My eyes slowly adjust to the darkness and I was able to see our surroundings. As we ran towards the sobs, we passed by many cages that had monsters inside of them. Like the other captives, these monsters were just as malnourished and injured.

“Lizardman up ahead.”

The lizardman opens a cage and drags out a girl. She punches and bites the lizardman to escape but it doesn’t work. Instead, her actions irritate the lizardman and cause him to widen his mouth as he prepares to eat her. Without a moment’s hesitation, Gareth shoots his arrows to distraction the lizardman as I get close enough to slice the lizardman’s arm off. I turn around to finish off the lizardman but Mako had already engulfed the lizardman in darkness. Its screams were muffled and once it was released, its body was just an empty husk.

I didn’t think much of her dark magic earlier but I can see that her control is better than mine. It might even be better than her control over wind magic.

“Are you ok?”

“Y-yeah, w-who are you?”

“We’re here to rescue you.”

“What!?”

I cover her mouth with the potion bottle and her injuries are healed. I look towards Gareth and Fifi, and they confirm that we haven’t alerted the other lizardmen yet. The girl wrestles free from the bottle covering her mouth and stares at me suspiciously. 

“What did you do? Why is my body so warm?”

“Shh, it’s fine just be quiet.”

“Tch, lucky.”

The girl stops resisting and I carry her into the cage. There were about 50 women packed into the cage but the closer I looked, almost half of them were already dead. Some of them were laying against the walls or bars, some were huddled up in a ball, and some were empty husks staring at the ceiling. Those that were still alive weren’t so different, although they were alive, their eyes were blank and empty like they were dead.

“Is anyone injured? Please come see us if you’re injured.”

No one answers me as they all just silently stare at me. They were looking at me as if I was just a figment of their imagination. What horrors must have they gone through to mentally destroy them like this. Many of them were barely wearing clothes and I could only imagine what they have gone through. I calm myself down as Fifi and I begin to heal the women. There was still some liquid in the potion so I decide to give the rest to the girl’s mother. After her wounds were healed, she begged me to save her mother and I couldn’t refuse. Taking a look at her mother’s body, it was pale and sickly.

“Y-you, you’re so warm. Am I dreaming right now? Ahh, you’re an angel, aren’t you? If so, can I ask you to take care of my daughter? She’s a foolish tomboy but she’s a nice girl, please help her find a husband and tell her that I love her.”

“Mom, what are you talking about!? Y-you can’t die yet! I’m going to get married and have grandchildren. Don’t you want to meet your grandkids!?”

Tears fall down her face as she caresses my cheek with her hand. It was cold but I hold her hand to warm her up. There was a smile on her face as she accepts death, but her daughter hadn’t accepted it. Tears were furiously coming out of her eyes as she keeps on trying to convince her mother to hold on.

“You don’t have to worry, your mother is fine. She just needs some rest but other than that she’s perfectly fine.”

“What?”

“Oh, you’re right. My body feels so much better.”

Seeing that her mother was alright, the two of them had a joyful reunion. Her injuries weren’t as serious as I thought and there was still some of the potion left over. Some of them were seriously injured while some only had scrapes and bruises, but Fifi healed them. Even though their physical injuries were healed, we couldn’t do anything about their mental ones. The lifeless gaze was still in there eyes even though their body should be fine. 

There was one thing that I realized as I had a chance to look around, there were also children in here. I can only hope that Donnel’s family is still alive.

“A-are you from FUUI!?”

“Yes, are you a member of Unit I. We’ve come to rescue you.”

“You...you! Why couldn’t you guys have come earlier!! They could have survived if you came earlier!!!”

She punches me with her fists but there was no strength behind them. I stop Mako and Fifi as I can feel their anger rise up. The girl screams and curses at me with tears in her eyes. Looking to the side I can see two bodies that were wearing the same uniform as the girl screaming at me. Right behind her was another woman in the same tattered uniform lifelessly staring into the void.

I thought I was ready to face the horrors I was going to see but the rage was growing inside of me. I didn’t know any of these women but what if this happened to Mako, Lisa, Jill, Rachel, CZ, or even Fifi. I don’t know what I would do, but I calm myself down as my mission is to save them. It’s my responsibility to bring them back to safety.

“You bastard!! Why didn’t you come a day earlier!? Vivi and Jamie could have survived!!”

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

I didn’t have any words to say to her. Maybe if I used all my power we would have gotten here sooner, maybe if I hadn’t underestimated that lizardman then I wouldn’t have been incapacitated, maybe if I knew how to navigate through a dungeon, maybe if I was stronger. There were so many things I could have done to arrive sooner but I hadn’t done them.

“I’m sorry we’re late but I’m going to get all of you out of here. Even if an arm or two is torn off, I swear that I will save all of you!”

I leave the women to Gareth and Mako as Fifi and I head out of the cage. We caused quite a commotion that two guards had come to check out the situation. I grip the cursed spear tighter as the rage inside of me begins to overflow. My heart is racing and something inside of me is urging me to slaughter them.

I rush towards the first lizardmen and surprised at my appearance, he tries to block me with his spear. I cut his spear in half before stabbing his throat. My movements with the spear have never felt so fluid before. Quickly reacting to the situation, the other lizardman brings up his shield as my spear slams into it. The sound of the clash loudly echoes throughout the entire building.

The lizardman thrusts his sword at me but it was too slow. I’m not the same person as I was the other day, I’ve become stronger. I swiftly dodge all of his attacks and as he tries to catch his breath, I swing my spear upwards and slice off his hand. Realizing that he didn’t have any other weapon, the lizardman tries to bash me with his shield. With all my strength I swing the spear against his shield and it flies out of his hand.

With one fluid motion, I stab directly into his heart. He grabs onto my spear but with only one hand he couldn’t take it out. I jam the spear further in as he resists. My rage wasn’t subsiding at all.

“Jude! Jude! Stop it! We need to get out of here!!”

“S-sorry. Let’s go.”

“Good, you’re back to your sense. I have a plan.”

I come back to my senses as I follow Fifi’s instructions. The fight with the lizardmen hadn’t been quiet at all so it was likely that we were discovered already. I take out the vegetables I had picked up in the dungeon and throw them into the cages. According to Fifi, these vegetables are some kind of drug that sends certain types of monsters into a frenzy. I asked if she had planned this all along but her answer was that these vegetables were also delicious if cooked correctly. 

“What’s so funny? Save some and I’ll show you how delicious these can be when I cook them.”

“Yeah, I can’t wait.”

Fifi was still the same no matter the situation and I couldn’t help but chuckle. My rage was gone and my head was clear again. Besides throwing the vegetables into the cages, I also freed them by cutting the iron bars. Being underfed, the monsters didn’t hesitate to eat the vegetables. From a distance, I could hear the chatter of lizardmen. I hurry and stand before a certain cage.

Out of all the monsters, this one left the most impactful memory. There was a giant rat and I mean giant. Unlike the ones we saw that were the sizes of dogs, this one was easily the size of an elephant. I’m surprised that this monster was even caught by those lizardmen. I throw the vegetables into the cage and break the bars, but the humongous rat refused to eat the vegetables.

It stared straight at me and I could feel some sort of intelligence in its eyes. The humongous rat walks out of the cage and gives me one last glance before charging at a group of approaching lizardmen. A lizardman was instantly caught in between the humongous rat’s teeth and torn apart.

“Guess it didn’t need your food if it can get its own.”

 “Yeah.”

The both of us hurry on back and it looks like everyone’s condition was a little better. They were ready to escape at any time.

“What was that sound, Jude?”

“The lizardmen have discovered us but I let out the other monsters to distract them. We’ll escape while they’re occupied.”

“Ok. Let’s go, everyone.”

Some of the women were in no condition to walk so they had to be carried. I use fire magic and blast through the wooden walls. We exit out one by one, and the rest of our group gathers at my signal.

“Eli! Ally!”

“Daddy!”

I’m glad that Donnel was able to reunite with his family but we weren’t safe yet. I urge them and we head towards the pillar. With the assistance of the men, the injured women were carried and our numbers had reached 68 people. It’s going to be hard trying to protect all of them with only the 4 of us.

I glance back and could see the building being burned down. The sounds of monsters fighting rang clearly and an alarm was set off. We have to hurry or more lizardmen will gather. Maybe I jinxed myself but we encountered a group of 5 lizardmen within the forest. Fifi and I handle two while Gareth and Mako handled another two. We did our best to kill them so we could handle the fifth one, but it got past us.

The lizardmen charges at the group but before he could get any further a white substance sends the lizardman flying away. It made impact with a tree and tries to escape but the white substance left it stuck.

“Watch out!”

Being distracted by the fifth lizardmen, one of the lizardmen I was fighting swings his tail at me. Once again a sticky white substance sends the lizardman I was fighting flying away. Taking that chance I kill both of the lizardmen and assist Mako with killing theirs. I head on over and stab the fifth lizardman with my spear. The girl who had been screaming at me earlier had saved me and the other captives.

“Thanks, you saved us.”

“Yeah, I’m sorry about my outburst earlier. I know its not your fault but I just needed to vent.”

“No, it’s fine. By the way, what’s your name.”

“Its Cammy.”

“Nice to meet you, Cammy. I’m Jude.”

Cammy’s ability was to excrete a glue-like substance from her body. Besides her ability, her skills in supporting the team were exceptional. We encountered a few more lizardmen but her skill at precisely sticking lizardmen to one spot or even slowing them down made it a lot easier to kill them.

Following Donnel’s instructions, we finally reach the safest route to get into the pillar. There were wooden huts around that are more dilapidated than the rest. There weren’t any guards and it was quiet. Our group stealthily navigate around the huts and finally enter one which had the letter K marked on the outside.

Inside of the hut was Wiliam and their group. The hut was relatively big to accommodate the lizardmen’s large size but with 68 plus the 10 from William’s group, it was packed.

“Good, you finally made it. I thought something went wrong since the alarms were ringing. Is that everyone?”

“Yeah, there’s 64 excluding us. Is this place safe?”

William explains what happened on their side and it was relatively safe for them. They encountered a few lizardmen but they were able to handle them. According to Donnel, this area of the village was where the older lizardmen live. The lizardmen society was one that was based on strength so older lizardmen who have grown frail and weak are left here to rot. There are rarely any guards here because of that so they were able to kill those old lizardmen easily.

“Cammy, you’re safe. Is it only you and Maze that made?”

“Yeah, is it only the two of you?”

“Yes, the rest tried to find an exit but they haven’t returned.”

“I see.”

The members from Unit I reunited and as we were about to go over our plans, the ground begins to rumble. Another alarm sounds off but that sound was drowned out by a monster’s roar. The regular members in our group begin to panic but Fifi and I head outside. Inside the village, I could see a figure that was towering over the trees, it was a rat that was at least 20 feet tall.