A shockwave as powerful as an eartquake sweeped everyone off their feet. A loud rumbling sound pierced the air and warned the Elementalists about an impending danger. Just as panic filled their hearts, small stones started to fall from the ceiling and knocked few unlucky people out. Elizabeth, who saw the entire event unfold shook her head in order break out of amazement and surprise, grabbed injured Arath together with unconcious Ben and order her troops to run. There was no time to waste, it was only a matter of seconds before they would all die and get buried deep under many layers of soil. Dungeon lurkers were afraid of few things, explosion in a cave was certainly one of them. The fight that was so heated just a minute ago almost completely ended in that moment. Everyone in their right mind paid no attention to previous situation and prioritized saving their own skin. Only a few compassionate individuals actually tried to help the injured and carry them away, but the more boulders fell down like a heavy rain the more people were trapped inside with no way out. Leader of the Leafers led the way and did her best to avoid any unnecessary dangers, while Heroes without their commanding body became chaotic.

After half an hour of exhausting marathon Elizabeth finally allowed them to sit down and rest.

"We should be safe now, but be ready to run if anything happens. Your group will watch for enemies and guard while we prepare for the rest of the journey." She pointed at one of her officers.

The team healer, after tending to the Leafers in an even worse condition, bandaged Arath's injuries and stabilised his condition but had a grim expression on their face. When asked about his state the healer answered that it was hard to say and they would see. That didn't sound promising to Elizabeth but she had more important matters to attend to at the moment.

Until the break was over some survivors accidentaly run into the guards and were either arrested or welcomed with open arms and honest, relief-filled smiles.

Getting to and through the lake wasn't really a problem as all monsters were focused on smaller and less organised small parties and individuals who were doing their best to escape with their life, many succeded in that task thanks to their above-average abilites but just as many were slaughtered by cruel and bloodthirsty beasts who just ganked up to see their prey dead.

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As soon as Leafers got out of the Tower and crossed the gate to the First City, Elizabeth sent her fastest men to get to the Council's building and inform the higher-ups of the incident before the Heroes could come up with a different story. Having done that, she made sure each and every of her people would receive a proper treatment by decent healers and made it her priority to save as many lives as she possibly could.

During a more throughout examination of Arath's injuries a man tending to him gasped and covered his mouth.

"This is much worse and also much better than I thought at the same time." He said as he turned to the older man who was the leader of the scouts.

"What do you mean?" The other man asked.

"None of his important organs was actually severely damaged but his internal bleeding is really scary. Also the wound on his hand is not good news. The arrow hit a nerve, of course I can try to fix that with my Element but it will never go back to what it used to be. Also, if I was him, I would give up on adventuring, the stomach wound can reopen if not given time and the pain can come back in certain circumstances." The healer had a worried look on his face and went straight to healing his patient as soon as he finished explaining. "Oh, that doesn't look good either. His magical energy is pouring out of this wound, I will have to block it for now if we don't want him to suffer consequences of elemental exhaustion."

With the list of abnormal conditions growing with every second the leader of scouts opened his eyes wide in disbelief and had to sit down. On the other hand Ben's injuries weren't that bad, he just suffered a minor head trauma after experiencing the shockwave from the explosion from a quite short distance.

The next day both men woke up in Arath's apartment and to their surprise there were two normal beds in the room even though they didn't have a spare on just the day before. Ben, who from the moment he opened his eyes, wanted to puke really badly and generally felt dizzy but forced himself to go get a quick bath and prepare something for breakfast.

Arath was not sure if it wouldn't be better to just cut off his entire body in order not to feel the immense and sleep-ridding pain. Even turning on the other side of the bed became a major problem for him and all he could do was cry out of pain and frustration.

Now, the entire team was nothing but disabled war veterans with little chances of actually becoming someone, the only person who could continue the journey to the top of the Tower was Ben but even he could not hope to go back in there soon.

Nothing was as it used to, and one thing was sure, the future did not look promising. Arath looked at the sky and could only curse at his bad luck and the obvious Tower's hatred towards his person.