The guards were about to split their forces and rush towards the attackers. This could have been the moment Guardian lost his life, but it was not. The guards had their eyes on the Guardian and Rocky, leaving the behind exposed. A big mistake on their part. Ithayiga and Tiramisu were waiting just for such a moment, they knew they will not be able to take the reinforcements head-on so they hid and waited to ambush them.

The ones who tried to trap the Guardian got ambushed themselves; the tables got turned again. The guards were caught unaware. Tiramisu wedged the dagger to the neck of one man and thrust a spear to the other. Ithayiga managed to kill one too, his pet swamplings jumped and sank their teeth to the necks of a few others.

The ambush was an astounding success, but there were a half of the guards still alive. They turned around to face their ambushers. Ithayiga was not a fighter so he turned and ran away back to the corridor, leaving Tamia and his pets to deal with the men.

Guardian used the chaos to stand up and get even closer to the mages. He had to weather a few direct a blast to his body but this was fine. His goal was to get close and start killing them one by one.

“This is bad!” A mage shouted. The golem has gotten within striking distance.

Rocky slammed his oversized fist to the ground cracking it and sending a shockwave towards the humans. The ground beneath the mage's feet shook, they lost their balance and fell. At that moment, Guardian jumped on the men and let his all five limbs loose. He kicked, clawed and swung his tail, injuring the humans who were desperately trying to get back on their feet.

All that was left out of the rogue mages group were their old leader and two of his men, standing beside him. The old man knew they were losing badly, their opponents had just too much vitality.

“Entangle with Shadows!” The old mage bound the golem with his spell, it was close enough to do that. He knew that this spell was ineffective against Guardian, the golem was the right choice. “Ho!” He shouted out sending another blast of blue energy towards Guardian.

This time Guardian was ready and managed to dodge it, barely. He rolled towards the mages sending a blast of his own as a protection and a distraction. The ward of one of the mages did not hold and it broke, he was getting low on mana. The man got knocked out by it; the Guardian was quite close and the blast felt stronger.

“Take that.” He kicked at the old mage. His kick got blocked by another type of ward spell.

It was a force barrier which blocked not magical attacks but physical ones. Guardian kept trying to breach the force barrier but could not, it was holding. At least, he was no longer being shot at.

With the help of Cynthia, Rocky finally broke off the entanglement spell and slammed at the human mage. His fists went through whatever the protection and enchantment spell the mage put to protect himself. The human was crushed into the pancake leaving the wet puddle of blood and mangled organs.

Despite his attempts, Guardian could not break the force barrier, he tried to blast it with his magic. The glowing barrier would get visibly dimmer and thinner but it still held, Guardian was just not strong enough to break it. The old mage has turtled himself in. If Guardian could not do it, maybe the war golem could.

“Human, this is the end of you. Rocky help me!”

“Not having this!” The last mage shouted in protest. He had used the time visually and was chanting something in a foreign sounding tongue.

Guardian knew that something bad will happen. He positioned himself behind the golem as it had magical resistance. Cynthia even put the ward on it just in case.

“Soul Blast!”

A powerful beam of energy shot out of the mages leader hands. The beam was huge, the broad golem’s frame barely covered it. The rock compositing its body started to crack and crumble, huge chunks of it were falling off. Just as the blast was finished the golem fell backwards, its body shattered in three huge chunks.

“He killed Rocky!” Cynthia was shocked that a single attack was capable of that. She did not want to believe that a single spell was powerful enough to do that to a war golem.

“No time to mourn. It will be us next time if we do not hurry.” Guardian warned her.

Cynthia knew what she had to do, she chugged the last mana potion she had and cast Overwhelming Might and Minor Speed on the Guardian.

“This is our last chance! Avenge Rocky.” She encouraged Guardian to act.

Guardian slammed his body to the barrier and pounded it with his fists. Overwhelming Might made his attacks more powerful than before. The mage did not stay idle, he was chanting and preparing his most devastating spell again. The barrier was flickering and shrinking with each hit. Both opponents had to be quick if they wanted to win.

Guardian gathered all of his strength and did a combined slam of his fists and tail to the barrier. It finally gave in and broke. The old man’s forehead was covered in cold sweat. The mage's eyes popped out in fear, he knew what is about to happen. Just before the mage could finish the last sound of the chant his skull got bashed in.

The black crystal he was holding in his hand shattered into tiny pieces emitting an explosion of purple-tinted light and magical energy. Guardian cowered his eyes just in time not to be blinded by it. The raw mana burned at his already singed body eating at his skin and flesh.

It was very powerful but did not last long enough to seriously damage him. He opened his eyes and turned towards Cynthia, they have won.

Well, almost. Almost, because there were still those guards fighting Tiramisu. He completely forgot about that and was surprised she managed to hold out so long. The swamplins did a good job at distracting the men, but there was only so much they could do. The little critters suffered serious injuries and were out of the fight. The smallest of them had a dagger wedged in its belly.

Guardian gathered his remaining strength and rushed to aid Tiramisu. The men were about to finally overpower the lizard; she was almost out of stamina to keep avoiding their attacks. Guardians approach was not left unseen, four men turned to intercept him.

There were little these men could do. Guardian easily overwhelmed the four, literally ripping out their body parts off as he reduced the humans to the chunks of flesh. The remaining two knew that they stood no chance and were about to surrender. However, Guardian did not want to deal with that and he ended them before they could say anything.

“You good?” He asked Tiramisu.

“No, but definitely better than you.”

She was cut and bleeding in various places, she was lucky not to have any life-threatening injuries. However, the Guardian had his skin burned off to an alarming degree.

“Where is Ithayiga?”

“I am here…” The boy emerged from the corridor.

“Good, everyone is here and it does not seem that more of them are coming.”

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“Those guards were from the surface. I and the boy took care of the ones inside the dungeon.”

“You did?”

“Yup. We killed the ones who were sleeping. The monsters did a good job distracting the others and luring them to our ambush. There was not too many to begin with.”

Guardian was surprised at Tiramisus ruthlessness. The boy had to go through some mental preparation to kill the unaware too, but he seemed fine with it. Maybe this was because all of them were humans.

“Where is Tamia?” Cynthia inquired.

“She was supposed to warn us about any surface reinforcements. She is not dead she will be somewhere around.”

“So what do we do now?” Tiramisu asked.

“The Rocky is dead. Well not dead, out of order, as I am sure that I can repair him; the core is intact. So it is the best if we stick together and inspect the rooms and other parts one by one.” Cynthia proposed the next step.

“Agreed.”

The group scouted the premises finding a good deal of money, equipment and potions. The last room they visited was the dungeon cells where the prisoners were kept at. Cynthia peeked inside one of the cells, the doors were left wide open.

“Heh! He is dead.” The beastman inside had his throat slit. “He is too, and this one…” Cynthia went from cell to cell. All of the prisoners were killed.

“The mages might have disposed of them before we got here.” Guardian offered an explanation

“This is so sad!”

“Yes, Indeed.”

The truth was, that it was not the mages who did that. The one responsible for this was Tamia and she did so not out of her free will. Guardian gave her such instructions. He deceived others about her task being only as a watch-out. Besides the people in his party, he did not want any witnesses who knew what was actually happening in this place.

He will have to convince Cynthia to keep her mouth shut. This will not be hard because he will use the same excuse of nobles and guards being a part of this underground syndicate.

Then they went outside to check if anyone else was waiting for them there. They were careful about emerging to the open surface area, they had sent swamp monsters first to act as scouts. They came back so it meant it was okay to go out.

Once outside they have found Tamia waiting for them by the exit.

“Did of the mages run away?” Guardian asked.

“I do not think so.”

“Well, we need to be sure.”

Cynthia was glad that Tamia survived this but there was no time for such notions. Guardian and Tamia were on their way to check if they got all the mages. Tamia checked the deceased men faces, provided that they were in good enough shape to do that if not Guardian did his best to describe how they looked like from his memory. Tamia checked the faces in her memory with people she saw going in and out of the prison.

“I think we got all of them. At least the ones who were actually leaving this place.” Tamia confirmed.

There were bound to be people who never left the dungeon. Like the old mage. Guardian tried his best to describe how the man looked like and Tamia could not remember such an individual.

All of them gathered back inside the ritual room with all of the loot they have scavenged.

“So how do we split this?” Cynthia asked wondering. There was a pile of stuff, probably worth a fortune.

“In two parts. One for you and one for me.” Guardian offered.

“Aren’t you being too generous?”

“Your golem will need to be repaired and this will be expensive, no?”

“Extremely so.” Cynthia had to admit it. Enchanting the rock so it can be used to repair the golem was not cheap.

“And I owe you for many favours you did for me.” He had to admit it, her help was indeed very valuable. He could not have done this if not for her and her golem.

“That you do. How about the others?” Cynthia was reluctant to take an entire half of it.

“Well they are my servants, I will reward them appropriately.”

“Ahem!” Tiramisu coughed.

“Ah yes… There is Tiramisu.” He had to admit that even if he and Rocky did the most of the job, Tiramisus contributed too. “Three parts then?”

“Amm… I rather have something else in addition besides the money.” Tiramisu offered.

“What do you mean, explain?”

“Since the bad guys live here no more, how about me and my kin move in here?”

Cynthia visibly frowned to that. She would not want to live in a place where torture took place and where multiple people had died. However, she did not know about Tiramisus point of view. For the lizards, this will be a huge improvement compared to the old warehouse they have lived. This place comes with furniture and individual rooms she could designate to her folk.

There was a small but in her plan. The ruins needed a strong person do deter other thugs and squatters, but she already knew how to solve this.

“Also… I would like you to move here and live with us. An upgrade to a bigger house with more storage space would be good, don’t you agree?”

“Hmm.” Guardian cupped his chin and considered this for a moment.

Having a bigger place was nice and if he will manage to get lizardpeople on his side that would be good too. He could use them to do little tasks for him.

“That sounds appealing, but…” He had to make some things clear before he agreed to this. “but I stay the owner of this place. I know you and you can do as you please because I trust you. However…”

Tiramisu’s tail wagged from side to side. He admitted that he trusted her now. She hoped that eventually, she will win him over completely.

“However, I do not know about other people you will bring with you. If I dislike them I will kick them out.” He finished his sentence.

“That is fair enough.” She knew that people, even lizardmen themselves, found hard to trust lizardfolk. They had some peculiar traits after all.

“Well then let’s finish this up. I have a lot of moving to do.”

They have split the money. It was agreed that Cynthia will take most of the coin since she needed it the most. Guardian and Tiramisu got to keep other things like Items, food and similar stuff which laid around. They have quickly patched their wounds and carried on.

Guardian and Ithayiga cleaned the bodies dumping them further in the sewer for the rats and slimes to take care off. Meanwhile, Tiramisu went to get those who were willing to come with her here.

The cleaning up took a considerable amount of time and by the time they were done, it was late evening already.

Tamia had her typical bitch face on the entire time. She was anxious to speak with the Guardian but he was too busy for that. Eventually, she caught him resting and had to one very important question.

“So, am I free to go?”

“What do you mean?” Guardian asked back.

“I did what you have asked. The rogue mages are disbanded. I have even taken care of all the witnesses who had any ideas what was truly happening here.”

“Oh, I see. A deal is a deal. Let’s go to the office we will get that collar off.”

“Finally!”

They went outside and were traversing through dark and abandoned slum district streets. They did not talk with one another because no one had anything to say, they just walked.

Guardian put his hand on Tamia’s shoulder stopping her. She turned to look at him, she was confused why he would do that all of the sudden.

“What?” She asked.

“I cannot leave any loose ends.”

He gripped her neck and head with his hands. He turned her head sideways swiftly, twisting it at an odd angle this broke her neck. Tamia did not have time to react to it, she couldn’t even shout or resist; only the expression of fear was left frozen in her dead eyes.

Guardian was done with her. She outgrew her usefulness. From the very start she was very defiant and a poor servant. It would take him a lot of effort to break her and he simply did not need to do that anymore. This was because he obtained a replacement for her already. Maybe not as skilled in thieving as Tamia but Tiramisu was perfect to take her place. She was willing to do his bidding and she seemed to be trustworthy too. It was a hundred times better to have someone who does the jobs out of his or her free will.

He bit at her neck with his sharp teeth holding it in place. Then he turned the rest of her body separating her head from it. He took her head with him; he could not explain it but he had an urge to keep it as a trophy.

This was not the only trophy he got that evening. After all, the main reason he did all of this was that he wanted to learn magic. He wanted to keep a competent mage to teach him magic, but this was not an option. During their fight all of the higher brass got themselves killed. However, he did manage to obtain a very special book.

The book was bound in leather and contained diagrams for rituals and instructions on how to invoke various spells. The magic described in the book was an exotic one, he has never heard of such magic before. Instead of using the ordinary mana it used the soul energy from other living beings. The odd thing was that the being used had to be an intelligent one; it could not be an animal or a monster.

This sounded perfect for the Guardian since his mana pool could not regenerate on its own, even now his mana reserves were extremely low. That was not only because he expended it to cats his spells, it was because of the other reason too. His healing was fast enough to be visible, his singed flesh was quickly regenerating. It was a lot quicker than it should have been, this was because it consumed his mana.

Having this new source to replace his mana was not as easy as one might think. He would need to perform a ritual to extract soul energy from a living being or form a crystal which was an equally complex process. There were some notes and writing scribbled within the book how to do it properly. There were some theories and propositions to new spells as well. Some of them looked written very recently. The book was more like a research book than an actual spell tome, as all of the spells seemed to be only half perfected.

As he skimmed through the pages he knew that he will have to continue this research if he wanted those powers. He will have to obtain some test subjects. He now knew why the rogue mages operated in the prison, he has also regretted of ordering Tamia to kill the prisoners.

That day the evil which operated in the prison dungeons was not crushed like the Cynthia was led to believe. All that happened was that only the leadership has changed. The atrocities committed there will continue.