CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

ESCAPING THE DUNGEON

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We weren’t out of trouble yet. I wiped my eyes and got to work, though Theo had clearly been at this for longer than I had, pushing any doubt that he’d known about the imps out of my mind.

Occasionally, I’d spot a burst of wind flash around him that deflected a dagger swing or a firebolt, and he had at least three different ways to kill. He looked almost comfortable doing it. Feral. A wild thing, blades of wind slicing enemies around him like he was the center of a maelstrom.

“Here!” He shouted before he placed something in my hand.

I gripped it before I even realized what it was. When I did, I glared. It was my damn gun! A Smith and Wesson SD Series. I’d only taken it to the range a few times, but it looked like Theo had put it through its paces these past few days.

I turned and aimed, shooting one of the spellcaster imps at center mass. Nothing could get near me with my squadron of turrets blasting away at everything. Theo was taking a breather and pulling out more of those red vials. I could see cuts decorating his skin, and his shirt was torn almost to the sleeves.

“Are you hurt!?” He asked.

“Not really! A few cuts and scrapes!” I shouted before gunning down another imp outside my turrets’ range. Their numbers were dwindling rapidly in the face of both of our attacks. For the first time down in this cave, I felt somewhat confident, though I knew that wouldn’t be the case if not for the hordes of gold that had littered the ground before I’d even arrived.

“Great! I’ve got some potions for you, just in case!” He shouted before more roots sprung up to capture another imp. He pulled our revolver out of his bag before aiming and missing again. Good lord, where did the man learn to shoot?

“Keep using the mace and the magic roots! Let me do the shooting!” I shouted. I’d grown up around guns, while Theo had only really experienced them for a short while in the military. He’d never been the best shot.

“There aren’t many bullets left in that! I’ve got a few clips for you!” he said as I shot yet another imp dead. He threw one of those ankh objects towards the ground and a flash of wind blades sliced a small group of two more imps to ribbons, but a third was in range to attack him.

It lunged, but before it could hit Theo, my remaining traps began to pelt it with ice bolts that froze the creature solid before shattering him into shards.

“They’re called magazines!” I shouted as he tossed me a fully loaded one.

“What?” he replied before his morning star came crashing down on another imp’s head, his break over.

“They aren’t called clips! These are magazines! Weren’t you in the military!?” I replied as I dodged another firebolt.

“Is this really the time!?” he said during a break between swinging his mace. “Just shoot the fuckers!”

I blinked while scooping up still more coins.

“Fair point!” I shouted.

More imps poured in from the surrounding rooms, but I didn’t feel overwhelmed. Instead, I felt invigorated. Empowered. Each kill dropped more coins, providing more mana, which led to more turrets in a vicious cycle of frozen corpses.

I’d failed back in the prison. I was the only one who escaped out of all eighteen of us. They’d been depending on me, and I’d failed. Poor Olivia hadn’t even made it through the skeletons. Chester’s crush on Tessa was as blatant as could be. Emily, with her stupid fireballs, and Jody, the acerbic asshole… They were all trapped in there, and I hadn’t been able to do anything to stop it.

Crushing these fucking imps with my husband filled me with a sense of catharsis. I hated failure. I hated not meeting my own expectations, and now I had an outlet for that sense of loss. I had to get back there and get them out. With Theo here and fully aware of what was happening, that made it all the more possible.

All we needed was more levels. More abilities. More stats. But most importantly, more guns. And my wonderful Theo didn’t know the difference between a clip and a magazine.

Still, he’d come. Alone. That was… pretty damn amazing to me. Nothing confirmed that someone truly loved you more than diving into a pit of murderous demons, but it didn’t seem like Theo had even hesitated.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Try to go down that tunnel! I’ve got a way to get us out of here, but I don’t want any of them following us back!” he shouted.

I tried to respond but was suddenly surrounded by a group of imps that had charged into a break in the wall of ice traps. The first ones I’d thrown out had fizzled and vanished leaving a hole.

I fell to my back but turned the fall into a roll before springing back to my feet. I danced away from another stab before punching the offending imp in the face. Sheer luck kept me from being impaled by a thrown hatchet before I threw out two more traps with the mana I’d gained from scooping up gold mid-backflip. When I landed, I fired one bullet. The gun clicked on the second fire, but fortunately, the turret had already frozen that target.

“W-wow,” I heard Theo exclaim as the bolts from my traps began firing again, covering us as we ran for the tunnel he’d indicated. “How the hell did you do that?”

I blinked, realizing that I had no idea. The movements had just come naturally. There was a fair bit of luck involved, but…

“Dexterity…? I guess?” I replied through heavy breaths. “I’ve added six points to it since I got down here…”

“Shit, I haven’t been adding much to that… Oh! Here! Take this!” He said, handing me one of the red vials.

I looked at him questioningly for a moment.

“Drink it if you get stabbed,” he shouted through ragged breath as we ran. “How are you throwing out so many traps? I can barely keep my totems charged and ran out of mana potions ages ago!”

“Rogue skill! Gold!” I said as we slowed while entering the next large cavern. It was pretty well-lit by that mace Theo was carrying. “When I pick it up, it restores some of my batteries!”

His eyes brightened. “You chose Rogue!? Awesome! So that's why they were dropping so much more crap back there!”

“Huh?”

“Your class ability!”

“What are you talking about?” I asked.

“Ughhh, you didn’t read the class descriptions, did you?”

“Shut up! I was a little preoccupied with being kidnapped!” I shouted sarcastically. “I certainly wasn’t going to try to be a Wizard!”

“Your face is a Wizard!”

I snorted at the nonsensical non-sequitur as I followed him down yet another tunnel. Theo met my eyes with a manic grin. They were wet with unshed tears. He was as relieved as I was.

The sounds of feet behind us grew quieter by the minute. The imps were slow compared to us at a full sprint. Theo was panting with exertion, but I was doing just fine as I outpaced him. I used the extra moment I had to throw a trap into another tunnel, hoping it might confuse them and make them think we’d gone that way as we barrelled further into the cave system.

I was hopelessly lost, but Theo seemed to know where he was going. Half the large caverns were empty, but several had imp bodies, many of which were surrounded by pieces of equipment or items. There were enough quivers filled with arrows to make a small mountain, but I didn’t see any bows.

Most of these freshly dead showed signs of being sliced to pieces by those wind blades that I now recognized as the same things that had killed the first imps to try to kidnap me back at the house.

Had Theo booby-trapped our house? It seemed so. Hadn't been enough though.

After about five minutes of running, watching Theo trip left and right while I glided over the uneven caves, we finally ended up in an undisturbed cavern where we stopped. We listened carefully as the echoes of our footsteps faded. I heard nothing from the cave we’d just run out of, and after a full minute of waiting for any sign of pursuit, we both finally began to relax.

Theo was doing his best to keep his hard breathing under control while I was barely winded. Still, I was pretty impressed that he’d been able to make that run at all. Theo was a big guy, and he’d never been much for sprinting.

“So…” I drawled when our racing hearts finally calmed down. “I think it’s about time you–whoa!”

I squawked as he pulled me close and squeezed me with a strength I’d never felt from him before.

“I am so fucking sorry, Rio,” He breathed into my shoulder. His shoulders were shaking. “God, when I saw… when I thought I’d lost you… I thought I’d gotten you killed. I’d planned to tell you about it all tonight.”

I wanted to punch him. Deck him in his stupid face. “You almost did, stupid fucking bear. What the hell were you thinking, taking my gun!?”

A sob wracked his shoulders, and he pulled away so I could look into his eyes.

“I was–! I don’t fucking know. At first, I didn’t think you’d believe me! I didn’t take it seriously, but now… I put traps around the entrance. Tried to wall it off, but the goblins seemed to take that as a challenge! Then Seok happened, and when you didn’t show up at the Mins…! I…”

He was rambling, and he knew it. Fucking hell. I’d wanted to be mad. Be pissed. I still was. But I couldn’t stay mad, even though I probably should've. That wouldn't be productive. It's not like I'd never made catastrophic mistakes before. Admittedly, none of them had almost gotten Theo killed... but...

“I love you so fucking much…” he said, squeezing me tight again.

I gave him a soft smile. “I should just say, “I know” right now like that asshole in your Star Wars movie, you know that?”

“It’s everyone’s movie,” he insisted through the hug, and I laughed. It was a ragged thing, but it was a laugh.

“I love you too, Theo. Don’t ever keep something like this from me again.”

“Promise,” he said emphatically, and I knew he’d keep it.

We kissed. It was ugly and sloppy. Both of us were crying. But it was real.

Reality intruded soon enough as both of us heard the low noises of more imps. They sounded far away down the tunnel, but who knew how far they were down here, where echoes could travel for miles.

“I guess we’d better get out of here, huh?” I said softly.

“Probably… probably should.”

“Do you know the way?” I asked.

“Y-yeah. But we don’t need it. We’re…” he sniffed loudly before getting his bearings. “...We’re going to get out with this. Right now.”

He reached into his bag and fiddled for a moment before pulling out a familiar stone. The same sort of stone that the imps had died to destroy rather than let us have.

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