Red was just as shocked as Reinhart. He took a cursory glance of the cave’s entrance, searching for any symbols or formations that might have kept the monsters out. He found nothing.

“Let’s move.” the boy said. “We don’t know if they’ll stay outside forever.”

Reinhart nodded. “You’re right.”

The duo turned around and moved deeper into the tunnel under the gaze of hundreds of snakes. The monsters seemed indifferent to their escape and a moment later, they all backed away from the cave entrance one by one.

Red noticed this, but he didn’t dare to stay and watch the creatures. The tunnel led deep into the gorge walls, and a minute later, they had already walked a fair distance away from the tunnel entrance. The boy monitored his surroundings with both his night vision eyes and crimson sense, in search of anything that stood out.

Nothing looked strange to Red, though, other than the fact the tunnel walls seemed unnaturally smooth, unlike the ones you’d find in a natural formation. This further reinforced the idea this was probably a man-made passage to Red.

Reinhart stopped walking and looked back at the boy. “Find anything strange?”

Red shook his head. “Other than the whole tunnel itself? Not really.”

The knight let out a sigh of relief. “Right then. I guess we can slow down a bit.”

Reinhart leaned back against the wall and patted the dust off his tattered clothes. He had long thrown away his scaled armor since the fight against the deer.

“What do you make of this place?” the knight asked.

Red shrugged. “Looks like some of the tunnels we passed through in the earlier trial. If I had to guess, this might be leading towards another challenge.”

Reinhart nodded. “It would explain why the snakes avoided entering the place. Could be some magic we can’t see was on the tunnel entrance to make sure they wouldn’t make a mess of this trial.”

“Or there might be a stronger monster inside this place.”

Red knew from experience that monsters were very sensitive to another being’s strength. As powerful as they were, they still followed a simple maxim of nature - avoid the strong and prey on the weak.

Reinhart grunted in annoyance. “Well, that wouldn’t surprise me either. No choice but to move forward, though.”

Red nodded, and the two continued their journey down the tunnel.

Soon enough, they noticed the path changed to a slight downward incline, leading them deep into the earth over the next couple of minutes. Nothing changed in their monotone surroundings for a long stretch of this journey, though, until Reinhart seemed to notice something out of place.

He pointed at the path ahead. “There, in the distance, kid. Can you see it?”

Red squinted and looked in the direction the man was pointing. It took him a few seconds, but he also noticed it - the minute flickers of a warm light.

“Is that from a torch?” Red asked, still uncertain.

“Probably.” Reinhart nodded. “You know, I was worried this new dark vision thing would make it hard to notice fainter lights in places like this. I’m glad that’s not the case, though.”

The boy understood what he meant. If even pure darkness was bright in your vision, then you would have a hard time distinguishing the light from a campfire at night in the distance, or from a torch in a dark tunnel. However, this wasn’t the case for the ability they had acquired. Both the lightning outside and the flickering light of the torch stood out like an eyesore for them, and they knew instinctively this wasn’t a brightness that came from their dark vision.

‘It’s truly an incredible power.’

“This tunnel is very straight.” Red said. “We’ll end up bumping into them.”

Reinhart smiled. “Relax, kid. We don’t even know if someone is carrying that torch or if it’s just mounted to a wall. Let’s just get closer first.”

The boy frowned, but he offered no protest. The further they walked, the clearer the warm light became, and with it came the sound of hushed voices echoing down the tunnel.

Reinhart looked back at Red with a sheepish expression.

The boy just shook his head and whispered. “Let’s get closer.”

The knight nodded and continued to walk forward, this time with soft steps. A few seconds later, they could see both the source of the light and the voices.

They were five individuals, three of which were holding torches in their hands. Red could immediately tell that they were bandits from their garb. They were standing around in a large circular chamber that the tunnel the boy was in seemed to lead to. From their stances and the way they were looking around, it seemed the bandits were keeping a close eye on their surroundings. Much to Red and Reinhart’s benefit, though, the darkness of the tunnels covered their figures.

The two could also hear the contents of the conversation at this distance.

“… Do you think they left us?” one of the bandits asked.

“Why would they?” another one spat on the ground. “They need more bodies to throw at monsters as distraction.”

“… B-But Rickard said-”

“Who cares about what Rickard said?!” the bandit snapped. “Since those fuckers came to him, he has changed! I told you all from the beginning this would happen, but no one wanted to listen! Well, now guess what?! They convinced him to use us as meat shields for this fucking place!”

The bandits shifted around in discomfort.

“They’ll kill you if they hear you talking like this.” another bandit said.

“Like that matters!” the angry bandit snorted. “We’re all going to die in this place anyways!”

No one responded to the man.

In the meantime, Reinhart looked back at Red. He pointed at the boy’s bow, and then at the bandits.

Red nodded. He mouthed the words: ‘Which one?’

The knight frowned in thought. A few seconds later, though, he made a posture with his hand as if he was carrying an invisible object upright in his hand and pointed again at the bandits.

It took Red a second to understand it. When he looked back at the bandits, though, he figured out what the man was trying to say.

‘The ones carrying the torches.’

Red nodded and took out his bow and arrow.

Reinhart smiled at him. The knight turned around and sneaked forward, slowly approaching the entrance into the chamber. The boy followed in tow, and he finally felt the bandit’s fluctuations, telling him they had reached one hundred meters of the brigands. Still, they continued to get closer under the cover of darkness.

…

In the meantime, the bandits continued their discussion.

The angry bandit was still taking center-stage. “… All I’m saying is we should just leave and-”

“Shhh!” another bandit shushed the man. “… Did you hear that?”

His companion frowned and immediately became alert again. “… Where?”

“I think from that- Ugh!”

Before the man could finish skipping, an arrow hit him on the arm. The bandit dropped the torch he had been carrying out of pain.

“Archer!”

The bandits screamed in alarm and moved out of view from the tunnel they had seen the shot come from. However, what came out of it wasn’t another arrow, but a machine of death.

“Someone’s coming!” a bandit screamed, hearing the approaching footsteps.

One of the brigands with a torch tried to illuminate the dark passage ahead and was just in time to see Reinhart’s smiling expression as he charged directly at him, sword in hand. The man shivered and tried to raise the axe he was carrying on his other hand to block, but Reinhart was too fast.

The bandit felt a pressure at his wrist, and the pain hit him before he could figure out what was happening. He looked down and noticed the torch he had been carrying fall onto the ground, his dismembered left hand still holding onto it.

The man tried to scream, but Reinhart cut him short with another swift slash from his blade, tearing into the bandit’s throat. This all happened in a matter of seconds, and only after their companion was on the ground, grabbing at his bleeding neck with his remaining hand, did the rest of the bandits come into action.

“Surround him!” the angry bandit said in a frantic voice. “Kael, go warn the others!”

The last bandit carrying a torch nodded and turned around to run towards another tunnel connecting to the chamber. In the meantime, the rest of his companions did as their apparent leader ordered, and fanned around Reinhart with their weapons in hand. The man Red had shot had already removed the arrow from his arm and was holding his torch up again, albeit with some difficulty.

Reinhart didn’t move as he was being surrounded and instead just stared at the bandits while twirling his sword. His enemies were confused. However, they suddenly heard a yell from behind them.

They all turned around and saw Kael falling to the ground, an arrow sticking out of his side. Their gaze led them towards the tunnel the projectiles had been coming from again, and they saw Red’s shadowy figure standing there on one knee and holding his bow up.

One of the bandits seemed like they wanted to shout something, but he didn’t get the opportunity. Reinhart attacked at that exact moment they had been distracted, and another person fell to the ground while holding onto his throat.

The remaining two bandits showed surprising composure at that moment, and instead of fleeing, they flanked Reinhart and attacked the man at the same time. The knight, however, gracefully battered one attack away with his sword while side-stepping the other, causing the bandits to almost crash into each other.

This was all it took for Reinhart to take the reins. He spun to the back of the bandit to his right and slashed his ribs open in passing as the man tried to regain his balance. The other brigand, who happened to be the angry man from earlier, pushed his wounded companion aside and charged at Reinhart with a wide swing.

The knight just stepped back with a laugh, as if retreating from combat. The bandit was confused for a second before he felt a piercing force hit his chest. Red’s well-placed arrow stuck out of his rib-cage, causing the man to stumble in his steps.

The last thing he saw was the glint of Reinhart’s sword swinging from below.

…

Red watched as the bandit’s head rolled to the ground with a thud, his decapitated corpse following soon behind. He looked over at the bandit, who had just been trying to run away before being shot on the side by Red.

The man was crawling on the ground, holding onto his ribs in agony.

In the meantime, Reinhart was walking over towards the other still living bandit, whose ribs he had slashed earlier. The man was likewise in a terrible state, trying to staunch the blood flowing from his side with his hand.

“We should keep one alive to interrogate them.” Red said.

The knight laughed. “You’re right!” he looked at the bandits. “We don’t need two of them, though, do we?!”

The bandit with an arrow sticking out of his side screamed as he heard that. “I-I’ll tell you everything you want to know! J-Just don’t kill me!”

The other seemed to have heard that and looked in his companion’s direction with a hateful gaze. “What the fuck are you doing, Kael?! You little sh-”

He didn’t get to finish his words as Reinhart stabbed down into his throat. The man let out a dying croak and quickly began to choke on his own blood. It didn’t take long for life to leave him.

Reinhart pulled out his blade and turned over to look at the last bandit with a smile. “Congratulations, Kael! You’re the winner!”

The knight twirled his sword and started to move towards the man.

“So, what can you tell us that’s worth your life?”