“Are we going to die?” Ani asked.

  Henry frowned and recoiled slightly at her question. “No?”

  “Or is she going to die?”

  “Why do you think that? No, in the first pce, what makes you think that will even be possible? What do you think is going to happen?”

  Ani shrugged. “It’s the way you bid Chloe farewell. It reminds me of my past adventures, the ones that ended on a very… forlorn note. You say it in a way as if we would never see her again.”

  “Well, I didn’t mean it in that way. But we won’t be seeing one another for an indefinite amount of time. Who knows when such an opportunity will arise once more?”

  “Nadea will? She would know, wouldn’t she?”

  “...I suppose she would.”

  “So, what are we doing now?”

  Henry smiled and stared at the darkness ahead of them. The tunnel trembled ever so slightly. With each second passing, the tremor grew. “We are going to cull those monsters. We cannot let them leave this pce. At the very least, we have to hold them back until Chloe and the others safely make it out of this cave.”

  “And how will we know when they left the cave?”

  “If they leave the cave, our quest will be completed. If our quest is completed, we will have no more reason to stay.”

  “And we will be sent back to our world.”

  “Yes. So, are you ready?”

  Ani drew her sword and assumed her stance. “I am.”

  The tremor grew stronger and stronger until it resembled an earthquake. From the darkness ahead, growls began reverberating from the depths. The air shivered in response.

  “There are a lot of them. It’s a straight path. Can’t we just kill them all with your Firebreath?”

  “This whole pce would come crumbling down if I did, but given the current circumstances, I say that should not be an issue.”

  “Alright, Henry. Do your best,” Ani said and moved behind Henry.

  “Try to hold your breath when the fmes settle. You don’t want to inhale all that smoke ,even if you had some resistance against it.”

  “Don’t need to tell me that.” Ani stepped further away from Henry.

  The growls became a rolling thunder hurling towards them. The veil of darkness parted and hundreds of Lizard Wolves emerged from the depths. Madness and rage wrought their faces. Desperation filled their souls. Hunger moved their bodies. Whatever happened in the depths had prompted the Lizard Wolves to direct their hostility at the foreign bodies.

  Henry stood before the approaching horde. He assumed his humanoid dragon form. He gathered his breath and collected the surrounding air. His lungs and throat glowed with an intense heat and radiance. He lurched forward with his mouth agape and throwing out his voice and spirit. Fmes spewed out with his fierce roar.

  The monsters saw the massive fme charging towards them. They froze in the midst of their frenzy. Even in their maddened state, the fear of death still took hold of their hearts. Their preservation instincts awakened. They screeched in terror and began to flee from their impending death. However, they had changed their minds much too te. The onsught of the fmes was blistering. Even with their hasty retreat, they could not outrun the force of the fmes. They were overrun and overwhelmed. They howled and shrieked as the fire consumed them and turned them into cinders and ashes.

  The quake stopped, only to be repced by another tremor, stronger than the st, but transient. The brief stronger quake caused parts of the ceiling to crumble. Pieces of debris fell from above, crushing many of the Lizard Wolves, which were untouched by the bze. They hurriedly scrambled to safety, but many were unfortunate in the ensuing disaster. Their retreat was blocked off by the falling debris in the aftershock.

  “That wasn’t so bad,” Ani remarked. “I expected the whole pce to come crumbling down on us.”

  “That would have been the case if I didn’t control the strength of my fmes. We may be more tenacious than others, but we are not indestructible or invincible.”

  “I’m well aware. I’m the one who should be concerned about their destructive capabilities.”

  “You sell yourself short, Ani. You should be concerned about your destructive capabilities.”

  “Do I?”

  The surviving monsters were emerging from the wreck. Their retreat was cut off. The only way was forward, toward Henry and Ani.

  “You may take care of the remnants. You need not worry about colteral.”

  “I will gdly do so, Henry,” Ani said and charged at the surviving Lizard Wolves.

  The remnants shrieked at the ferocity of the seemingly helpless ss. They noticed her presence, but they did not give her much thought. Their attention was on Henry, who caused the deaths of many of their brethren. However, they realised their mistake. The girl was as much of a threat as Henry was. Ani cut down the nearest Lizard Wolf that was howling at her, as if warning her to stay away. After its head was lopped off, the rest understood the threat Ani posed. They had no choice but to fight.

  With a wide swing, Ani sliced three of the lizard wolves in half. She shielded her eyes from the blood sptter. She was strong, but she was not indestructible. She could be overwhelmed if she wasn’t careful. A moment’s pse of vulnerability would evolve to a vulnerability that would cause her a great deal. There were two other lizard wolves behind the three she just cut down. They were waiting for her to catch her breath after her swing. She stepped from them, reeling in her sword. The two lunged at her when they saw her slight retreat. She thrust forward the instance after their lunge. Her sword plunged into the head of the one on the right. The jaws on the left came for her throat. She stopped the bite with a firm grip on the monster’s throat.

  “Interesting,” Ani surprised herself. She knew she was strong, but to be able to stop a beast’s attack with only a grip was not something she expected of herself. She crushed the beast’s throat and tossed it aside, just as another lizard wolf was pouncing at her. She dodged low and retaliated with an upward thrust, piercing the lizard wolf’s heart. She quickly pushed the lizard wolf off her bde and readied herself for the next opponent.

  The lizard wolf that came after was rger than most, and its fur was bck in colour. An Alpha, or that was what Henry had dubbed it. Ani felt intimidated by the sheer size of the wolf that was standing on two. She suppressed her unfounded fear and charged at it with a battle cry. The Alpha was hurt. Its back was seared, but its ferocity had not been diminished in the slightest. It roared in response and crossed bdes with Ani, sword and cws locking together.

  “Fuck!” Ani uttered. The Alpha was not pying fair, nor should it be pying fair. While she was parrying the Alpha’s cws and blows, the others were circling her, looking for opportunities. She pushed the Alpha away and dashed towards the little ones, little in retive to the Alpha. The Alpha chased after her, but she remained focused on the little ones, which seemed startled by her attention on them. They tried to run, but Ani took a leap, closing the distance and finishing them off. She quickly turned around and crossed blows with the Alpha, seconds before its cws could tear into her head.

  “Doing great, Ani,” Henry cheered from the side.

  “I’m doing everything!” Ani groaned.

  “And you’re doing great.”

  “A little help?”

  “Nonsense. You can handle yourself just fine.”

  The Alpha roared and pressed forward with its bite as its cws remained locked with Ani’s sword.

  “Does this look like I’m doing fine?!”

  “Don’t be afraid, Ani. You’re stronger than you realise. Believe in yourself and I mean in a literal sense. You’re only being pushed back here because you think yourself weaker than the Alpha. You are not. Show it who you really are.”

  The revetion struck her, or was it more of an awakening? She knew her strength, but she didn’t believe in it. It was hard to trust in something so bizarre and outndish when one had been living in the confines of normalcy all their lives. She had the strength of at least ten grown men, or even more. She put a little trust in her own strength and just like that, she was winning the contest of strength.

  The lizard wolf had a look of disbelief as it was being pushed back. Sensing the sudden turn of the battle’s flow, it quickly distanced itself from Ani. However, Ani followed it. The beast took a panicked swipe at her, but she sidestepped the cws and countered with a splendid arc of a draw. The Alpha howled in pain as its arm flew off its shoulder. Ani pressed forward with a thrust. The Alpha tried stopping her by grabbing her arm. It was in vain. Her strength prevailed, and her sword found its heart.

  Before Ani could savour her victory, she heard steps behind her, quiet and furtive. She turned around and decapitated a lizard wolf that was crawling up to her. There were three more. Their slowness saved their lives, or rather, it deyed their deaths. They lost their spirit when they witnessed how easily their brethren were decapitated right in front of them. Even a sneak attack was useless. Ani did not wait and let them wallow in despair. She lunged and finished them off. She did not stop there. She went and cut down all those who survived the fmes.

  “Well done,” Henry congratuted her after all the remaining lizard wolves in the vicinity were sin.

  “I need a bath after this,” Ani said as she wiped away the blood on her face.

  “I’m sure that can be arranged once we’re back in Ulrum.”

  “Well, what now? All the monsters here are sin. What else is there?”

  “We wait, I guess? They still have yet to leave this cave.”

  “What if there was some complication, like maybe the terrain shifted yet again?”

  “...Possible, but I don’t feel any changes. The exit’s closed. If there’s any change, I would feel it.”

  “Shall we go make sure that they didn’t encounter any complications?” Ani asked.

  “That won’t be necessary,” said a voice.

  The world turned monochrome before they knew it, and time had come to a halt.

  “Nadea, you’re here.” Henry raised an eyebrow. “If you’re here, that means they have safely made it out of this pce.”

  “They have,” Nadea confirmed.

  “L-Lady Nadea! It’s an honour to meet you!” Ani bowed deeply.

  “Do away with that gesture and tone, Ani. I have no need for such formality and decorum.”

  “Ah, y-yes…” Ani hurriedly straightened herself.

  “Mission complete?” Henry asked.

  “Mission complete.”

  Henry heaved a sigh of relief. “So, how did I do?” he was beaming as he asked this question.

  There was a brief pause. “I say, a solid B minus.”

  Henry’s smile dropped. “A B minus? Really? I expected an A minus, at least. What did I do wrong?”

  “Everything that you did, you have done it well. However, there are things that you didn’t do.”

  “And what is that?”

  “Have you tried looking for other survivors?”

  “We found Jane, didn’t we?”

  “You did, but what about others?”

  “O-others?” Henry had an incredulous expression. “How would I have known that there are others?”

  “You would have if you weren’t so focused on her.”

  “Her? You mean Chloe?”

  “Yes, Chloe. When you found her, instead of letting her find her way back, you resorted to personally escort her to safety. If you let her be, you would have the time to look for other survivors. Yet, you didn’t, because you were obsessed with her.”

  “But he completed the quest, didn’t he?” Ani chimed in.

  “That, he did. But it doesn’t change the fact that he could have done better if he hadn’t been so… distracted. I won’t admonish you for your concern over your women, but there have to be boundaries and restraints. Do you understand?”

  “I understand,” said Henry. “But forgive me, this habit of mine will not change. If given the chance to redo the quest, I will make the same decision, unless I have assurance of Chloe’s safety.”

  Nadea chuckled wryly. “I’m not your parent, nor your teacher. I’m not your master either. I can’t tell you what to do. I can only advise and guide you. So, do what you will, but don’t expect me to clean up your mess in the future.”

  “I don’t expect you to.”

  “We shall see.”