Izik found himself running as if his life depended on it. There was some truth in it, only it was not really his life but the lives of five innocent children. It was quite unfair that they were only playing and suddenly they had to run for their lives after being thrown inside a stupid dungeon.
Did he make the right decision?
"James! Inna! Inigo!" Izik screamed as loud as he could.
Should he have gone straight to the exit and called for Hunters?
Shaking those thoughts away, the last thing he needed right now was to drown in self-doubt. What he needed the most was to get to the kids as fast as he could. The dungeon floor trembled. Loud roars filled the place.
"James!!" Izik desperately called when he was answered by another deafening roar. Teeth gritting, Izik clenched his fists tight, grounding himself by gripping his daggers tightly. He would have to use Teleport. Using it would come with certain risks considering the skill was currently level 1. But it felt like no matter how fast he was running he wasn't getting anywhere closer to the children. He heard another scream, this time he knew it was from Inna.
"Fuck it!" the frustration was unbearable. Taking a deep breath, he tried to concentrate on the skill. Will it even work? The thing about just knowing that you have a mana path was that you were also ignorant of how to use it. Aside from the glaring fact that he was supposed to be a Guide. He had never heard of a Guide using their mana for other things than guiding.
Guides were vulnerable like that. This was one of the reasons why they were either used to threaten Hunters or Hunters have no qualms about pushing them around and ordering them.
"It should work," it sounded like he couldn't even convince himself. With his jaw tightly clenched, he concentrated on the skill, and just like that he found himself in the middle of the circular plaza surrounded by empty podiums. Izik almost fell to the ground. The whiplash from suddenly teleporting hit him hard. Swallowing nausea down, he watched the empty podium in horror before breaking into another run.
[ ⏱️ Teleport Cool Down 10s ]
"James!! Inigo!!" He shouted, pushing his already tired body to run as fast as he could. The whole place shook again. He could only imagine how it will get more difficult with twelve marble lions on the run. If his calculations were right, only the fourth or maybe also the fifth lion should be moving. The only plausible theory he has was that they all came to life after the angel wept.
Her anguished cries were a call for help. She wanted them to protect the artifact and the dungeon. And like a cruel joke, his theory was proven by a window popping up before him.
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[ 📣 EVENT ]
[ DUNGEON ESCAPE
→ Escape the Dungeon and protect the System.
Event Duration: 1h 30m
Rewards:
— One (1) PASSIVE SKILL
— One (1) ACTIVE SKILL
Good luck! ]
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"Rina! Inna!!" The system doesn't need to tell him anything he was really planning on leaving that dangerous place. He heard a loud thud behind him followed by the vibration of the ground. Whipping his head behind, he saw lions eyeing him. Only this time instead of the flawless white marble, they hosted glowing red cracks all over their bodies.
"Shit," Izik quickly ran only to be met by another huge lion towering before him. Activating teleport, Izik found himself not much farther from where he initially stood. He bitterly cursed the system.
Level 1 Teleport doesn't really give him the chance to choose where he can be teleported. All it said was it will teleport him within half the mile radius of where he was initially. That's why it was a risk to use it. He doesn't even know if it will teleport him in front of the lions like a damn offering.
God, his lungs hurt from all this running. He knew he has decent stamina but right now the stamina he was kind of proud of felt nothing but crap. When they miraculously survive this dungeon, he'd have to work on that stamina.
"James!" Izik increased his speed when he saw the kids huddled together. James stood before them, trembling but his eyes were fixed in front of them. Izik almost tumbled when he made it to the children. He immediately pushed James behind him, staring at the lion growling in front of them. The creature tilted its head, roaring to the sky.
Izik's jaw clenched. The damn thing called for the other lions.
Another window popped up before him. This must have been his active skill Perspective working.
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[ 🔎 PRIDE VI ]
[ → The sixth gigantic lion statue created as a guardian of the Nephilis Forest. Known for its size and enormous strength ]
[ Class: Mythical Creature
Level: 70
Size: Giant
Element: Light
Special Ability: Reformation ]
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'Reformation?' He doesn't even want to know what that even meant. He could only imagine how troublesome that word meant.
"Izik!" Inna cried as they quickly latched on to his clothes. The Guide turned to James, patting his head and praising him for protecting the others.
"What are we going to do?" Rina sobbed as they watched the other lions gather.
If Izik was being honest, he was unsure himself. What can he even do against 12 towering angry lions? He may have the System and some dagger that he hadn't used but the odds were still against them.
'You can just leave them, you don't need to put your life on the line for some strangers' kids,' a voice at the back of his mind whispered. Izik frowned, completely ignoring it.
"I found the exit," he told the kids.
"Really, Izik!"
"Are the Hunters coming too?"
"How are we going to go there?"
"If we manage to get out of this situation, we can finally leave this dungeon." He then told them to hand over Sara which he quickly placed on his back. He was tempted to teleport with the kids however he was unsure if he will be able to do that.
"I need you all to take a deep breath and run as fast as you can when I do." Izik calmly said, eyes still on the pride before him. Counting there are already four ridiculously huge lions before them. "All you need to do is follow me, okay?"
"Okay!" James replied with determination in such a small trembling body. The girls were sobbing but Inigo told them to stop and dry their tears if they wanted to get out of there.
The lion in front of them slowly approached while the others spread out. Izik hated how they were being pushed back against the wall like helpless prey before a powerful predator. But that's exactly what they were—prey and predator.
"On my signal, okay?" Izik tried to sound composed but he could taste the anxiety coating his tongue heavily. Anything and everything can go wrong.
This was a risk. A huge one.
Will he be ready if he doesn't make it? Or if he had to continue running even when one of the kids finally face their doom?
No, he doesn't want to think. He doesn't want to entertain those kinds of thoughts because if he does, he won't be able to get anywhere.
Izik swallowed down and was about to yell the signal when a pillar of light appeared from the sky, slicing through the light in front of them. Blinding lights burst as the lion shattered into huge chunks, flying everywhere.
"Get down!" Izik yelled at the kids, covering them with his body. His eyes watched as he saw huge marble pieces sliding on the ground, creating craters on their way. Izik kept his eyes in front of him, squinting at the lights. The other lions roared, jumping towards the light, fangs out and ready to rip whoever killed their comrade. But just like the first lion, they quickly met their end. They burst in a single force.
This wasn't the time to get dazed. "We have to go!" Izik yelled at the kids as they began running aiming for the exit. They were quite far from it but if they kept going they should be able to reach it while the lions were distracted.
Inna let out a yelp as she fell, face-planting on the ground. Izik was quick to help while telling the others to keep running. She let out a painful cry at her ankle twisting. Taking a deep breath, Izik grabbed her in his arms as he continued to run. His eyes widened as he watched the huge chunks of marble float in the air, merging and forming into a lion. They all stopped in their tracks as the newly reformed lion roared angrily before them.
It happened so fast that the only thing Izik was able to do was yell before he was taken away and he had to watch before his eyes as the lion claw swiped throwing the other children mercilessly flying in the air a few feet away.
They landed at a safe distance as Izik slumped weakly on the floor with Inna crying, hugging him tightly. His eyes darted to the figure towering over him, wrapped in his gold and red armor. His blond hair danced against the wind, and his red eyes locked against Izik's glass-green eyes.
"Xanthe..."