Faced with multiple injured members, Caleb orders everyone to take their time but not to stall. Lukia uses some of her healing to ease Caleb's wounds. Yorn casts his healing spells onto Uzel, who finally takes a deep breath now that the pain is bearable.

"Thank you..." Uzel places his hand on Yorn. Yorn sighs to himself, seeing his friend in pain.

"They took your eyes; these bastards will face judgment when it is right." Yorn continues to guide Uzel. He softly shrugs off his hand and places his own hand on the wall.

"I'll only be in the way if you keep trying to help. Since you healed my wounds, I can use my other senses to see."

"Are you sure? I don't mind helping-"

"You've done quite enough, my friend. If I want to meet Hinnia again, I need to be stronger than losing my sight has done. I hope you understand."

"Stubborn since we were kids. Fine, have it your way, but I will watch your back to the end."

"Thank you again. I don't know how I was blessed with such a great friend as you."

"Praise our God if you're speaking that."

"Heh, you know I don't understand that stuff."

"Then I am afraid I can't help you with that."

"Good, now let me be." Uzel takes a quick sniff in the air and adjusts his wolf ears and his sense of feel to pinpoint his location and where he should move. Caleb checks in with everyone, looking after them and seeing if they need anything.

"Caleb, I am fine," Lukia says. "I am more worried about you. Making that barrier to help Gale and me must have taken a lot out of you."

"It wasn't easy to pull off, but I am glad it did when it counted. I don't know if I can do another one like that for a while, but I can still move just fine."

"If you need my help, don't hesitate to ask. We are here together."

"Sure, when I really need it, I will ask." Caleb smiles a bit before he takes a quick look around to see Nana far behind the group. Noticing her distressed look, he slows his pace to walk beside her. "Hey, you are feeling alright?"

"I don't use Sword Arts that many times in a row; it really took a lot to do all that. I'll be fine, I don't mind being look out for our backs."

"Then, at least let me join you; make sure you can handle them."

"Caleb, even if I was missing an arm, I would still be able to fight without issue. I'm fine; thanks for your concern, but make sure Eriie and Syphine are handling this okay."

"Just don't collapse on us. I am pretty sure your size alone will already be a problem if that happens here."

"You brat! I'll make sure you pay for saying that later."

"It's a promise then, if we need to pick up the pace, let us know. I'll get us out of here fast."

"Right, sure..." Nana, pale and sweating, is holding back the painful burning sensation that is slowly spreading from the wound she received from Shaar. She pressed down hard onto it, preventing herself from being overtaken by the wound; she looked on with a haze in her eyes.

Moments pass as the passage quickly breaks off from the cells and leads into a tight corridor, quickly leading to another chamber that seems to be abandoned by the goblins, holding no value for any base or campsite.

"Looks like we got lucky on this one; we can take a breather here. It will take them a long time to rush through the way we came. If you have any water, make sure you share it with the ones who need it most. Any food should only be eaten in small bites and not much after. Conserving our strength at this time is our best option." Gale, using his survival skills to assess the party, comes in handy. Something that Caleb takes note of as he looks after Eriie and Syphine. Eriie drinks most of the water from his canteen but makes sure to stop before she drinks it all. She allows Caleb to give some to the still-unconscious Syphine.

"She won't wake up, but she is breathing just fine. Do we need to do something?" Eriie asked, worried.

"Whatever that Shaar creature placed on her must have put her in a deep sleep so she wouldn't disrupt the ritual. If I had to guess from my knowledge in this dark magic, she will wake up after twenty-four hours. The spell will end by then, and she will be free from it. Unless we kill the caster, waiting is our next option."

"She's the only family I have left; I wouldn't want anything to happen to her." Eriie cradles her sister in her arms, and a soft tear rolls down her cheek. Caleb gently wipes her cheek and places his hand on her head with a smile.

"She will wake up just fine. I am sure of it." Somehow, his words soothed her worries, and she nodded softly before taking a deep breath. Uzel, with his enhanced hearing, listened to everyone's conversations.

"So, you're the leader of this party. Can't say I blame you for this happening. I don't think if my team were doing this job, we would have fared any better." Gale sits next to Uzel and places his hand on his shoulder. Uzel nods and lets his silver hair part to the side. His wolf features only were the ears, fangs, and the soft fur that grew up his arms and the top of his shoulders.

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

"Even so, I failed at protecting them all when I should have."

"Don't beat yourself up. We all experience at least one bad job with our occupation. I lost a rookie once on a silver rank job before. I can't remember his face, but I can remember that he was torn apart by a golem. He was cocky and full of life, he traveled with us for about a month, and I figured he could make it with us, so I took a job higher than what his skill was at. I watched as his body was ripped apart and his torso thrown on top of me. His eyes were a dull green as the life in them vanished. I may not remember his name or his face, but I can remember his last words."

"What were they?"

"I'm sorry."

"..."

"Yeah, he was sorry. I got him killed, and he was the one who apologized before his final breath. I never took on any more rookies unless they passed some conditions. Even then, I expected them to give me more than a hundred percent. Lukia was an odd case, but she can be far better than I could ever be with a bow that is for sure. Her swordsmanship could use some work, however."

"I heard that, Gale."

"Wasn't trying to keep it a secret!"

"Whatever; I can also use healing and minor support spells."

"Yep, don't need to remind me."

"Did you at least finish the golem?" Uzel turns his head to Gale.

"Hell no."

"What? You mean you never got revenge?"

"The golem had torn apart one of my party members and badly injured the rest of the crew. So, ordered us to retreat. It was a bad encounter from start to finish, so I had to hand the job off to the guild, which they outsourced to other guilds across the land, and they sent a more suitable party to take the golem down. The only shame I feel from that day is that I let my own hubris get some poor kid killed. And I have to live with that. And now you need to live with what happened here, but at least you can probably remember their names and faces. That is more than what I can say I did."

"I guess, yeah, that's something."

"Are you going to keep on being a party, or was this it?"

"I'm not sure, Gale. I lost my eyes, two of my companions were killed, and I failed to do my job as the leader. I don't even know if I can fight like I used to."

"I heard you beastmen adapt much quicker and easier to any situation than any race on this world. I'm sure you'll figure something out."

"Like what exactly?"

"I don't know, maybe use those claws you have? You have your nose to sniff out any friend or foe and use it to discern where to go. You got your hearing to tell which direction an arrow or attack is coming from. You have pure intuition to guide your actions; you must only act upon it. If you do that, I am sure you can continue to fight on without issue. Eyes be damned, you have the heart of a fighter."

"Thanks, Gale."

"Sure thing bud, I know a thing or two about missing an eye."

"Hahaha, you are a very interesting person."

"Yeah, well, I got that kid to thank."

"Caleb?"

"I am sure you heard how we fought over the past year. How it turned out. Well, he gave me the ass-kicking I needed to realize that I was an idiot. We are lucky to have such a brave guy so young to throw his life away just to rescue you guys. I don't know if there is anyone with such a strong drive who can lead a party, let alone a village more than him. He may not show it, but he is a leader."

"Huh..."

"Well, here, drink some water, you'll need it."

"Thanks." Uzel drinks most of the canteen and hands it back to Gale, who finishes it. Before sitting back up to his feet.

"Here, I was able to recover these from goblins, but they should be to your style." Gale hands over two curved daggers, similar to the ones he lost during his capture. Without saying a word, Uzel straps the daggers to his side.

"I'll make good use of them, don't worry."

"You better. I need to check in with Caleb; sit tight."

"Right."

Gale walks over to Caleb and gives him the rundown of the current situation. Looking at each person, Caleb walks over to Nana, leaning on the wall. Her face did its best to hide her anguish, but it wasn't enough to escape Caleb's sight.

"Okay, something is wrong, what happened? You're about to keel over."

"I can make it as long as we get back to the village, don't worry."

"No! Tell me, what the hell happened?"

"Shit... Fine... That bastard hit me with a curse."

"A curse?!" Caleb removes her hand to see the dark bruise spreading from her stomach and up to her chest.

"Sorry, just I didn't want you guys to worry."

"Worry? This is serious! Yorn! Lukia! I need you!"

"H-hey! I don't need them to heal me!" Caleb motions the two to run over, but they are stopped by Nana's blade. "What the hell are you doing!"

"They don't need to waste their magic on me. Save it for someone who really needs it if they are wounded." She breathes heavily as her arm begins to shake.

"Let Yorn at least ease the pain, enough to make you conscious."

"He's almost tapped out, and she already used most of her own spells to treat you. All they would do is just slow it down."

"It's better than nothing!"

"Caleb, I am the Guild Master; I can make this call; don't fight me on this. If we are lucky, we are nearly out of this damn place."

"I am not losing anyone else, you hear me. As the acting leader of his party, I am having Yorn use his remaining power to help you."

"Ahh..." Unable to stand anymore, Nana slips to the ground and doesn't stop Yorn from placing his hands on her wound. The soft, warm glow of his spell pulsates through the curse, helping the pain. Nana slowly regains her strength as the final fragment of Yorn's spell dissipates, and he takes a sigh of exhaustion.

"How does it feel now?" Caleb places his hand on Nana's shoulder. She smiles softly as she grabs his hand and gets to her feet.

"Still burns like I am being stabbed, but I faced worse curses."

"Well, I-"

"Everyone! There is someone here!" Cutting off Caleb, Uzel stands up and shouts to everyone. He quickly points at an offshoot opening in the walls. Akin to another cave entrance, the party quickly moves to look at the space.

"Are you sure, Uzel?" Gale pats his shoulder.

"I'm slowly getting used to hearing things to see... But I can tell that someone is there... I know it."

"Gale, hand me that torch." Caleb takes the torch from him and slowly approaches the dark space. Lukia and Yorn follow close behind. Gale watches over the wounded with Nana. Moving closer, there are large metal bars, similar to the cells in the previous hall; however, inside this cell, there was a silhouette of a person chained up.

"What do you see?" Uzel speaks. "Their breathing is shallow..."

"It's a person, maybe someone they captured some time ago-"

"H-hng..." A soft moan rumbles out of the person's mouth. Caleb turns and steps closer, using the torch's light to reveal the person. He sees the person light up in more detail, revealing an older woman with dull grey hair. Her body was bony and shriveled up. Her arms were chained, but they could slip out of the shackles if they tried. Her face was lifeless, and her stomach was deformed; a scar or tattoo of a sigil was marked on her stomach.

"She must be one of the people used in the ritual; she's barely alive. Hey, we need to do something for her, Lukia; I might need your help with this-" Caleb shifts over to see Lukia, who stares at the woman with a look of complete fear...

"...Mom...?"