“Hey, Lloyd? Can we really help her?”
“She seems quite weak, and she’s terribly wounded...”
Cross and Silica were right. The demons had barely kept the beastwoman alive. There were no cuts or bruises near her vitals, probably because they were trying not to kill her. But they hadn’t minded what happened to her as long as she survived. Based on what we could tell about her treatment, that was the extent of the demons’ care.
This was terrible...
At first, I had contemplated keeping all the demons alive and taking them as prisoners to Ishtar, but now I was glad I hadn’t tried to lead such a dangerous group to the city. Innocent civilians could have been hurt.
“Lloyd, who’s...?” Yui asked.
“A beastwoman, huh? Her wounds look terrible,” Daggers observed.
“I wasn’t expecting this,” I said.
I could tell she was weak, and she seemed to have been confined here for more than just a few days given her feebleness. At least a few months must have passed—maybe even a year. But while her injuries were one thing, the emotional and physical damage of such a long period of confinement couldn’t be healed with magic. She was unconscious, but I wasn’t sure her sanity was still intact.
“Hey, Lloyd? We have to help her.”
“Yeah... But healing her comes later. We need to get out of here before it collapses.”
I was dying to heal her wounds, but we had to put that off for now. When we had collapsed the ground above to get inside, it left a wide stretch of earthen canopy above compromised. It could collapse at any moment.
Traversing the underground with the demon and beastwoman in tow was dangerous, as it would take us time to make it outside. The best way to minimize the risk of collapse and make it out of here as fast as possible was...
“Yui, can you cut her chains from the wall?”
“Of course! Iron stands no chance against me!” she said, tossing the demon on the ground before swinging her sword with all her might, severing the chains. She had buffs cast on her, but her strength was still jaw-dropping.
“Silica, can you lift the ground up to the ceiling?”
“Y-Yes! I can!”
“Daggers, I strengthened your shield. Are you good to go?”
“Yeah, of course!”
“All right! Do it, Silica!”
“Right!” Silica took her staff into her hands and began her enchantment. Once she was done, the earth began to swell and slowly rose up to the ceiling. At the same time, Daggers pointed his shield upward and focused his strength to his hips. He used his shield to pierce the dirt, breaking us through to the surface. My plan had worked even better than I had expected. Our escape had depended on teamwork, which meant I could have never managed it on my own.
But our relief lasted only an instant. The force of us breaking through caused the unstable ground to suddenly begin to crumble. There was no knowing how much would fall.
“Crap! We need to get away from here! Yui, can you carry the demon?” We had to keep him alive for now.
“I dunno...but I’ll try!”
“Right. If you can’t handle it, toss him and run for it!”
“All righty! I definitely don’t wanna die alongside this guy!”
I carried the beastwoman on my back, while Yui held the demon. Then, we dashed off, kicking hard into the ground to make our escape. We accelerated in a flash. Fortunately, the beastwoman was disturbingly light, so it was easy enough for me to maneuver.
The sound of collapsing earth chased after us. Apparently, this whole area had been part of the demons’ secret lair, and they had many more rooms than the underground space we had observed. That was a surprise.
The collapsing earth followed right on our tails as we made a desperate dash for safety within the forest. Getting caught up in the cave-in would mean being buried alive. We’d die, and personally, I didn’t want that. With nothing but survival on our minds, we made a full-throttle sprint through the collapsing trees.