The blaring sound of the alarm didn’t let up, as Jadian and Tayantha navigated the chaotic halls of the dungeon. Fighters,masters and trainers of all kinds ran around, scared out of their mind. Who wouldn’t be? Monsters of all classes have been freed. Free to roam around and destroy everything within their path. However, for Jadian, this was the perfect thing. An opportunity to escape to freedom was closer than it had ever been. As the two further walked down the reddened halls, the quieter it got. It was eerie, and goosebumps broke out all over Tayantha’s arms. If they encountered more than one B-class to S-class monster, they wouldn't be able to beat it.

“Oh my god, Tayantha!” A soft, male voice called out. The pink haired girl whipped her head around, and a smile broke out on her otherwise worried face.

“Angel!” She exclaimed, running back to the long silver haired man. The young woman hugged his slender figure. Angel then looked up, giving Jadian a nod, which the green eyed man returned.

“Do you guys know how any of the monsters escaped?” Angel then asked, walking back to Jadian with Tayantha. The other two shook their heads.

“Maintenance might have made a mistake. A great one at that.” Jadian muttered the last part. As the three continued standing around, a gust of cold wind breezed over them, blowing their hair and clothes back. The gust of wind is followed by a roar, and the trio could only look at each other with widened, yet terrified eyes.

The mana emanating from the monster was S-class, and they were all B-class. Numbers didn’t matter in this case. Death waited for them at the end of the hall, as a dark purple lizard-like monster stood at the end of the hall, its eyes firmly fixed on them. Jadian noticed the emergency exit behind the monster, and that was enough motivation for him to charge forth.

“Jadian!” Tayantha screamed, horrified by his irrational behaviour. She then noticed the exit and made sense of it. An opportunity to escape was presented to them. However, like everything in life, grasping that freedom was going to be a challenge. Was that a challenge she wanted to overcome? Years of abuse that she suffered at the hands of other humans could end now, and Tayantha needed to push down any doubts she was feeling. Shaking her head, she ran after

Jadian and towards the monster.

Angel, witnessing this, brushed his hand over his black turtleneck and ran after the two. He, unlike the others, had only become a fighter recently. And although he had been forced to become a fighter and suffered, he hadn’t suffered near the same as the other two. However, just like Jadian and Tayantha, Angel wanted his freedom back, and to make those who put him in this position pay. The three began to tag team the monster, who roared again, pushing them back. Tayantha made a bow and arrow from ice and began shooting at the monster, who broke every arrow with its tail. The lizard-like monster ran towards her, spitting balls of venom. Tayantha flipped backward, trying to dodge the attack. However, one of the balls was able to land on her right arm, burning through her sleeve and burning the skin on her arm.

“Fuck,” she muttered, as she looked down at the burns, her pinkish flesh slightly showing through.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“Are you okay?” Angel asked, worried. Tayanatha nodded, biting her bottom lip. Jadian was far too preoccupied on the prospect of his freedom being so close, that he didn’t pay attention to his friend. Instead, he slammed his fist down on the ground, and began melting it. The orange from the lava mixed with the red lights, coating the halls in amber. Flame magic. A magic Jadian had to first get used to when his powers first matured.

Not even the beatings from his trainer could separate the trauma he experienced everytime he looked at the flames he produced. All his eyes could see were the burning embers, and the ashened corpses scattered along the blood soaked grounds. However, after he faced his first monster, Jadian learned quickly that this world was unfair, and if he wanted to survive the harsh conditions he was thrown into, he needed to bite down the horrible memories, and force them back into his mind.

He had to only allow them to come out at night, where he lay in darkness. Days of training magic allowed him to grow. There was one problem though. He witnessed what happened to the A-class and S-class fighters. He witnessed the shackles they were constantly wrapped in, and how they were led around with a leash.

The masters and trainers were far too weary of what would happen if they allowed these fighters roam around the dungeon ‘freely’. Jadian didn’t want to be stripped of any more freedom, so he limited his ability to grow, never seeking out ways to. This in turn angered his trainer, of course. There was more money to be made when a fighter was incredibly strong. The roar of the monster snapped Jadian out of his thoughts. The lava was barely doing anything to monsters, so Jadian lifted his hands up, nullifying the spell. He looked over to Tayantha, who Angel was healing, and cursed under his breath.

“Looks like I need to do this alone.’ He thought bitterly. He wasn’t faulting them. The group was evidently weaker than the monster. However, he wasn’t impressed by the lack of motivation for their freedom. Well, at least he thought they lacked it. The young man vanished, appearing above the monster. He made a gun gesture down on the monster and began shooting balls of flame, each one bouncing off the skin of the monster. In turn, the monster whacked his tail and hit Jadian, sending the young man flying towards the emergency exit. Jadian hit the metallic door with a sickening thud, and slid down.

The green eyed man was sure he had broken an arm and some ribs, and wouldn’t be able to fight any longer. His head also suffered horrendous damage, and the young man began to slip in and out of consciousness. Jadian turned his eye to the side.

Horror.

The right side of the halls were covered in the corpses of C-class fighters and trainers alike. They laid in a pool of blood piled on top of each other. Men, women and children alike. Jadian, sickened to his stomach, averted his gaze. The monster, who wasn’t bothered by Tayantha and Angel’s appearance, began walking to Jadian. Each step shook the ground, and Jadian knew he was time was up. What had he achieved? He had been a slave to the very empire who destroyed his life.

He had not grown strong enough to enact his revenge, in fear of being shackled. If anything, Jadian had done the exact opposite of what his mother asked him to do. The young man had lived a pathetic, dark filled life. The monster stood mere inches away from Jadian and opened its mouth. Sharp, gray teeth and a long, purple tongue stared at Jadian, as a bubbling ball of venom began to grow in the back of its throat. The young fighter closed his eyes, and waited for the attack. Tayantha and Angel watched horrified, frozen in place and unable to do anything.

“Calumdria.”

A large beam of light filled the entire section of the hall, brightening up Jadian’s eyelids. Once the light disappeared, Tayantha and Angel stared at the scene with widened eyes. Jadian slowly opened his eyes, as he noticed death had not come to him. He was met with the monster destroyed to its very core, leaving nothing but a pile of ash behind.

With wide and perplexed eyes, he looked to his side and noticed a fair skinned young girl, standing there with her arms out in front of her. Her eyes were blackened with white lines surrounding the skin around it. She wore a red knee length dress, and could not be more than twelve years old. Her dark brown hair was pulled in a bun, and her wrist had broken chains around them. Soon, her blackened eyes became white and blue, and she dropped her arms to her side, before she fainted.

Jadian had been saved, by a child no less.