Neumann opened his eyes and saw the white brick walls beside him. He looked to the side and saw water-like fibers flowing on the channel below.
The sewers? But that's impossible…
He looked around and knew that he was still in the Remedium, yet the location completely changed. They were supposed to only be in the 2nd Street of the SpringField district. Yet, now he found himself at the bottom of the very city itself.
This was unheard of. In all the years of experience he had with being a Savior, he never had an anomaly like this.
The worst part about this was that he knew that he wasn't the only one trapped in this place. Those newbies weren't equipped to handle this kind of trouble.
And he was especially worried for their porter.
Atlan was the only one in the group that wasn't trained in any kind of self-defense. The others trained for years and years to have a basic capacity to keep themselves safe from the dangers of the Remedium, but not Atlan.
I blame myself. Neumann knew that he should have hurried the group out of the Remedium as soon as the rewards from the mission got delayed.
But things escalated far too quickly. He didn't expect the floor to suddenly collapse like that.
I need to find them.
It was his responsibility as the veteran of the group to make sure that all of them came back safely to the real world.
During times like these, Neumann was trained to keep his head cool at all times. He was supposed to remind himself that Angels were there to save anyone from death. Yet why do I feel uneasy?
Neumann walked the winding tunnels of the sewers, following the flow of the water.
It took him a few minutes till he suddenly heard the sounds of water splashing and echoing in the distance.
"Kyaaa!"
He heard a girl scream and Neumann immediately sprinted towards the sound. That sounded like their Stun Wizard.
He didn't care if his footsteps echoed through the tunnels as he quickly turned the corner.
Shock crossed his face as he saw two of the youths slowly crawling away from a Deiztruphia Canzer with its tongue dripping green goo on the ground.
Another one? That's impossible! The Canzer Report indicated only one!
Those reports were supposed to be completely accurate, yet Neumann was looking at another monstrous Canzer right in front of him.
The Stun Wizard and the Scout both had horrified faces as they saw the Canzer slowly walking towards them.
The scout held his injured chest tightly. When he tried to run away from this new Canzer, his wound reopened and blood seeped out of the bandage.
The stun wizard was fairly better off, but her whole body was frozen in fear. Terror took hold of her thoughts of running away.
GYYAOOOOO
The Canzer screamed and raised its claws to finally kill those two humans.
But just as it was about to hit them, a bubble of safety suddenly appeared and protected them at the last second. The Canzer's claws bounced off and it was thrown back from the repulsive force.
"Are you guys okay?"
Neumann put his hands on both of their shoulders and felt their cold shaking bodies. They were scared witless.
"Help us!" screamed the stun wizard with dried tears on her cheeks.
Neumann nodded. "Let's go! It won't be long until the Canzer catches up."
He took the scout's arms and put it over his shoulder as he helped the guy up. Then, without looking back, they quickly ran away from the Canzer.
The two youths felt a little safer when Neumann found them. They thought they were saved.
But they didn't know that Neumann himself was panicking. This group of novices was only capable of defeating one Canzer. They were far too exhausted and injured to fight another one, especially since fear took hold of their hearts.
Not to mention the fact that the team was separated from each other with no certainty of finding each other.
In the worst-case scenario, Neumann and these two youths would have to fight the Canzer by themselves. This was bad because they didn't have any damage dealers.
With the Canzer hot on their tails, the three of them ran as fast as they could through the tunnels.
They ran and ran until they saw something in the distance.
The stun wizard was overjoyed when she saw the other three people in their group! It was the tank, the archer, and the pugilist.
"Hey! We're over here–"
It was then that Neumann saw the terrified look on their faces. He saw bloody cuts around their battle suits, he saw arrows lodged around the walls, and he saw violet blood on the floor. This was a sign that a battle took place.
No way…another Canzer?!
And just as Neumann feared, on the other side of the three youths was another Deiztruphia Canzer. It had cuts and bruises along its body, but it was still as vigorous as it was before.
It looked even more aggressive now.
The Canzer was about to attack again, targeting the archer. However, Neumann noticed that the tank was heavily panting and could barely keep himself standing.
The tank was too exhausted to use his LifeSkill! He couldn't protect the archer anymore.
Neumann knew that this was a critical situation, so he ran ahead. A bubble appeared on his feet as he used it as a launching pad to save the archer.
Just as the Canzer lunged its arms towards the archer, Neumann arrived just in time as he put himself between the two.
With swift and technical movement, he grabbed the Canzer's arms and used them to put the Canzer on his back. Using its weight, Neumann threw the Canzer backward.
It flew through the air, with its shell scraping the curved ceiling of the sewers.
It landed a long way back and hit the other original Canzer running towards them. It gave them enough time to help the injured and run away together.
"Run!" he shouted at them.
####
Meanwhile, a large figure was looking down and watching the puny humans run away from the two Canzers.
It had a sinister smile on its face.
DUM…DUM DUM…DUM