As dust motes flew at Leon’s front, the burning torchlight flashed off, revealing his hideout.

When he raised the dagger, its blade threw sharp reflections on the Syrs, but he pulled it back and walked into the shadows before the beings could turn their heads.

He waited for the Syrs’ attention to drift from his side before continuing to sneak toward the hut at the center.

More stone structures spread outward in an arrangement so absorbing that Leon ended up at the very hut he had woken in.

Just as he stopped opposite the hut he saw Aurelian standing at earlier, two Syrs erupted from the entrance of a cave that didn’t look like one. A place where the torches didn’t dare throw their reflections.

At the horned beings’ center was a humanoid lady doing all she could to set herself free. As soon as the Syrs managed to drag her to a burning pillar, they hurled her into the fire.

The Syrs laughed, slamming their palms against their chests as they watched the human scream in pain while the fire engulfed her and began toasting her flesh.

Leon’s heart sank and nearly made him run to save her, but he stopped when he noticed one of the Syrs turning its head.

’Fuck!’ Leon cursed in his head and dashed back into the shadow of a sleeping Syr. He only moved out when the laughing sounds from the two Syrs returned.

Liu Yan’s face and An Lang’s face both played in Leon’s head as he ventured into the cave the beings had erupted from.

Immediately after Leon entered the cave, the Syrs turned and walked toward it, but stopped when the sleeping Syr yawned as it woke up.

Inside the cave, Leon walked along the walls like a lizard, dragging himself forward only after his palms had touched the next rock.

’Am I even sure they would be here?’ He asked himself as he ventured deeper. When he looked back, he shook his head, then exhaled.

’Where I have gotten to, there is only one way. Either I continue with no return, or I rush outside and fight them all.’

After taking a few steps forward, light began seeping into the cave from a distance. Three passageways lingered at Leon’s front when he neared the light and stopped.

He placed his palms on his waist and studied all three directions, then closed his eyes. His heart began to beat faster as he counted the paths with his eyes shut.

When he thought of the first and paused, his heart rate dropped to a calm state. The second raised it slightly. But the moment he considered the third, a sharp pain pierced through him.

Leon placed his right palm on his chest and bent down slightly, coughing in an unnatural sequence.

’They’ve got to be in the third path.’ Leon concluded. He cracked his eyes open and slowly lowered his hand from his chest.

He glanced at the two remaining paths for a moment before entering the one he had chosen.

The cave, stripped of light and warmth, began to grant Leon a feeling he had never carried in his entire life.

Blood traced thin lines on the walls and dripped down them like water. A rotten fish smell lingered in the air as Leon drew in a breath.

’I have to cover my nose before the smell starts to drain me.’ He thought, then unwrapped the red cloth and pressed it around his nose and mouth as a mask.

At that same time, the smoldering meat in An Lang’s cage was down to just one tiny piece. The moment he finished it, a new smell flew in from the opposite direction and clutched his nose, causing it to wiggle.

An Lang licked his lips when he turned and saw a human lying in the cell across from him, blood slowly dripping from her body.

One of the two Syrs keeping watch moved a step but was stopped by the other, who shook its head once.

An Lang looked at the human for a long moment, then back at the Syrs. He exhaled through his nose and sat against the wall. Deep in his head, he sensed someone familiar was coming, but he had no idea who it might be.

Far behind the Syrs, a large burning torch slipped from its hook and slammed on the ground, sending sparks into the air.

Beside the fallen torch, Leon held close to the wall, trying to become one with its shadow as he watched three Syrs walk past.

Leon used the dagger’s blade as a mirror to watch the Syrs, and when they vanished from it, he walked back to the burning torch, which was now dimming.

He tried moving forward but stopped himself. ’What if they are not here?’

While he stood deciding, Leon slipped behind a golden pillar when he spotted another Syr coming toward where he stood.

A screeching sound echoed as the Syr kept slamming its burning axe against the ground like a depressed person. Sharp air exploded from its mouth and caused the pillar Leon stood behind to shake as it passed.

"Hhew, that was close." Leon whispered, then moved out from behind the pillar. He followed the direction the Syr was heading and tightened his grip on the dagger.

He looked back, then forward, before trailing the Syr once it was a few feet ahead of him.

When the Syr stopped, Leon also stopped and pressed himself behind another pillar when he noticed the Syr’s right arm raising.

Then the blade of Wu Ze’s sword clicked against the wall and sent a sharp, metal-on-metal sound echoing through the passage.

Leon’s grip locked as the Syr snarled and turned fully toward the pillar he was behind.

Leon adjusted the sword and held himself in a ghostlike silence, but that only worsened things. The burning torch at the far left fell and its light swept over him, pulling him out of the shadow entirely.

Without hesitation, the Syr moved forward, slamming its foot on the ground as it closed in on the pillar.

’No, no, no. Don’t come near. Please.’ Leon thought, his grip on the dagger so tight his knuckles ached. He shut his eyes and held them closed.

Just as the Syr reached the pillar and was about to look behind it, a loud roar echoed from somewhere behind it.

The Syr dashed toward the sound without hesitation and vanished from the path within seconds.

Behind the pillar, Leon’s face was wet. Sweat traced thin lines from his forehead to his chin and dripped onto the ground.

When he followed the path ahead, Leon saw countless wolf-beasts moving lazily through the new tunnel.

’What have I gotten myself into?’ He thought, then drew Wu Ze’s sword from his back.

The moment the wolves turned their heads toward him, he was already plowing through them like a ghost.

The first three lunged, but Leon dropped them before their paws could touch the ground. The rest came in a wave and he cut through it without slowing, as if they were made of smoke.

At the end of the tunnel, Leon stood wiping the blood from Wu Ze’s sword. He looked at his reflection in the blade and squinted. ’Have I become faster and stronger, or are they just weak?’ 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

He had no answer to that, but his hands weren’t shaking either.

He smiled, decided not to spend more time on it, and continued searching the chambers as he exited each pathway.

Finally, when Leon entered one tunnel, Liu Yan’s scream caught him before he could even stop.

"Help! I don’t want to die!"

Alongside Liu Yan’s scream, the laughter of countless Syrs poured into his ears so hard that he paused for a second.

’No!’ Leon screamed in his head, then drew both the dagger and the sword. ’They also die like the wolf-beasts I just killed.’

He dashed forward, knowing he was lesser than the beings. The Syrs.

When he got there, he saw two seven-foot Syrs tossing Liu Yan as if she were a ball. And when neither caught her, Liu Yan fell and slammed into the ground. Bam.