Mass hysteria broke out as soon as the light appeared. The loudest of the screams belonged to the beastman sitting on the black throne. Blood was profusely flowing from his eyes as he started flapping his wings, knocking over the plates of fruit and the glass of wine he was drinking earlier. The bat beastmen accompanying him had the same reaction, their wings spread open and one by one, they started to hover in the air, their hands covering their eyes.

Orou only gave a single glance at the situation around him before he turned his gaze towards the exit. The walls of the colosseum were only fifteen meters tall so they posed no problem to Orou, though his speed suffered in the result. As he was climbing the wall that blocked his path, he turned his head towards the other exit and surprisingly, he saw Grizz carrying an entire sack of what Orou presumed to be blood crystals over his shoulder. He had multiple stab wounds on his body and he was desperately fleeing something, his face that of fear.

“Even if it means sacrificing your lives, kill him! He can’t be allowed to leave alive having seen that.“ Behind Grizz were a multitude of beastmen clad in heavy armor, all commanded by another bat beastmen. He was screaming and shouting at the beastmen who was just as enraged as the bat beastmen, though some of them were visibly scared of something. Dodging several spear thrusts, Grizz ducked and weaved through the still confused crowd of beastmen, making his way to the stairs.

Orou started to escape through the exit that wasn’t plagued with beastman guards, thus he turned to the right and started slithering as fast as he could, fully employing the waves inside of him. He had to avoid bumping into several beastmen’s legs and had to avoid getting stomped a couple of times and each time that happened, his irritation grew. At some point or another, Orou decided to start using his tail in order to clear the way in front of him and as a result, the resulting chaos only worsened.

After a few seconds, Orou saw why Grizz said that he needed to distract the beastmen using his ball of light spell. The leader of the bat beastmen in his rage and agony used his wings to fling his companions several meters away from him and using his sharp nails he practically cut up a stone table. Turning to the source of his pain, the ball of light floating in the air, he started constructing a formation in the air. A complicated circle made entirely out of runes formed a pentagram in the air. A moment later all that Orou could see was a red flash and a deafening explosion where once the ball of light stood. The stone that made the colosseum cracked and shattered, a wave of force knocked the beastmen closest to the colosseum back, each of them almost unconscious.

While the chaos still continued, the bat beastmen hovering in the air calmed down. It took half a minute for the first one to open his eyes and even then, he swayed unsteadily in the air, struggling to keep his balance. Orou could see the exit with his own two eyes, but before he could reach the exit, he heard a shout.

“There he is! Don’t let him get away!” The beastman who had recovered the quickest out of the lot shouted towards the rest, pointing directly at Orou’s location. Drawing some sort of weird, curved sword from his side, he started to fly in Orou’s direction. His pace was fast and seeing that Orou couldn’t unleash his full speed because of the crowd, he quickly caught up. Swinging his sword down at Orou, he deeply cut into his flesh, adding another wound to his already wounded body. Orou was beyond enraged now as he ignored everyone in his way and swung his tail using his full strength. The bat beastman tried his best to dodge, but Orou’s tail was simply too fast and he had lowered himself down enough that he couldn’t evade the strike by flying straight up.

Three innocent beastmen were smashed to death and the bat beastmen was smashed to the side, directly into the stone wall nearby. The beastman was beyond dead as he resembled a pancake at this point, the rest of the beastmen were doing their best to scramble out of Orou’s way, which made his escape considerably easier. One by one, the bat beastmen were recovering and once they saw their dead companion, their icy gazes became even colder.

It was a contest of speed between the bat beastmen and Orou, but in the end, Orou won. Glaring at anyone that dared to get in his way, Orou made his way to the stairs and started to climb as best as he could. Turning his head around, Orou stopped on the twentieth stair and started constructing a formation he had recently cast. While he didn’t see any light spirits to use in his formation, the ball of light that he created was still considerably bright. The bat beastmen recoiled from the bright light and fortunately, none of them recklessly charged through the ball.

Not wanting to risk the leader of the bats pursuing him, Orou drove his body to the point of exhaustion, becoming more proficient in controlling the waves inside of his body each second. Orou was sure that he would need quite a while to recover after this as his insides were thoroughly bruised, but that was something he didn’t have to worry about right now. The stairs seemed endless as Orou slowly heard the noises from below fading. He saw a single light spirit floating in the doorway, seemingly hesitant to go any further down. He had never been happier seeing a spirit than now, but the moment of happiness was brief. He faintly heard the sound of an explosion, and that was which raised panic in Orou.

Orou once more pushed his body to its limits as he went out of the abandoned building and into the under city of Lium. The streets looked emptier than before he had come in, but that was of no concern to Orou. He quickly started to slither over to the warehouse where he first descended into this city, desperate to escape and meet up with Grizz. The beastmen that still lingered on the streets stood to the side as they observed a snake madly charging through the streets, many of them looking confused.

Orou’s flight wasn’t over as he heard a screech that could easily shatter glass from the distance. He slowed himself a bit down to look at what was making that noise and he immediately regretted slowing down. The leader of the bats was flying in the air, his two large wings in full display for every beastman in the city. One by one, the sapphire bats above him started opening their eyes, all of them looking at the leader with reverence in their eyes. The leader let out one more screech and each and every single one of them started flapping their wings, their eyes locked onto Orou.

The bat leader started to follow the swarm, his eyes still searching for Orou. Orou was so close to the warehouse, but that distance seemed like it would take forever to cross as the bat leader spotted Orou. In his spirit sight, he saw the leader construct the pentagram in the air, an unbelievable amount of spirits quickly rushing towards the formation. The swarm of bats quickly approaching him was the least of his issues as the pentagram already had three of the symbols completed, two more remaining to be constructed. An open door greeted Orou as he saw another set of stairs and even Grizz, rapidly rushing up the stairs, but it seemed like it was too late.

The pentagram started spinning in the air, a moment later he saw that the area he was in was completely devoid of spirits. Inside his body was a tsunami of waves, rapidly pushing him forwards, but by the time he was halfway out of the area, it was too late. A red bubble appeared in the air and it enveloped Orou’s lower half before a moment later, the bubble burst. Orou went temporarily deaf as he felt an intense pain coming from his back. The front part of his body was scorched and burned, while a moment later, Orou couldn’t even feel the lower part of his body.

The force wave and the momentum of his previous movement pushed him forwards, all the way until he slammed into the stone stairs. Orou saw Grizz’s shocked face looking at him and the last thing he saw was Grizz rushing to him and lifting him up, desperately dashing up the stairs while holding Orou’s bleeding body in his hands. Orou kept alternating between the state of unconsciousness and being semi-awake all the way until the point where he heard someone mutter: “I hope this helps you, it’s worth a small fortune but who cares,” and after that, he fell completely unconscious.