We were hiding and observing the situation. While doing so, I couldn’t stop thinking, if there was any possibility of someone of the god race forging that sword. I wasn’t able to think of anyone, so after a while I focused my thoughts on how to solve the situation at hand.

The humans were planning to sacrifice everyone outside the cave to get their hands on that sword. Normally I wouldn’t mind at all, but I had a person with me who was hard to convince to let someone die in front of her eyes. Someone just had to look at her and could see that she was trying her best to keep silent but I could read it from her face, the urge to stop the ritual.

“We will try to save the people outside, so please stop looking at me like that.”(Me)

Like a little child, which she actually was, but normally she did not act like one, Kylie moved around happily. If I didn’t stop her in time, she would have exposed us to the enemy. We thought of how to stop those humans. I preferred not to fight against them, with only the 2 of us, not because I was afraid of losing, but because we don’t know what else could trigger the activation of the sacrificial ritual or how strong the enemies were.

The chaos after trying to kill a human which the princess spoke of, probably meant the battle from the outside, the legendary weapon was right in front of our eyes, so the only other thing that was missing from the prediction, was the catastrophe. I wanted to prevent it from happening if it was possible, so we had to be as cautious as possible.

“We could try to knock them out from their blind spot one after another.”(Kylie)

“We could do that but I think they will notice us before we can get to their blind spots.”(Me)

Like that, we silently planned what to do. Somehow, every time I plan something, I get cut short by something. And it happened again. From another entrance tunnel, probably the path from the middle or left, people were coming. At first, I could only hear sounds coming from the tunnel. After a while, they got louder and clearer and I could hear that they were footsteps.

4 people came out of the tunnel. 3 men and 1 woman. I recognised 3 of them. 2 of them were Matt and Rose. Matt was standing on his own so he was consciousness again. The 3rd one was the human we were fighting outside before. The one who looked like the leader of the human group preparing the ritual, went up to them.

“How come I see 2 beastmen here with you? Didn’t we say no one was allowed to enter, we need as much sacrifices as possible? Were they able to get pass you? Are they strong enough to be able to fight an S rank adventurer, or did you not give the fight your all, James?”(Human leader)

The strong human I fought earlier, called James, looked down angrily and held back his bloodlust.

“Be careful, after what James told me, there should be 2 others hiding, and especially one of them is very strong. When even the S class adventurer James the Challenger says so, it has to be true.”(4th person)

“Hoh, the beastmen prepared an S rank adventurer as well? I don’t care, if he comes here, we will just kill him, if he dares to come out. Continue with the ritual!”(Human leader)

The human leader talked with a lot of confidence, like they already were the owners of that sword.

“It should be ok, we have a plan to capture them. Rest assured and focus on your ritual.”(4th person)

He said.

By the way, after raising your guild rank to S, an adventurer got a title as some kind of status symbol. From importance, you were only below that of the king and his family. Every race, fights to get S rank adventurers to their side. That title often represented the nature, fighting style or achievements of the adventurer. The titles are easy to remember because there weren’t much S rank adventurers anyways.

“So that is an S rank adventurer? He is definitely something else from the rest of the humans here. His pressure alone is overbearing and I can even feel it from here. I can’t see any opening in his guard and he is probably extremely strong. Darkness, it will be a lot harder to rescue those 2 now.”(Kylie)

Kylie said anxious. From her reaction I could see, that she probably saw an S rank adventurer for the first time, as well.

“Don’t worry we will succeed. I already fought him outside and won. If I have to fight again I will beat him again. In the end I was strong enough to succeed in coming in with Matt or not?”(Me)

Kylie nodded happily and after hearing my words, she calmed down a lot. We waited until all the humans went back to finish the ritual before we started our rescue. We sneakily hid in blind spots and made our way slowly to our 2 teammates. They were both constrained from movement with a rope at their hands and feet. Rose’s mouth was covered with some clothing to prevent her from chanting. Matt’s sword lied next to him, as long as we would free from those shackled, both could fight with us instantly.

Kylie and I prepared 2 knives to free the both of them as soon as we were in range to do so. When I thought the time was right, I gave Kylie a signal to run to them as fast as possible. As soon as we started running, some humans noticed us and shouted out loud to warn the others.

“They are trying to free the hostages!”(Human)

One of them said something silently, but I could hear it because he was closer than the rest of the humans.

“Finally I can get my rematch for that disgrace.”(James)

We reached Matt and Rose in a matter of seconds and before any other human could catch up, we freed the both of them of their restraints. I was turning my back to them and positioned myself in front of them with my sword. I thought, that I should be the frontline because Matt could still be exhausted from his fight earlier.

“Let’s beat those humans together, we can do this guys.”(Me)

I tried to motivate my team. After a few seconds, I got my reply.

“…Sorry.”(Matt)

Stab.