As soon as I heard Ghislaine's words, I turned around to look at the stone, which was already being destroyed by Oswin and the other two.
"You think you can escape one monster only to run into worse ones?" Anna asked mockingly as she looked at Ghislaine.
"Even though it's very risky, if we make it fall straight into that cave, it will have to fight the other creatures," replied Ghislaine, who was looking at the shaking wall.
Just a few seconds later, the stone disappeared, revealing a cave that was bigger than the village where I was born. Although I couldn't even see it again before I heard the walls of the tunnel breaking, and when I looked back, I could see the snake's head staring at us.
"Quick, get out!" Ghislaine shouted, lifting several children in her arms before running headlong toward the tunnel exit.
Jumyeong did the same and lifted me up, running after Ghislaine. Everyone else followed, and as we exited, the magicians created a floor on either side, causing us to stand on either side of the entrance.
As soon as we stood on the floor created by the magicians, the snake shot down, falling to the ground with a loud crash that shook the walls.
I leaned over a little to look down and could see the yellow turtle coming out of its shell, standing up and facing the snake.
"Are those things going to fight?" asked Niko, a blue-haired boy my age, leaning over and looking at the two enormous creatures.
"I hope so. If they become friends, we're dead," said Jumyeong jokingly, smiling at us.
"I hope not," I thought, breathing in and out slowly to calm myself.
As if she could hear my thoughts, Della stepped on Jumyeong's foot, causing him to let out a scream that he quickly silenced by covering his mouth.
"Stop messing around and stay still, those things woke up," I heard Ghislaine say as he looked up at the ceiling toward the giant bats we saw earlier.
When the bats woke up and looked down at the black snake, they let out loud screeches before dropping from the ceiling and falling straight toward the creature. At the same time, the turtle attacked the snake, stomping hard and creating spikes of stone that went straight toward it.
The snake dodged the spikes before lunging at the turtle, biting its face and coiling around its shell, causing the turtle to let out what sounded like a cry of pain before the bats intervened. They created blades of wind that struck the snake, wounding it.
"Damn, looks like this fight is going to be intense," said Jumyeong, who seemed amazed to see the fight.
"Too bad we can't stay and watch, let's go," I said.
Although, like Jumyeong, I wanted to stay and watch them fight, I knew we had to run while we still had the chance. We all started back toward the tunnel, some of us, like me, glancing back, wishing we could see the creatures' battle.
The last thing I saw was the snake lashing out at the bats, destroying many of them before being bitten by the turtle, which tore off a large piece of its flesh.
As we walked through the now-destroyed tunnel, we could still hear the screeches of the creatures continuing to fight. When we emerged from the tunnels, we saw that the entire cave had been destroyed, leaving us with no way out.
"Now how do we get out?" asked Oswin, who was setting fire to some wood on the ground to use as torches.
"What else? Move the rocks," said Anna, who was already beginning to clear the way with Ghislaine.
"How tedious. I would have preferred to stay behind if I had known we would have to move rocks," I thought, walking and helping to move the rocks. "Wait a minute, Oswin, Della, and Thomas, couldn't you disintegrate these things like you did before?" I said, turning to look at them.
"No, we didn't create these things, so we can't absorb the mana that created them," said Oswin, looking tired after moving a few rocks.
"You have to create them to disintegrate them? And why do you look so tired? I'm not even sweating," I said, to which the three of them looked at me, clearly annoyed.
"You're not tired because you're stronger than us. And yes, wizards can only absorb or interrupt a spell if they created it themselves," Thomas corrected me, at the same time kicking a small stone that I couldn't see because it was on my right, right into my blind eye.
As I rubbed the spot where the stone hit me, I asked angrily, "And if someone attacks a wizard while he's creating the spell, what happens?"
"It also interrupts it, but in a different way," he replied, while moving another rock that let in the light from outside.
"I see," I said, before approaching him and kicking him, pushing him away so I could start moving the rocks in the same place, creating a small passageway to get through.
"Hey, we can get out this way."
As soon as I finished speaking, everyone approached where I was, looking at the small tunnel before forming lines to pass through without anyone getting hurt.
After an hour, we were all out, and the first thing we did was go to where we had left Arthur's body. We left the others behind while Ghislaine, Anna, and Jumyeong buried the body under a large tree.
When we said they could go to the place where we buried the body, I saw one of the boys my age carrying a piece of wood, using a knife to carve Arthur's name. We all stayed close for a while before leaving in silence.
As we walked, we could hear voices ahead. Looking up, we could see two men in armor.
"Hey, who are you? What are you doing here?" asked one man, putting his hand on the sword hanging from his waist.
Seeing him put his hand on his sword, we all went on alert, drawing our weapons, and Oswin, Della, and Thomas began to form balls of fire in their hands.
"Calm down, can't you see they're just children?" asked a man from behind, putting a hand on the other man's arm to stop him.
"Then why are they carrying weapons?" he said, putting down his sword.
"Because they're slaves," he replied, pointing to our necks.
At the man's signal, the other man looked at our necks, fixing his gaze on the runes burned into our skin. Feeling their stares, we covered our necks, trying to hide the marks they had already seen.
"...Anyway, kids, don't pay any attention to this guy and tell me, have you seen a huge snake around here?" he asked us, and we all looked at each other before shaking our heads.
"We didn't see anything," said Ghislaine, looking the man in the eye.
"Yes, I figured as much. Otherwise, none of you would be alive," he said, waving his hand as if we didn't matter.
Della and I were furious when we heard his words, releasing murderous intent toward the man. At this, the man looked at us in surprise and said
"Ohhhh... At that age, you can already release murderous intent...?" he murmured in amazement. "Looks like you're in luck, kids. We'll take you with us," he said, patting the other man on the back and motioning for us to follow him.
"Don't worry, we'll take you to our territory. I'm sure it's better than staying in this forest in the middle of the night," he added, walking ahead of us.
Although we all looked at each other in silence, doubtful of his words, we decided to follow them. But not before preparing our weapons, just in case.