Now that the remaining saints had time to look around better, Kaden, who had not been hiding any longer, was noticed.

“There! Someone is in there!” Said the same person who had shouted at Kaden right after the explosion. “It must be the culprit!”

“We must not let this person escape, Calen!” Said the shield caster. “This place was already looted! All of our losses will be for nothing, if he escapes.”

“Arvan, ghosts ignore him”, Calen pointed out.

“He must have better way to hide from them”, Arvan said. “We should get out of here. Remain under the shield. We must get away from these ghosts and then we can fight at least for a time before they come again. I will have this shield up to prevent them from attacking us! But we should move quickly!”

They did not hesitate and left after Kaden quickly. Most of the saints had already died, but there was five of them left.

Kaden himself was quickly making his way out of the labyrinth into the main tunnels. He could hear the remaining people follow him. He knew he was pretty fast, but he doubted these people would allow him to truly escape. Even in case of an escape, he was carrying loot from the laboratory and they would come looking for him.

The matter of loot was also one of the things Kaden had started to question. So many people had joined together to find the place, but there was very little to take. The storage area had been empty. Did someone loot it already? Then sell the place to whatever parties might be interested? A scam. Mostly one, at least. Selling information of a place that you had already looted of anything relevant. Perhaps whatever Kaden had found was irrelevant?

He had some metals, money crystals and then some information of Trohin’s research. The Devour spell was probably the most valuable thing. Who would take everything else except a spell and some odds and ends?

Kaden had a few hunches, but none of that mattered. There was going to be a fight. The open area in between the labyrinthine small tunnels and the large main tunnels was probably good. Kaden trusted his ability to move so extra room was good. He took one of the swords he had picked up and jumped on a ledge at the top, just where the main tunnel part started.

Then the saints came out.

“Look! There!” Shouted one of the saints and pointed towards Kaden.

“What the fuck? Its just some kid? Everyone was killed by this damn kid?” Shouted another.

“Just kill him”, said Calen in a cold voice. “Make him suffer while at it.”

“Hehe”, Kaden laughed a bit. “If you guys haven’t realized it yet, you were scammed. There was nothing to take from the laboratory.”

“Kid, if you think thats going to make you suffer less, keep dreaming”, Calen answered.

“While I’m telling the truth, its not for any other reason than that I want you to know your friends all died pointlessly for nothing”, Kaden continued mocking. “The rest of you will all die pointlessly too. Take that thought with to hell.”

At this point two people leaped out from the shield and attacked Kaden. As usual, he was not intending to be on defensive. Kaden also jumped forward with much greater speed than the attackers had expected. While Kaden surely did not know how to use sword well, he also didn’t really care. He swung his sword at the closest opponent who was still slightly surprised of Kaden’s speed.

There was an attempt to block the strike, but Kaden, despite looking like a teen, was much stronger than an adult at Channel Opening. Besides, Kaden was using the sword like a hammer anyway. The sword was pushed aside simply due to strength difference.

“What! Nooooo!” Screamed the man.

Before the man could react, Kaden struck again, this time the sword slash penetrated from shoulder to deep in chest. A fatal hit.

While at this the other one struck at Kaden too. With a quick dodge Kaden barely managed to avoid the strike, but was then knocked off his feet by the more experienced fighter. Kaden lost his sword!

“Finish it quickly!” Shouted Calen. “Don’t underestimate him. This kid isn’t normal and our fight will attract ghosts! Get out there too just in case, Mor!”

Only the two leaders were inside the shield anymore as the last one moved out to make sure there were no mistakes.

The one fighting with Kaden acted quickly and proceeded to impale him with a sword. Kaden quickly rolled aside to side avoiding the strike, but he was still in the open an vulnerable. He was in bit of a bind so he pulled out mana from his core and released a burst of flames. This surprised his opponent who was forced to take steps back.

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Unlike that other group before coming to the remnant, this man seemed to know how to deal with flames quickly. Still, it was too late, Kaden got up and leaped forward. While still distracted by the flames, the man was unable to defend properly, Kaden screeched and bit into the man’s neck and tore it open with his teeth.

Blood spewed on Kaden. He then felt pain from his arm. The other man, Mor, had hit Kaden with his sword. There was surprise on his face. He had expected at very least cut off Kaden’s arm! Yet the actual damage was merely a bleeding cut, but not too big problem for Kaden.

“Shit, this is truly abnormal!” Calen said. “Mor, be careful! This savage kid is about as tough as a dire beast! Arvan keep up the shield, we underestimated that bastard. I’m going in, but we will need your shield due to the ghosts!”

Arvan nodded.

The man, Mor, was shocked and there was certain amount of seriousness on his face.

Kaden activated his core fully and prepared to fight with his claws. He rushed right at Mor, who had taken a defensive stance. Kaden knew he had to kill him before the leader reaches him. He had been lucky so far. All they had seen was a kid. Perhaps being underestimated was his greatest weapon. Had they not done that he would have ran into the tunnels and used the ghost machines to his advantage.

Kaden’s claws slammed against Mor, but the defense was able to withstand it. Without minding it, Kaden continued his furious attacks as was his usual style. Mor was experienced, but he was now fighting one on one against basically a human shaped dire beast. His defenses were unable to hold and eventually Kaden was able to slash open his chest.

Wounded and taking steps back, Mor casted a spell, a beam of mana. It cut over Kaden’s chest, leaving behind a half burnt and half bleeding cut. It was rather major damage this time, but Kaden did his best to ignore the pain and with all his strength he slammed his claw inside Mor’s chest, who had just cast his trump card and was unable to defend.

Kaden tore apart Mor’s chest and tossed the corpse towards closing in Calen.

He was in pain, but this seemed to pull out and activate Kaden’s survival instinct even more than before. It was like he was about to go berserk. This wasn’t uncommon for beasts, but Kaden wished to remain as clear headed as possible so he held himself in check. With this in mind, Kaden attempted to retreat slightly into the main tunnels.

Enraged Calen was quickly following behind and so did Arvan, as ghosts began appearing from the labyrinth tunnels drawn in by the combat.

“There is no escape!” Calen shouted in rage as he rushed after Kaden.

Kaden stopped and gathered as much mana to use as he could, core at maximum and his hair plume glowing. He pulled another sword from his pouch.

His tough body was doing its best to suppress pain and bleeding from his wounds. He extended his claw to the large wound from the magic that Mor had used, he used his own fire to cauterize it. Kaden ignored the pain silently as he burned the wound shut.

Calen was close enough to see it and had even more confirmation that this kid was beyond normal. Kaden was like a beast, but no beast would be able to use magic to disguise as human until far higher level. Still, Calen treated Kaden as a beast by now. An intelligent one. Calen infused his sword with mana and charged forward.

Kaden did the same.

Calen was most experienced from the now mostly dead team. It could bring the gap close against Kaden who had a core to support his unusual strength.

“I don’t know who you are or even what you are, but you made a mistake messing with me!” Said Calen. He then struck at Kaden hard, who just barely could block it, and was knocked back.

Calen continued with his success and struck more. Again and again. Calen was too experienced compared to Kaden. He knew how to fight even a dire beast alone and win. Kaden was bleeding heavily from many wounds, but none of them were fatal. Calen was just exhausting Kaden and it was working.

Then suddenly Calen released a spell, wave of energy was expelled from his arms towards Kaden who was then slammed against the wall.

Kaden slumped on the ground gasping for breath, but he was not going to give up. That was just how he was. He gathered fire on his claw and ejected the ball of fire towards Calen who was closing.

Calen dodged it and prepared to strike.

*BOOM*

Something exploded against Calens back. Kaden leaped up and struck! His sword penetrated Calen’s throat. Then he made a sideways movement as he pulled the sword out. Blood burst from the now half severed neck. As if Kaden needed any more blood on him. Calen slumped down on the ground, dead.

Kaden was breathing heavily. He was injured. Perhaps not fatally, but still very badly. He had managed to send out fire type mana from his core and control it with his extended reach that came from his mana channel. He had not done so before and he was lucky it had worked. He decided he would train that method more later. Sometimes his strength and claws were not enough.

“Hmmmm”, a voice came from behind Kaden. “Looks like I will be the last one to benefit fully from all this. There is time before the ghosts get here. I had separated this area from their senses. I also have to thank you for killing that Calen. I only tolerated him because I had to. Hehe, he and his team are dead. My followers can be replaced.”

It was Arvan with an annoying smile.

“Everyone else is dead and you, kid, whatever you are, you are weak and injured”, Arvan continued rejoicing. “It will be easy to kill you and take whatever you have found.”

A light was coming from the tunnel behind Arvan. Kaden stood where he was and kept up his battle state as well as he could.

“Just give up and I will end you quickly”, Arvan continued and approached Kaden with intent to finish him.

Kaden suddenly moved slightly sideways towards Arvan who prepared to block an attack. Yet Kaden never truly attacked. He just kicked Arvan slightly to make him take a few steps back, even if the actual attack was easily blocked. With that kick Kaden had foothold to jump to the side of the tunnel.

*SPLAT*

Before Arvan had even noticed it, the soundless ghost machine collided with him. For some reason the machine seemed rather solid or at least carried force with it despite being ghostly like all the human shaped ghosts.

“Heh, they are all dead now”, Kaden muttered and slumped down. He was alive. Heavily injured, but alive. “Heh...ehehheahhahahahaAHAHAHAAHHA!”

Kaden laughed to his heart’s content. Victory truly tasted good.