Just as the communication stone in Finn's pocket began to emit a green light instead of the blue color it had been for the past few seconds, several doors were violently kicked in.
"Fernyx Brigade! You're under arrest!" Carciem shouted while leaping through the frame of a door blown to pieces.
The military swarmed through the corridors in a steady stream, grabbing defenseless patrons and clashing with armed individuals who resisted them.
"Keep moving! The auction room is right in front of us!" Carciem shouted while pushing another opponent aside.
With a swift and precise movement, he shoved aside the blade of a burly man, and slashed the enemy's hand to make him drop his weapon. Some of his subordinates ran past him to the end of the corridor in which they stood.
At the same time, the panic was palpable in the auction room. The customers, hearing the noise and the screams coming from the galleries directly connected to the big room, were getting restless and looking for a way to escape; protected by their armed escort for the luckiest of them.
In the midst of the crowd, Ewan and Finn had approached the stage again, in order to reach the door through which the individual with the smooth mask had disappeared.
"Aren't we taking care of the customers in the room? " Had hastily asked Ewan, while following Finn.
"No, our priority is that guy from the Circle you encountered," the military man had replied sternly.
According to him, this man was much too dangerous to be left on the loose, and he was also confident that if Carciem had been with them, he would have ordered him to stop this enemy by any means possible.
So the two men had no choice but to force their way through the messy rush that had taken shape at the exits.
They were both walking along the stage, when a roar sounded very close to them: on the stage, one of the feline men had just been impaled by a sword, and had fallen with a howl to the floor. Still chained to the other members of his species, he made escape impossible for them.
The guards in the auction room had decided to get rid of the items that were deemed too dangerous and that could incriminate them. Finn continued to move forward as if nothing had happened, and Ewan stared at the back of the soldier as he moved further away.
In spite of himself, Ewan couldn't help but draw a parallel with the little girl. Was Pavas really there? And if so, would she end up like that blood-stained creature?
Another roar startled him, and turning back to the scene, the young hunter saw that one of the Ferlids - the red-haired one - had just grabbed one of the blades waving in their direction with his bare hand. He snarled fiercely, showing his huge canines and curling his lips as he frowned.
He had no intention of dying here, and using his strength wisely, snatched the weapon from the guard's hands before pushing the human backwards. With the tip of the newly acquired sword, he broke in two one of the links of the chain attached to his ankle.
Free to move, he quickly handed the sword to his fellow creatures to free themselves, and immediately threw a heavy punch at another guard who was trying to stop him. The man fell to the ground, and the humanoid pounced on him without hesitation, tearing the skin from his neck with a well-placed bite.
A few moments passed, and then, with another sword in his hand, the Ferlid rose to his feet, the fur surrounding his mouth soaked in blood.
His green eyes, with pupils reduced to slits, briefly met Ewan's bright blue ones. In less than a second, the Ferlids gauged him, and understood that he was not an immediate threat, before focusing again on pushing away the guards who were trying to kill them.
Still surprised by this exchange of glances, Ewan then felt a hand on his arm, and looking ahead again, saw that Finn had turned to grab and drag him along.
"Move or we'll lose him!" Finn exclaimed.
The minutes which followed seemed unending to the two men.
Even if they had reached the door and the corridor that it concealed, things were not over yet. Armed men were blocking their way, left to their own devices by their employer and caught in the middle of their escape. This was followed by an intense fight in a small space, where swords had been abandoned in favor of daggers and other short weapons that were easier to handle.
Finn had opted for gloves with fists lined with metal plates, and had cast a spell to strengthen each of his blows in proportion to each enemy he managed to hit.
Quickly, the military man had taken the lead of the duo, leading the way with more and more violent punches.
Then, having left behind them a wake of unconscious or wounded enemies on the ground, they had finally reached the end of the corridor, locked by a metallic door. Ewan was convinced that it was an armored door, and that it would be impossible for them to force it alone.
However, the military man did not lose his confidence, and raising his two fists, signaled to Ewan not to stay next to him.
"Move aside!" Finn exclaimed.
He took a deep breath, and the next moment, a violent blow of fist fell on the door, provoking a thunderous racket.
The door had not broken, but a huge impact had deformed the sheet metal in its center.
Immediately, more punches followed, their violence and the resulting roar increasing with each contact.
With a loud bang, the door gave way and jumped off its hinges, landing in a cloud of dust a few feet away.
Panting, Finn gazed out into the darkness ahead as Ewan came up behind him. To their surprise, the neat corridor the man had built had led to the entrance of a stone cavern where no light source was present.
The military man then removed his mask to clear his field of vision completely, and rummaged through a small pouch hanging from his belt. He took out a small Elvine, and after reciting the words that Ewan knew by heart, a bright light gradually came out of it, until it stabilized to illuminate about ten meters around them.
They were in what seemed to be a huge underground cavity, which opened onto several galleries winding between stalagmites and stalactites resembling sharp claws emerging from the floor and ceiling. It was going to be difficult to find which way to go, and they would have to be constantly on their guard because of the darkness.
The young man took off his wolf mask, and observed the surroundings illuminated by the small luminous stone. There were multiple footprints in the dust that had naturally accumulated on the ground, and he bent down for a moment to take a closer look.
Many people must have taken this unguarded route, but with a little luck, he might be able to isolate the specific trail of the person they were looking for.
Think, Ewan, think.
The fellow was quite tall, and accompanied by five, maybe six people.
They had more or less the same pair of shoes, and their target had boots with metal pieces similar to claws on their toes.
This meant finding similar footprints partially covering slightly more faded, animal-like tracks.
"What are you doing? "Finn interrupted him, ready to continue moving forward.
The military man had in turn leaned over to look at the dusty ground, bringing his face close to the young man's.
"I'm looking for which track we should follow..." Ewan explained.
He carefully scanned the footprints from several different soles, looking for any clue that might tell them which gallery the suspect had fled to.
A few seconds passed, and already Finn was getting impatient and stood up.
He had already lifted his foot to take a step when Ewan barely caught him by the arm; getting a hostile look from the military man in the process.
"What do you want? Let go of me!" Finn growled.
"Look." Said Ewan pointing to a series of tracks on which Finn was about to put his foot.
A series of similar footprints in large numbers covered at times rare footprints with sharp and isolated shapes.
The young hunter had found the trail they were looking for, and immediately turned away from Finn and headed for one of the galleries to the left.
"They went that way!" He exclaimed, pointing to the dark corner in front of which he was standing.
However, he did not have time to say more, that Finn had rushed towards him to violently pull him back by the collar.
"Dumbass!" Howled he while dragging Ewan just in time to avoid a blade falling towards him.
Ewan found himself thrown to the ground but wasted no time and broke his fall by rolling backwards before straightening up in a crouch.
In that short time, Finn had punched their attacker into a wall, and was already facing a small armed group whose members were all dressed in similar ways.
The young man recognized them at once by their attire: the armed fighters escorting the man from the Circle had emerged all together from the darkened gallery.
However, Ewan could not see their leader behind them. And away from Finn, he could see less around him because of the lack of light.
Looking around, he had a bad feeling, and a shiver ran down his back.
Could it be that they were being set up?
Finn struck another blow to the stomach of one of his assailants, and not seeing the man he wanted to stop, he looked away momentarily and scanned the cave from left to right.
He froze.
Wide-eyed, he turned his head slightly to the left, and saw with horror what was silently taking place a few feet away.
Just behind the young hunter, an ominous and imposing legless figure had emerged from the darkness like a specter, a sword brandished high with its tip pointing down, ready to strike.
The young man had absolutely no idea what was going on behind him, surely due to the stealthy and slow approach of the individual who was about to strike a fatal blow.
"KID!" Finn exclaimed.
He could only watch in horror as the blade slashed violently at the young man, before a howl of pain echoed off the surrounding rock walls like a sinister knell.