Silence settled over the room that seemed to last an eternity, the image fixed in the observers' eyes. Then came a thunderous sound that shook the slaves out of their reverie. Viran's assailant was suddenly pushed back a considerable distance by the man, his momentum coming to a stop with a slide as he stood observing his target.

 

The old soldier carried his new weapon in one hand and with the other, he held onto his stomach. Blood streamed down through his fingers, the wound too serious to merely ignore. Still, Viran didn't collapse or buckle under an injury that would have killed anyone else in his place.

 

His eyes stared impassively at his attacker, but the man didn't move either. Both he and 'Bertel’ stood staring at each other and Red couldn't help but feel as if an invisible confrontation was being held between them. Whoever moved first might decide the winner of the battle.

 

That was until the slaves finally recognized what had just happened.

 

"It-... It's Bertel, but he- We saw his body earlier!" A certain slave shattered the silence. Murmurs of panic started to run through the crowd. Even those who missed the attack as it happened connected the dots after seeing Viran's wounds and the odd scene that had formed in the tunnel.

 

Yet, everyone seemed to be too apprehensive to do any sudden movements, as if the atmosphere itself around them could cut.

 

"Bo-... Boss are you okay?" Gruff, who was nearby asked, legitimate worry in his voice.

 

He tried to approach his leader, but the man raised his weapon hand to stop him, his gaze trained at 'Bertel' all the while. His stout subordinate seemed to be unsure of what to do, before finally looking at the seemingly returned slave and his expression twisted in fear.

 

"There's no way..." Gruff said out loud. "Boss, you have to believe me. The head we saw earlier was definitely Bertel. He wasn't even here during the fight. There's..."

 

"That's not Bertel." Viran interrupted him, his voice solemn like Red had never heard in the past.

 

At that, the boy took the time to examine the figure more closely. His expression was abnormal, completely devoid of emotion or movement and his eyes remained unblinking. At that revelation, the youth also paid attention to the rest of his body, more specifically his bare chest. It was unmoving.

 

'Bertel' wasn't breathing.

 

As Viran's blood slid off his arm, Red was able to see the limb in full. Initially, the youth thought he saw an armored glove, which he assumed had been the weapon used to pierce the old soldier's stomach. But that wasn't the case.

 

As the seconds went by, this glove slowly expanded up the slave's arm from beneath the skin. The human coat slowly fell away as the true form took its place. What Red thought were fingers, resembled more sharp claws like those belonging to a bear. What was armor, now looked more like a dark exoskeleton covering the hand and the rest of the limb.

 

In the joints, strange purplish, exposed, pulsing musculature could be seen connecting the plates of an exoskeleton to form a complete humanoid arm. The process continued, gradually reaching the thing's shoulder.

 

"We need to attack it before it completely transforms!" Viran screamed, some emotion finally coming back to his tone. "This is the thing that has been killing us one by one! If we let it go there's no way any one of us is getting out of here alive!"

 

The insectoid creature remained still throughout the whole speech. The slaves seemed hesitant to move, much more so after identifying the state their previously invulnerable leader was in. However, at that point, Gruff's voice suddenly rose.

 

"You heard the boss!" The giant screamed, seemingly recovering his courage. "None of us can escape right now! If Viran dies here, what do you think awaits the rest of us?!" At that some slaves stood forward, still fearful, but nonetheless intent on joining the incoming fight. "Are we just going to let ourselves be killed off one by one by this bug?!"

 

Shouts of agreement echoed through the tunnel. On Grunt's behest, a semi-circle slowly surrounded the unresponsive humanoid creature, slaves brandishing their weapons in the thing's general direction. At that point, part of its neck and chitinous chest were starting to reveal themselves.

 

"Wait for my command!" Viran screamed, uncharacteristically hanging back behind the other slaves.

 

Red didn't step forward immediately, looking over at his mentor. The man coincidentally also gazed in his direction before waving with his hand for him to come closer. The boy grabbed his cleaver and headed in his direction. When he arrived, Viran's expression suddenly changed and he crouched down to whisper in his ears.

 

"You need to follow me when I tell you to. Do you understand?"

 

This close, Red could see the man's hand tremble, and his voice had taken on a never before seen worried tone.

 

"Do you understand me, kid?!" This time Viran didn't bother whispering.

 

Red simply nodded his head.

 

"Boss, it's getting faster!" Gruff called out.

 

Looking over, the transformation seemed to be reaching the insectoid's face and lower body. A bony pair of legs were revealed, as well as a large set of serrated mandibles on where Bertel's mouth used to be. Even people who had never fought before grabbed whatever object they could use as a weapon and stood by the sidelines while the more capable slaves squared up against the opponent. Viran got up after giving Red a grave look and turned towards the rest of the slaves.

 

"On my mark!" The man ordered, before raising his weapon above his head, his other hand still holding fast onto his wound. Seconds went by while the others waited with bated breath for his signal. "Now!" His arm swung down.

 

First were the throwing weapons. No one was eager enough to enter in melee with the thing immediately. Stones, axes, and spears flew forward. A few of them missed but from this short distance, even the most unpracticed slave had an easy time hitting the creature.

 

Weapons clattered against the humanoid monstrosity, all bouncing harmlessly off of his exoskeleton. The insectoid didn't even so much as flinch, remaining in the same position it constantly had maintained. At that, hesitation showed in some of the slaves' faces.

 

"What are you waiting for, don't let it rest!" Viran snarled at them.

 

Finally, an exceptionally courageous slave charged the creature from behind while carrying a sort of large stone mace. Heaving the weapon, the man brandished it against the insect's head. That was when it moved.

 

It was too fast. Red barely followed its movements as the humanoid's arm swung back. A green light traced its movements, remaining completely visible in the air for a few seconds before dissipating. The head of the slave who had just been about to strike it simply exploded in a fine mist of blood. The weapon that he held clattered to the ground split in half.

 

The rest of them froze. The corpse of the slave crashed down lifelessly. The insectoid lifted its head, the right half of its face already transformed into what seemed like part of a triangular-shaped skull.

 

Three narrow green blazing eyes stared impassively at the prey in front of it. Suddenly the glow within them intensified. The creature arched back.

 

"Cover your ears!" Viran screamed at Red, doing as much himself while crouching down.

 

The boy hurried to do the same. Barely had his hands touched the side of his head that the scream came.

 

TCHRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

 

As much as Red tried the sound seemed to penetrate through every inch of his body. He felt as if his consciousness was gradually slipping before the noise completely stopped. All around him slaves collapsed onto the ground their eyes completely white and spit falling out of their open mouths.

 

A few fortunate ones still stood, but they simply groaned in pain or grasped their heads in between their hands. Red was about to get up before he felt a pull on his shirt and he was suddenly dragged off his feet. They had crossed 50 meters in a dash before the boy noticed Viran was the one hauling him along.

 

After a few more seconds of running, the man suddenly dove into another branching path. This process repeated itself for the next 30 seconds before he finally slowed down. Red felt dizzy and he was certain he would vomit if there was anything at all in his stomach.

 

He felt his feet touch the ground again and promptly collapsed. Looking up, the youth saw Viran leaning against the cave wall, breathing heavily while still holding his wound.

 

"Get... Get up!" The man said in between gasps. "I can't carry you the rest of the way. We need to run."

 

Red felt some sort of balance return to him and using some rock as support, he slowly got on his feet. However, when he noticed his empty hands, the boy looked around in alarm.

 

"My... My weapon."

 

"Here, I took it." Viran's words came as a relief to him as he flung the cleaver onto the ground. "Hold it close, you're gonna need it."

 

"Shouldn't we hide?" Red asked after picking up his blade.

 

"There's no hiding from that... We need to- Ugh!" He stopped midway through his words, holding his wound tighter as his legs buckled under him for a second.

 

"...You're not gonna make it like this." The boy briefly stated after looking at the outpour of blood from his wound.

 

Examining it more closely, Red could see that the attack had pierced the side of his abdomen rather than the center. Viran managed to avoid having his spine broken in half either by luck or his swift reactions. It nevertheless was enough damage to kill a person, even one as strong as him.

 

"I know my own condition better than you, you fucking bastard!" Viran snapped at him in anger. "We need to go to my hideout, get some of the paste I have left. Won't do shit for my crushed organ but it should stop the bleeding... We need to kill it."

 

"It managed to cripple you in a single strike. If we fight it, we'll both die." Even in this situation, Red felt calm and his expression remained unchanged.

 

It wasn't because he wasn't afraid of dying, that was still a constant worry in the back of his mind eating away at him. Rather the boy had confronted death a lot in the past few years and much more so over the last several months since he had met Viran. He had learned from his experience that panicking or letting emotion drive your decisions wouldn't be helpful even if the situation seemed hopeless.

 

"You don't understand." The man finally responded. "That fucking thing will track every single human in this place and hunt them down..."

 

"But it will focus on you, right?" Red interrupted him.

 

Viran bitterly smiled. It seemed he had hit the nail in the head. The ambush earlier had proven that the insectoid could judge the strengths of all the slaves fairly well, since it decided to target the strongest amongst them. It apparently had observed them from the shadows while they fought the other monsters and it waited for the right opportunity to strike.

 

"...If it kills me you'll not be far behind."

 

"I know." The boy flatly replied. "I don't intend to run. We have a deal, you and me. You still need to help me escape."

 

"Haha!" The man laughed out loud. "And I thought it was the other way around... Let's go, before it catches up." With that, Viran took a deep breath and started running down the tunnels.

 

Even with a hole in his stomach, the old soldier was still extremely fast. Red had to push his shorter legs fairly hard to keep up, but the effort barely registered amidst the concentration the boy kept on his task.

 

"What was that green line?" The youth asked the question that had been on his mind for a while now as they sped through the tunnels.

 

"...Spiritual Energy." Viran answered after some hesitation.

 

Red had a hunch this was the case. It would have surprised him if humans were the only ones capable of harnessing that power.

 

"It looked like it manifested outside of its body..." Red commented.

 

"Yeah... That thing has opened its Spiritual Sea."

 

Somehow, their odds got even worse.