Escape

Art runs into the cave while shouting, looking for Arch.

"Arch!"

His voice echoes across the cave system, as droplets of water drip above him.

At the end of the cave lies a path that was separated by right and left sections.

'Would he have chosen the right?'

As he was deciding which path to choose, he could hear several footsteps approaching him.

'No time, left it is.'

Art went into the left path of the cave, it became darker and harder to see.

Art started running slower, behind him he could see a fireball that was acting as a torch for the enemy.

'At this point, they will catch up to me."

Art closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, he ran towards the source of light.

"It's time to greet them." Art threw himself on the enemy squad, surprising the enemy.

"H-hey it's that bastard!" One of the 3 mages that was maintaining a fireball alerted the rest of the squad.

"Capture him!" The leader declared loudly to the rest, the front soldier slashed his sword at Art, but he dodged the sword and rolled under him.

"It's too late!" Art stood up as the enemy squad was trying to grab him.

"Requiem!"

Art snapped his fingers and simultaneously made everyone on the verge of being unconscious, they all fell asleep without any problems.

[Requiem (EX) has been used.]

"If only I had a passive, I would have dealt with you guys easier!" Art said as he was running away from the location of the enemy squad, he could not navigate toward the deeper parts of the cave due to it having no source of light.

"Wait where's my book?"

Art realized that his book was not in his hand as he was running away.

"Status!"

Art went to see his status passives and see the Book passive still being in his status.

'What if I call the book?'

Art thought about it as he placed his hands on the sides of the cave path.

"Ramiel's Gift!"

The book instantly appeared in Infront of him, it hovered in the air for a few seconds before falling to the floor.

Art grabbed the book and sighed in relief.

"I thought I had lost you.."

Art stopped running and turned around.

"It's impossible to go any further beyond here, Arch probably went to the right path.."

Art ran back to the area he originally separated from, he encountered the squad again and stops running.

"Hi?" Art nonchalantly waves at them.

The leader is irritated that the fact Art skipped by them 3 times already, he had enough.

"Kill him!" The leader commanded everyone, however. One of his allies asked something to him, regarding the information Art held.

"If we kill him right now, we won't be able to find a clue on where the laboratory is!" A knight tried to reason with him.

"I don't care anymore! Kill that rat bastard!" The leader threw his sword at Art and narrowly avoided being impaled.

"Requiem!"

He snaps his fingers once again, making all the enemy collapse.

[Requiem (EX) has been used.]

Art faster than he was before, he managed to reach the same area where he changed directions and headed towards the left path.

The path had some torches on the walls allowing Art to see into the dark cave.

At the end of the cave lies an extremely long hall filled with torches. Art takes a breather and sat on the floor, he was tired of running.

But the enemies were aggressive this time, they chased Art with a violent rage from the leader.

"They never will stop will they!?"

Art stops resting and ran towards the halls, he could see the squad in blue armor chasing him, the mages were being carried by the knights.

"Flame Arrow!"

The mages cast their magic as they mount the knights, arrow-like flames were aimed at Art.

'At this point, I'm gonna die before I get out of this place!'

Art turned his head behind him as he ran and could see the flame arrows were about to hit him, he dodged the first arrow by changing directions, the second arrow was misdirected at the wall, and the third arrow was a few feet away from his head, he covered this back head with the book.

The impact of the flame Arrow made Art trip.

"Ughhh.."

His right leg had a sprain so we could not run much anymore, a figure behind him appeared.

"Yo, ya good?" It was Arch, he had a new set of armor that was white and yellow and a new shield that had wing accessories at its sides.

"Where did you go!?" Art annoyed, asked Arch.

"I accidentally found a treasure chest inside these halls, I was-" Before Arch could finish what he was saying, they were interrupted by more flame arrows that missed them.

"We have company, don't we?"

"Yeah, we do."

"Stand behind me, I'll try defeating these guys!"

Arch goes behind Art and pierced the ground with the tip of his shield.

"Guardian Rampart!"

Arch's eye glowed and so did his shield, after Arch cast the skill, a wall-like barrier was formed in front of the shield, blocking the entire pathway of the hall. All the incoming projectiles were halted by the barrier wall that was blocking and protecting Arch and Art.

Arch ripped the Shield out of the ground and held it tightly as he walked backward.

"Art do you have any skills that can stop them?!"

The enemy mages changed their skills from Flame Arrows to Fireball again, it had a more destructive explosion that can devastate the barrier.

"No... I don't have any..." Art answered Arch nervously

"What!? How did you manage to fight against them then?"

"I didn't I just escaped."

"Still you must have used a skill!"

Multiple fireballs were exploding at the barrier as the enemy squad was coming closer.

"I did, but the thing is, it's a Status Effect type!"

"It must be really good right? Use it at them!"

"The problem is everyone near 100 feet radius will be affected!"

"Is that why you told me to leave first?"

"Yes!"

The barrier began showing cracks and exposed the vulnerabilities of Arch and Art, both of them started running instead as the barrier was about to shatter.

"Got any ideas then?"

"Yes, I have this one amazing tactic that will get us out of here!" Art declared proudly.

"What is it!?" Arch looked at Art with glittering eyes.

"We. Run!"

"..." Arch stared at Art with a blank face.

The shield's active wall barrier shattered into pieces and faded, and the shield's outer layer was cracked and damaged. Leaving no choice both of them just ran without looking back as they try avoiding the fireballs that were coming after them.

While avoiding the fireballs Art noticed a hole in the walls that they passed through, he went to inspect the hole as he covers himself with the book.

"Arch!"

Arch stopped running and went towards Art as he blocked the explosions of the fireballs with his shield.

"Go inside this hole now and wait for me at the other side!"

"Are you insane!?"

"Just go!"

Arch tried going inside the hole, but due to his armor he could not fit so he made the hole bigger with his hands, allowing him to go inside it.

"Just go! I will try and stall them for now!"

"Alright!"

As the enemy got closer, Arch inside the hole threw a book at Art before he entered fully.

"Art take this! I don't know what it does but it might help you!"

Art, defending himself with the indestructible book from the attacks picks up the book Arch threw at him.

'What is this?' Art wonders what the book was.

As Arch left Art in the halls filled with dirt, Art continues defending himself from the fireball attacks by using the book he shields himself with, like playing a first-person shooting game and blocking the fireballs from damaging him. He kept defending himself as the enemy got closer and closer than before, he missed one of the fireballs and got shot on his shoulder.

Art felt an agonizing pain in his shoulder as his suit got burnt from the explosion.

"It's better to be brave than to die now huh." Art took a defensive stance, like wielding a shield and a sword. He rushed to the enemy as the mages continued shooting fireballs at him, Art takes the explosions head-on with the book and rushed. The mages stopped firing as the enemy knights let them unmount and took their swords out.

"Get that bastard!" The enemy leader took his greatsword from his back and rushed towards Art along with the knights, once they became closer to Art the greatsword started to light up.

"Burning Ice!" The leader shouted as he raised his sword as the greatsword started having a fire aura around it, the leader smashed the ground with the burning sword which made everything in front of the enemy be ignited by fire, and the dirt turned into a burning floor.

Art, fortunately, did not reach the skill's range and was inches away from being burned.

"The hell?" Art stares at the burning ground, instantly clusters of shards of ice appeared directed above the burning floor, the ice pierced the roof of the hall and blocked the path for both Art and the enemy.

'I should back away' Art slowly backed away from the clusters of ice as he stayed in a defensive stance, he could hear the sound of ice being shattered on the other side of the icy wall.

The knights used their swords to break the ice as their leader was preparing another skill to attack Art.

Art could see the Knights approaching closer as the wall was showing their side, he could see the leader crouching as his body started to glow.

'This is probably really bad' He sees the leader stand up and got into a running position.

"Defensive Aura." The enemy leader's body started glowing off a transparent purple material around his body.

"Instant Acceleration!" The enemy leader ran towards the wall at an extremely fast speed and broke through the icy wall and rammed himself towards Art.

Art immediately covered his torso with the book and raised his hand as he sees the enemy leader rushing at him like an enraged bull.

"Come at me!" Art lowered his head to match his book's covering area, the leader was about to hit Art with his body.

"Requiem!"

[R.E.Q.U.I.E.M has been used]

Art snaps his fingers, everyone beside him in a 100 feet radius started feeling dizzy and collapsed, however. The enemy leader plunged him even after he collapsed, Art got blown away by the momentum of the impact, his body flew against the wall, and dropped his book.

His head got injured and started to bleed, his body felt the full impact of the recoil and was on the verge of collapsing.

'That was NOT a good idea...' Art severely injured, walked towards the hole and got inside it, he covered the hole with the dirt surrounding it, swiftly digs the dirt, and covered the hole.

In order not to let the enemy go towards the hole, Art kept placing the hole with even more dirt so it cannot be mined easily by the enemy, he blocked the path of the hole and placed any and every heavy rock nearby as a form of blockage. Art turned away from the hole and escaped using the path that was in the hole, he crawled out of the small pathway and could see light above.

Outside of the hole was a hill filled with flowers and a white glowing tree, it was night time and the flowers were all glowing in the moonlight, butterflies surround the beautiful tree which had pink leaves and a bizarre heart-shaped fruit hanging from it.

"Beautiful..." Art subconsciously spurted out of his mouth as he admired the beautiful scenery in front of him. In the shade of the tree was Arch sleeping, lying on the tree's trunk.

'I should go say hi to him.' Art went towards Arch.