Gril was silent for a couple of seconds before his hands exploded into flames much stronger than before.
"Shut up!"
Without a second thought, Gril angrily ran back towards Nathan. Tana also had a somewhat grim expression on her face but clearly knew that they were in an advantageous position no matter how much Gril was somewhat injured.
Nathan clicked his tongue when he saw that Gril's attacks were now more powerful than before, but that also meant that his essence would run out faster. It wasn't as if Nathan had much left. Depending on how he used it, he would probably be completely drained within the next five minutes, then he would lose all his chances of surviving the fight.
With the next blows of Gril and Tana combined, Nathan was once again on the defensive. He could no longer use the same strategies as before, so he had no choice but to think of a plan while dodging their attacks.
Slowly several burns began to appear on his body and many other wounds in the form of cuts from Tana's dagger.
Nathan began to feel dizzy, then he saw Tana's dagger coming dangerously close to his neck. But instead of dodging, he let the dagger go through him.
In exchange for dying and feeling the pain of his throat being pierced, Nathan had a couple of extra seconds to think.
Then he correctly dodged Tana's dagger, but no idea had popped into his mind.
'Ah... shit'
Nathan was starting to reach his limit with his essence, but he knew very clearly that he couldn't stop now.
Gril struck him in the shoulder, almost tearing what was left of his shirt, then Tana's dagger came dangerously close to his neck again.
This time Nathan dodged Tana's attack and held the rope with one hand with the intention of pulling her closer, but when he grabbed the rope he felt as if he was squeezing the edge of a sword.
Nathan quickly let go of the rope and looked at his hand out of the corner of his eye as he dodged another of Gril's blows.
A line of blood had appeared on his hand, as if the rope of Tana's dagger was an edge in itself.
The young woman took advantage of Nathan's carelessness to make a couple more cuts on his arm.
A few more, a few less. Nathan had no idea how many wounds there were on his body at this moment.
His mind was beginning to wander and as he was about to deflect one of Gril's attacks, a deep sound made them stop.
Nathan frowned and covered his ears at the horrible sound. As he did, Gril stopped his attack and covered his ears as Tana did.
'What's wrong?' Nathan thought with a grimace of annoyance on his face.
Just then, the gravity began to change, but none of the three were bothered by it as they tried to endure the annoying sound.
At the same time as both of these things happened, suddenly the wall between them collapsed and something flew past and crashed into the other wall.
A cloud of dust rose up, obscuring the three of them, then Nathan saw a figure walk through the cloud of dust seconds later, coming out of the wall that had just been destroyed.
The mercenary king stepped out as if nothing had happened, dusted off his shoulders and stopped when he met Nathan head on.
"Oh? We meet again"
It hadn't really been more than half an hour since Nathan had escaped from the area where the mercenary king had confronted that calamity, but somehow the man was now facing him.
Nathan noticed something in the man's hand and opened his eyes slightly when he saw the head of the calamity from before. The calamity had a calm expression but the cut on the neck was simply too fine to be real.
Being a sword user, Nathan knew how difficult it was to perform a cut of that caliber, so giving the man a second glance, he reaffirmed his thought of trying not to antagonize him.
The mercenary king looked around at the state Nathan was in and then noticed Gril and Tana scowling at him.
"Hmmm, more puppies"
Gril frowned and pointed at the man.
"What are you doing here?"
The mercenary king simply looked at him for a few seconds before sighing.
"Nothing important"
The man stopped looking at them and looked at the gap he had just appeared through.
"So, you're not coming? Good decision"
Nathan didn't know who the man was talking to, but he definitely knew this was his only chance of survival, so without a second thought he turned and started running the other way.
Gril's eyes widened as he saw Nathan running and he shouted angrily.
"Hey! Where do you think you're going?!"
He too set out to chase him, but as he passed the mercenary king suddenly a hand grabbed his shirt and stopped him abruptly.
Gril turned and looked at the man who had stopped him.
"What are you doing?!"
The mercenary king glared at him with sharp eyes.
"Calm down"
Gril swallowed saliva and calmed slightly as he felt the man's gaze, but his fury did not abate.
"Why are you stopping me?"
The man released him and then looked at Tana who was looking at him with an indifferent expression.
"I have to take you to the princess, I accept no excuses"
They both frowned.
"To the captain?" asked Tana.
The mercenary king nodded and turned his head in the direction where Nathan had already disappeared.
"Well, I was paid to secure you both, work is work."
Gril bit his lips and looked helplessly in the direction Nathan had gone.
"...Just wait you bastard. I'll finish you"
Ignoring his words, the mercenary king fixed his hair and sighed, turning his attention away from the corridor from which Nathan had already disappeared.
"Well, start walking"