Bruno walked at a quick pace in the secret path. It was only lit by a torch that was kept just after the entrance and was ignited using magic!

Yatish was barely able to keep up and was already starting to take heavy breaths, he wanted to ask about magic as soon as he saw the torch being magically lit but had to focus on just following Bruno.

The path itself didn't quite make it easy to travel in. It was dimly lit, more like a tunnel with a width around a meter and height around 2 meters, but even that kept varying, going as low as a meter at one point.

The floor was mostly dry dirt and sand, the kind that saps your strength, coupled with the slight upwards inclination it made Yatish all the more regretful about not exercising frequently.

Watching Bruno was an experience in and of itself. The way he could walk in these conditions with his huge body and the heavy looking armor and sword demonstrated years of muscle training and radiated power!

"huff.... Huff... how much longer do we have to go???"

Bruno looked back at the pathetic look on Yatish's face and stopped.

"We still have a long way to go, at least let's reach the halfway mark and then we can rest for a bit."

" who said anything about being tired? Huff... huff... I'm just bored."

"haha... sure. But still, it would be better to rest, should a scout see us when coming out of the tunnel we might have to fight or run from them"

Yatish gulped.....

He certainly did not want to fight something which Bruno was running from.

"Okay, but could just explain how far exactly have we come?"

"hmm... I think we are about a third there."

Yatish kicked himself mentally. 'damn... I'll die before reaching the end,' he thought to himself.

The path was quite old. Even kings have walked these very paths before. The whole route was about 10 km in length and also had forks in the shape of a thin "Y", such that it was easy to figure out which path led outside, but while going in reverse, it would be impossible without a map. The tunnels themselves more mostly natural but had been modified for use by an ancient magician of the Luto family.

Bruno was mostly quiet during the whole way as he wanted to preserve his energy as much as he could. He was a highly trained knight of a noble family and knew enough magic to augment his fighting as well. Truly worthy of being called ' The eastern wall,' he served as the commander of the king's main army for five years before retiring to the east.

They reached the mid-point in about an hour and a half and rested for a bit, and it was clear that this place was not natural. It was a spherical enclosure and even had benches made of rock.

They sat on the benches, and Bruno offered Yatish some water in a pouch, and after resting for 20 minutes, they started again. The path forward wasn't inclined and was comparatively more comfortable to walk on.

After walking another hour they finally reached the end of the path, the tunnel didn't end where Bruno stopped, instead, there were metal rungs on the side and a visible trapdoor at the top of this 5 meter long well like a hole.

(Yatish's POV)

"huff.... Huff..."

Finally!!

We're finally here. My stomach feels upset.

'what kind of monster is this Bruno person.'

"Listen I know we have to escape as fast as possible, but I estimate its already around midnight, shouldn't we take a break here and go out early in the morning."

"We can't dawdle here any longer," Bruno replied.

"Why ?!?! this place seems so safe. Is it a forest above us? Or plains? Either way, wouldn't this tunnel be safer than being out in the wild at night??" I retorted.

"Listen carefully! Even I have limits of patience, dammit ", he almost shouted. "I need to get you as far from here as possible right now, and traveling at night is best if we wanna be covert in our movements. Besides, there's nothing in these forests that I can't defeat, so you'll be safe.... That is what I promised to..... to..."

His voice got a lot softer towards the end. I recalled he had said before that the mage was his wife. I guess she's still in his mind, of course! Damn, that was insensitive of me. I remember when my friend's sister died in an accident, how hard it was for him to move forward.

Bruno must be feeling just as bad, maybe even worse! Knowing that his wife didn't just die due to an accident instead was killed in some kind of bombardments, he must be feeling so angry.

"I'm sorry...."

He didn't say anything and just wiped his moist eyes. Then actioned me to follow after him on the rungs.

This time I did as told and started climbing the metal rungs on the sidewall of the tunnel. Bruno reached the top and slowly opened the trapdoor on the top. We had already left the torch below us, so it as almost pitch dark, and as soon as he opened the trapdoor, the tunnel was illuminated by pale silver moonlight.

The moon was right overhead and looked triple the size of the moon on earth, yet today seems to be a quarter moon only. Still, The illumination seemed the same as that of a full moon on earth, and I was glad for some light, but I don't think Bruno will be happy about it.

He got out, and I followed him, he started whispering.

" listen.... You have to be quiet from now on. There will probably be scouts around here."

This place seemed desolate, there were tall trees which resembled pine trees, but not quite precisely, these seem to be even taller and thicker. A thin veil of fog was lingering, which seemed to shine ominously due to the moonlight; there was an eerie silence and chill in the air.

I don't quite understand why there will be scouts kilometers from the city. We seem to have come quite far, but I don't think now is the right time to ask this, so I just nod.

He then closed the trapdoor and put some dirt and leaves on it, earlier it seems a layer of the natural ground was above the door to hide it.

"Oh! I got it! This way, if any scouts come, they'll think that no one has come out of it yet, and they would go inside rather than looking around above ground."

"Hoh... good intuition, yes, that was my intention indeed" he seemed slightly impressed. I guess he thought I didn't look like someone who had any experience in this kind of thing, and well, he's right, but I have gone through enough ahem.... media content to figure this much out.

Bruno looked around and was probably trying to figure out exactly which direction we have to go in, so I sat on the ground. Soon we started walking again, I had no idea where I was going, and at this point, I had given up trying and decided to trust Bruno till I see a town or something.

After walking some 30 mins through the forest, Bruno whispers "pretend I'm not speaking and keep walking..... we are being followed"

I almost freeze up. If he had not warned me prior, I would have totally looked back. I whisper back," shittt! What will you do now?"

"don't make any sudden movements and keep following my lead," he whispers.

He suddenly spoke in a normal volume "hmm... we have come far enough, why don't we spend the night here?"

"wha...at? Oh... Okay! Yeah sure," I almost shouted the 'yeah sure.' I figure he's trying to show them we've lowered our guard, and I go along with him.

He takes out a blanket from god knows where and hands it to me. "here.... don't worry about me I'm much resilient than you."

I just take it and sit down with my back to a tree and pretend to sleep. ' I hope this guy knows what he's doing.'

I hear Bruno sit beside me. Good! This way, at least he's close enough in case of danger.

After 15 mins of pretending to sleep, I really started to fall asleep, it had been a tough day, and I was hungry, but I was too tired to care about anything, I was slowly drifting into sleep and recalling whatever had happened today. Maybe it was really a dream, and when I wake up, I will realize that I fell asleep in the balcony like an idiot.

Suddenly I hear a sound like wind flowing fast and then a crashing sound, this jolts me back to reality, and I open my eyes. Bruno was standing in front of me like he was protecting me from something, I guess the scout was an assassin as well and threw some kind of weapon at me. I wonder if it was a kunai knife.....

Bruno hands me a small dagger and starts walking towards the assassin.

"come out! I know where you are."

I hear more sounds, something very small or invisible was coming closer to Bruno. He used his sword and slashed at thin air.

"huh... wind blades... So you're a wind manipulation type. an apt choice for a scout.... You people are always damn fast at running away."

To my eyes I neither saw any enemy nor could I any longer follow Bruno, he almost disappeared from there, and sounds of metal clashing came from a distance

klangGG! swish! swish! Ughh!

In less than 10 mins he was back with the assailant in tow. The assassin was clothed in dark clothing without much metal armor, and looked somewhat like a ninja except that his clothes were minimally designed and honestly looked like a bad cosplay of a ninja. I reckon this is much more practical rather than a ninja's clothing, which always seems to be laden with accessories.

No.... I was focusing on the wrong thing.

"IT's FACE! IT's a fucking demon!! Arghhhh", I half shouted.