68 Getting Out

"So you are telling me that you came here, in the dead of the night, all alone…" (Damian)

"Uh-huh." (Rhaxtyx)

"You opened a hole to the surface, with God knows how, and entered the dungeon, which is underneath the royal castle that is very much guarded heavily."

"Yeap."

"And on your way to our cell, you killed all the guards you encountered and alarmed the national army, even the royal guards?"

"More like obliterated but yeah."

"And that is why we are currently surrounded by that same royal guards?"

"That… seems like so."

"I have only one question, my dear friend."

"I as well." (Roman)

"Ask away my friends!"

""What the hell is wrong with you?!"" (Damian & Roman)

"Ehe. Ehehehe."

Rhaxtyx made a silly laugh and hit his head slightly while, as Damian observed, royal guards as well as soldiers from the army itself, instead of the prison guards that were stationed in the dungeons, surrounded them with their weapons on the ready.

After Rhaxtyx blasted the cell door open, which was fortunately the right one as he got the wrong prison cell for five tries, he went ahead and freed Damian and Roman from their shackles. After they exited the cell, they were greeted by soldiers charging at them.

Their situation did not look bright in the slightest and even Damian was not sure if they could get out of the dungeons in one piece. But what they knew was that they had a chance to fight back. They talked to each other as they took positions inside the cell.

"Okay. Thank you for getting us out Rax. Do you have a plan for these guys?" (Roman)

"Well… Define 'plan'." (Rhaxtyx)

"You cannot be serious."

"That is so. When I was serious man c'mon!"

"First of all we're going to need some kind of a weapon!" (Damian)

"What do you mean! There are plenty of weapons in front of us right? Just pick your favorite! I promise this daddy will get it for you as a present!"

"What the hell are you talking about?" (Roman)

Damian looked at Rhaxtyx. Something about him felt a bit off to him. When he looked at his eyes, they were a bit too vicious. A bit more… merciless. But that was for only a moment and Rhaxtyx became his usual cheerful self again after a second. Damian shrugged as if he didn't really care and looked around him towards the soldiers. But, at the back of his mind, a thought lingered. There was something else in Rhaxtyx's eyes that he saw before, but he couldn't really name it. He decided to not think about it for the time being and focused on the issue at hand.

"The plan is kind of obvious no?" (Damian)

"Oh?"

"Sir Damian?"

"We break through."

"You get me! I knew there was something between us!"

"You too?!"

Roman heaved a big sigh and cracked his neck joints and knuckles, then grinned broadly.

"But there's not much I, a cowardly blacksmith, can say now is there?"

"Roman! You joining too? Finally man!"

"Still, it would be better if you stood back for the time being." (Damian)

"I agree." (Rhaxtyx)

"Huuuh?!"

"Dude, these guys are well above your league."

"Even I might not be able to handle well with this much. They are just surrounding us for the time being and didn't take any action. They probably want us to stay in here."

"I mean, they can try. I can open up a new chimney anytime."

"You stay your hand for now." (Damian)

"So what are you going to do, charge in?" (Roman)

"What do you think? Like I said, I can open up another hole to the surface but that'll take a while so this way is way faster." (Rhaxtyx)

"Rax, you charge in and gather their attention on yourself. I'll find a way to quickly finish them up."

"That's what I was going to do anyway. Here I go then?"

Damian nodded and Rhaxtyx smiled. After making sure the enemies were still out the cell, he took a step outside. As soon as he did that, a couple of arrows made their way towards him. Now that he took a better look at them, they seemed more like crossbow bolts.

*Swish swish.*

"YAAAAOOOOUCH!"

Damian and Roman only saw some of the bolts hitting and shattering against the backwall of the cell and heard Rhaxtyx's screams. From how he screamed, it seemed like it hurt a lot and they sighed out in relief.

"You damn bastards! How dare you fire off arrows the instant you see me?" (Rhaxtyx)

"I mean, that is common sense right?" (Roman)

"You shut up back there!" (Rhaxtyx)

"You are trespassing on royal grounds and you have attacked this Kingdom's soldiers. You are charged with treason to this land and are sentenced to immediate execution. You and your accomplices are expected to cooperate in this process." (Royal Guard)

"Haaa? You really expect people will follow you to their execution? Where do you live, Cooperanation?"

After Rhaxtyx poor attempt at making a pun, everyone, including his friends, just looked at him with disbelieving faces. Rhaxtyx looked at everyone in response with surprised faces.

"What? Can't I try to lift the spirits up and defuse some tension?"

"Please don't try to make any kind of attempt at making any kind of joke. I beg you." (Roman)

"Is it that bad?"

"This is your final warning at coming with us peacefully! Archers! Take Aim!"

*Fwoom*

Rhaxtyx launched a Tier 1 {Firebolt} at one of the guards, hitting him squarely on his chest and rendering him unconscious after hitting his head to the ground. His eyes were dead serious as he looked at the soldiers and pointed at their general direction while pulling out a crossbow bolt from his left shoulder.

"Haven't you guys realized? You shot me before but I'm still standing. Now quit yapping around and show me what you got."

After he spoke, Rhaxtyx took his first step towards the group of soldiers. Shadows were dancing around him as he activated his 'Shadow Arts'. The guards, even though they were shocked to see it, didn't take a step back and readied their weapons. Archers released their arrows and bolts and the close combatants formed a shield wall to prevent Rhaxtyx approaching to their backlines.

There were also some wizards amongst them, ensuring Rhaxtyx's magic attacks from that point on would fail. But Rhaxtyx ignored all of this. He started dashing after his fifth step and quickly reached their front line. He, without drawing his sword or even chanting any spells, entered into their ranks and started punching at them. Yes, punching.

"Is he crazy?" (Damian)

"Are you asking that now?" (Roman)

Damian and Roman were watching this scene with dumbfounded eyes. They looked at the situation for find a gap to steal a sword hopefully but were stunned at Rhaxtyx's recklessness. And it didn't seem like he was having a hard time as well. After Rhaxtyx jumped in and started punching, guards were getting pushed back one by one.

That was because he was not just punching but using his shadow to attack at the enemy. His shadow would wrap his hand as he attacked and added a tremendous force behind it. With every punch he would push the air out of the soldiers' lungs, it was that powerful it would even sometimes leave a small dent on the armor if he hit just right.

Damian looked carefully at Rhaxtyx's fighting, discovering his attacks were backed with something but he wasn't able to see it clearly. 'Shadow Arts' was pretty much hidden from his vision, this proved Rhaxtyx's proficiency with it.

'Good. So far so good. Let's try the next level of manipulation then.'

Rhaxtyx slowly made his shadow sharper like a blade. He already practiced making his shadow cover his body and fight like that while he was storming the dungeon. It was not easy to manipulate his shadow like that but it was a bottleneck for the next level of comprehension of 'Shadow Arts'.

As his shadow became sharper, his aura also started to change. He became faster and sharper as well. Without making any unnecessary moves he cut through the ranks. Royal Guards were not like Imperial Guards which he encountered within Helenia Forest. Royal Guards were elites selected from within the army while Imperial Guards were trained from birth.

That is why Rhaxtyx was having an easier time fighting them. He cut through the guards while the archers fired at him another volley of arrows. Seeing this, Rhaxtyx immediately positioned himself behind the guards so they would be hit by the arrows instead.

"Sh*t! Where are you aiming at archers?! Open you e-Augh!"

"You talk too much."

Rhaxtyx kept slaughtering the guards and the volley of magic attacks came as well. Rhaxtyx evaded them without much effort as he could sense where they were coming from to the point. But because it would be hard to dodge and fight at the same time, and because it was the logical way of fighting, he targeted the mages.

He dodged the swings of the guards while chanting for a Tier 1 {Sonic Boom} to disperse the enemies around him and charge towards the mages. The guards picked up on this quite easily and madly attacked him, hoping to stop his chanting. But it was impossible to do.

The chant was over in a second and the roar made everyone around Rhaxtyx was launched backwards, opening the way between Rhaxtyx and the back liners. Rhaxtyx smirked and started running towards the mages first, chanting and firing a Tier 1 {Firebolt} while charging. With that {Firebolt} he took the protection spell of one of the mages and directly stabbed him with his shadow.

His ruthless behavior and relentless assault made Damian and Roman be wary of him. Roman was out of words and Damian was thoroughly watching him. Even though he thought he was different, he couldn't name a single reason why. But there were a lot more important things to deal with so he focused on catching a gap to get out of the fray.

Luckily, Rhaxtyx created the perfect gap for them to escape with his charge to the mages. While another volley of arrows fired and the guards charged towards Rhaxtyx, Damian and Roman got out of the cell and turned the corner, taking cover behind it.

Rhaxtyx saw this and smiled ever-so-slightly, making enemies that saw it nervous. Rhaxtyx stopped and jumped back from the fray. Guards stopped at this move and didn't follow while mages and archers took aim.

"Clever. But a bit boring. You guys are just the cannon fodders so I didn't expect much to begin with."

"Wh-who are you?!" (Guard)

"Hmm? Oh I'm just a normal adventurer."

"A what?!"

"Is he kidding?"

"Well anyway, it was fun while it lasted fellas. But we have to wrap it up soon." (Rhaxtyx)

After speaking, Rhaxtyx snapped his finger and his figure became blurry. Previously, he wasn't using 'Shadow Arts' to its full extent, at least to an extent he could use. He smiled and his teeth seemed like fangs of a predator at that moment for the soldiers. His eyes shined a bloody red and his hands became dark claws.

With every step Rhaxtyx took, his aura became darker and darker. After his fifth step, he vanished from their vision and the soldiers closed their eyes out of fear. But nothing happened even after ten seconds. Meanwhile Rhaxtyx appeared next to Damian and Roman.

"Wha-" (Roman)

"It's time we go." (Rhaxtyx)

Rhaxtyx took a hold of their collars and entered the shadow of the pillar caused by the moonlight. After a second, they were out. Right after they got out and Rhaxtyx released their collars, he fell on his knee and coughed violently for a while.

Damian looked around and realized they were quite close to the royal castle. They were by a sewer entrance and weirdly enough there were no soldiers around them to greet them. Damian looked at Rhaxtyx with a confused expression and he smiled back.

"Don't worry, I have an explanation for it. But before that."

He snapped his fingers and a bright flash appeared inside the long tunnel. The tunnel that Rhaxtyx made was directly connected to the dungeons and they could still somewhat see the silhouettes of the guards inside, running about and searching for them.

The bright flash was the sign of an explosion. The sound was thunderous and it quaked the earth. As a result, the tunnel collapsed and as it did, the screams of agony came from the soldiers inside as they got crushed under the earth. Roman and Damian looked at this with shocked expressions. Rhaxtyx only smiled and replied with a single sentence.

"What? Did you guys really expect me to leave them be?"