Chapter 12: Escape

The ink-like darkness shot out without giving even a moment’s warning.

Soren followed the trail of darkness with his eyes, watching it until the very end.

“My—my eyes! I can’t see!”

“Shit! Where are they?!”

Out of the four raiders holding crossbows, three had their eyes turn pitch black in an instant.

It looked as if someone had splashed ink into their eyes.

The sight made even the bloodthirsty raiders falter for a moment.

“What are you all doing?!”

The same went for the Moss party and the Karel party.

Soren pushed their backs, trying to snap them out of their confusion.

“Now! This is the moment!”

“…Bork! Let’s go!”

“Lura! You too, stay close!”

“Got it!”

One of the raiders, who had narrowly dodged the spell, fired his crossbow, but Moss blocked it with his shield just in time.

The room descended into chaos in a flash.

The front-line warriors began systematically targeting the blinded raiders.

Loreia slipped into the shadows and fired her handheld crossbow, while Yerena muttered an incantation under her breath.

In the midst of it all, Soren found himself with nothing left to do.

The offering bag he had been carrying was now completely empty.

He wiped the sweat from his damp forehead.

‘It worked better than usual this time.’

Soren had always been able to use the spell without much trouble.

Especially since Kun Allak’s spell was one of the most basic dark-element incantations.

But this time, even with meager offerings, it was far more effective than usual.

He could feel it.

Even so, Soren wasn’t entirely sure why.

‘Maybe the fickle god of the moon and the blind had decided to be generous today. Or perhaps Soren had somehow improved magically without realizing it.’

One thing was certain—now was not the time to ponder the reason.

“Aaargh!”

“Bork! We need help over here!”

“Raaaagh!”

Soren swept the room with tired eyes.

Lantern lights flickered wildly, and all the blinded raiders had collapsed to the floor.

Bork stood over them, heaving and snorting like a bull after having shredded them apart with the twin axes in his hands.

His massive frame somehow looked even bigger than before.

“Die!”

“You bastard!”

Still, the battle wasn’t entirely in their favor.

Soren spotted Karel and Moss struggling, locked in a tough fight with raiders.

He picked up the staff he had been leaning on.

***

“Khaakhnal.”

As a sensation drained from his mind, three poisonous thorns shot out from the tip of his staff.

He had learned the technique through a low-tier rune.

It could only be used three times per day—and once all three chances were spent, he’d need to sleep to recover them.

Thankfully, today was the day they planned to escape, so he hadn’t fought much.

While he could no longer cast spells, the rune was still good to go.

Two of the poisoned thorns missed, but the third embedded itself deep in the neck of the raider fighting Karel.

This was why the spell launched three at a time.

While there was some guidance, it was still easy to dodge or block them.

But with the room dark and everyone distracted, it worked well enough.

The raider who took the thorn in the neck continued fighting for a while, clashing swords with Karel.

In the flickering lantern light, Soren could faintly see dark veins spreading from the wound.

But the man didn’t fall immediately.

‘It takes longer with humans. Good to know.’

Soren timed it in his head as he watched the man.

Goblins had almost instantly succumbed to the poison, but humans seemed to require a bit more patience.

***

“Kegh!”

About a minute later, the poisoned raider finally dropped his weapon.

Karel immediately stabbed him in the belly.

Blood poured out, and his bright red intestines began to peek out.

Soren winced at the sight.

He didn’t feel guilty about killing people—but watching someone’s guts spill out in front of him was still disturbing.

The room was now thick with the stench of blood and filth.

And it wasn’t only the raiders who were bleeding.

Bork, covered in wounds, staggered back.

“Bork!”

“I’m fine! This… this is nothing—!”

“Yeah, right.”

He looked like he could drop dead any second.

Soren rushed over to Bork, who had collapsed to the floor.

The tattoos on Bork’s body were soaked in blood.

Next to fall was Karel, who had been looking unstable the whole time.

Using the confusion to his advantage, Soren dragged both of them into one spot.

Bork was too damn heavy, so he had no choice but to pull Karel by the arm.

“Here. Take this.”

“What is this, some herb?”

“Ugh, just take it and don’t talk back.”

Even with a stab wound in his gut, Karel still found the strength to complain.

Fortunately, he wasn’t bleeding too much, but leaving him like this wasn’t a great option either.

‘What a mess.’

Weapons were flying in every direction.

Throwing knives whizzed through the air from one side, and Loreia would suddenly appear, fire a bolt, and vanish again.

Dragging two grown men across the battlefield, Soren was on the verge of collapse.

He had to dodge everything just to survive.

Even though he wasn’t fighting directly, his stamina was already at rock bottom.

“Khaakhnal.”

But he couldn’t afford to stay idle.

Another burst of poisoned thorns flew from Soren’s staff.

This time, none of them hit.

A few lanterns were shattered, and the enemies kept moving too erratically to track.

“Seriously?!”

Yerena’s magical arrows also targeted the raiders several times, but her efforts didn’t fare much better.

Both Yerena and Soren needed to be more precise and deliberate.

Soren’s eyes sank low as he observed the battlefield.

With both front-line fighters down, he was close to having to pick up a weapon himself.

Thankfully, it didn’t come to that.

“Wait! Stop!”

In the middle of the raging chaos, one of the cross-eyed raiders suddenly called out.

The arrogance from earlier was gone—he now looked genuinely desperate.

‘Someone’s panicking.’

Soren smirked inwardly.

Serves them right for being cocky.

Moss and Lura froze in place mid-fight.

Their opponents slowly stepped back, equally exhausted.

The cross-eyed raider took a step forward.

“Look, I’ll be honest. We were trying to steal your supplies. That much is true.”

“Then what’s left to say?”

Soren answered immediately.

Moss and Lura were too worked up to talk, and Yerena was still holding her incantation.

As for Loreia… she was definitely not a candidate for negotiation.

It’d be a miracle if she didn’t attack mid-conversation.

That left Soren as the only possible voice of reason.

The cross-eyed raider frowned at the sight.

“What, no one else to talk to besides the brat?”

“If you’ve got a problem with that, keep fighting. Maybe you’ll end up turning blue like a cave troll.”

Soren pointed to the raider who had been hit by the poisoned thorn and was now convulsing violently.

Blood bubbled from his mouth, and he couldn’t breathe.

He collapsed, twitching on the ground—a horrific sight.

The cross-eyed raider’s face twisted.

“…Damn it. Fine. I guess we can talk.”

“So? What’s your point?”

“Let’s be real. Neither side’s gonna benefit from dragging this out. We should cut the crap and strike a deal.”

The raider’s words weren’t entirely wrong.

Karel, who was already in bad shape, was growing paler by the second.

Yerena, now clearly distraught, nodded fiercely as if to say they should take the offer.

Soren shot her a glance, then mulled over his options.

‘You want to stop here?’

From a practical standpoint… it wasn’t a bad idea.

Tending to the wounded had to come first.

But looking at the Return Chamber sitting smugly behind them, this was bullshit of the highest order.

“If we lay down our weapons now, are you guys just planning to scurry off like rats and steal the Return Chamber?”

“Calm down.”

“How can I calm down? Seriously, who the hell do you think caused this mess in the first place?”

They were ready to kill just moments ago, but now that they’re losing due to Soren’s spell, they were trying to back down with their tails between their legs. Pathetic.

Suddenly punching someone in the jaw and then acting like it’s no big deal—’how was that any different?’

Apparently, that struck a nerve.

The guy with the squinty eyes awkwardly smacked his lips and mouthed silently.

He had nothing to say.

“Leave the Return Chamber. Take your wounded if you want, but if you’re going to, hurry up and drag them to the next room.”

“There will be no more negotiations. I won’t listen to another word of your crap.”

“You don’t negotiate with raiders. You don’t cut deals with people who tried to kill you.”

That’s why Soren came out strong.

Moss, who had somewhat cooled down, looked at Soren in shock.

“Is there really no room for compromise? We need to escape too, just like you.”

“Then you should’ve already jumped on the chamber and disappeared instead of pulling this shit just to loot a few bags.”

“Goddamn it!”

The guy with the squinty eyes was at a loss for words again.

Sure, Soren’s side had Karel and Bork down, but they weren’t nearly as bad off as the raiders.

Four of the raiders were down.

Three were confirmed dead, and one was barely moving.

Four were still able to fight, including squinty eyes.

But they were wary of Soren and Yerena, who were wild cards in this.

The numbers were even now.

So the side with more variables had the upper hand.

And when lives were on the line, gambling from a losing position took real guts.

***

“HRAAAAH!”

Turns out, squinty eyes had more guts than expected.

He must have exchanged looks with the other raiders, because the moment he shouted and stomped the ground, the others rushed forward.

They were heading for the Return Chamber.

Four of them left—just enough to take one chamber if they made it.

“Soren!”

“Stop them!”

Soren wasn’t stupid.

Yerena had already been preparing a spell for a while.

A blue magic arrow shot through the air.

Soren raised his staff right away.

“Khak!”

The poison thorns had a homing function—but the catch was, Soren had to guide them himself.

Eyes wide open, he tracked the fleeing raiders, aiming at their pathetic backs.

The trajectory of the thorns curved smoothly toward them.

“Ugh!”

Two thorns hit the backs of their heads.

But the poison wasn’t instant.

Soren charged forward right away.

It would take a full minute for the venom to spread, and if he waited that long, the raiders would already be gone.

There was no time to stand still.

“Off!”

“AAARGH!”

Out of nowhere, Loreia appeared and fired her crossbow.

One of the raiders tumbled to the ground, gasping.

“Catch them!”

But three were still left.

Two were hit by Yerena’s magic arrows and collapsed, but squinty eyes, still unharmed, had nearly reached the Return Chamber.

They couldn’t let that happen.

Moss hurled his flail with all his strength.

WHAM!

“GUH…!”

And that was it.

Just in front of the Return Chamber, squinty eyes got slammed by the flail and crumpled to the floor.

Soren ran up and grabbed the flail.

The guy was squirming on the ground, struggling.

“Piece of trash.”

Soren brought the flail down hard on the half-exposed back of his skull.

CRACK!

Crushing a human skull was far more unpleasant than expected.

***

Karel and Bork were both down, but Karel was in worse shape.

“I see… Vico… Yerena…”

“Karel! Don’t talk nonsense—stay with me!”

“Keep your eyes open! Karel!”

Soren looked awkwardly at Moss, who was smacking Karel’s cheeks.

‘Is that really okay for an injured person?’ he wondered.

‘Wouldn’t it be better to actually do something?’

“Move aside.”

“Oh—uh… okay…”

Soren finally pulled out a potion from his bag.

A healing potion he’d bought from the shop at an outrageous price—he had no choice now but to use it.

‘Damn, this is such a waste.’

Even as he opened the bottle, he felt a burning regret.

He’d nearly lost his mind over buying just three of these, and now it felt like his guts were twisting.

But still, if he could save someone, it was worth it.

He shoved the bottle neck into Karel’s mouth.

“Khkk! Cough!”

“Don’t spill it. Do you know how much this cost?”

***

He grumbled, but the potion worked.

Blood clotted thickly at the wound, showing some effect.

Still, they couldn’t pull out the dagger stuck in his abdomen.

Doing that would definitely send him straight to the afterlife.

As ridiculous as it looked, Karel would have to walk around with the dagger still in him.

“Thought I was really gonna die… Shit…”

“One potion. You owe me.”

“…Seriously, you’re saying that now?”

“Just saying. Gotta get paid back.”

“Yeah, fine, whatever…”

Karel turned his pale face toward the two Return Chambers, still glowing faintly nearby.

“Let’s talk outside. Kid.”

Time to get the hell out of the dungeon.