What Lurks Under IV

*Whoosh!* Kies heard something whistle through the air on his left and he ducked. Something flew over him and hit the wall with a clang. From the sounds it made, it was a sharp metal object, probably a knife.

It was too dark to see how many people there were, but Kies estimated that there were at least ten based on all the shadows he saw around him. For some reason, none of them were moving. It looked as if they were all waiting for an opportunity to strike and the knife they threw earlier was probably to test his reactions.

Kies didn't give them time to come up with a plan and immediately attacked the nearest one with a blade of wind. The shadow stood completely still even though an attack was coming their way. The wind blade flew through the shadow and nothing happened. "What?" Kies didn't understand what happened. The shadow didn't move at all so the attack definitely hit.

Did it get blocked? That was the only explanation Kies could come up with. That or that the attack somehow just magically disappeared before it reached its target. Either way, something didn't feel right. The heavy breathing he heard from all around him had stopped. Furthermore, none of them were moving even the slightest bit. It was like they had all turned into stone or something.

*Woosh!* Once again, a sharp object sliced through the air. This time, it came from behind Kies and he ducked, assuming that it was aimed at his head, but he was wrong. The dagger hit him square in the back. Luckily, the cloak reflected it and it bounced onto the ground with a clang. That was strange. Didn't Ammine tell him that the cloak was only effective against magic attacks and that he should try his best to not let it get damaged by anything physical?

Kies carefully kneeled down, keeping an eye on the shadowy figures around him to make sure they wouldn't do anything. He found the object that had hit him and tried picking it up, but the moment his hand touched it, the object just vanished. It was no normal knife. It was one that had been created using magic. That made sense now why it didn't go through the cloak.

If that was the case then... Kies observed the shadows around him again, but carefully this time. He saw that parts of them were flickering. That settles it then. Just as he suspected, the shadows were all magic as well. None of them were actually alive. However... Kies continued to carefully inspect the shadows one by one until he found one that wasn't like the rest. It wasn't flickering like the others and it was very faint, Kies saw the shadow move a little when he looked at it.

All the other shadows were fakes to trick him. The real one was right in front of him. Kies slashed his hands and shot a barrage of wind blades at it. The shadow jumped up high into the air and landed back on the ground. It looked like Kies had guessed correctly. The shadow started running away but Kies gave pursuit. He continued to pressure the shadow with wind blades but none of them hit. The enemy was too nimble and dodged all his attacks like it was nothing.

But whether the attacks hit or not didn't matter to Kies. His objective was to chase the person off so that he could continue searching for the two demons. After chasing the shadowy figure for a decent distance and confirming that they were gone, Kies stopped and went back to where originally had been.

Kies had very little magic left so he really hoped that there was no one else that would come. But considering how the last person had been attracted to the explosions, he wouldn't be surprised if another one came after hearing the sounds of them fighting. Taking that into account, Kies needed to be quick.

He swept the entire vicinity of where the two demons last were but discovered nothing except charred stone. The two demons were nowhere to be found. This was good. That meant that the two of them were still alive somewhere. If they had died, then their bodies would be somewhere, or at the very least, parts of their bodies.

Kies wasn't sure how he would find them but that didn't matter right now. He needed to move. No doubt there were people on their way here after hearing all that noise. Kies fled the area, choosing a random path to go down. He almost tripped several times as he tried to navigate through the place in the dark.

After feeling that he had gone far enough from there, Kies slowed down his pace and carefully went around the sewers. The smell of the sewage got lighter as he continued his journey down the path that he chose. He was close to something. Further ahead at the very end was light.

Kies wasn't sure if that was an exit or if it was something else. He didn't want to risk walking into someone's camp again and have the same thing happen. But what were the chances that he would encounter another mage as powerful as the one before? Magic-users were hard to come by and somehow he had met two of them in a row down here. Would he be unlucky enough to meet a third one?

Kies decided to continue towards the light as he was confident that if he met another mage, he would at the very least be able to escape. Enough of his magic came back to him that he could fend off a couple of attacks from that fire mage. Unless there was someone even more powerful than him at the end of the tunnel, there shouldn't be any problems for him.

As Kies drew closer to the light, he saw that it wasn't a camp but rather an exit. Well, it was an entrance too, depending on whether one was entering or leaving. Kies stepped over the sewage that was pouring out and cautiously peeked outside and found a surprise waiting for him.

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