The red mist still covered the ground, thick enough that none of them could see their own feet.
Since the hallucinations had ended, they had been walking for about half an hour. Fortunately, no calamity had appeared in their path, but that only served to make them more tense.
According to Mary, if they could get through the hallucinations then they could get to the main body of the third rank calamity, but no matter how hard Roderick searched with his technique, he found nothing.
The attic seemed to be infinite as well as the rooms area, there was no point in searching for the sake of searching. Finding the body of the calamity was like finding a needle in a haystack.
Besides, Nathan still didn't know what was to be gained by killing the calamity. He knew that leaving the realm was only an illusion, that no matter how many third rank calamities they killed, they would not be able to escape.
Sighing deeply, Nathan continued walking and looking around.
The last battle had not consumed much of his essence, maybe 20%. Besides, what consumed him the most was Amelia, who really was a glutton as far as his essence was concerned.
Nathan yawned, trying to ignore the urge to sleep that he felt in his body, and tried to move his arms to warm them up and prevent them from going numb.
Fighting against a drowsy effect was really annoying, and if it wasn't for Mary and her strange technique that had created the masks, it would be impossible for them to enter this place.
While Nathan was still stretching, Roderick suddenly stopped, and with him the whole group. Mary approached him and asked him what had happened.
Nathan stood behind them waiting for them to continue, then suddenly he felt something touch his foot. He quickly looked at the ground, but the mist was much thicker than it had been a few minutes ago.
Without thinking twice, Nathan used essence to enhance his senses, trying to see through the fog or hear something.
But it was no use, no matter how hard he tried to feel something through the fog he could not. It was then that he felt something brush against his foot again.
Nathan moved slightly with a little disgust. Then, he noticed that the others were also looking at the ground.
Herfir backed up a couple of steps and turned to Nathan.
"Did you feel it?"
Nathan nodded slightly.
"Yes, something is under the missssst!" Suddenly something grabbed his ankle and yanked him, making him fall to the ground.
"Nathan!" Herfir shouted as he saw something pull Nathan to the ground, drawing the attention of the others.
Nathan began to be quickly dragged along the ground and it wasn't a second before he was reinforcing his leg with essence trying to free himself.
Seeing that it was useless and that the thing that was holding his ankle was quite strong, Nathan raised his torso strongly and caught the thing that was holding his foot with his hands.
He used all his strength to free himself from the strange thing's grip, then finally managed to pull his foot free and stood up quickly before pulling back as he drew his sword.
"What was that?!"
Nathan looked carefully at the ground, but it was still impossible to see anything. Then he heard shouting behind him and realized that half the group was on the ground being dragged in different directions.
The seven who had come with them were all trying to free themselves, while the others were randomly attacking the ground trying to damage whatever was under the mist.
It was then that Nathan felt something touch his foot again, so without hesitation he thrust his sword into the ground, stirring up the mist and clearing it slightly. Then he saw something black move slightly before it was covered by the mist again.
'What is that thing?'
Without a second thought, Nathan ran to one of the pieces of furniture that was covered by a cloth and climbed up, leaving the mist.
Being safe, he looked at the others and noticed that Mary, Seinor and the woman were helping the others. In the meantime, Roderick was looking around intensely, probably sensing something, and Herfir, who had climbed up onto a piece of furniture like him.
Unfortunately, being only three people, Mary and the others were only able to free three, while one freed himself and three others disappeared in the mist that had become much thicker in less than a minute.
It was then that Roderick shouted alerting everyone.
"He's here!"
It was the first time Nathan had heard him speak in such a manner, usually the bartender was always quieter and more reserved, but right now he was so anxious that he didn't care about the etiquette he usually maintained.
Nathan looked around trying to get a glimpse of the calamity, but no matter how hard he looked, he couldn't see anything.
The others had also climbed onto different pieces of furniture and were now all trying to avoid the mist.
'Why did I have to agree to come?!'
Regretting that he hadn't stayed behind, Nathan continued to study his surroundings. According to Roderick, the calamity was already with them... but he couldn't see anything, and rightly so, as it was hidden beneath the red mist.
The black thing he had momentarily seen was probably part of the calamity's body.
None of them, including Mary, had mentioned any of this, mainly because it was the first time they had come this far.
Nathan was especially attentive to the bartender's indications, but if Roderick was unable to sense the calamity, how could Nathan.
But while he was waiting, Nathan encountered another problem. He thought that by getting on some furniture he was safe, but the moment he saw a strange black tentacle emerge from the mist he cursed inwardly.
'Fuck!'
Nathan had no room to dodge, so he couldn't stop the tentacle from clinging to his right arm tightly.
He quickly tried to free himself from the tentacle's grip with his other arm, but then two more tentacles came out of the mist without giving him time to react.
'Ugh!'
One of the tentacles latched onto his other arm while the second latched onto his neck. Nathan felt the tentacle begin to choke him, and the air was not getting into his lungs.
With every second that passed Nathan slowly began to lose consciousness, but he knew that he had already spent too many seconds for his premonition of death to work, so if he died now, he would die forever.
All that was left for him to do was to use all the essence he had left to empower his arms to the maximum.
The essence flowed quickly into his muscles and Nathan began to strain his tentacles. According to what he had been told, the calamity did not specialize in physical strength, so Nathan hoped that he was stronger than the calamity.
Still, as weak as the calamity was, it was still a third rank calamity.
His essence reserves began to dwindle dangerously to the point where his arms were about to collapse from exceeding the amount of essence they could hold.
There was a limit to which he could use his essence on a certain part of his body without suffering the consequences, but right now Nathan couldn't be bothered to think about the consequences when he knew that if he did nothing, he would die.
"Ughh!"
His vision was getting blurry, and his lungs were burning, plus the muscles in his arms were about to collapse. Still, Nathan didn't stop.
Almost at the point of collapse, Nathan finally felt a little freedom in his arms and in a final push of strength he freed himself from the grip of the tentacles on both arms. He quickly tightened his grip on the tentacle around his neck and with the remaining essence in his arms began to pull the tentacle away from his neck.
"Let me go, damn thing!"
Nathan finally managed to break free of the tentacle's grip and without a second thought he grabbed his sword and slashed at the tentacles that were once again trying to grab him.
Having used up most of his essence, Nathan could only allow himself to lift the sword for a couple of minutes before it became too heavy for him.
He waited for a few seconds in silence, waiting for more tentacles, then they never came, giving him the opportunity to look around.
Mary, Roderick and Seinor had disappeared and were nowhere to be found.
Among the others, the brown-haired woman was holding her neck in pain while looking hatefully at the mist, just like Nathan, she seemed to have freed herself. Then he finally looked at Herfir, who was hanging from the ceiling by one of the tentacles.
'Damn it, Herfir!'
Nathan's eyes opened wide and without thinking he propelled himself onto the piece of furniture where he was standing jumping into the mist and then taking a second leap to where Herfir was hanging.
Nathan cut the tentacles holding Herfir's neck, who fell to the floor and began to cough painfully while holding his neck.
Nathan had no time to focus on Herfir and looked around.
The four others who were left apart from them were in different conditions. Two were hanging like Herfir, while the other two... had their heads separated from their bodies.
Nathan frowned and looked at the hanging ones again.
'Tch, they're already dead'
Without a second thought, Nathan lifted Herfir by the arm trying to pull him to his feet.
"Get the hell up, we need to get out of here!"
Suddenly Nathan saw a shadow walk past him, then watched as the brown-haired woman passed him before looking up at him.
"What are you waiting for?! Follow me!"
Nathan looked at Herfir who barely stopped coughing and clicked his tongue.
'Ah, fuck!'
Supporting Herfir with his arm, he helped him down from the piece of furniture where they were standing, and they began to run after the woman who was a few meters ahead of them.