He couldn't wait any longer; he had to save him.
In a flash, Lynch suddenly realized that this might be the only chance for the four of them to get the human-faced fruit without dying inside the relic memory.
If the city lord died, his soul and life force would be devoured, completing the ritual and reviving the evil god's will, after which it would feast on the sacrifices.
What if the ritual wasn't completed?
If the evil god wasn't in place yet, would Old Sven still dare to keep the plague canopy active and kill over eight thousand sacrifices tonight?
It was worth a gamble.
“I have to save him. I'm going in.”
There was no time for explanations. As Lynch spoke, his body was already moving, while the voices of the ladies came back through the conch.
“Be careful with everything. We'll back you up anytime.”
No explanations needed, no hesitation. Their mutual trust made words redundant. You decide, I support. That was all there was to it. Everything else could wait until they survived.
Old Sven had been completely off guard. The smile was still on his face, but his laughter came to an abrupt end.
The old ghoul barely had time to let out a low cry before the serrated sword lunged straight toward his chest.
Sven tried his best to dodge, but with his arm injured, his speed was hampered. Doing everything he could, the old ghoul only managed to avoid a hit to his vital organs, and the serrated sword struck right into his right shoulder, adding injury to injury.
As blood splattered, the old ghoul abruptly felt the power inside his body rapidly draining along with his blood. Even with a ghoul's hardy physique, his body began to feel weak. Meanwhile, in the hand of the attacker holding the sword, a crimson sphere of light was rapidly taking shape.
They separated the instant they made contact. Old Sven stumbled backward, frantically pulling himself off the serrated sword, and the sensation of draining power finally stopped. But his attacker didn't give him another glance, immediately spinning around and rushing toward little Jack, who was still gnawing on the city lord's neck. Flying forward with a kick, Lynch sent the little monster flying to the side, though it managed to tear off a small chunk of meat from the city lord's neck as it fell.
The city lord's eyes rolled back, his entire body convulsing as bloody foam spurted from his mouth. His gaze had grown hollow; he was just a single breath away from death. Lynch slapped the blood sphere in his hand straight onto the wound on the city lord's neck. Slinging the city lord over his shoulder, Lynch sprinted away, executing a Flash to appear at the entrance of the cavern.
Struck by the blood sphere, the flesh at the dying city lord's wound began wriggling furiously to heal itself. Though his breathing remained rapid, he was no longer on the verge of breathing his last. A faint trace of color returned to his face before his eyes closed, and he passed out cold.
The old ghoul, with strength equivalent to a rank four or five expert, and the little monster of unknown power were caught completely off guard. The dying city lord had been saved, carried out of the cavern on his attacker's shoulder. All Old Sven could do, unable to react in time, was watch helplessly as Lynch turned back toward the path they had come from and sprinted toward the entrance.
“Roar!”
A howl from the little monster echoed through the underground cavern. The forty to fifty infected hiding in the caves along the path responded with roars of their own, quickly scrambling out of their hiding spots and blocking the narrow path so tightly that not a breath of wind could pass. Little Jack and Sven followed close on Lynch's heels, chasing after him. With the swarm of infected in front and the two pursuers behind, the tunnel was sealed shut, turning Lynch into a rat trapped in a pipe with no way out.
And yet... there was no one there.
In the narrow tunnel that barely allowed two people to walk side by side, the two converging sides finally met, but the rat carrying the city lord seemed to have vanished into thin air.
“Find them for me!” Old Sven shouted frantically, actually speaking human words to the infected. “They must be hiding in one of the caves! Drag him out for me!”
As he yelled, he twitched his nose, trying to catch the scent of blood in the tunnel.
The bloody stench on the little monster beside him was too thick, masking everything else. Only after great effort did he manage to distinguish the smell of blood emanating from the city lord through the interference.
Huh? Behind us?
Old Sven whipped his head around, only to see the dim, winding tunnel stretching far into the distance behind them.
“How is this possible?”
Old Sven stood flabbergasted.
Feigning an attack in one direction while striking in another—this was the escape plan Lynch had devised.
Although this operation was a sudden decision, it was by no means reckless. He had carefully considered how to get away.
He knew very well that a large group of infected was on the path he had come from, and running straight back after saving the man would only land him in an ambush. Thus, he had planned to perform a feint right from the start.
First, he feigned running left toward the entrance. The moment he entered a blind spot in the cave's field of view, he immediately activated his Concealment ability while using his presence-masking ability to cover the city lord on his back.
Using presence-masking on a person required a high degree of trust and would be impossible to succeed on the city lord normally. However, the city lord was currently unconscious, equivalent to an inanimate object, so the ability automatically succeeded.
With that quick feint, Lynch carried the city lord and rushed back to the right side of the cave entrance, then sprinted along the rugged tunnel deeper inside.
Sure enough, this maneuver successfully fooled Old Sven. By the time he realized he had been duped, Lynch had already vanished into the depths of the tunnel carrying City Lord Jackson, having run who knew how far.
On the structural map provided by Dr. Sven, the depths were a dead end. But Lynch had considered earlier that with so many infected hidden inside, there was very likely an entry and exit leading to a public area—not too far from the city and thinly populated, allowing these infected to enter easily.
That was Lynch's destination.
“I'm heading east, southeast, turning east again.”
Lynch occasionally glanced down at the compass in his hand as he sprinted through the tunnel that didn't exist on the structural map.
“Received. We're keeping up too. With the twin conch helping us, we'll try to meet you as soon as possible. But... are you sure there's an exit?”
“Extremely high probability.”
Without slowing down, Lynch surveyed his surroundings and gave a firm answer. This was clearly a newly dug tunnel, narrower, darker, and more rugged than the ones he had walked through before.
Without the support of the structural map, it was impossible to tell where the tunnel led, and every step was into the unknown. But the more this was the case, the more confident Lynch became that there was an exit.
“I hope the moment I see the sun, the first thing I see are your smiles. I'll leave the outside to you.”
“All you'll be seeing is my fist, you worry-inducing bastard,” Officer Natalie said after a moment of silence, then added, “Good luck to you. Good luck to us all.”
Under the dim firelight, light and shadows swayed chaotically. The silent tunnel echoed only with his rapid footsteps and bellows-like panting.
From far behind, the faint roars of the infected drifted over. Lynch knew Old Sven had discovered his trick and was directing the infected to give chase.
Then let's have a race. Let me show you the survival will of someone from the Fifth Age! Heh, I got a head start; you won't catch me in this lifetime.
However, ten minutes into his run, he was no longer so certain.
Relying on the relentless physical training he had maintained since transmigrating, it was already impressive that he had held out this long while carrying a person. Yet the roars of the infected behind him were growing clearer and clearer, and Lynch could even smell the faint stench of decay drifting over.
The infected were tireless, but he would grow exhausted. Unknowingly, his pace slowed down, and his breathing grew heavier.
Mainly, the ground was becoming increasingly uneven, crisscrossed with numerous plant roots that nearly tripped him several times. But the hope in his heart grew stronger, because he felt the terrain sloping sharply upward, and dim sunlight was showing ahead.
He was about to reach the exit.
Hope ignited the last bit of his stamina. His speed up the incline didn't slow down but increased instead as he took a few quick strides, rushing toward the exit, rushing toward the sunlight.
It turned out the exit was inside an extraordinarily thick ancient tree. The trunk was completely hollow, allowing direct access to the surface from inside while remaining completely invisible from the outside—an exceptionally effective concealment.
Rushing into the hollow tree trunk, Lynch stopped despite hearing the footsteps of his pursuers right behind him.
Flipping his wrist, the red moon ring on his finger began to glow, gathering energy as it entered its activated state. Only then did he tightly grip the unconscious city lord and burst out of the tree hollow.
The moment he saw the light of day again, the sun shone brightly, as if he had returned to the mortal world. Yet the very first thing that met his eyes was a sharp claw.
A ghoul's sharp claw was swooping straight down at his head.
Rate on N.U.
