"Squeak…"
'Oh shit!'
The door was halfway open when it made the noise.
Ky quickly realized that this noise could be the death of them if they did not react quickly.
It wasn't just a quiet squeak, it sounded more like the door was purposefully made that way so that the occupant would be alarmed in situations just like these.
"Run." Ky quickly whispered to Ariel.
Her eyes were wide as she nodded.
They didn't waste anymore time and bolted out of the room before the hobgoblin awoke, or at least that was the plan…
"Grahhhhhh!"
From behind them, Ky heard the loud roar of the hobgoblin that just a few seconds ago was asleep.
"Fuck!" Ariel screamed.
"Dammit." Ky shouted.
The roar was very loud. It would easily awaken most of the remaining goblin village, and the couple knew it.
'We really fucked up this time didn't we?' Ky asked himself.
He already knew the answer to that question.
Their constant success finally got to their heads.
They didn't pay enough attention to their mentalities and didn't take this new world seriously enough.
Their current predicament was a result of both their ignorance and their arrogance.
They could somewhat blame their ignorance in the situation because it's not like they have dealt with monsters invading the earth before.
They are largely ignorant of the inner workings of not only humans now, but the new species that are in their lands.
But, their ignorance is a product of their mentality and actions.
They should have observed these monsters much longer before making a move.
It might have even been smart to not make such a brash move in the first place. This was their arrogance kicking in.
Yes, they could take down hordes of goblins on Earth and even did well taking down the goblins in this labyrinth, but it is not a smart idea to storm an enemy base with two people when the enemy numbers are in the hundreds if not thousands.
It is very arrogant to do something as crazy as this when you barely know how to control your own powers.
Ky and Ariel believed their training made them able to handle something like this.
They were in over their own heads.
They haven't even purified any of their core. This is not something a rank 0 existence with none of their core purified could handle.
The only reason they were able to successfully kill the goblins so far was because they still had the element of surprise.
Now that element was gone with the wind.
"Boom! Grahhhh!"
The door and part of the wall behind them crashed down and the hobgoblin let out another loud roar.
"What do we do?" Ariel yelled as she and Ky reached the front door.
"I don't know!" He answered with an angry tone.
He wasn't mad at Ariel, but himself for getting them in this situation.
He knew that none of this was Ariel's idea. Even though she was a little bit at fault for not objecting and realizing how stupid it was just like Ky, it was largely his idea and planning that led them to this point.
Their lack of an escape plan was another product of their arrogance.
They didn't even think of what would happen if anything went wrong, simply because they didn't think anything would go wrong.
'Which way?' Ky asked himself.
They made it out of the house, so he looked in each direction trying to figure out which way to go.
Suddenly he saw a goblin coming from the left. It let out a low growl after seeing the couple, "Grrrr."
"Go right!" Ky yelled.
Ariel was way ahead of him, she had already started running.
Ky followed close behind her.
"Boom!"
They could hear the doorway behind them breaking once again from the original hobgoblin as they ran.
"Wrong way!" Ariel suddenly yelled before stopping.
The couple had run further down the street that led to more hobgoblin houses.
They should have tried to get past the second hobgoblin they saw, as the original hobgoblin's house was at the end of the row and the second hobgoblin came from the house behind his.
This way they would have been able to avoid more hobgoblins if they could get past the second one.
Alas, it was just another mistake made because there was no escape plan.
'Fuck!' Ky shouted inwardly.
Almost every single house down this row now had a hobgoblin coming out of it or at least currently opening the door.
The only ones that didn't were the houses at the end of the row who didn't hear the sounds just yet.
Even houses on other rows were starting to be awoken by the loud growling.
The hobgoblins may have been a less intelligent race, but they knew what loud growling in the middle of the night would mean.
"Go to the goblin houses!" Ky shouted.
Ky and Ariel turned to the left and started to run in the direction of the now slain goblins houses.
"Graahhhhh!" The original goblin caught up to them just as they made it to an alleyway in between two houses.
He swung his club towards the heads of the running couple just as they entered.
"Duck!" Ky yelled.
"Boom!"
The club connected with the sides of the houses.
Ky and Ariel had to roll on the ground to keep their momentum.
They quickly began running once they got to their feet.
But, just as they were about to make it to the end of the alley…
"Grahhhh!"
Another hobgoblin showed up, blocking their way.
"Get to the roof!" Ky yelled.
They started churning their mana towards their feet.
Ky planned on propelling himself by pushing mana out of his feet, and Ariel was sending hers into the ground to make the earth shootout and propel her up.
If they didn't have a five second casting time, this would have worked perfectly and been a bright idea.
Even with the long casting time, if the couple had been smart enough to start moving their mana before even entering the hobgoblin's house they would have been able to bypass the damning casting time.
The hobgoblins were having none of that.
The new hobgoblin quickly raised his club and hit the couple.
"Oof!"
Spittle flew out of their mouths as they were both hit in their stomachs.
'I can't breathe!'
Ky started to instantly freak out after the wind was knocked out of his lungs.
The irony of a wind elementalist with the divinity of the Father of the Sky getting the air knocked out of his chest was missed by Ky.
They tried to get back to their feet quickly, but the hobgoblin behind them caught up.
He swung his club at their heads.
Ky and Ariel still weren't in the habit of using their mana sense in situations like this, so they never saw him coming.
"Boom!"
A loud sound rang out as they were whacked in the back of their heads.
This would have easily killed an unevolved human instantly.
While the couple's current stats didn't give them too much of a tangible increase at the moment, the most prominent increase was their vitality. They could take hits that normal humans couldn't and still survive them.
However, that didn't mean the club didn't harm them.
"Shit." Ky mumbled.
He was lying face first on the cold dirt, slowly fading out of consciousness.
"Grahdddaaahdddd!"
The last thing he heard was another growl by a hobgoblin, but this one was different from the other growls or roars he heard before.
This growl sounded more like a way to communicate than just a feral roar from a beast that cornered its prey.
Ky only had a second to think this thought before he finally lost consciousness.
~
"Ughhhh." Ky's eyes started fluttering open.
The light in the room hurt a little because of the splitting headache he had right now, but it wasn't very bright so it didn't cause too much damage.
'Where am I?' He sluggishly thought.
It took a few seconds, but once the memories flooded back his eyes shot open.
'Shit!'
"Ariel!"
Ky frantically looked around.
"What is this place?" He mumbled.
Ky's hands were currently clamped above his head, but he hadn't even noticed that yet.
The ground was made of dirt, and so were the ceiling and walls.
The only type of things in the room were dirt, metal, and torches.
Ky was currently in a metal cell.
There were other cells beside and in front of him as well.
"Ariel." Ky mumbled.
He finally saw her. She was in another cell right in front of him.
Both of them were hanging by shackles that were nailed high up on the wall.
Looking down, he noticed his feet were shackled into the wall as well.
Ky tried struggling, but it did nothing to help.
'Mana!'
Ky realized his mana might help him get out of this situation.
Alas, a few seconds later, 'What is this?!'
Ky couldn't even feel his core.
He belatedly realized he couldn't sense any mana at all for that matter.