“What have you done?!” the imperial stared at Narcha with maddened eyes.

Before the woman could reply, Reinhart attacked the man. The floating shield intercepted his sword, however, and allowed the imperial to survive an attack that would have otherwise killed him. The man turned around to face the knight in anger, attacking him with renewed energy.

Reinhart grunted. “A little help here would be appreciated!”

Narcha and Eiwin hesitated. The former, in particular, seemed torn between her hatred for the imperials and her hatred towards Reinhart. Instead of running ahead to help the knight, they looked at Red with questioning gazes.

The boy nodded. “You can trust him for now.”

His implication was clear. Red didn’t fully trust the man, but he believed Reinhart wouldn’t betray them right now.

Narcha frowned and grunted in annoyance. However, the last trace of hesitation in her expression disappeared, and she charged at the imperial.

Eiwin gave Red a meaningful gaze. “Don’t come too close to him.”

Red nodded. He didn’t plan to in the first place.

Satisfied with his agreement, Eiwin followed behind Narcha. The Imperial was quick to notice their approach, but there was little he could do to avoid being surrounded in his position. Soon enough, the two women were raining blows upon the man from the flanks, while Reinhart pressed his own advantage from the front.

As the three of them attacked the imperial, his floating shield’s weakness became apparent - it couldn’t be in two places at the same time. It was without a doubt very fast, and it could block even Narcha’s blows without even wavering, but as she and Eiwin timed their strikes, the shield wasn’t able to move fast enough to cut off both of them. The imperial was forced to use his own sword to parry the attacks that made it through.

This problem was further exacerbated as Reinhart picked up on this too and tried to time his blows with Narcha and Eiwin. Suddenly, the imperial who had been in control of the battle until this point was forced to go on the defensive. Still, even in this situation it didn’t seem like it would be easy to take the pill empowered imperial down anytime soon. That is, at least not until his shield disappeared - which, judging by his worsening expression, wouldn’t take too long.

The imperial was quick to make a decision. He tried to disengage from the trio and sought to retreat. His opponents were quick to pick up on what he was trying to do, though, and all struck at the same time to force him to stay.

His floating shield swiveled and blocked Narcha’s saber. His sword spun around and parried Reinhart’s weapon with some effort. Eiwin’s was the last to strike, and he wasn’t able to block that one as her punch crashed against his ribs and made a clear indentation on his scaled armor. It wasn’t enough to stop the man’s, though, and perhaps it was why he had decided to endure her barehanded attack rather than Narcha or Reinhart’s.

His plan ended up working. The imperial disengaged from the trio and retreat with surprising speed towards an exit of the chamber - more precisely to the one that laid beyond the snake’s enormous corpse. Narcha, Eiwin, and Reinhart sought to give chase, but the man was too fast under the effects of the pill.

Narcha screamed at her allies. “Don’t let him escape!”

It was to no avail, however. The man seemed to be on track to successfully escape their grasp - that was, until Red got in his way. The boy didn’t try to charge at him. Not even considering his magic shield, the imperial’s normal strength would be more than enough to kill him in a few moves.

Instead, Red moved to the exit of the chamber, in the process of activating a talisman as the man charged at him. The imperial noticed the glow emitting from his hand and his expression seemed conflicted for a moment. However, the hesitation soon disappeared as the floating shield moved in front of him, ready to block whatever spell the boy threw at him.

His confidence was justified. His shield talisman seemed to be of a higher quality than average, and it most likely could block at least one offensive spell, even one more powerful than normal. It would be enough to allow him to mow the kid down and retreat from the chamber.

Unfortunately for the imperial, Red’s talisman was the bane of conventional protections. He followed the activation method for the talisman - scratching at a specific line on its surface and chanting words he didn’t understand the meaning of. The glow of the paper intensified. Sparks of lightning started to come out of it, and Red pointed the flickering talisman at the imperial.

The man’s expression changed, finally recognizing what was happening. He was within ten meters of Red already, though, and before he could change direction, the boy’s talisman finally activated.

Tendrils of lightning extended from Red’s hand. They were as thick as a human limb and seemed to branch into dozens of smaller arms, all headed straight at the imperial. It all happened in a flash, though, and before Red could blink, the lightning had already hit straight into the man’s shield. The barrier did nothing to block it, though.

The tendrils simply swarmed around the shield before continuing the trajectory to discharge into the nearest target to the object - that being the imperial. Dozens of lightning arms entered the man’s body, causing him to convulse and signs of charring to appear all over his body and equipment. The lightning wasn’t done either, as it started to arc out of the imperial’s body and sought to spread towards an even bigger area.

The boy warned his companions. “Stay back!”

Reinhart, Narcha, and Eiwin all froze in their tracks and retreated. The tendrils discharged into nearby rocks, and some of them even hit the snake’s corpse. Yet most of them were simply absorbed by the cave ground and fizzled out of existence. Still, by the time the lightning had disappeared, it had covered almost 30 meters ahead of Red and had missed his pursuing companions by a small margin.

If they hadn’t heeded his words and continued to run ahead, they would have been caught in its path too. It was truly indiscriminate destruction.

Finally, the imperial’s charred body fell down and the floating shield disappeared. He didn’t move.

Red let out a sigh of relief. He could still feel the Lightning Spiritual Energy from his talisman lingering in the air, as well as the absolute feeling of power that came to him once he activated it. The talisman in his hands had disappeared, though, its spell spent.

Reinhart whistled from the other side of the chamber. “Holy shit, kid! Next time you could warn me about it!”

Narcha frowned at the man. Still, she just snorted and walked over towards the corpse of the imperial and used her saber to prod him. There was no movement.

Red looked at her with a questioning gaze.

Narcha grunted. “Just making sure.”

The boy frowned, but just nodded in the end.

Satisfied, the woman turned around to look at Reinhart with an angry expression. “Anyway, can we talk about what he’s doing her- Hey, what the fuck are you doing?!”

Reinhart froze in his steps, just about to crouch down and examine the body of the imperial that was eaten by the snake.

He looked over at Narcha in confusion. “What do you mean? I’m just searching his body for loot.”

Narcha’s frown deepened. “Ugh, I know what you’re doing! I mean who gave you the permission to do it?!”

Reinhart pointed at Red. “It’s our agreement. We’re allies now. Didn’t he tell you?”

‘How could I have told them when we just met?’

Before Red could give voice to his thoughts, though, Narcha was already staring daggers at him.

“What’s he talking about, kid?!” she asked.

Red shrugged. “This place is too dangerous to travel on my own.”

“And what, you decided to ally yourself with him?! With Reinhart?!” Narcha seemed to be getting angrier. “Wait, that’s not even the point! What are you doing here in the first place?! Didn’t you have the choice to leave?! Why did you-”

“Miss Valt.” Eiwin interjected. “Why don’t we give him some space to explain first? Nothing good will come out of screaming at him.”

“But what about him?!” Narcha pointed at Reinhart.

The younger woman sighed and looked over at the man. “Mister Reinhart, would you mind waiting until we’re done speaking before looting their corpses? I think it would be easier to handle things if we were all on the same page.”

“Fine.” Reinhart shrugged. “But remember, we are on a tight schedule here!”

Eiwin shook her head. “Don’t worry. I’m sure this will be quick, right Red?”

The boy didn’t know how to respond.

…

The four of them stood at the center of the chamber as Red prepared to recount his trip up until this point. Narcha and Eiwin maintained a good distance from Reinhart, though, still not trusting of the man.

Narcha spoke up. “Okay, first of all, kid, where is Rog? Wasn’t he waiting for you at the entrance to the underground?”

Red nodded. “We met him there, and he joined us in entering the cave.”

The woman frowned. “‘We’? Was Reinhart already with you when you entered this place?”

“No.” the boy shook his head. “By we I mean Rimold and Allen.”

“Rimold is back?!” Narcha looked surprised. “I never expected him to- wait, who else was with you?”

“… Allen.”

“What?!”

Both Narcha and Eiwin’s expressions paled at the mention of the young master.

“Did he come in with you?” Eiwin asked with visible worry, a rare occurrence for the woman.

“He did.” Red nodded. “But he has already left with Rimold and Rog.”

Eiwin looked relieved. “That’s good. But why was he here in the first place?”

Red hesitated. “That’s… Something I will explain later.”

The woman seemed to notice the strangeness of his words and nodded. “That’s fine. As long as he is safe.”

“So why are you the only one that stayed, you brat?” Narcha asked. “Where’s Rog? He would never let you stay here alone!”

“Rog is not here because he can’t be here, of course!” Reinhart said from the side with a laugh.

Narcha barked at him in anger. “Shut up!” she swiveled her head back to look at Red. “What is he talking about, kid?!”

There was some anxiety in her tone.

Rog frowned. “Rog was wounded during our trial… His injuries extended to his inner organs and Spiritual Veins. We tried to exchange for a pill to cure him, but we didn’t have enough Spirit Stones for that.”

Both Narcha and Eiwin paled at his words.

“D-Did you…” Narcha stuttered for the first time since Red had met her. “Is he-”

“He’s fine.” Reinhart was the one to respond. “Well, as fine as he can be, last I saw him.”

Red explained. “The spirit told us that there is a pill that could fully heal him, but it would cost twenty spirit stones, which we could only obtain if we continued on this trial. Allen was too wounded, and Rimold was the only one that could take care of both him and Rog on the outside. So I decided to remain behind to try to gather the Spirit Stones, and hopefully also find you two.” the boy pointed at Reinhart. “I had no choice but to ally with him if I wanted a chance at achieving that, though.”

Eiwin and Narcha were speechless, still trying to digest the information.