19 A Need For Better Transportation

"Chris? Where have you been?" I ask. "Also, what are you talking about? We need to get Anna medical attention."

"Wow, only 2 of you died to the ants, kind of impressive really. I expected all of you to die, or maybe Daniel would escape somehow. Scouts are always so slippery," he says nonchalantly. "I'm a little curious as to how you beat them all, mind telling me?"

"Was it you!? You were the one to alarm the queen?!" Sam yells at Chris, causing himself to puke blood. "My… my daughter looked up to you, bastard…" He passes out, Daniel goes to his side and makes a tourniquet around his arm.

Chris walks closer; his face is full of disappointment. On his left hand, he is holding a large mana stone, still dripping with ant blood. 'Did he kill the queen on his own? That should be impossible for an E rank hunter though.'

"Well, I guess not. At least they tired you out, so killing you won't be too bothersome," he mumbles to himself.

In a burst of speed, Chris bolts directly towards me, raising his sword. His movements catch me by surprise, all I can do is reinforce my spear and parry. Due to the lack of reinforcement on the rest of my body, Chris's attack throws me off balance. My back hits the ground, an unpleasant squishing noise is made. He doesn't give me a second to breathe, slashing his sword down onto my neck. I barely stop his attack with my spear, but I won't last long in this position.

Suddenly, Chris lifts his sword and rushes to defend his side from Daniel's attack. With ease, Chris bats away Daniel's dagger and kicks him in the chest, sending him crashing against the wall. I don't waste the opportunity, fully reinforcing my legs, I kick Chris in the gut. For the first time in the fight, his face changes its expression as he gets a taste of his own medicine and flies backwards. Standing up, I prepare a water slash, but hesitate. Alan's voice echoes in my head,

"Killing another one huh? I guess we weren't so different after all…" I'm forced to focus on reality when Chris stands up and says,

"What the fuck? Weren't you E rank? When did you become a D rank? No, a better question would be, how?" I stay quiet, there is no chance in hell I tell him anything. "I see, guess I'll have to pry it out of you."

He unleashes his mana, and everything makes sense now. 'He was hiding his rank, what a bastard.' Even after killing the queen, his mana doesn't fall behind my own. 'He's stronger than me, and definitely more experienced. I won't win in a fair fight, thankfully, I don't have to.' Chris charges at me, and instead of raising my spear, I snatch something that fell to the floor. The queen's mana stone, the fucker dropped it when I kicked him. Before I can absorb it, he reaches me and slashes my hands. Wielding the spear becomes awkward thanks to the fact that I'm holding the stone, all I can do is dodge his attacks. To buy time, I leap backwards, creating distance between us.

"Huh? Are you trying to run? Don't tell me you will leave your buddies here to die?" Chris mocks me and walks towards the passed-out trio.

While he does that, I absorb the stone. Even though it's a boss monster grade stone, its rank is still E. My mana doesn't increase an insane amount, but it should be enough. Turning back towards Chris, I see him holding Daniel up by his hair. With his sword up to Daniel's neck, he yells,

"What did you just do!? Tell me!"

In his eyes, I see nothing but greed. They remind me of Alan's when he decided to explore the connected dungeon. Despite the danger, he was consumed by his hunger for power and money. I also remember his eyes when my hand went through his chest, they were filled with fear.

"Tell me or he dies!" Chris screams again.

'They may be humans too, but they've made their choice.'

"I'll tell you, just let him go first," I say calmly.

"I'm not letting him go unless you tell me," he retorts.

"Listen, we could stay like this all day; if you kill him, I'll never tell you. So, let him go, and then you get your answer," I continue talking, trying to find an opening.

"You better not try anything funny, with this distance between us, they'll die before you can do anything," he says, as he lowers his sword. That is all I needed, after all, closing the distance is unnecessary. Using the mana that I had poured into my spear; I perform a water slash.

Chris reacts to my movements, lifting his sword up to his face, which is the only thing not covered by Daniel's body. In the instant my mana leaves the spear, a metallic sound reaches my ears. Chris's sword was cut in half, along with his head. Daniel slumps to the ground besides Chris's body. I rush to the trio, most worried about Anna, she's lost a lot of blood. Kneeling next to Anna, I check her pulse first, it is faint. Next goes Sam, he is doing better than Anna, but not by much. Daniel's case is harder to pinpoint, he has no external wounds, and that's what worry some. He might be bleeding internally or something the like, that means all 3 of them might die.

Ideally, I would carry all 3 of them out of the dungeon, however, that is impossible. Even though I can carry that much weight, I simply don't have enough hands and moving patients is dangerous. The best I can do for them is rush back and ask for help, there is no better option. 'The entrance isn't that far away; I should be able to reach is quickly.' Despite those thoughts, reality has a different idea. I'm beyond exhausted, just because my mana was replenished, doesn't mean I'm at peak condition.

My mind is sluggish, and my muscles feel weak, I can barely run. After 10 minutes of running, I make it to the entrance. Outside, I find the soldiers that are guarding the dungeon and ask them for help. They call in the emergency and tell me to wait for the medics to arrive. The wait feels eternal, it makes me fear the worst, if only I had thought of absorbing the stones earlier. When the ambulances arrive, they are accompanied by another vehicle that I don't recognize.

The medics ask me if there are any monsters left inside, after confirming that the dungeon is clear, they head in with stretchers. A woman in a suit gets out of the car that came alongside the ambulances. She walks towards me and takes of her sunglasses; a familiar face lies under them.

"Ms. Natalie?" I say, dumbfounded.

"You know me?" she asks.

"Oh, yeah. You investigated an incident I was involved in previously. The one with the linked dungeon," I answer.

"Ah, I see. When did you awaken?" she seems suspicious of me.

"Right after the incident," I say. "I decided to stop being a porter, so I bought an awakening stone."

"If I'm guessing correctly, this should be your first raid, correct?" she continues asking me questions. She really lives up to her job description. "What happened inside?"

For every answer I gave, Natalie had 2 more questions. She is very thorough with her investigation. Regarding my rank up, I'm taking a page out of Chris's book, hiding my rank. It isn't easy, specially in front of a professional A rank investigator, but my mana control has improved a lot. That being said, if she doesn't go away any time soon, I'll pass out.

She also wanted to question the others, but they are still unconscious. Despite how long it took me to leave the dungeon, all 3 of them are still alive and on their way to the hospital. When she is finally satisfied with the interrogation, Natalie tells me that my license will be suspended until the investigation is over. Besides that, she makes sure to tell me the consequences of an attempted escape. 'I'm sure the others will back me up. Besides, all the stuff I'm hiding happened while they were unconscious.'

Although I want nothing than to go home and sleep, I need to go to the hospital. The EMTs did some first aid on me, but they still told me to get a comprehensive check-up. Knowing I took a couple of good hits, I follow their advice and begin walking towards the subway.

"Where are you going?" hearing another question coming from Natalie makes me flinch.

"Uhm, the hospital?" my response sounds more like a question.

"You plan on walking? Get in, I'll drive you," she says, signaling to her car with her head.