Jack screamed as he and Dingo plunged through the sky, the turbulent wind blowing vigorously against them as they fell. While Jack was helplessly flailing around, Dingo was decidedly more composed as he corrected himself mid-air in order to fall more gracefully.

After Dingo gained a bit of balance and control in his fall, he activated two glyphs, placing one on his own chest and one on Jack's back, summoning a gust of wind swirling around both of them that seemed to magically slow their descent. Furthermore, Jack noticed that by tilting his body slightly in one direction, he could sort of glide in a manner of speaking, giving him a bit of control in the direction he falls.

Following Dingo's lead, Jack trailed behind him as they both glided away from the sea below and into a nearby cliff where they make their landing. Dingo landed in a well-balanced roll while Jack landed more clumsily, his face practically planted onto the dirt ground. Jack got up from the ground and breathed heavily with a mix of terror and relief, knowing that he had nearly escaped death.

"Oh my God, that was terrifying!" Jack exclaimed, brushing dirt off his clothes. "I nearly crapped my pants back there! I am never doing that again!"

"We're not out of danger just yet," Dingo said, pointing to the prison building where a number of guards with torches in their hands are marching down the staircase to the town below. "The guards will be looking for us soon. We need to get out of here quickly."

"Right."

Soon, Jack and Dingo descended from the cliffside to the dark streets and alleyways of Ingenwell. As they ran, they saw the torchlights of the guards shuffling everywhere around the city searching for them. They moved as fast as they possibly could, stopping once in a while to make sure no guards are at their vicinity before proceeding.

While running, Jack and Dingo felt a mysterious presence tailing them from behind. They couldn't get a clear view of it in the darkness of the night, only glimpses of its shadow as it lurked behind them. In addition, the brief glimpses were accompanied by indistinct growling noises, almost like that of a savage animal.

As curious as Jack was, he didn't want to waste turning around to get a better look. His heart hammered violently in his chest as he ran. His only thought was escaping. Whatever that thing was, it can't be good. It's best that he does not have to face that thing at all.

However, no matter how fast they moved, the presence always seemed to catch up to them. It's as though this presence had both the ferocious speed and the heightened senses of an expert hunter, able to track them down wherever they go. After some more running, the presence was finally close enough for them to get a clear view of it.

It was some sort of panther, only instead of flesh and bone, it was composed of a purple semi-translucent ethereal body, making it look more akin to an animal spirit. The ethereal panther moved agilely as it chased them from one alleyway to the next.

Dingo briefly turned his head to catch a glance of the panther. "Oh man, I hate those things." He spoke as though he had encountered these creatures before.

In one powerful leap, the panther lunged towards Jack, tackling him to the ground before slashing one of its claws at his forearm.

Dingo responded quickly by morphing his staff into its longer form before striking it at the panther, causing it to get off of Jack. Then, as a follow-up, he attacked the panther with another powerful staff strike imbued with wind magic, sending it flying against a wall. Once the panther had impacted the wall's surface, it disintegrated into wisps of purple aura which then faded into nothingness.

Despite the threat being gone, Jack was still left with a nasty wound in the form of three bleeding slash marks on his forearm, which stung with terrible pain.

"Are you alright?" Dingo asked Jack with a bit of concern.

Jack hissed agonizingly as he clutched on his wound. "Yeah, I'll be fine."

"We'll get that wound looked at later. Come on."

Jack nodded in agreement. The two continued their escape, moving through the streets until they came across a platoon of guards in front of them, stopping them at their tracks.

Among the guards were three magic-users. One formed lightning between his fingertips. One dual-wielded a pair of daggers of which its tips were then magically extended with purple ethereal blade lengths, giving them additional reach. One created a swirl of whitish rainbow aura which then coalesced into two purple ethereal panthers in front of him. Jack figured that panther from before was probably created by this guy as well.

In addition, they were accompanied by a neat formation of regular guards; some were archers, some were cavalrymen in horseback, and some were foot soldiers wielding spears.

"Halt! You have nowhere left to go! Surrender immediately!" the leader of the guards said.

Jack clutched onto his bleeding arm as fear crept into him. "Uhh, Dingo? If you've got any other tricks up your sleeve, now would be a good time to use it."

"Well, sadly, I'm all out of ideas, mate," Dingo said as he shrugged nonchalantly.

"What?! You can't be serious?! Oh man, we're so screwed!"

Dingo let out a carefree chuckle. "Nah, I'm just messing with you. I still got one more trick, although I'm not sure how you'd react to it."

"I don't care! Just make sure it gets us out of here alive!"

"Alright then," Dingo took a step towards the guards, opening his arms wide as if he's performing a theatrical play to an audience. "Hello there, mates. A nice night, isn't it? Now I'm sure, from your point of view, this looks pretty darn bad for us, you outnumbering us and all. However, I'd advise that you do not tussle with us. In fact, if you'd just let us leave without any trouble, that would be fantastic. Trust me, we are the last people you'd want to mess with."

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The guards started laughing out loud, considering his suggestion absurd. Even Jack couldn't help but think that Dingo may have gone crazy into believing the guards would let them leave that easily.

"You have gone mad, furro," the guard leader said. "Why in the world would we simply let you two leave like that? Who do you think you are?!"

Dingo didn't answer. Instead, he twirled his staff around in a stylish flourish before pointing it up towards the sky. He then activated a glyph at the tip of staff, causing it to release some sort of bright-red flare that shot straight up in the air. Right as the flare reached its maximum height, it exploded like a firework. Then, it produced a sort of illuminating image in the sky that resembled a bright-red icon of a flame, revealed for everyone to see.

Jack didn't know what that flare meant. However, he could tell that all of the guards suddenly grew unnerved and even frightened by the sight of it. They chattered restlessly amongst themselves, all repeating the same few words.

"The Crimson Flame! You're a member of the Crimson Flame!" the guard leader declared.

Dingo merely smiled, which more or less cemented that confirmation. Jack stared at the white-furred dog mage in complete disbelief. This whole time Jack had been mistaken by the guards as being part of the Crimson Flame and now here, right in front of him, was someone who was actually a member of said group. Jack didn't know what to think anymore.

"Wait, what?! You are part of the Crimson Flame?!" Jack said. "You never told me that?!"

Dingo shrugged. "You never asked."

"Oh, come on! I'm pretty sure that that is some pretty important information that needs to be known by me even without asking!"

"Well, I'm telling you now, didn't I? Better late than never."

"I'd much rather you didn't tell them about it!" Jack said as he pointed at the guards. "Didn't you hear about me telling you how the guards are practically hunting down the Crimson Flame?! If they don't have a reason to hunt us down to the ends of the Earth, they sure as hell do now!"

"Relax. That flare wasn't just for show. It's to signal for reinforcements." As if sensing something, Dingo turned around and looked up to the sky. "Speaking of which, here they are."

Jack followed Dingo's gaze to see where he's looking at. Up above the night sky where the moon shined brightly, there were two shadowy figures standing on the rooftops. Those two figures then nimbly descended down to the ground level to meet up with Dingo.

Because of the dim light, Jack wasn't able to see the two figures clearly. He was only able to make out their faint outlines. One figure seemed to be wearing a tattered dark-blue hooded robe and wielding a long wooden staff decorated with a bird's skull and several black feathers. The other figure seemed to be wearing a light-tan robe, a hat with a very wide brim, and wielding...a katana?!

The guards felt as though they were paralyzed at the arrival of the two figures joining Dingo. However, the guard leader eventually shrugged off the nervousness in order to give out the order to attack.

"I don't care if you're with the Crimson Flame," the guard leader proclaimed with a trembling voice, failing to mask his nervousness. "In fact, it's all the better! Once I catch all of you, I'll surely be promoted! Archers, open fire!"

The archers obeyed and fired a volley of arrows towards Jack and Dingo. The figure with the wide-brim hat dashed forward and, using its katana, it was able to deflect all of the incoming arrows with incredible speed and skill. The way it deflected all those arrows using nothing but a sword was seen by Jack almost as a demonstration of true sword mastery.

However, what shocked Jack even more was when he took a closer look at the swordsman. It did not look like a regular person; instead, it looked more like a strange-looking mushroom humanoid with lanky limbs and beady yellow eyes.

In fact, that wide-brim hat that Jack had seen wasn't actually a hat but was instead the creature's entire head, which resembled a large mushroom with a brown top. It only appeared to look like a hat because of the poor lighting.

Right after that volley of arrows was dealt with, the other figure stepped forward. Upon closer inspection, this figure was not a regular person either. Instead, it looked more like a bird humanoid, the bird of which resembling that of a corvid, like a crow or raven.

Wielding its staff, the bird mage activated a glyph, which summoned a swirl of aura that formed into a massive flock of indigo ethereal birds.

It wasn't just any type of bird either. It was a murder of crows. The loud cawing sounds they emitted was an assurance of that.

The crows swarmed at the guards violently, overwhelming them with a force they couldn't possibly break out of. They tried every method to try to fight against this immense horde---swinging their spears, shooting blasts of lightning, commanding their ethereal panther to strike---none of them could make a dent at the murder of crows that surrounded them with chaotic frenzy.

"Took you guys long enough," Dingo said to the two figures, almost as if he's familiar with them.

"We wouldn't be as tardy if you had made your escape less of a commotion," the bird mage replied with a feminine voice.

"Let's hope your plan is worth the trouble," the mushroom swordsman said with a rather indistinct vibrating voice that sounded almost alien. It turned to look at Jack, its beady eyes meeting his gaze, making him slightly uncomfortable. "Is this the sporeling you referred to?"

"Ah, yes, I haven't even made introductions. How rude of me," Dingo said. He then patted Jack on the back. "Mates, this here is Jack Slater. Jack..." He pointed the bird mage. "...this is Raven Darkshadow..." He pointed to the mushroom swordsman. "...and this is Shiitake Musashi."

"Umm, uhh...hi," Jack uttered, simply too awestruck to say anything else.

Dingo could sense Jack's nervousness resulting from his unfamiliarity. "Sorry about that, Jack here isn't exactly known for being very worldly in his knowledge. Heck, this is the first time he'd ever seen a furrofaun. Can you believe that?"

Just as they converse, one of the mage guards---the one with the dual-wielding half-ethereal dagger swords---broke through the swarm of crows and charged towards Jack and the others. Musashi intercepted the guard, sword clashed against sword. The guard may be skilled in fighting, but Musashi was clearly better. In a few moves, the mushroom swordsman was able to disarm the guard before thrusting the butt end of its sword into his sternum, knocking the wind out of him.

Another group of the guards' forces had broken through, this time in the form of the pair of ethereal panthers. Raven stepped in and cast a large glyph, which summoned a wave of dark-purple energy that washed over the panthers. That wave of purple aura seemed to trigger a self-preservation instinct in them, causing them to flee in terror. Not only that, the wave permeated through the crowd and washed over into the horses, causing them to go wildly out of control, bucking their riders off of their saddles.

"We shouldn't stay long," Raven suggested. "We need to get out of here before the guards remobilize."

"Right you are," Dingo concurred before turning to Jack. "Come on, mate. Let's get the hell out of here."

With that, all four of them escaped into the dark of the night, leaving the guards behind.