"What a coincidence. Now I can kill you myself."
Closing her eyes instinctively, the sound of bones crunching sounded in the cave, her body being shoved to the ground in the process.
But why wasn't she feeling any pain?
Opening her eyes in confusion, Ren could be seen gasping for air as his right hand hurriedly grabbed her as he began to stumble out.
"What just happened?" Only able to voice a singular question among all of her confusion, Ren answered it swiftly as the Tiger's three eyes turned to look at them.
"We got to run!"
The Eyes of the Dove closed as Meredith Lorelai thought about the second favor she had to repay.
---
'Ow ow ow ow ow!!!' Hurriedly running forwards, despite the fact that he was now missing an arm, Ren ran like never before.
Even when he was threatened bodily harm by the instructors if he didn't run fast enough he didn't run like this.
"Bloody, just not the right blood." Commenting about the taste of a left arm, the impossibly large mouth swiftly closed around the tiger skull, returning to its previously normal tiger looking state.
As normal as a tiger with three eyes with the colors Black, blue and orange could be that is.
Black sclera seemingly reading his thoughts, the Tiger's mouth morphed into a twisted representation of a grin, the blue eye and orange eye respectively stayed on Ren as he turned and ran.
"Agh!?"
Nearly tripping over a rocky outcropping that Ren swore wasn't there before as pain shot up his splint covered right ankle, the torches hanging on the walls fell to the ground as the three eyes of the tiger stayed ingrained into his mind.
Seemingly staring into his very soul as he recovered from the stumble, Ren's hand tightened around the Heiress's as the panic stricken mind finally realized that something was missing from the left side of his body.
'Why is my face wet?'
Since his right hand was currently occupied with dragging the Heiress forwards while his left hand was currently missing, he was unable to tell what it was that was rolling down his face.
'Blood? Water?'
Mixing a cocktail of panic and ill timed courage in his veins, Ren ran like he never did before as the voice of the Tiger echoed behind, the sound of the Heiress's labored voice echoing behind him.
"I'm feeling generous! When I finish picking out the bones from my teeth I'll come and find you! Good luck!"
Letting out a final laugh as the Tiger's heavy voice echoed against the walls, everywhere Ren looked it seemed as if three pairs of eyes were looking at him.
Eyes, Eyes, Eyes, and more EYES.
Unable to get the three eyes out of his sight, Ren's breaths became heavy with anxiety and fear.
And this time when he stumbled over a rock that Ren barely registered was there, he didn't get up.
Letting go of whatever it was he was holding tightly onto at that point and collapsing on the ground with a crash, his skin became more torn and scraped up, the pain snapping him back to the reality of it all.
"Ugh!"
Flinching, the pain rushed into his head and was the metaphorical straw that broke the horses back as pain shot up from where his left arm was supposed to be.
Now it was only an empty stump where the elbow should be.
Finally realizing that he had just lost an arm, Ren instinctively got up from the ground with one hand and vomited.
"Ugh. HuuuRGGHHH!"
Emptying out whatever it was that he had eaten for dinner or lunch or whatever time of day it was, the barely recognizable gruel entered his blurry eyesight as he realised what it was that made his face wet.
Tears.
Nearly falling to the side due to trying to instinctively put some weight on his left hand, the bloodied stump flared with pain as broken fragments of bone poked at the flesh.
Pushing himself up and off of the ground, his back struck the wall as he clutched his head.
Eyes blurry as tears rolled down from his face. Whether it be from fear, pain or something else he didn't know.
They just continued to fall.
*Ba-thump Ba-thump BA-THUMP BATHUMP
Heartbeat echoing so fast in Ren's ears that they all began to blur together, it felt as if his heart was going to escape his chest to end it all.
Clutching his chest with a frantic expression, his fingers brushed against a rather familiar family heirloom.
Like a light piercing the fog of panic in his mind, Ren felt as if everything became clear all of a sudden.
Breath hitching as he caught his breath all of a sudden, despite the rancid taste in his mouth, Ren could catch his bearings with the dove in his hands.
Feeling the surface of the dove that he had gotten familiar with over the course of the month, the wooden carving that had been in his family for generations seemed incredibly anchoring for him.
'...I guess bringing this was the right choice after all.'
Looking down his shirt and seeing the familiar closed eyes of the Dove, Ren smiled slightly.
'...Wait are those eyes glowin-'
"Are you -Huff- Okay now Recruit?"
Snapping back to the reality from the reality centred around the Dove he had brought to remind him of home, Ren remembered once more that he was still in a cave with a heiress and a very dangerous tiger.
One that had chosen that time to devour his left arm at that.
"Ow."
Realizing that the wound was still bleeding profusely, the Heiress narrowed her eyes before forming a glow around her palm
Ren recognized it as the same spell that had cauterized the wound in her gut.
"Don't move Recruit" Sweat beading her forehead as the glow formed formally formed around her palms, when she pressed it against the stumpy limb Ren flinched.
It was more painful than the Heiress had made it seem.
'It's more bearable than losing an arm.'
Eye twitching as Ren bit into his lip again, the scent of smoked flesh reached his nose eliciting bowel movement through his throat.
Thankfully he already removed his stomach contents or he would've vomited on the Heiress.
That would've been embarrassing to say the least.
Pulling her hand away, the Heiress ripped her sleeve into several long strips.
"What are you doing?"
"Making a bandage."
Forcefully grabbing the stumpy limb, Ren watched in awe as the Heiress tied the bandage around his arm.
"Recruit, use this to wipe your tears, it'll make you feel better."
Handing him the last portion to wipe his face with, Ren felt anew his admiration for nobles.
"Wow."
"What?"
"Aren't those clothes expensive?"
"...Your point Recruit?"
"I don't think I'm worth even a thread of these clothes."
"...You speak pretty well who was just crying a while ago."
"When you cry, you get rid of the heavy emotions, allowing you to speak light heartedly."
"Who taught you that? Socrates?"
"My dad, he told us to always find the time to cry."
The Heiress paused her bandage making efforts for a moment before the barest forms of a whisper echoed. "...you"
The cave was rather quiet, so it was easy to hear even the quietest of things, and even then Ren could barely pick up what she said.
"I'm sorry?"
"Nothing."
Finishing off the bandage around his arm, the Heiress sidestepped the puddle of stanky vomit and
"And to answer your question earlier, you saved the life of the Barony's Heiress twice now, you have a higher self worth than these clothes."
Ren blinked before connecting her statement to the words he had said earlier.
"...Thank you?"
"No problem."
Putting out her hand, Ren took it and raised up until they were both eye level.
Or maybe they weren't
It was really hard to see in the dark when the only light source you had was a torch several something meters away.
"Tick tock little morsels, I'm coming for you~"
The Voice of the Three eyed tiger echoed through the caves their way causing both of them to look at each other.
"What is your name Recruit, I can't just keep calling you recruit can I?"
"It's Ren."
"Ren is it? Call me Meredith for now." She glanced at the passageway lit up by sparse torches.
"Do you know the way out of here Ren?"
"No."
"..." The heiress blinked at the straightforward answer and repeated her question only to receive the same answer back.
"I'm asking just because I think I misheard, do you know the way out of here?"
"Sorry to disappoint?"
"Did you not run here?"
"I may have been more than a lot panicked due to losing an arm from that thing the Barbarians summoned."
"Do you at least know where the entrance is?"
"I kind of fainted and don't know where the entrance is."
"..."
"..."
Staring into each others eyes using the barest glimpses of light, Ren chimed in quietly.
"I do vaguely know where the exit is if that helps."
"...Thank the Gods" Whispering at a level that Ren could catch, the Heiress turned to look at Ren. "Where is it?"
"..."
"...Is it past the place where the Tiger once was?"
"We can circle round I think?"
"Haahhh..."
Letting out a long sigh of reluctance, Meredith grabbed Ren by the blouse and breathed into his ear.
"!?"
Flinching at the sudden movement, Ren looked at Meredith for understanding of why she just did what she did.
"It's a Tadpole."
A small heat gathered at Ren's ear for a brief moment.
It wasn't that noticeable all things considered, but thanks to the events that had just occurred in short order, Ren was sensitive to changes like this.
Especially in the cave where things were generally cold.
"If I heat up your ear, it means that there's a problem and we should hide, understand?"
"Yep." Ren put out a small thumbs up with his one remaining arm.
"Good, now where's the way out?"
"You see those torches over there?"
"Yeah."
"Something I learned from my father is that smoke likes going up."
They entered the area filled with torch light allowing Ren to see Meredith's skeptical look.
But despite the heavy skepticism weighing down on his shoulders, Ren gestured at the ceiling of the cave.
"Because it likes going up, if there isn't a way out, the smoke tends to gather, and you can't breathe smoke can you?"
Meredith's eyes widened as she connected the dots, her eyes looking up and spotting the artificial channel carved into the ceiling filled to the brim with smoke.
"So if we just follow those we can find the exit right?"
"Unless there's another hole where the smoke can escape, but I don't think we need to worry about that."
Ren smiled confidently.
"You saw the cliff is stupid tall right? Unless someone dug a straight hole from the top of the cliff and into the caves, the smoke will have no choice but to lead us to the exit."
---
Problem, Someone dug a hole straight from the top until they reached the caves.
Staring at the rather large gap in the ceiling which was swallowing the minute trails of grey smoke formed from the flame eating the torches alongside the large gap in the ceiling.
That and the rather large Rib Jaw wolf which was still sitting there besides the Barbarians corpse, the Captain and the rather gooey vice captain having disappeared alongside that Knight who had stabbed Meredith in the first place.
Hopefully the Knight was gutted by that tiger by now.
Glancing at the still rib jaw wolf who's drool continued to eat at the floor beneath forming a rather sizeable pit, Ren glanced at Meredith and whispered.
"Can you kill the Wolf quickly?"
"No." She whispered back.
"Detour it is." Whispering back, Ren stared at the wolf briefly and committed it's general location to memory before moving away to another path that didn't involve a Wolf that would definitely create enough noise to attract a tiger.
That was until they turned around and found themselves face to face with the Tiger.
"I wondered how long it would take you to turn around, 6 out of 10 for awareness." A wide grin unfit for the tiger spread across its face showing a series of fanged teeth. "Let's see if the Blood of Liquid Fire is as delicious as the others made it out to be."
"Run!"
Hurriedly pushing Meredith forwards despite the rather noticeable wolf in the way, Ren grabbed a torch from the wall and waved it in front of him.
"How cute that you think that can work."
The Tiger's smile spread across its body as if it was going to open up into that skeleton again.
"But it's a nice try, I'll eat you as an appetizer."
The Tiger's head parted as if the torch never even existed, reforming around it like a ghost as it's mouth opened again.
Impossibly large mouth revealing a skull that had three sets of eyes staring him down, ivory sets of teeth glistening from a light emanating from within its body appeared eager to feast on his flesh.
Suddenly feeling a heat on his ear that moved downwards to his neck, without missing a beat, Ren instantly ducked as something flew over him and struck the skull.
"Gruh!?" Tiger flying away with the Torch that was once in Ren's hand, he grimaced as something ate at the flesh on his back.
"You foul beast dare strike me!? Even after I killed your master!"
Turning to look up revealed why.
The Aberrant wolf growling through its rib cage as acidic drool seeped through, the Tiger closed its mouth again as a bright light shined out of its blue eye.
"It seems that in the time that you've been raised into the world of the living you've gained guts." A harsh growl emptied out of the Tiger's gut as Ren felt a hand grab his.
"It's time that you remember."
"We have to go."
Whisper shouting into Ren's ear, Ren was barely able to nod before Meredith began to drag him along the gooey trail left behind by... the Vice Captain.
Ren rather didn't imagine what the trail was made up of.
*Crash! Crumble! BANG! BOOM!
Hearing the sound of a harsh fight echoing out behind them, despite wanting to turn around desperately to see what was happening, one glance at the state of the walls revealed how it was a bad idea
The fact that cracks crawling along the cave walls at the same pace that they were running didn't really bode well for them if they were still inside, and Ren didn't want to test the odds of his survival.
Having overtaken the Heiress at some point, instead of being led by the Heiress, Ren was leading her hand in hand.
Eyes darting across the stone floor while following the green goo, Ren made sure that he wouldn't make the same mistake again as his footsteps were placed in places without tripping hazards.
The Heiress wasn't as careful
Feeling something pull at his hand, Ren hurriedly turned around and caught the half fallen body of the Heiress and nearly collapsed onto the ground, only staggering slightly.
"Are you okay?" Whisper shouting at her, the Heiress grimaced as she tried to stand up.
"Yes, now let's get goinG!?"
Falling again, Ren caught her and grimaced as he noticed the problem
"Shit, you twisted your ankle."
Pointing at her ankle which was swelling somewhat, dust particles fell from above as the cave shook again, a roar of anger echoing throughout the cave.
"...We don't have enough time, get on my back."
"What?"
"Don't worry! I used to do this all the time with my brother and sister! Now get on my back!"
Hurriedly crouching and putting his arm behind him, Meredith stuttered a bit before a falling rock besides her changed her mind instantly.
"If you tell a single soul of this, I'm going to waive one of your favors."
"One of my wha-? No Nevermind about that, just get on and place your legs around me!"
Shaking her head, Meredith despite all her misgivings moved to place her weight against Ren's back.
And despite the fact that she was a lot softer than he had first expected, Ren nevertheless was able to put that fact at the back of his mind when the Cave shook and rocks started to fall periodically.
The sounds of roars had stopped somewhat, but Ren didn't want to stick around to find out who it was that had on the fight.
*Rumble...
Now having to balance the weight of the Heiress with one hand while running through the cave following the green trail, it didn't help in the slightest that he had to dodge bits of falling stone that albeit aren't fatal would be detrimental in his well being.
Thankfully he had a fully functioning someone on his shoulders warning him of such problems.
"On Your right!"
"Slow down!"
"Go to your left!"
"Watch out for that wall!"
Flinching as the wall besides him caved in and very briefly covered the goo trail, Ren leapt over the rubble and heard something snap.
Pain shooting up his right leg, it seemed that the Makeshift splint he had on had finally given up on life.
Eyes bloodshot, despite the pain shooting up his no doubt still unhealed ankle, Ren pushed on through the pain and ran.
With the entrance just in sight, even if his leg would become useless in the near future from all the pressure he was putting it under, all of his limbs would become useless in the near future if he didn't continue to run.
You couldn't exactly use your limbs if you were dead after all.
"Here you damn livestock are!" Heavy and predatorial growl echoing against the cave walls that continued to tremble and rock with dust falling continuously from the ceiling, one eye was set alight in the darkness.
With an orange tint to it, the Tiger roared angrily as Ren glanced backwards desperately.
The Exit was just right there!
Ren leapt into the air only to realize that they were still halfway up of a cliff.
---
Guard's Log: Night Watch
- Event -4: Autumn Tower have come to clarify that the Experimental weapon had been stolen from them by an apprentice who has been since confirmed to be a Barbarian Sympathiser.
Witness accounts have found that the Apprentice was last seen loitering around The Hotbar bar.
Later witnesses claim that Known Bounty Rabid Halsey was seen entering the bar.
None of the witnesses saw the two leave.
- Event 1: The Night Watch partnered with the Day Watch and three Autumn Wizards to raid the Hotbar establishment.
Day watch captain went along with the raid. And as the I stayed behind Night watch captain stayed to guard the city from its other dangers.
Requested vacation
[Denied: Reason: Baron Lorelai has chosen to visit the Training camp, and until he returns, no vacations are permitted.]
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