
My eyes narrowed.
"What?"
"Maybe we can explain everything."
The response came immediately. "Come clean? Sure."
The second voice sounded calm.
Too calm.
"Let’s get you clean."
A second shadow suddenly stretched across the wall.
Someone else had approached. I couldn’t see the figure directly from where we were hiding, only the silhouette cast by the firelight.
One arm lifted. Something flashed. The injured man didn’t even have time to scream. A body collapsed sideways onto the stone floor.
For a moment, I couldn’t process what I was seeing.
Then the smell hit me.
Burning flesh.
The man’s head had been severed so cleanly that it took a second for my brain to catch up. The exposed edges of his neck still glowed with heat.
"I knew I should’ve hired professionals," the other man said.
A bat suddenly swooped through the passage behind us.
Ken flinched and a small yelp escaped before he could stop it.
Both of us immediately froze. The cave went silent. The figure near the firelight stopped moving.
Slowly, a hooded head turned toward our position, peeking around the corner.
Fuck. The man stepped around the stone column and peered into the darkness.
The hood concealed most of his face, but there was no mistaking it. He had seen us. For a second, nobody moved. Then the hooded man sighed.
His voice echoed softly through the cavern. "Guess the District Captain did know her stuff after all."
I got up and started walking toward him, keeping my steps slow..
"You killed Jelda," I said. "And you raped her."
The man gave a crooked grin that made my stomach turn.
"Chick was a virgin, if you can believe it," he said. "Her pussy was delicious, though."
I stared at him, keeping my voice steady. Ken followed a few steps behind me, tense enough that I could feel it without looking back.
"Why?" I asked. "Why did you do that?"
The man’s expression shifted, and for the first time he looked uneasy. "Wait. You are not the Captain," he said. "Who the fuck are you two?"
"Ace, we need to go." Ken caught my arm and tried to pull me back. "Right now." ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm
"No." I pulled free and reached for my dagger through the system. "We fight."
Ken stared at me. "No, Ace. No, no, no."
"Shut up."
The man moved first.
He threw two fireballs toward us, forcing Ken and me to split in opposite directions. I barely managed to avoid the first one, its heat washing past my side as I stumbled over the uneven cave floor. Before I could regain my balance, a spike of ice shot toward me from the darkness.
My foot caught on a broken patch of ground, and I nearly went down. I slammed a hand against the wall to steady myself, but my other hand moved before I could think about it. The dagger came up on its own, and the ice struck the blade instead of my chest.
I blinked, stunned for half a second.
"How did I..." I muttered under my breath.
Rogue.
That was still my class.
The combat class was helping me evade attacks, even if only a little. I would take whatever I could get.
Ken had already yanked his bow free and was fitting an arrow to the string, but the stranger moved faster than him. He brought both fists together above his head, and the ground in front of him erupted. A massive stone fist surged upward from the cave floor, blocking the space between them.
Ken swore and sidestepped, but the fist shifted with him, as if it had been waiting to catch his movement. Then the stone hand opened, and a blinding flash burst from its palm.
The blast hit Ken full force and sent him crashing into the wall.
He hit hard enough to knock the breath out of him.
The stranger laughed.
"Are you a fucking student?" he asked. "Gods. You’re throwing your life away for a girl? Did you even see what she was wearing? She was practically asking for to be ass-fucked."
"You talk too much," I said, exhaling slowly as I lowered into a fighting stance. "That’s not a good thing."
I dashed forward and cast Shadow Leap. My body broke apart into black dust, then reformed above him in an instant.
╔═══════════════╗
> Shadow Leap Cast: -17MP
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Cooldown: 1 seconds
╚═══════════════╝
The moment I appeared, I switched to Warrior and cast Grave Step. My body surged forward with enough speed to blur my vision, and I drove straight toward him while I was still in the air.
╔═══════════════╗
> Grave Step Cast: -15MP
────────────────
Cooldown: 10 seconds
╚═══════════════╝
The man took a step back, but he was already too late. I managed to nick his shoulder before my momentum carried me past him. The second my feet hit the ground, I shifted back into Warrior and triggered Bloodiron Oath.
The spell was simple. It marked the target, and if I landed five consecutive hits, whether on him or his weapon, the sixth attack would be guaranteed to crit and knock him back.
Thank fuck I understood how these spells worked, even if I had never actually cast them before. Guess it came naturally with the mana flowing through me, or something like that.
A red glow flared over his body, but it was subtle enough that only I could see it. The system had registered the mark.
╔═══════════════╗
> Bloodiron Oath Cast: -5 MP
────────────────
Cooldown: 10 seconds
╚═══════════════╝
I raised my dagger and swung at him. The stranger stepped back and drew the dagger from his sheath in one smooth motion. I pressed the attack immediately, stepping forward and slashing in a wide arc. He caught the blow with his own weapon, steel scraping against steel before he slammed his shoulder into my chest.
I stumbled backward and crashed into one of the cave’s stone pillars. My heel struck the candle resting at its base, extinguishing the only source of light in the cave. Darkness swallowed everything around us.
Not good. Unlike Ken, I couldn’t manipulate fire well enough to illuminate a room. I knew how to cast Fireball, but I couldn’t keep a flame dancing around my palm like he could.
"Kid," the man’s voice came from somewhere behind me. "You don’t know what you’re doing."
