Avis gathered all the torches and lanterns the men had taken for themselves and began setting them up around the mine. The warm lights flickering made for an eerie scene with all the bodies on the floor. It looked as though a ritualistic sacrifice had taken place as opposed to a battle.
As she walked around doing so, she came across a switch and out of curiosity pulled it.
The light hitting the mine was as if the sun had been brought down there and for a moment she had to cover her eyes. After her eyes adjusted she realized the place had been fully lit up.
("A light stone that can illuminate a space like this? Even one hundred of my masters wouldn't be able to afford such a thing, much less maintain it.")
As she walked around, she made her way to the highest point of the mine and witnessed all the men she had defeated. No more men were hiding. This light had confirmed it.
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As Albus slammed one man into another like a hammer, he finally defeated all the men in the room. He let the man go and started dusting himself off. He had an assortment of bruises across his body and even several sooty spots on him from the explosions of various sticks of dynamite.
"I guess I overdid it."
All the men lying on the floor either had broken bones or internal bleeding. It was no different from being thrown into a stampede of gazelle.
As he searched the pockets of various men on the floor, he felt increasingly confused.
("I am just unlucky?")
He searched through the last man and started scratching his head.
As Avis looked over the mine she realised one thing.
They both came to a conclusion. No one they fought had a key.
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As Jake walked down the passageway, he felt a sense of dread.
"Why am I doing this? I mean, Tibaut wouldn't think any less of me if I turned around and waited for one of the others to return, right?"
As he looked behind him and felt the temptation of the darkness telling him to go back, he stomped his foot and turned around.
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"No, I said I'd do this alone. You wouldn't want to be friends with someone who'd go back on their word."
Against his better judgment, he continued walking into the passageway until he reached the light.
As he walked in, he could tell at a glance this place was shady. The room was massive and looked like some sort of storage area. It had a multitude of steel storage racks holding various wooden crates. The racks were by his estimation ten times his height and twice as wide as him. Forget a storage area, this place had more in common with a warehouse.
As he looked, he sighed in regret and stayed where he was for a few seconds.
("Ugh, this is bad this place is too large to fully utilize my magic. Though I might be able to manage if they're all on the floor with me. Let's just hope they don't feel like attacking me for a few minutes.")
He began looking around to ensure, no one was too close, sat on the ground and really started tensing up.
This peace wouldn't last, as a crate fell off the storage rack behind him.
"Huh!?"
He slid across the floor and narrowly avoided becoming a pancake.
"At least treat me with caution if I'm sitting on the floor looking suspicious."
It might have looked suspicious to any adventurers worth a damn but to the average person it looked like a chance.
("These guys aren't even going to allow me to set up in peace.")
He looked up and saw a man running away.
"(Eck, it's going to be risky if most of them aren't on the same level as me but there should be a bigger portion on the floor. I hope anyway.)"
He made extra sure to observe his surroundings and bought time to stay in one place as long as he could.
"You don't think?" one man asked.
"I think so. He probably doesn't have any magic."
"Of course, he doesn't, why else would he be hiding around like a rat? It seems this plan wasn't so bad after all, although taking on that gorilla woman isn't going to be pleasant."
After observing him for several minutes on the top of the storage rack, one of them turned behind and gave some sort of signal to the man behind all three of them.
As Jake sat in silence trying to complete whatever preparations he had, all three jumped down in front of him.
The one with stubble and a bald head quickly slid towards him.
Jake dodged out of the way but took a hit from something. He felt something heavy slam his stomach and tried to get back to his feet. The third kicked the air but instead of doing nothing it formed a barely visible blade that slammed into Jake smashing him into a container. A dust formed and three men looked on.
"He really is a joke."
"I think we drew the jackpot Sheamus."
"If the other two are this strong, then the women will be nothing." Said the man named Sheamus.
All three had a key attached to a piece of string around their necks.
As Jake staggered away in the dust he ran into something else. Several men were waiting in the space between the two storage racks he escaped into.
"Sorry lad bu-"
Jake took no hesitation in kicking the man in the balls and the others had a good laugh before rushing in.
The dust had settled and they got a front-row seat to watch him fight.
"Boys, what do you say we let the blokes deal with this guy?"
"If you feel like being a sissy that's on you." The man named Sheamus said before walking towards the ensuing chaos.
"Not wanting to waste our time doesn't make us sissies, Sheamus. Just don't be surprised if we start sipping on your liquor."
"I beat both of ye black and blue if ya ever had the gall to try."