Tough Fight

While Cyril's group was exploring the complex hallways of the underground, the rest of the students found an empty laboratory and hid there.

The injured stayed mostly quiet; even Bonzo, they were all trying to recover in peace in the back of the room.

Not to disturb them, everyone else moved closer to the exit.

At this moment, Cedric was outside the room, busy with what he called 'guarding the base'.

Edmund sat on a chair without any expression on his face. From time to time he peeked at Regina standing near the door with her eyes closed.

"What's wrong?" Suddenly she opened them, catching his stare.

"Nothing, it's just... I thought you were the type to go with Cyril and explore." In a startle, he turned away.

Hearing his words, Regina went silent for a few seconds before saying in a sharp tone, "Am I interfering with something?" She kept staring at his face with scrutiny.

"Why are you always like this?" Edmund whispered with annoyance and ignored her question.

Regina stared at him for a few more seconds before turning away and suddenly asking a question to a different person.

"Your Highness, have you ever met Edmund Morley before?" She said it with respect.

The prince was resting his head at the table, trying to rest. At this moment, he was startled and raised his head in confusion.

"I think we've met before, right?" He looked at Edmund and muttered after a slight delay. His voice was relaxed.

He looked completely unconcerned with the situation around him.

Edmund made a polite smile. "Sometimes my father took me with him to the Tower; we've met plenty of times." Then he turned towards Regina, and his smile was lost. "And why do you care?"

Regina, with a solemn face, was about to say something when the door suddenly opened. Startled, she swung her hand in that direction with a chopping motion.

The person coming in didn't expect such a greeting but still managed to block with his hand at the last second.

"Ouch! What gives!?" Cedric caressed his hand with a pitiful look.

"I apologize! That was careless of me!" Regina, with a slightly reddened face, bowed to Cedric.

"Huh, It's rare to see you like this," Clayton muttered after a chuckle, which Regina ignored, continuing to bow.

"Don't worry about it" Cedric's expression soon turned joyful. "Look who I found!"

He stepped into the room and gestured toward the door in a theatrical fashion.

Soon another two people walked inside; both of them were familiar to them.

One of them was Richard; he looked slightly disheveled. In silence he stopped and started scanning the students.

The other one was Elvira Arken; her state was much cleaner. She immediately opened her mouth.

"Stay close to us, students; we are leaving this place." Her voice was cold, but it still brought relief to everyone present. Cedric in particular looked especially pleased.

Even if Elvira ignored him and never looked in his general direction, her being here meant she still cared about him, right?

Strangely, only Edmund didn't look too pleased with seeing his rescue come.

At this moment, Richard asked in alarm, "Where are Myra, Cyril, and Rose? Don't tell me..." His face was turning quite ugly.

Cedric quickly reassured him, "They are fine! They've gone to find an exit on their own."

Richard put his palm to his face and sighed with helplessness.

"With their strength, they are definitely fine!" Cedric said with a wry smile.

"Right..." Richard could only weakly respond with this. He then turned towards Elvira. "Guide them out; I'll go and deal with the rest."

She gave a nod and warned, "Be careful, 'they' might be here."

Richard only waved his hand in response as he was swiftly walking away.

There were no footstep sounds coming from his direction.

...

Eventually the Cyril's group reached a big metal door pulled ajar.

Sounds of heavy footsteps, a weird crunching sound, and an occasional distorted laughter could be heard behind.

This must be where the cyclops is. They tried to avoid taking paths where the demon walked, but they still found him in the end.

There was an option of retreat, but these doors did look important enough to warrant a different course of action. Perhaps this was the exit?

Over the course of their journey through the tunnels, they have killed plenty of demons and gained some confidence as a result.

Even Rose had enough courage to try tackling a cyclops now. The group stared at each other for a moment and nodded in solidarity.

While producing as little sound as possible, Cyril slowly walked in. The rest followed after him.

It was a spacious room; in the past, it was filled with desks, probably a working area for mages.

Now all of the furniture was moved to the side and destroyed; in the middle of the freed-up space sat a cyclops with a silly look.

He played with a piece of metal in his hand, observing it in adoration and biting on it sometimes.

Additionally, there were 4 ghouls around him; some were rummaging through the trash in a frenzy, and some were standing still, staring at nothing in particular.

Behind all of them at the end of the spacious room was another door; through the cracks passed occasional flashes of blue light.

The ghouls immediately noticed the intruders and started running at them.

These were all enhanced ghouls too; it was best to not let them get too close.

Sharing this mentality, Rose launched two lightning bolts in quick succession, ending the lives of two.

Cyril quickly dealt with the others with a controlled fireball when the cyclops suddenly got up with an impressive speed for his size and ran at the group with his hands held wide.

There was an intoxicating expression on his face somewhat resembling a human.

Cyril underestimated the speed of the cyclops; he dodged in a hurry.

The others followed after him, barely evading the path of this giant creature.

Missing his target, the ogre didn't despair; instead, he grabbed the open metal doors, closed them, and twisted the door's handle, effectively locking everyone here.

Then he turned around and faced them with mockery distinctly written on his face.

What the…? This level of cunning was not characteristic of a regular cyclops.

At this moment Myra's face showed a shocked expression, and she shouted in disbelief, "It's an elder cyclops!?"

Cyril didn't even hear of that demon before, but seeing the loss of her stoic expression was enough to tell him that something went wrong.

At this moment this unusual demon rushed at them again; this time he was even faster than before.

Cyril managed to get away from his path, but Rose stumbled in this moment; she couldn't dodge in time!

Myra was the first to notice this, but she was already too far to carry her.

She gritted her teeth, stood on the path between Rose and the ogre, and began casting a spell.

The ogre did a large swing with his hand during the run and hit Myra head-on.

The moment the demon touched her body, there was an explosion, and Myra got sent flying through the smoke.

She hit the wall with substantial force and slid down on the ground; the barrier on her body was destroyed.

Myra was still alive, but she couldn't move.

At least she managed to throw off the course of the ogre's charge with that explosion, saving stunned Rose.

Now it was up to the other two to deal with this demon.

After the ogre stabilized his footing, he turned to look at Myra and started laughing while holding his belly.

His skin didn't look damaged from the spell.

"His skin is magically enhanced!" Myra screamed with difficulty. "Pierce it and use fire; they are weak against it!"

Rose immediately cast a fireball at the creature's head; she applied as much piercing quality to it as she could.

The fireball successfully hit him on their head, but it didn't even leave a mark. The beast simply blinked in time and resisted the spell.

"Just how tough is it?" Rose's face became pale.

The hit shook off the ogre from his laughing fit, and he began running at the group again, waving his hands with energy.

Deciding to try something, Cyril carefully waited until the ogre was in range before stabbing him with his special spear.

He was fully prepared to dodge at the same time, but he underestimated the strength of his weapon. It went inside the demon's flesh with ridiculous ease.

As a result, nearly half of the spear got stuck inside the beast, making it inconvenient to dodge while still holding it.

Cyril let go of the spear and dashed away before the ogre managed to hit him.

The demon was enraged and began waving his hands in a frenzy, screaming in a deep, distorted noise.

He calmed down in a while and grabbed the spear stuck in his flesh.

With a twist of his hand, the shaft was broken, leaving the rest of the weapon unreachable from the body of the demon.

At this moment, Rose shot a few fireballs at that spot with some hopes.

But the spells were as ineffective as usual; the beast didn't even flinch and started running towards Cyril.

With a few swift and lengthy steps, the cyclops closed the distance to Cyril and swung both hands wildly at him.

Cyril tried his best to dodge, but he was still hit in the shoulder.

The force knocked him directly to the ground and easily destroyed the barrier on him.

Looking at the scene, the ogre laughed with glee, turned toward Myra, and began to walk slowly.

Cyril was in a lot of pain, but thanks to his durable body, he stayed in better shape than Myra.

While he tried his hardest to get up from the floor, Rhamn suddenly appeared in front of him.

"We need a weapon that can pierce his skin, and we will have it." She proposed a highly unusual plan to him.

He got up from the ground while listening to her and agreed to the plan. There was no other way.

Hearing some commotion behind him, the bluish-black cyclops turned around.

Rose wanted to hit the demon with spells during this time, but a look from Cyril convinced her that he had a plan.

The sight of Cyril standing up with much difficulty appeared amusing to the cyclops, and he began another laughing fit.

Then he slowly walked in front of Cyril, looking down at him with a haughty expression, and deliberately pulled his right arm.

Cyril stood there without flinching, which infuriated the demon, and he attacked with terrifying speed.

At this moment, Cyril suddenly dodged at the perfect moment, barely avoiding the punch with minimal distance to spare.

He dashed and started climbing upon the stretched-out arm, reaching the back of the creature in a flash.

Cyril, positioned right behind the creature's neck, raised his arm, which emitted a familiar dim blue light.

The cyclops tried to reach Cyril with his other hand in a panic, but before he managed to do it, Rose cast a lightning whip spell and caught his arm in a hold.

In a single breath the demon broke free of the spell, but that was enough time for Cyril.

He didn't cast the claw technique Myra had used earlier; instead, his hand transformed into a harrowing claw, resembling that of an enhanced ghoul.

With silent fury he shot his clawed hand, easily piercing the neck of the Cyclops.

But he wasn't done and cast a spell now that there was no obstacle.

After a slight pause, the elder cyclops's head exploded like a smashed watermelon, sending blackened liquid in every direction.

With a boom, the giant demon's body landed on the floor.

Cyril dropped on the floor with it, exhausted.