The bats were extremely fast and launched themselves at Holt.

“Drake, Elwin run! Myra, help me deal with these two! The rest of you hold back the demons” Hold commanded and rushed to deal with them.

Holt clashed fiercely against the vampire bats. Drake wanted to help but was pulled back by Elwin.

“This is not a fight we can interfere in,” he said.

Drake felt helpless, but he knew that Elwin was right. Even if he was at his peak, he wouldn’t be able to do anything, let alone in his exhausted state now.

Elwin turned to his soldiers. “Everyone, listen up. We will let the reinforcements take care of them. We must retreat.”

No one objected and they all started to leave. Some demons would still pass through, but they were easily dealt with. 

After a while, they descended from the canyon on the other side, and started making their way back to the village, through the Beast Woods. They rode for a few hours before arriving at a clearing, at which point Drake suggested for them all to take a break. They had been fighting and running non-stop for almost two days now.

The soldiers were more than grateful to take up that offer and they all unmounted and collapsed on the ground, exhausted.

Drake sighed… They came here with two hundred soldiers, but now only twenty of them were left. This world was too dangerous!

Elwin sat next to Drake. “You really saved everyone brother. If it weren’t for you, we’d all be dead.”

Drake looked at Elwin, and then at all the other soldiers. The place was quiet, so everyone heard Elwin’s statement. No one disagreed. Everyone looked at Drake with reverence, as if he was their saviour.

“Yes, he’s right master- no deputy general Drake,” Helen said, showing her acknowledgement of Drake. Not only as a fighter, but also as a leader.

Drake looked down at his feet. He didn’t feel like a leader. Not a good one anyway. So many people had died under his leadership, and he kept asking himself if there was anything he could have done to save more people.

Seeing his reaction, Elwin chided him again.

“Hey, you did your best. Everyone knows that.”

Drake looked at him again, but still couldn’t accept it.

“Yes, general Elwin is right,” a solider shouted out. More and more people shouted out their approvals and gratitude.

Drake heard everything and was speechless.

Tears slowly started welling up in his eyes. He didn’t know what he expected when he came to fight. He knew there would be death and chaos, but this was too much. He had almost lost his brother to a surprise ambush by an undead, and just as he was recovering, they were almost swallowed by a demon horde. Barely surviving the horde, they were then welcomed by two dark grand mages who were now fighting his father.

Why was everything going wrong?

Too much had happened over just this one day. Is this what war was like? Or was it the nature of this world? He didn’t know. All he knew was that he had to get back to the village, and he wanted to see his father again.

Elwin saw Drake’s expression and gave him a hug.

Half an hour later.

Everyone was just preparing to leave again but they were suddenly interrupted.

‘ROAR!’ ‘ROAR!’ ‘ROAR!’

Threes huge roars shook everyone awake.

What the hell? Did the demons really penetrate through the reinforcements?

Drake looked back. Huge tremors were coming from behind the trees.

“RUN!” Elwin yelled.

Everyone mounted their horses and started to run, but the footsteps were catching up.

Helen suddenly stopped.

“What are you doing?” Drake asked.

“If we keep running, they will definitely catch up. I will stall them, you all run.”

“Are you insane?” Elwin asked. Judging from the tremors, they were all powerful monsters, probably strong, servant class onis. “There is no way you can fight them all on your own.”

“Then I’ll stay too!” yelled another soldier.

“And me.”

“And me.”

Soon, everyone stopped and volunteered to hold back the demons.

“Then we’ll also stay,” Drake said.

“No!” Helen protested. “We are all replaceable, but you two aren’t. The two of you need to get back!”

“But-” Elwin was cut off.

“Sorry general, I cannot obey you on this. And you don’t need to worry, with so many of us, at least some of us will make it back alive!” she said with a smile.

Elwin was speechless. He wanted to protest, but Drake suddenly pulled him.

“No, stop! Drake, let me go!” Elwin thrashed about, but in his injured state he was easily subdued by Drake.

Drake hated himself for leaving them behind, but he had no choice. Drake was almost completely out of mana, and Elwin was severely injured. Even if they stayed, they would only be a hinderance to the other soldiers.

They had to run.

So, he made up his mind and dragged Elwin back. While running away, Drake looked behind him to spot three, sixteen foot tall, ripped minotaurs, glowing red in their berserk state, crushing several soldiers.

Drake turned back and continued running.

They ran for half an hour. Elwin quietened down and stared blankly into the sky. Suddenly, Drake started hearing tremors behind him again. Elwin’s eyes widened.

Did they all die? Drake thought.

Drake stopped his horse and unmounted, taking Elwin onto his shoulder. Elwin did not resist, as if having resigned himself to his fate. 

They could not run anymore, so he would try to hide. And if that didn’t work, he would fight. That was the plan for now.

Drake kicked the horse into motion while hiding behind a large tree with Elwin. A minotaur went past them and chased after the horse. The two then started moving in the opposite direction. A few minutes later they heard a screech from the direction the minotaur went in, followed by a roar.

The minotaur clearly killed the horse, and it was angry at having let its prey get away. It then ran back, trying to find them.

Drake picked up the pace, but he could not compare to a sixteen-foot minotaur’s speed in his weakened state. Pretty soon, it came close.

‘This is it then, there is no way I can fight that thing with almost zero mana left,’ Drake thought.

He decided that he would hide Elwin behind one tree, and he would run in another direction to take the minotaur away. Drake scanned his surrounding and spotted a large tree that was perfect.

Drake rapidly approached the tree and went around the side. He dropped Elwin down and was about to run away when he felt someone tugging at his arm.

But it wasn’t his brother.

The hand was small and soft. Drake turned around to spot what could only be described as a hologram. No, it was more like a spirit. It looked like his healing fairy but was purple in colour.

What the hell was a spirit doing here?

The spirit curled its fingers towards Drake, as if beckoning him to follow. Even Elwin was surprised by this and came out of his trance.

“What is that? Does it want us to follow it?” Elwin asked.

“I don’t know, but I would rather follow that than the minotaur!” Drake replied.

The fairy giggled and then started flying. It stopped after a few meters. It then pointed at the two brothers, pointed at the ground, and then disappeared into the ground!

‘What the hell?’ Drake thought.

But the minotaur roared loudly again, much closer now. They didn’t have a choice.

Drake ran to that spot and touched the ground. Drake was enveloped by a purple light, and then he disappeared!

Elwin’s eyes widened. Without hesitation, he followed.

Drake felt dizzy and lightheaded.

He had closed his eyes reflexively, and opening them now, he was surrounded by darkness. No that wasn’t right.

The room was very small and dark, but there were occasional wall torches shedding some light.

After a few seconds, a purple light appeared next to him and from it came Elwin.

Elwin stumbled around disoriented from the teleportation, and Drake immediately went to help him.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Yes. Where are we?” Elwin asked in response.

Drake looked around.

“No bloody clue.”

There was only one door in this room so the two decided to open it. They were greeted by a long, dark corridor, which was similarly lit by wall torches scattered about.

Drake picked a random direction and started walking. Every few meters, he would find a turning or a junction or another room.

This… feels like a maze!

“Where the hell are we?” Drake thought out loud.

Elwin stopped.

“Wait!” he yelled. Drake looked back.

“Do you know the story… of the founding ancestor?”

Drake remembered Holt mentioning him when giving him his martial arts cultivation technique. His Twelve Star Supreme Body Transformation Arts used to belong to the village ancestor.

Seeing his expression, Elwin continued.

“The founding ancestor was the man who founded Jain village. He was a powerful mage who reached the mage emperor realm!”

A mage emperor - that was the highest level a mortal could reach.

“Okay, but why are you mentioning that now?” Drake asked.

“Well…” Elwin hesitated. “It is believed that before he died, the founding ancestor took all of his knowledge and created an inheritance underground… in an underground maze.”

Drake froze.

“So, you’re telling me… that we are in the inheritance grounds of a mage emperor?”