An echo extended itself throughout Pontya's dark dungeons. The rippling sound woke all the guards from their stupor and they quickly noticed the presence of something unknown at the cells, a flicker that fluttered in no tone or rhythm close to a human's.

They ran to the door without a second thought, bolting into the lower rooms of the prison tower. They ran past the entrance and barged inside the basement cells, running between stacks of bars until they finally reached the origin of the sound— a gaping hole in the middle of the wall, and the bars of one of the cells bent and distorted as if someone had opened them with their hands.

As they looked through the hole in the wall, they also saw the outer wall of the headquarters completely burst into pieces. It was the same wall they had repaired not long ago after that black-haired man had destroyed it. The guards fell into despair when they saw the shape of three running figures in the distance, going downhill into the river. One of them was clad in robes, the other was carrying a body, and the other was a shape they had seen for months in the headquarters already.

The shackles inside the cell had been frozen until the point that they shattered, and the metal chokers around them seemed to have been crushed by fingers.

The guards only had one thought at the moment, one that, if they had said it at the same time, it would have sounded like a chorus:

"I don't get paid enough for this..."

The ragged breath of Erina was the first thing that came to Suu's mind as they stopped in front of the river. Although they had barely run for a minute, the girl was wheezing and coughing as she tried to recover her breath. Her hands were bleeding and bruised from opening the bars at the cell and breaking the shackles.

"We should lose them in the forest." The hooded youth said. "Let's keep running north."

"Wouldn't it be safer to cross the river?" Suu exhaled as she tried to steady Thom on her shoulder, without stopping to pay attention to his head dangling on her side.

"There's someone waiting for us in the forest. And your friend is a little too weary to cross the river, I am willing to say." The hooded youth said.

Swish!

Several arrows rained down on them at that moment, striking Erina on her arm and clattering off Suu's back. The girl fell down in pain while Suu immediately placed herself in front and cursed her carelessness. Archers had already been pointing at them from afar since they had broken out, and were waiting for the moment in which they could shoot properly. They had stupidly given them an opening.

"No time to think, miss!" The hooded man bellowed. "Give me the king, you take the girl and we'll run for the forest!"

Suu looked back and clicked her tongue. The archers weren't a real danger as soon as they only hit her, but if anyone else— Chamgue, for example— were to follow them, they'd be in great danger. She was extremely dubious of handing her friend over to a complete stranger, but leaving Erina behind to die wasn't an option either.

"Do something to him and I won't doubt when I have to cut your head off!" Suu carefully handed Thom's unconscious body to the hooded figure, who nervously smiled in return.

Arrows came whirring down from the sky once more, but this time Suu was attentive enough to shove the two other people aside and receive all the hits. Both Erina and the mysterious youth looked at her with amazement as all the arrows broke on her skin.

"Let's go, now!"

Suu swept Erina off her feet, making her let go of a small "Eep!". They started to run away from the city while following the river once more, the arrows hitting one after the other behind their feet.

It was then when the north gates opened behind them and several horses throttled down the hill, making Suu's imagination sparkle. She hadn't thought about it because of how anxious she had been, but she was, after all, not a simple swordsman.

As the cavalry closed in on them with weapons at the ready, the urge to strike them down revealed to her that she wasn't unarmed, even when her sword wasn't on her hand.

She breathed in deeply as her feet moved in large strides towards the front, and the entirety of her magic system convulsed as if to let out of a scream:

"[Haste]!" She cast first on herself, and as she dashed past the hooded youth, she placed the same spell on him. Erina seemed nauseous as Suu suddenly accelerated twice her speed.

Although they had quickened their steps by a great deal, they were still two small people carrying one person each on their shoulder, trying to compete against horses as they ran along the riverside. The cavalry caught up to them very quickly, and at the lead of them was Chamgue, steading his arm to a side of the horse with his warhammer. They were still far from the forest.

Suu felt the pressure of the horses behind as the sound of the hooves got each second closer, rustling her nerves with the noise. She had also noticed that the hooded youth had started to slow down— he was getting tired, noticeably so.

"Agh!"

Suu jumped and dug her feet on the ground, leaving a trail of dirt behind her as she supported Erina on her arms and directed her magic energy towards her feet, her hair dancing with the momentum.

"[Landslide]!" She buried her feet on the ground, consuming almost eight estones in a single blow of her voice. The ground trembled below her as a ripple of ground molded into a wave and erupted below the horses' legs. A thunderous sound could be heard as the beasts were thrashed to the ground and their riders were crushed.

As the commotion subsided, a single horse blew through the dirt with its rider still on top, the animal neighing furiously as it chased after them.

"Shit!"

Suu was about to move, but her feet had been buried deep into the ground. She tried to jump back with Erina on her arms, but she had unconsciously prioritized the girl's safety.

Toss

Suu's arms quickly moved to throw the girl away. She observed the warhammer crisply impacting on Suu's face, digging her feet out of the ground, proceeding to thrash her down.

Erina landed on her side, breaking the arrow that had been stuck on her arm. She didn't have time to curse, however, since Chamgue was already turning his horse and heading straight towards her.

The muscly girl wobbled on her feet before making sure of her footing, and gritted her teeth tightly to ignore the pain on her arm. The horse came toward her with all of its speed, Chamgue's hammer ready to smash her as well.

That was the kind of man he was— resolute to the end in his principles of distorted justice.

The girl didn't back down as the horse hurled its massive weight towards her, and the warhammer swung against her. Erina put her hands in front of herself, and with a thumping and loud sound, she received the brute impact of the steel head and held onto it. She was pushed back, caving the dirt with her feet as several bones cracked in her body, and her heels stopped just a few centimeters short of falling into the river.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"Ughu..!"

The horse raised its front paws and halted after feeling the water sprinkle its hooves. Chamgue smacked his lips as he was forced to pull from his weapon, and gave Erina leeway to run away. The girl didn't run, but positioned herself under the horse before it could lower its body again.

Chamgue noticed what she was attempting to do. He twirled the grip on his hand to reinforce his clutch and leaned to a side to smack the girl under the horse. Such had been a grave mistake, as he had managed to unstabilize the horse's left side, and facilitated Erina's task.

The girl let out of a warcry as she pushed down her legs onto the ground, and the beast's hind legs elevated from the dirt, tilting to the right side. Chamgue panicked as he held tightly onto the reins, but his heavy armor and the weight of his weapon brought him down.

Erina moved forward and lifted the horse's body, making it stand on its front legs before completely giving in, falling to the right side and crushing Chamgue's body in the process.

"Ack! Erina! You have truly strayed from the path of justice!"

"Come on dude!" Erina said with an annoyed face, placing her foot on the belly of the horse that was still trying to stand. "Can you lay off that attitude of yours for a damn second while I'm pushing you into the river?!"

"Into the—!"

Without any further notice, the girl put all of her strength on her foot, and moved the horse enough for it to start sliding down on its own. The beast neighed as it dragged Chamgue's body toward the river, making the two of them plunge into the water.

The horse pulled out its head and moved its paws as it started to be dragged away by the current, where it would eventually either fall from the waterfall or manage to climb out. Chamgue, however, was nowhere to be seen.

"Bet he isn't so proud of that full plate now, huh." Erina chuckled to herself with a victorious look, rolling her sore arms in place.

"Let's get going!"

A hand grabbed her shoulder and turned her around. Suu's face, badly scraped and bleeding badly from her mouth and nose, was there staring at her.

"Wait! Are you okay?!"

"I passed out for a while, but I'm okay now."

She said, giving Erina a thumbs up and a smile that showed her blood-covered teeth that were, miraculously, all in place. Erina couldn't help but blink in utter surprise before being once again picked up by the girl.

The hooded youth came running with Thom on his shoulder and threw them a questioning glance, as if saying: "What do we do now, then?"

"They'll probably send more cavalry in a minute. We should get going. Even if they send anyone else behind us, I don't think they'll pose a threat bigger than Chamgue's." Suu said between breaths as she tumbled forward. "I already blew almost half of my magic energy, so let's not give them chances to attack."

"Hehe, as expected of the right hand of the king."

The hooded youth giggled slightly, showing a row of sharp teeth as he did. Suu did not correct his statement as she had felt quite elated by it and started running once more.

From the already-faraway prison towers of Pontya, Miel had observed the situation develop. The worn-out and tired look on his eyes seemed to have accentuated greatly after seeing such display of ineptitude from his soldiers.

The image of people delving into the forest after escaping his headquarters seemed to be something recurrent. He started to wonder if the ineptitude was really from his soldiers, or if it was his. Then, he shook off the thought, and let out a big sigh escape his mouth.

At the very least, he still had Thom Arburson's sword to prove that he had been captured.

As long as that woman believed that those three were captured and in risk, she would do anything Miel wanted. He would speak with her at dawn, and if his plan worked—which he suddenly didn't feel confident of—, he could atone for his sudden ineptitude.

"I think playing around and drinking so much has made your brain even smaller, Miel." Loposia sneered by his side. "What are you going to do now, huh?"

"You know... I wonder that same thing." Miel chuckled slightly. "But... Several people believe they're imprisoned, and I have items I retrieved from them. It's a shame I couldn't show their shackled selves to Valta, but at the very least I have proof of their incarceration. I'll keep going with my plan in a few hours... She should wake up around dawn..." Miel yawned, covering his pale face and his dry lips.

Loposia simply chuckled and shrugged by the general's side.

"Ahh, fuck." Miel sniffed and went down the stairs of the tower. "I really need a damn coffee."

At the same time that those words fell out of the general's mouth, the quartet of escapees was running through the maze of trees that was the woods, leaves and branches crunching under their feet.

The hooded youth stopped for a second before leaning against a tree, his chest going up and down in an attempt to catch some air. Suu stopped as well with a small change in her breathing, finally putting the other girl down. Erina awkwardly thanked her before falling to the ground, finally sighing in relief.

"Huff. What an intense night." The black-skinned man said. His hands carefully placed the sleeping Thom beside a tree, a smile painting his face as he did so.

Suu's suspicion had decreased greatly over the seconds they spent running together, but she was still wary of the stranger that had suddenly barged in to help them.

"Thank you for helping." She muttered, sitting beside her friend. Thom's wounds had reopened with the movement. His skin turned each time paler and his breathing slower and slower. He seemed to have been thrown into a comatose state more than just being asleep.

"All I did was scare you awake." The hooded youth smiled. "With such a terrifying amount of magic energy... You could have easily broken those chains— no, that whole cell into pieces. Had you been in your best mental state, I mean, haha."

"I wouldn't know whether to believe that or not. But still, thank you. My name is Suu." The girl said, putting Thom's head on her thighs. "So, what are you?"

"What are you instead of who are you? Ahh, that hurts my feelings a little, lady Suu." He uncomfortably scratched the back of his head. "Well... I'm a hobgoblin. My name is Clung."

"A hob?" Erina exclaimed in surprise. "I thought all goblinoids were a slight tone of red..."

"Come on, Erina." Suu smiled. "Do you get surprised when you see a human a different color than yourself?"

"Eh?! No, no, that's not what I meant at all!"

The seconds passed slowly as they all tended to their wounds. Suu was the one to help Erina pull the arrow from her arm, which was not an easy task. The girl was biting on a branch as sweat poured from her forehead the whole process, and Suu was simply trying to ease the pain as much as she could.

The hobgoblin named Clung was helpful enough. Although he did not have any healing spells, he provided herbs and even a clear-pink salve that relieved her somewhat. She was pretty grateful for it, any amount of relief helped a lot.

"Then, what do we do with the king?"

They looked at Thom's unconscious body, which was not emitting an ounce of the energy he usually had plenty of. Erina was worried enough, but Suu was in deep anguish thinking that he could straight up die.

"We should let him rest for now... Getting any liquid would be good, but getting a healer would be the best we could wish for. Sadly, I don't think we'll have that privilege anytime soon." Suu sighed through her nose as she spoke.

"Truly." Clung nodded. "He was exuding so much power when I saw him fighting that blond human... It surprises me that he could fall into such a state."

"Well, sadly, people aren't invincible no matter how strong they are." Erina shrugged. "Even Miel would die if an arrow pierced his heart."

After they had talked for a moment, Suu noticed that there was a missing patch of her memory. She was sure that she had arrived at the farm and she had seen how Thom was expulsed from the roof of that farmhouse, but she wasn't quite sure how did she pass out or how did she get in the prison cell she had woken up inside of.

"Erina, do you know how did we all end up locked?"

"As far as I know, Miel found out you and Thom weren't part of the clan. He got incredibly mad and started planning out some sort of twisted revenge... Against you and against me for covering you up. I'm sure he would have tortured us and killed us if we had stayed any longer. All because of a tantrum of his..."

"Right..."

Suu fell into silence as she caressed Thom's hair with her right hand. The pain in her concussed head was no longer there, but the anxiety welling up in her stomach didn't go away with regeneration skills. The doubts in her mind had started to fuse and give off even bigger troubles.

She had started to ponder about it since things had gone wrong back at Seashore, but now she was in deep distress and her doubts had all turned into questions she desperately needed to answer.

Are we doing things right? Is this all just bad luck, or are we the ones who are wrong? Shouldn't have we just tried to find a way back home as soon as we could? Even a simple... Even a meaningless life would have been better than having to lose all we have, only for a try in this world.

She closed her eyes as her muscles relaxed. The only presences she could feel were the deep-red flame from Erina's heart, the nebulous black cloud from Clung's magic well, and Thom's weak, dwindling aura.

Her body was enveloped by the chilly air of autumn for a second, and her eyes trailed off into the leaves.

Erina fell on her shoulder as if she was jealous of Thom laying on her lap, which made Suu smile slightly. Clung simply observed the three of them with a smile, trying to paint a perfect picture in his mind. The wind blew cold once more, the leaves danced in the air before getting carried away into the dark.

Clung thought they were losing time. He believed they had no time to rest and lay down like this. There was a primal instinct indicating him to stand up and hurry them deeper into the forest, but he contained himself and stayed shut for a little longer.

After all, he thought the group looked cute when they were like that.