Nathan did not know what to say, nor did Lynn. They both fell silent, rather puzzled, as Lynn looked at Nathan with a rather accusing look, he himself was quite confused.
'Huh?'
"Did you do something illegal...?" asked Amelia with some hesitation in her voice.
'Not that I know of' Nathan replied not really knowing why there was a price on his head.
The mercenary king simply began to chuckle and then scratched his eyebrow before sighing.
"Ahh... well, it's not like I care anyway. I'm more of the thought that we need to let the young grow up"
Without warning, the man unsheathed the longsword he carried on his back and turned to face the hallway from whence he had come.
"It would be nice to have a nice chat, but I advise you to stay away if you don't want to die"
Nathan frowned and a moment later he heard a metallic sound echo throughout the place. He turned his attention back to the king of the mercenaries, but he had disappeared... No, he was simply moving so fast that it was difficult for Nathan to keep track of him.
It was similar to the fight between the old man and Faye outside the rift, only he sensed that somehow the man was moving much faster than his sister was then.
"Shit..."
Realizing that his life was in danger if he stayed in that place, Nathan decided to leave quickly. He looked at Lynn and motioned for her to follow him, she gave him a strange look but nodded and they started to walk away.
Nathan was about to enter one of the corridors that were still intact when suddenly something appeared in front of him out of nowhere.
His body stiffened and without knowing how and why his hands began to tremble slightly.
In front of him, a calamity of almost his own height, grey skin and with sharp blades attached to his forearms stared at him.
The calamity's pupils were slits so thin that they could barely be seen, Nathan felt that his soul was being cut out just by being in front of this calamity. It was then that the calamity raised its arm and received a blow that knocked it back a couple of meters.
"Find an opponent on your level, you bastard"
The king of the mercenaries stood in front of Nathan holding his longsword in one hand while with the other he pulled his hair back.
A moment later they both disappeared, and Nathan heard metallic sounds all around him again. He quickly left the place and ran down the corridor, leaving the calamity and the king of the mercenaries behind him.
Behind him, Lynn was also a little pale because of the calamity's presence, but she said nothing.
Almost ten minutes later, when they were far enough away, Nathan stopped and looked around.
"Here again..."
Because of the collapse, he was now back on the top floor full of endless corridors. He could go down back where the fight was taking place, but to approach again would be suicide.
He turned to look at Lynn who seemed to be too quiet and noticed that she was looking at him accusingly.
"Who are you?"
Nathan was surprised by Lynn's sudden question, but simply shook his head before answering.
"Look, I don't know why I'm on the wanted list either. I haven't really done anything illegal"
'I think...' he thought without saying it out loud.
Lynn didn't know what to say, usually those on wanted lists were major criminals, serial killers, or terrorists.
Technically, Nathan belonged to Khan, an illegal organization. But he didn't share their ideologies, he was only there because Boreas had told him to go, and he really had nowhere else to stay.
But otherwise, Nathan could say that he hadn't done anything that would be considered illegal... at least not so serious as to appear on the wanted list.
"It doesn't matter if you don't believe me, either way it doesn't change what we have to do-"
Again, Nathan's words were interrupted, this time by Nathan himself as he felt a presence several meters to his side, then by reflex he stepped back quickly and felt something pass over his torso.
A horizontal line appeared on his chest, tearing his clothes, and making a slight superficial wound on his skin.
Nathan looked ahead of him as he made essence flow through his entire body in preparation for the fight.
Several meters down another corridor, Lynn's young white-haired companion was holding a dagger attached to a rope.
Behind her, the orange-haired young man was looking at him with a mischievous grin, a grin that really annoyed Nathan.
"Huh? Grill, Tana? What are you doing here?"
Lynn rushed over to her teammates, not caring that they had just finished attacking Nathan.
Tana looked at Lynn and sighed.
"We really thought you were dead...apparently we were wrong"
Lynn puffed out her cheeks in annoyance.
"Don't take me for dead!"
Tana simply shrugged, next to her, Gril gave Lynn a slight glance and then looked at Nathan.
"We really have good luck, we found you next to him"
Lynn frowned not understanding what her partner was referring to, then looked at Nathan who was holding the knife and was clearly ready to face them judging by the essence running through his body.
"Huh? No, no! Wait!"
Lynn stepped in front of Gril and stopped him.
"He's been helping me for the past few days, he's not an enemy"
Gril looked at Lynn and smiled warmly before roughly pushing her away.
"Lynn, remember who we are and who we are fighting"
Gril pointed at Nathan mischievously and with some greed in his eyes.
"The person who helped you so much belongs to Khan, plus he's wanted"
This time Lynn's eyes widened as she listened to Gril's words. Only a few minutes ago she had heard that Nathan was wanted, but she had no idea that he belonged to Khan. Lynn looked at Nathan and frowned.
"Is it true?"
Nathan didn't have time to respond, however, when Gril rushed up to him quickly throwing a fist at him.
Nathan stepped back dodging the first then tried to stab him without much success when Gril turned his body and threw a kick at him.
Nathan blocked the kick by raising his forearm and then stepped back.
Gril stood back up on his two legs and looked at Nathan with the same smile as before.
"Don't resist and let yourself be killed"
Nathan simply remained silent.
'Let yourself be killed... not trapped'
Nathan took a deep breath and changed his attitude in an instant.
The young man and the young woman in front of him were coming to kill him, not capture him. Then Nathan also prepared to kill them.
Lynn, who was watching from behind, looked on in shock as Gril attacked Nathan. From her point of view, it made no sense what was happening. But then Tana put her hand on her shoulder and spoke softly.
"Back off, leave this to us"
Lynn didn't know what to say, she could only stammer.
"N-no... I..."
Tana ignored her last words and approached the two as she began to twirl her knife spinning the rope rapidly in the air.
Nathan smacked his lips as he now had to face the two of them as one. Not only that, he had only recently fought the spiritual knight and had used up almost half of his essence.
Everything looked bad for Nathan, but it was not the first time he had faced unfavorable and senseless situations.
"Don't take it personally" Gril said as he crack his knuckles.
Nathan simply relaxed his stance a bit.
"Don't worry, I just hope you don't take it the wrong way when I cut your throat"
Gril smirked and prepared to run at him.
"Try if you can"