“The tunnel isn’t getting any wider,” Ani pointed out as they trod some distance into the depths.

  “At least it isn’t getting narrower,” Henry responded dryly. He was not a huge man in his human form but even so, he had to shrink his body a little just to walk through the tunnel unimpeded.

  “How’s the air?”

  “As foul as ever, but it isn’t getting worse.”

  There was no other way but forward. The path behind them had colpsed as a result of Henry’s retaliation against the swarm that was encroaching on them. It was a miracle that the cave did not colpse in its entirety.

  “The survivors… they couldn’t come through here, could they?”

  “It’s faint but I smell human blood in front, though it’s quite a distance. The tunnel is long.”

  “But… we didn’t see any blood along our path. I mean, they couldn’t have made it past that area without incurring some wounds, given the deaths we saw. If they are wounded, we would have seen blood marks in our paths at this point.”

  “Perhaps they patched their wounds before continuing with their… adventure.”

  “...Still, there has to be some kind of… trail. Yet, we saw nothing of the sort. It’s just… suspicious.”

  “Well, they could have found another path.”

  “...I suppose they could have.”

  “We’ll see once we find the survivors. Are you alright?”

  “I-I’m fine, Henry.”

  “You don’t sound fine. You’re stuttering.”

  “I-it’s just… This sort of pce… it’s bringing back some… complicated memories.”

  “Ah… I see,” Henry decided to speak no further on this matter.

  The two continued to dive deeper into the cave. Their path was riddled with nothing but uncertainty. There was no trail of any kind that might indicate the survivors had taken this path. Ani was no stranger to this kind of environment and terrain. Even so, she couldn’t tell how far this tunnel would stretch on. The air was damp, which made her assume there was a body of water ahead. The air was also thin, which indicated that they were inching close to a dead end. All these signs heralded a terrible fate in front of them. Her experience as an adventurer told her to retreat but with Henry by her side, her unease never grew beyond its infancy stage. It remained a feeling without becoming a premonition.

  The tunnel gradually led them to a meandering, gentle slope.

  “Oh, this isn’t good,” Henry muttered. “It’s not, right?”

  Ani shook her head. “It isn’t. The gentle slope itself is not a problem, but it becomes one when the ground is wet. A slippery slope. It won’t be an issue if we take our time, but if there comes a moment when we have to run, we will slide all the way down until the bottom. And it gets worse if the slope gets steeper further down. It’s the worst if the end of the slide was a huge fall into god knows what.”

  “I can fly.”

  “Only if there’s enough space for you to brandish your wings.”

  “Oh… you’re right.”

  “We might even get dropped into another swarm of monsters at the end of the slope. We have to brace ourselves for whatever lies ahead, or in front.”

  “We haven’t encountered any monsters on our way. Surely we won’t encounter any once we start going down this slope, right?”

  “The monsters did escape your scrutiny. They might even be lying in wait somewhere on the slope.”

  “Only one way to find out,” Henry said and wrapped one arm around Ani’s waist. “Better hold on tight.”

  Ani responded with a smile and wrapped her arms around Henry’s body tightly.

  Together, they began their descent down the slope. But before that, Henry used Bio-Sonar on his surroundings. The results came back negative. He didn’t fully understand how the ability works, only that it detects life. Sonar wasn’t perfect, according to the logic and rules of his old world. One could hide themself from it. Therefore, he didn’t trust the results fully.

  The path down the slope was wider than the tunnel they came through. They could walk side by side without feeling cramped. Still, they had to watch their steps. One wrong step and they would be taking the expressway to the end. Due to the dampness of the ground and walls, Henry doubted he could stop their fall if they slipped. He could use his cws and spikes but the frailty of the terrain made it impossible to withstand the two of their weight.

  The descent began smoothly. They could feel the soft and damp soil underneath their feet but they were dense enough to hold their weight. The slope remained as gentle as it was at the start. They picked up their pace once they were sure there were no immediate threats from the environment or the monsters.

  However, Henry suddenly stopped.

  “What is it? Monsters?”

  “Blood. I smell blood up ahead.”

  Ani nodded and they resumed their pace, treading slowly towards the origin of the ominous scent.

  Their smooth descent came to an abrupt end ahead. They came to a path with a steeper slope. Beside them was another path, another slope, which was merging with their path ahead. That other path brought with it an eerie sight. The ground was ced with a trail of blood.

  “You were right,” Ani said. “They did take another path.”

  “That’s a lot of blood.”

  “There are three sets of prints.”

  “It’s still a lot of blood from three people.”

  “Two sets are heavier than one of the three. They may be carrying the wounded.” Ani followed the footprints with her gaze, leading her to the declining slope. “The prints cut off at that steep slope. They have gone down. I guess we should too.”

  “We should.”

  As Henry took a step forward towards the steep slope, gunshots resounded from the bottom of the slope, followed by screams and cries.

  Ani flinched from the sudden booming and shattering noises. “Those sounds again. Are those what you call ‘gunshots’?”

  “Yes, they are. We'd better hurry.” Henry took Ani into his arms and dove down the slope. There was no time for them to be overly cautious about their descent. The survivors were in immediate danger. The slope was wide but barely enough for Henry once he let out his wings. He didn’t need much space, just enough for his wings to slow their descent enough to avoid getting unched into a wall or the ground at the end of it.

  The slide down was not long. There was a long fall at the end of the slope, as they had expected. It dropped them into a cavern. Thankfully, there was a river at the bottom but the drop was long enough to kill any normal person, even if it was water they dropped into. The cavern was vast enough for Henry to spread his wings to the fullest.

  “There!” Ani pointed at the survivors huddling in a corner of the cavern as they struggled to hold off a rge group of encroaching monsters.

  “Two of them?” Henry muttered. From what he had observed earlier of the footprints, there should be at least three to five of them. There were only two. Then, he saw corpses strewn not too far from where the survivors were making their st stand. The corpses looked fresh.

  “We’re too te…” Ani gasped upon noticing the corpses.

  “No, we’re not!” Henry excimed and dove towards the survivors.

  The two survivors saw Henry approaching them from the air. They raised their guns at them but they hesitated when they saw Ani in Henry’s arms and Henry’s appearance.

  Henry and Ani dropped right in front of the two.

  “Get back!” Henry shouted and bsted the encroaching monsters with his bzing breath. The cavern shook and the ground trembled.

  The monsters shrieked and backed away from the swarming fmes. Half of them were not so fortunate as to scuttle out of reach. The fmes consumed them. Those who were caught on fire scampered for the water but most of them perished before they could reach the water. For those who reached the water, it didn’t help much. They doused the fmes but they were left with wounds that rendered them incapacitated. Some died shortly after.

  There were many that remained unaffected by the fmes. These ones were more agile than the rest. The deaths of their peers did not deter them. They screeched and howled before resuming their assault. Another Firebreath would have dealt with these monsters swiftly but it would also bring the roof down.

  “Ani, stay back and protect them.”

  Ani nodded without arguing.

  Henry lunged forward at the encroaching monsters. He swung his wing at the monster, slicing more than a dozen of them in half.

  The monsters expressed their shock and confusion with whimpers and hisses, but it didn’t stop them from approaching the group. A few even pounced on Henry but they were brought down with cws thrust into their chests. Those that were slightly out of Henry’s reach, he took them down with Aura Bdes.

  There were a lot of monsters and Henry was just one person. They eventually overwhelmed him with their numbers alone. He couldn’t kill them faster than they could come on him. They caught his arms. They caught his legs. They grasped him on his body. They bit into his throat and head, gnawing away at his limbs. But of course, their cws and fangs failed to make even a prick on his skin. Still, it was a painful ordeal even with Pain Resistance. Henry couldn’t resist the pain anymore and howled in pain.

  “Henry!” Ani shouted.

  “Don’t! Keep the survivors safe! I am fine!”

  “...Y-your friend is getting mauled, Miss! Are you sure you shouldn’t be helping him?” asked one of the two survivors. “Go help him! We’ll be fine.”

  “He’ll be fine! My priority is you two.”

  “Who are you?” questioned the survivor. Ani’s choice of wardrobe was enough to rouse suspicions.

  “Someone who’s here to get you out of this mess. Just stick close to me and do what we tell you. Then, maybe you’ll leave this pce in one piece and alive.”

  “But your friend, he’s—”

  Henry unleashed a trembling roar as he burst through the monsters piling on top of him, revealing his humanoid dragon form. With a swipe of his tail, he turned plenty of the monsters into smithereens. He grabbed the ones clinging onto him and pulled them off of him forcefully, resulting in him tearing the monsters into pieces of unsavoury shapes. Then, he swung at the monsters using the carcasses of other fallen monsters.

  Seeing Henry’s sudden burst of unyielding ferocity, the monsters recoiled and backed away from Henry. There was no fear in their eyes but there was caution. They were not ruled by fear of death, but by logic. If they attacked mindlessly, it would be the end of their species. It was not worth the risk simply for a few bodies of meat. There was resentment in their gazes but their sense of self-preservation prevailed.

  Giving Henry a low growl, the monsters decided to withdraw, slowly climbing back into the holes which they had emerged. Once Henry was sure the monsters had fully retreated, he returned to his human form.

  “That was unpleasant,” he sighed in relief. “I might need a thorough bath after this,” he grumbled.

  “Just w-who are you two?”

  “Your saviours, that’s who we are.”

  “You’re not human… What are you?”

  “A dragon, a friendly one.”

  “And y-you?” the survivor turned his question to Ani.

  “How rude,” Ani scoffed. “I’m a human.”

  “W-what kind?”

  “What do you mean, what kind?”

  “I saw how you fought. I witnessed your strength and speed. You cut those monsters up like they were nothing! And you’re not wearing a power suit. In fact, I don’t know what you’re wearing.”

  “Look, what we are and what we’re wearing isn’t important. What’s important is you two getting out of there alive. Well, you three. There was another one of you.”

  “Franklin? He made it?”

  “Well, I wouldn’t say he made it but he’s alive and he’s safe. So, let us not linger around here any longer and get ourselves to safety too.”