Runic Domination

Chapter 3 || Endless, Stinky Corridors

Keeping my eyes him, I carefully stepped back and observed his next moves. It didn't feel like he was using any magic but in the next second the chains started to tremble before suddenly they burst apart, the links nearly hitting me square in the face.

This should definitely not be that easy.

With another pull, the shackles on his left wrist shattered, the pieces dropping to the ground with a loud clang. The rest quickly followed behind. Nonchalantly, Tyler stood up and shook off the remains from his arms and shoulders.

With a sigh I held up my knife. A quick inspection had confirmed what I feared. The blade looked dull and cracked. "You owe me a new knife."

I nearly flinched when Tyler suddenly stood in front of me to take the knife from my hands. It looked much smaller when he was wielding it.

"That shouldn't be a problem. I can fix that for you." He said and pocketed the knife.

"Hey!"

"You will get it back good as new in a few days." He turned away and walked over to pick up the sword. My jaw nearly hit the floor when he lifted it with ease. Sword in hand he turned around, winked at me and sauntered over to the door, immediately pressed the hidden rune set, and walked out so naturally and confident as if he did this every day.

What just happened?

I stared at him completely flabbergasted. My mind was still trying to process the unexpected turns of events when he turned around and lifted one eyebrow. "You coming or are you waiting for a personal invitation?"

This guy...

I clicked my tongue in annoyance. Here, he was acting as if he had just helped me escape. Ignoring his taunt, I made my way past him, stepping over the guy that was still out cold on the floor.

Going back, Tyler seemed to know his way around nearly as well as I did. We had made it about half-way when he stopped as I turned left at a certain intersection.

"Guess, this is where we part ways then," he said casually as he glanced down the corridor to our right.

"I thought you wanted to escape this place?" I asked confused.

His gaze met mine and I could feel him hesitate before he smirked at me. "Did you think I came all the way here just to inspect the prison cells?"

"Well, if you put it like that, I suppose the answer is yes. How did you like your stay? You should think about posting a review, especially since you signed up for the high-class suite."

He shook his head trying to get rid of the grin that had spread across his face. Maybe he wasn't the grumpy, dark loner I'd expected him to be. "I'm kinda disappointed to be honest. The service was lacking, my meals were late, the-" A loud noise made him stop mid-sentence, and his expression was back to being serious in a second.

"I suppose they noticed that their favorite V.I.P guest went missing," I whispered, glancing down the hallway that led to the outside. My awareness rune tingled, and it wasn't long before I could sense guards coming our way from that direction.

Without warning Tyler reached for my arm and started pulling me the opposite way. "Change of plans. You're coming with me." He sounded like I didn't have a choice in that matter and I had to fight the urge to spite him just because.

We ran down the corridors at a light jog, turning left and right with no apparent logic. Tyler led the way, his sword in hand. At some point, I noticed a group of guards ahead, but before I could warn him, he had already pulled me into another hallway, confirming my earlier suspicions. He definitely had strong magic coupled with at least some sort of detection rune.

Whenever we couldn't dodge a guard, Tyler would take care of them, his movements swift and precise. However, after some time I noticed a certain weariness slowly creeping up on him. It wasn't very obvious, but I could sense that his breathing was no longer light and steady. Breaking out must have taken more out of him then he wanted to admit. Plus, I didn't actually know how long he'd been in that cell, although it couldn't have been more than a few days.

We kept moving until we arrived at another intersection. On our left was a pitch-black hallway. The walls were damp, and the air was colder. I had seen these types of tunnels during one of my earlier visit and figured that they would probably lead into the mountain.

I thought back to the pet I'd nearly encountered the last time I'd been down here. "You sure this is the right way, or are we just going around blindly?" I asked him.

"Pretty sure this is it, yeah." He turned to look back at me, his black hair blending neatly into the darkness looming behind him.

I hesitated. The prospect of going deeper into the mountain didn't sit well with me. It was like going against my nature. High up, surrounded by the wind, that was my place of comfort, not trudging through cold, murky underground tunnels inhabited by most likely deadly creatures.

"You can hold my hand if you're scared, Kai."

"It's Kaia. Only my friends call me Kai."

"Well, you can hold my hand if you're scared, Kitty." His eyes were twinkling with amusement as I bristled in annoyance at the new nickname. Still, it had been a while since we'd encountered any guards. Going deeper into the lion's den might actually be the smart thing to do.

Except that there might be some weird pets roaming around.

With a deep breath, I stepped around him, ignoring his outstretched hand.

We were quiet as we made our way down the tunnel. I couldn't sense any movement from behind, which hopefully meant our gamble paid off and the guards didn't expect us to go this way.

Or maybe they didn't want to go this way either...

I tried to shake off the negative thoughts, but the darkness and lack of noise had an ominous feeling to it. Thankfully, Tyler couldn't see me flinch as his voice cut through the silence surrounding us. "Wait a second."

He seemed to be feeling around the wall before he apparently hit a set of runes, because in the next second, we heard a low rumble, and one of the walls gave way to reveal another tunnel. This time, however, every ten meters or so a small set of runes illuminated the way.

Despite the light, the tunnel gave off an even more eerie feeling than the one we were standing in. The air smelled different as well. Though very faint, a metallic, putrid stench seemed to waft through the passage.

I paused, trying to make up my mind. Something was wrong with this place and the deeper I walked into it, the stronger my instincts protested.

Tyler glanced back at me with a questioning expression on his face. "Are you coming?" He didn't crack a joke about my hesitation this time.

Now that my eyes were useful again, I could see that exhaustion was starting to show on his face. The blueish light of the tunnel made his skin look even more pale, causing him to appear somewhat sickly. That was probably why this time, I noticed it first.

The intake of breath. The wind created through movement. Something hiding in the darkness was coming right at us.