Chapter 54

"Jae, now!" Toyo cried, dropping to the ground and rolling forward into the monster's legs. As the beast tripped and stumbled forward, Jae brought the sword down into its shoulder and out through its side.

Both of them now in the deep red, Toyo and Jae quickly equipped their health crystals.

Just before activating them, Toyo glanced behind them in alarm.

"Run!" He cried.

Looking back as he began sprinting, Jae was horrified to see that a pack of five more lizardmen had targeted them and were quickly closing the distance.

"Heal!" Toyo shouted as he continued running.

Jae did the same, but was dismayed to see that his health was still just within the red. Forced to abandon all secrecy as they ran, Jae and Toyo began to see more and more of the creatures targeting them. Ahead of them, another lizardmen roared as it prepared its sword skill.

Pushing past Toyo, Jae swung the sword forward while he forced himself to run faster. Before the monster could even begin to execute it's sword skill, Jae had closed the distance. Slashing Silverthorne in a ninety degree arc around him, Jae cut the mob clean in half.

"Your left!" Toyo screamed from behind him.

Quickly realizing he wouldn't be able to meet the attack in time from his current positioning, Jae did the only other thing he could think of. Just as he saw the lizardman swing it's halberd on his left, Jae took out his last health crystal.

"Heal!"

Thrown to the ground from the impact, Jae ignored everything else as he watched his health teeter up and down without making much progress either way. After a moment, it dropped down into his last fifty remaining health points. If he hadn't taken out his health crystal at that exact moment, he would already be dead.

Before he could slow down, Toyo ran up beside him as he spoke frantically. "I just used my last health crystal."

Sidestepping two more monsters running up on their right, the two brothers no longer had any choice but to keep running forward. Behind them, Jae could hear dozens of footsteps as more and more mobs began noticing them.

"Same here," Jae panted as they ran. "And Silverthorne is almost to zero durability."

Toyo dodged another blow swung at him from a lizardman in front of them, ramming his heel into the monster's kneecap before pivoting back into a run beside Jae.

"I can see the entrance!" He shouted.

Hacking off the arm of another monster as he ran by, Jae forced his eyes forward. There, not thirty feet away, stood the exit. Light streamed out of the partially open doorway, like a beacon of hope sent to rally them on.

Toyo suddenly cried out in pain as he was launched forward from a blow, his chest plate disintegrating around him.

Screaming in rage, Jae spun around while extending Silverthorne out around him in a full circle. Bounding forward at top speed, the horde of monsters couldn't slow down even if they had wanted too. Decapitating the two nearest him, Jae pivoted back around and crouched as he stumbled up to Toyo's body still skidding across the stone.

Yanking him back up with all his strength and forcing his brother's arm around his shoulders, it took everything Jae had to keep moving forward. The warning sound of his health bar at less than two percent beeped endlessly in his ears. He was so tired that Silverthorne began to feel more like a ton of bricks in his hand than a sword. Though he could still feel Toyo moving his feet against the stone floor in an attempt to run, he had gone almost limp from the impact of that last blow.

"Is," Jae whispered breathlessly as the monsters drew closer all around them. He forced Toyo's arm back around his shoulder."We're nearly there. Just a few more steps."

Within ten feet of the shining doorway, Jae prepared himself for the final stretch when two lizardmen stepped just in front of it. Hardly able to keep a hold of Silverthorne anymore, Jae gasped in despair. The sea of enemies behind them was nearly within striking distance. I can't…

"I've got the one on the left." Came Toyo's tired voice. "Don't let your next attack slow you. One attack, then the door. Ready?"

Without waiting for a response, Toyo's body shook from the strain as he forced himself out from Jae's support and charged forward, emitting a scream so terrifying that even Jae had to ignore the urge to run from it. True to his word, Toyo made for the one on the left.

Forcing his dead right hand to obey him one last time, Jae lifted Silverthorne as he all but threw himself into the path of the monster on the right. Just as it swung it's halberd forward at him, Jae allowed himself to fall backward, his momentum keeping him moving., Jae ignored the pain of his back being dragged on the stone floor as the halberd flew just over his head. Sending the tip of the sword flying, he hacked off both the monster's legs with one final swing while he skidded past.

At the same time, Toyo raised his arms above him as he charged straight into the lizardman on the left, catching the shaft of it's halberd in his own two hands before pushing the weapon back with all his strength. Still holding on to it, the monster looked shocked as it flew backwards into the air before slamming into the wall just above the door. Collapsing from the strain, Toyo toppled into the doorway at the same moment Jae crashed inside.

They had escaped.

*****

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