The light at the end of the tunnel was about two hundred feet ahead. Raiya weighed heavily on my shoulder. She had grown paler than ever. Her heartbeat was so faint I could barely feel it even when I pressed my ear against her chest. I was sweating all over. My sword started feeling heavy on my right arm, while Raiya's weight almost crushed my left shoulder.

All of this would have been fine and dandy if it weren't for the freaking bats chasing me. They had small leathery wings that couldn't transport them in the air for long. At least that was a point I could take advantage of. The downside was that they were fast, too fast for normal eyes to follow.

I had to keep my senses activated at all times. I had to track their movements and counter every time they made an eager, open attack. Other than that, I couldn't touch the little f.u.c.kers. They knew I had a time s.h.i.+eld activated around me at all times. They knew that because I had finished at least two dozen in a matter of seconds.

So they resorted to a different method. They'd swarm me and wait for my counter attack. They knew I had to lay Raiya down in order to take them down effectively. So they waited for me to counter attack, and they swarmed me in greater numbers. I couldn't see as well as they could in the dark. So I relied on my senses and time s.h.i.+eld too much.

The downside was, my essence was disappearing at an alarming rate. I could barely hold the time s.h.i.+eld now. Their numbers didn't seem to deplete either. No matter how many I piled on the floor behind me. No matter how many attempts I thwarted. They kept coming. They were relentless, dangerously stupid.

I was near the exit when I saw their endgame. There were three tunnels leading to the exit. I was standing in one of them. I could sense at least a hundred of those small, annoyingly fast creatures in the other two. Behind me lay about a hundred corpses, maybe more, I lost count after fifty.

I hoped against hope that they wouldn't follow me outside. The sun had already risen over the horizon. What little suns.h.i.+ne had wormed its way toward the exit offered me a ray of hope. The bats avoided the sun like the plague. I hoped they were as stupid as they acted, that they weren't faking their fear of sunlight to drag me into a trap.

When you've been falling for traps all your life, you develop an acute sense of paranoia. The bats were eyeing me with fury. Some of them opened their maws, revealing sharp, thin incisors that could cut through stone. I saw one of them crush a stalact.i.te under its jaw after I sent it hurling in the air.

Others cried out, a silent scream that sent cold s.h.i.+vers down my spine. I put Raiya beside my feet, and got ready for the final showdown. I couldn't outrun them to the exit, not even close enough for the sun rays to chase them away. I had, however, a slight chance of getting out of this alive.

If I managed to get close to my objective by the time the sun aligned itself with the exit, I had a chance of chasing them away from me. I had to survive that long though. I had but one option, stay my ground until the sun got close enough to offer me salvation. I couldn't risk moving with Raiya on my shoulder. Her dead weight slowed me down and had me consuming more energy than I wished to.

I looked at the beasts ahead of me. I could sense more of them coming from behind. They'd reach me in a matter of minutes. After that, I'd be completely surrounded, with no hope of reaching sunlight. It was a race against time. No one was better qualified for it than me.

"Bring it on, pipsqueaks!" I screamed at them.

They answered with a silent scream of their own, and all at once, they attacked. I couldn't see the exit anymore. Instead, I saw a swarm of bats with small leathery wings running my way. The tallest reached my waist, while the smallest could barely reach my knees. They were fast though, and angry.

I held my sword in both hands and waited for the first swarm to reach me. I had a surprise waiting for them all as they relentlessly crashed against my time s.h.i.+eld. Each creature had its own time energy that I could consume if I managed to steal it before all signs of life left them. Since I had to fight many of them at once, I couldn't be bothered by focusing on absorbing from only one.

So I had to come up with a new strategy. As soon as the first wave hit my time s.h.i.+eld, I willed it to expand even further, slowing the ones behind them even more. I took two swings at the first three before my eye, cutting their skinny torsos in half. I immediately activated my third eye and looked for their time energy.

It was dissipating, faster than that of a human. I grasped them all at once and redirected them to my Fragment. Then I cut three more and redirected their time energy toward the third wave that hid behind the already trapped bats. The spell worked like a charm, thank you time witch!

In no time at all, my fragment was filled with time energy. I hadn't recovered my own essence, since I still needed to convert the Fragment's energy into mine – in other words, I had to a.s.similate it. I could still use it for spell, directly drawn from the Fragment though.

Even though I was in a terrible situation, I found that I had learned more about my powers than the time I spent training with Raiya. I had trapped most of the creatures that tried to block my way to the exit. If I kept going like this, I would eventually manage to emerge from the caves and into the sunlight.

So I pressed on. I picked Raiya up and walked through the swarm. I'd kill any creature that was on my way, but I'd leave the others to the time s.h.i.+eld's mercy. Every time I killed one of them, I'd redirect their energy into the time s.h.i.+eld and expand it. By the time I got closer to the exit, I had expanded my s.h.i.+eld to about a hundred feet radius.

Any creature that dared trespa.s.s upon my time threshold would slow down, almost completely stop. Their mouths would remain open. Their small, glowing irises would follow me with seething anger. They had long sharp talons that could have cleaved me in half if I'd given them the chance, but I had time on my side.

There was no way in h.e.l.l I'd lose to the likes of them while time was on my side.

After an exhausting quarter of an hour, I finally reached the exit. Hundreds of bats lay on the ground, lifeless, while more than double that about floated in the air, immobile. I cast one last glance their way before I left the cave, and into fresh air.

A green forest welcomed me then. Tall trees with orange, brown and golden leaves swayed back and forth with the early morning wind. I heard the distant cries of birds a.s.sembling for their voyage across the oceans, in search for warmer lands. I welcomed sunlight on my face as though I welcomed a fair maiden's kiss.

I was finally out of danger, and Raiya had survived the ordeal with me.

I released the time s.h.i.+eld then, and heard the bats cry in frustration. Some of them ran after me, but couldn't leave the cave. I saw them scream, bare their fangs and even attempt to run after me. I had killed many of their brothers and sisters in those caves. They wanted revenge, but the sun had stopped them from doing so.

Raiya moaned beside me. I helped her to her feet then led her toward a tree, where she sat down. She was pale, almost devoid of all blood.

"What happened?" she asked. Her voice was cracked.

"Nothing you should worry about," I said. I forced a smile and patter her on her left, uninjured shoulder. "We're outside. We can get back to our base."

"What about Abrath?" she asked.

"He left us alone," I answered. "Can you move? We still have a long way to go."

"How did that beast let me live?" she asked.

"I gave it something it really wanted," I answered.

Raiya's eyes widened. She grabbed me by the collar, although her grip was too weak to have any effect on me. "What did you give him?" she hissed then moaned in pain.

"Don't make any sudden moves," I said, concerned. "I didn't give up my powers, if that's what you're concerned about. I'd found an item in the caves. He seemed interested in it. Interested enough to let us both go and heal my leg."

"You're full of surprises Stalwart," Raiya said, chuckling. "Help me get up, will you? We can't linger here much longer. We're too close to Bodrick's estate."

She put her arm around my shoulders and we both walked east, toward the rising sun and toward Merinsk. Raiya's right shoulder was throbbing. She would hiss and moan from time to time, but she didn't complain or ask me to slow down.

"Your grandfather will surely come looking for us here," Raiya said. "Let's just hope he wasn't around when Adwer left to report his failure."

"Adwer might have pa.s.sed out from the loss of blood," I said. "You saw him chop his right arm off. He won't be able to report anything unless he makes a miraculous recovery."

"Your grandpa will come here nonetheless," Raiya retorted. "Let's just hurry, we can't risk being ambushed. Not when everything's going according to our plan."

I couldn't agree more. We managed to s.n.a.t.c.h Bodirck from under my grandfather's watchful eyes. If he got wind of this, he would immediately come looking for us. Adwer had left hours before I managed to escape the tunnels of death. If grandfather had seen him in that state, we can be sure that he'd be scouring all Biarkh for us.

He didn't know anything though.

He was too busy preparing the murder of Pontiff Sullivan at that time. That was a blow none of us expected, least of all the Church of Dhobor. Losing Bodrick might have been a low blow to Theolonius Stalwart, but he wasn't one to panic if his plan deviated. He was ready to hit us back with greater might. We just didn't know about it then.

His first step was to weaken his direct enemy. He was about to take out the second most powerful person in the Church.