Right then, the final wisps of mana from the prukade vanished and Beatrice stood up. Time was up and they had to move.
She interrupted Marcus from his thoughts and urged him to get up and move.
As the two exited the shop, they looked left and right to make sure nothing would sneak up on them. When they realized nothing was there, they started to head east in the direction of the closest gate.
Marcus followed behind Beatrice and while doing so he spotted a familiar rock that might help him later on, so he picked it up and stuffed it in his pocket.
At some point, Beatrice couldn't hear the sounds of the creeper's footsteps anymore. Usually, this would have made the duo ecstatic because it meant that the creature was further out and wouldn't catch up to them anytime soon. However, they knew better than to let their guard down against such a beast. The sound of its footsteps growing lower may have meant it was further away, but it also meant that it was only a matter of time before it looked over in their direction and spotted them. Hopefully by then, they'd be long gone.
The night sky still hung over their head as a backdrop to the duo's daring escape as they continued down the long-winding dirt path in a jog. Beatrice could have run faster but was trying not to leave Marcus too far behind. So, she adjusted her pace to allow him to keep up.
They had to throw caution to the wind due to the pace they were jogging at. It wasn't like they could hope to hide from the creeper's eyesight since it could spot them almost anywhere in the town.
Eventually, they caught a glimpse of a gate with a sign that read 'Ebonscale'.
They had finally made it to the east gate.
The picked up the pace as they approached. Marcus only lagged a few feet behind Beatrice when he started to feel a since of déjà vu.
He remembered that he'd been in a similar situation when he'd tried to escape from the slavers. That time, he and Gavin had nearly made it and gotten away, but due to Geralt's stonewall effectively separating the two, Gavin had left Marcus behind.
Marcus didn't want to think Beatrice would do the same thing to him, but he chose not to leave it up to chance as he picked up the pace and sped past her.
Beatrice didn't react much to this though and only continued in her dash to the gate.
Suddenly though, as if to spite Marcus's attempts at salvation once again, a lone and towering figure appeared from behind the side of the gate.
It was of course the swamp creeper.
The two immediately came to a stop and both of their expressions paled.
'How did it get ahead of us? It should have been too slow to catch up with it being on the western side of the town. No, this has to be one of the one's from the swamp. Shit!'
When Beatrice and Marcus had left the shop, the footsteps they heard had been on the opposite side of the town, so they'd hoped the creature would be behind them. The duo figured they could just slip past and outrun it since it was so far away. However, the creeper before them extinguished any hope of that plan and getting past the gate.
Just when they thought about turning around to flee though, footsteps were heard from behind and another stepped out from the side street they had just came from.
Marcus and Beatrice were effectively trapped between two of the swamp creepers. One to the there front that blocked the gate, and the original creeper from the flower shop stood to their back. They could try exiting down a backstreet but there was no guarantee that they wouldn't end up cornering themselves again, and Marcus was sure he'd end up getting left behind and caught if it came to a chase.
'Damn it, what now? I can't take advantage of their possible-weakness in this situation,' Marcus thought as he reached for the rock from earlier that was now in his pocket.
He decided to take a glance at Beatrice to see what she planned to do.
She also was desperately trying to figure a way out of this mess, but it seemed she didn't have a plan to fall back on either.
As he stared at Beatrice, time seemed to slow a bit for Marcus. He started to wonder if he could really trust her. Should he even trust her? He thought they'd grown somewhat close and gotten a mutual understanding of each other but that was it. If push came to shove, he wasn't sure if she'd throw him to the wolves like his past 'friend' had done. Marcus was unsure of whether or not he had two enemies to face or three.
The two's eyes suddenly met and Marcus started to grow anxious because Beatrice looked at him the same way Gavin had, just before he'd left him behind. She looked like someone who desperately wanted to live and would do just about anything to do so.
He took a step back when he saw this. He didn't know what all Beatrice would or could do. Ultimately, she was an advanced rank mage and Marcus didn't know much about the difference between her and himself, but he was sure someone with mage arts could easily overpower someone without them, regardless of the rank difference.
Beatrice took a step toward Marcus and he took two steps back. While this was happening, the two creepers also started to steadily move in closer to their now helpless prey. She kept taking glances between the two creepers at her front and back, as well as keeping a close eye on Marcus as well.
Just when Marcus was about to take his chances and make a run for it, Beatrice grabbed his arm and ran towards one of the backstreets. Marcus was surprised for a moment, but his thoughts were interrupted by Beatrice's next words.
"Tentacle Swarm!"