I raised my hand and signalized for the group to stop. Everyone stayed in place and Lana gave me a look as if asking. “What is it?”

The group gathered, and I said in a low voice. “I feel the scent of blood in front, it’s better if Silver investigates what is happening first.”

Lana looked at Silver and nodded. The ranger left the group while sneaking in the forest. Everyone else laid low and waited for an answer.

After some time, Silver came back. His face didn’t look so well, and he was clearly perturbed.

Lana turned to him and asked. “What happened Silver?”

“Let’s get out of here first.” He answered with a somber expression.

The group followed his guidance and got away from the region. I already imagined that something nasty had happened. After all, the scent of blood was too thick.

We arrived at a secluded place near a hill, and the group looked at Silver while waiting for answers.

“The situation is very, very bad. The Abyssals have surrounded the portal and are guarding it. There are countless corpses on the ground… We are royally screwed.”

The face of everyone went pale. We were stuck in this hell! This meant that our chance to survive would be very little. By how Silver described the portal, it was pretty unlikely that we could escape from here.

“We have to prepare for the worst. By what Silver said, we can’t get out of this floor before the abyssal horde arrives.” Lana said while looking around. Her eyes had a calming effect on everyone, a good leadership made the difference.

“Let’s get back to the camp and see if there is still anyone in there.”

Everybody nodded and we hurried toward the camp.

The trip was silent and depressive. Everyone here knew what it meant to stay in one of the floors during the abyssal hordes, certain death!

Our will to live was stronger than that, so we would struggle with everything we could to survive.

After running through the forest for some time, and getting rid of some monsters, we were finally approaching the camp. My heart was beating fast, and the closer we got to the camp, the bigger the anxiousness.

There was nothing that we could do if the people on the camp had left. They were our last beacon of hope. I looked around at my teammates. Lana had a serious face… Silver looked as pale as a sheet of paper…. Beirut held his shield close to his body as if having it would protect him from anything that could happen…. And Lily… She had an empty look in her eyes….

Lily was very close to my age, she didn’t have many experiences with difficulties and challenges. Knowing that we were stuck in here was the same thing as a death sentence to her…. Not that it was not truth….

I tried to keep a calm appearance but was slowly panicking.

The fact that I had survived some near-death experiences some time ago didn’t diminish my fear of death. In fact, it made my fear grow.

Being afraid of dying was a normal thing, and I surely knew that. I was afraid of many things in this world, and death was only one of them.

Being so close to death was a good thing to my concept understanding. I had a great leap in the concept of death because of it, and my others were also growing by the day.

I focused on the path forward and walked with the group. As soon as we arrived in a place where the camp could be seen, everybody stopped.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“Thanks….” I released a breath that I didn’t realize I was holding.

The camp was intact, however, everybody had a gloomy face. The scouts were standing on the entrance, while cautiously looking around. We entered the camp and the guards stopped us and said. “Please, go to the commander's tent. Every new arrival has to go there.”

We walked through the camp while looking at the despairing people around us. The atmosphere was horrible in here, and with justification.

We entered the commander tent, and Lorion was there with the others. His Silver wings had somehow dimmed, and his complexion was not so good.

He raised his head and looked toward us. “More help.” he said mumbling to the Dionach beside him.

We stood in front of the big wooden table, and Lana said. “We are aware of the circumstances, we need to know what we can do to help the camp now.”

Lorion nodded and said. “Good, at least you’re not crying in a corner.” He waved his hand, signalizing her to approach. He pointed at the table, where a big map was laid and began to explain. “We need to move to a safer place than here… we were planning to move underground, but the Troich’s don’t have enough power to build a shelter safe enough for all of the camp, and other monsters live underground to take into consideration.”

Everyone nodded in understanding. The Abyssals used some monsters to locate and destroy an underground base as well.

“We decided that getting as far away from the portal was the best solution… so that is what we are going to do!”

Lana answered with a serious face. “When will we move?”

“The camp is going to be divided into groups. The groups are going to leave through different routes tomorrow, and meet at the destination.” He pointed toward the map and said. “The abyssal’s are already tracking us. Fortunately, our scouts and diverting their attention for now, but it won’t work for long.”

“The best option that we have is to split up and meet later. I will give your route tomorrow together with a copy of this map. Dismissed.”

Lana nodded and the group left the tent. After we went to a more private place, I looked at Lana and said. “Are you truly buying what he is saying? He is the one organizing the routes. He will probably use the others as a distraction and safely arrive at the destination.”

She looked around and seated on the ground while waving her hand, telling us to do the same. “Ullach, I know that you have no experience in this kind of thing, but even if he is using us, he is our best shot.”

I was just about to answer her when she said. “Think with me. We are outnumbered in here, the abyssal's have the absolute advantage over us, and the camp is not so united in the end, after all, everyone only looks for their interests.”

“If he is using us as a distraction or not, he is still our best shot of getting away from here alive. As he said, the abyssal's must be on the cust of discovering this camp, and if they do, the only thing that we can depend on will disappear.”

“But if we have great mobility as a group. staying here will limit that.” Lily said.

“That’s true… But think again, it will only limit us while the camp is safe, if there is a big attack, we always have the choice of running as a small group again.”

Everyone understood her point. Staying with them at least gave us options, something that we didn’t have if we were alone.

“We will rest tonight, and tomorrow we will go with their groups. But don’t worry, we can always get away from here.” Lana said with confidence in her voice.

I readied my tent and meditated. My soul power was getting stronger, and my origin energy was almost breaking to the next level. I felt that, if my origin energy was able to advance, I could escape safely from this hellhole.

I rested during the night, knowing that this was probably one of the last peaceful nights that I would have in a long time and woke up in the morning, together with the rising of the red sun.

Everyone organized their stuff, and we walked toward the center of the camp, where Lorion would give us the map and the route we were supposed to follow.

Beirut punched me on the shoulder and said. “Hey boy, relax! It’s not like you’re alone in here, we are together with you.”

“Thanks, this means a lot to me.” I answered him.

We could already see many groups waiting in the middle of the camp. The tents were already dismantled, and the place looked desolate.

Lorion waited for a while. And after seeing that everyone had arrived he said. “We will distribute the routes shortly. It’s of great importance that you follow the planned route because, in this way, we can ensure that almost everyone will make it.”

He nodded to a man that was beside him, and the man took some papers and began to distribute them.

“The map you’ll receive has a detailed layout of the route where you’re supposed to go through. You can see that some notes are indicating the species living near the routes.”

The distribution was pretty quick. Seeing that every group already had their route in hands, he said. “We part ways here my friends. I wish to see each one of you soon.”

He turned away and left with his group, disappearing in the forest.

Lorion words were direct and to the point. There was no embezzlement or lies in what he said, but there were a lot of hidden meanings.

As soon as Lana opened the map, the group was shocked. “That fucker…” Beirut said while gripping his shield hard.

The map had the route that we were supposed to follow, but only that. The route was detailed enough that we couldn’t lose track of it, but everything on the surroundings were blank.

“He truly meant what he said. The routes are detailed.” Silver said with a sarcastic smile on his face.

Lana took a deep breath while Beirut was gritting his teeth and Lily was quietly looking around. After calming down, Lana looked at the map and said. “At least we have something. Together with our maps that Silver made in our exploration, we have some notion of the places we are going through.”

Silver took his sketches out and began to complete them with the map provided by the camp. He was truly a skilled ranger. Besides tracking and fighting, he still knew how to map the surrounds.

Silver took a few minutes to finish the map. After taking a good look at it, he said. “We have passed through some of these places before… They have some danger, but nothing that we can’t deal with. My worry is how the Abyssals scouts are distributed.”

“It doesn’t matter to us anymore. We can only use the information that we have. The only group in possession of such information was the one that Lorion left with, but we at least know where to head for now.”

Looking around, I saw that most groups were also analyzing the routes, and many had already left.

“Let’s leave this place as well.” Lana said, and Silver guided us through the place.