Lewis, Tal, and Din looked at the well in horror while Cyen avoided looking at it.

They walked past the well as quickly as they could, without thinking too much about the sight or the smell coming from the well.

As they reached the door beyond the well, Lewis whispered, “Where were the guards located?”

He was looking at Din, but I answered, “There was one near the back end of the room and two others near the right side of the room.”

Din repeated after me.

“I see. Listen to me carefully, the moment I open the door, I will charge towards the two guards on the right side of the room. Din, I’ll need you to go after the one in the back. Tal will make sure none of the scientists move about,” Lewis instructed.

“Are you sure you don’t need my help against the two guards? We don’t know what we’re dealing with in there.”

“We’re more prepared than we should be,” Lewis scoffed. “We know exactly where the guards are and exactly how many people there are inside. How could we not know what we’re dealing with?”

Tal could only look down in silence. He seemed to want to argue, but he held himself back.

“Everyone’s ready, right?” Lewis asked.

Everyone nodded.

“Okay… one, two…!”

Lewis swung open the door with a heavy kick and then ran inside the room.

Just like I saw before, everyone was standing exactly where I’d mentioned. The guards pulled out their swords immediately and were beginning to move forward to attack the intruders, but it was all too late.

Lewis charged at one of the guards with his shield. The guard had no time to move out of the way so he got hit with little to no resistance. The force of the impact caused the guard to fall back.

The other guard near the first swung his sword towards Lewis. Lewis tried raising his shield to block the attack, but he wasn’t fast enough, the sword slashed over his right shoulder.

“Argh—!”

The guard pulled his sword back, slicing through the wound as it left Lewis’ shoulder. With a swift movement, the guard thrust his sword forward, but this time, Lewis reacted in time to dodge the attack. He barely managed to move to the side and then as the guard was pulling his sword back, Lewis swung his sword back, getting a clean cut through the guard’s neck.

With a thud, the guard’s body fell forward and the head rolled on the floor before coming to a stop.

The first guard, who had fallen onto the ground, was trembling in fear as his partner had just been decapitated. He raised his sword in front of him, but he couldn’t hold it steady.

Lewis knocked the sword out of the guard’s hand with his shield and then thrust his sword inside the guard’s chest plate. The guard coughed up blood right before all life left his eyes.

Right after Lewis had been on the shoulder by the second guard, Din had also charged into the room towards the guard in the back. He ran past the scientists, who were still gathered in the center of the room.

As Din was running at the guard, the guard swung his sword from the side. Din managed to parry the attack and then go in for an attack of his own. The guard was able to back away as Din swung his sword.

Their battle was met with many parries and dodges before Din managed to get a stab through the guard’s waist. The guard screamed in pain, even letting go of his own sword. He held onto Din’s sword, which was halfway through his waist.

“Stop—! Please!” the guard begged.

Din pulled his sword out. The guard backed away against the wall while applying pressure on his wound.

After realizing that the guard could fight no more, Din coughed multiple times as he tried to catch his breath.

Meanwhile, Tal and Cyen were blocking the door to the room. Tal was holding onto his two daggers while Cyen had a black metallic rod. The scientists were trembling as they noticed that they were trapped.

Everything went according to plan, or so I thought.

There was one scientist who still remained calm. He had shaggy black hair and was wearing glasses. He stood much taller than anyone else in the room, aside from Lewis. He stepped forward amongst his peers. He had a wide smile on his face as he asked, “Bravo! You are all very skilled fighters, I see. Are you all perhaps part of a pack?”

No one answered. Tal raised his daggers towards the scientist.

“Now, now. No need to be rash. I think there’s been enough of a blood bath over in that corner over there,” the scientist pointed towards Lewis. With a confident laugh, he continued, “And if I were you, I’d be watching behind myself.”

Tal turned around and noticed that they were ambushed. Twenty, no, even more than that. There were so many guards it was impossible to know how many, especially with how dark the hallway was.

The ones in the front had shields held in front of them while the row behind them were aiming their crossbows towards Tal and Cyen. The rows behind them seemed to have either swords or spears.

It was over.