Garmr was lighting quick, like a large horse but with stronger muscles and larger bones. He reached speeds at around 60 mph without any problem.
After 20 seconds or so of running, Lyrian heard the clanging of weapons reverberating through the cave.
The tunnel he was going through was lit up like the previous room with the 50 goblins, but due to the angles of the hall, he couldn't see what was in front of him.
As Garmr sped forward, all fighting noises suddenly stopped.
After a few more seconds, Lyrian began to hear the echoes of rushed footsteps coming his way.
To not abruptly run into trouble, he ordered Garmr to stop and jumped off his back before using Shadow to make him disappear.
He did not need to wait long to discover what was running, as around the corner of the cave came a familiar man with glasses atop the ridge of his nose.
Stafon was running in a frantic pattern, his steps not coherent with each other at all.
His face was covered in desperation and fear, pale as a ghost and drenched in sweat. He held his right arm which was completely dislocated and twisted around, forming a gruesome sight.
Right now, Stafon was running away from the final boss of the cave, the one that he sacrificed the lives of the adventurers to get to.
However, the boss was not a normal variant, but instead, an enhanced one that he nearly died to.
'A boy?... I don't know what he's doing here but he will be enough.' Stafon thought to himself, planning to use Lyrian as a distraction to get away from the final boss who would soon awake from the poisonous sleeping gas he used on it to get away.
"Boy! Listen, I need your help!" He yelled, trying to hide his fear in order to not scare the child away.
"From the looks of it, it seems like you do," Lyrian replied nonchalantly.
"--What?" Stafon couldn't understand why this kid, who wasn't even ten years old, was mocking him.
It left him confused and a little worried, wondering why such a young boy would be in the cave in the first place, but he pushed those thoughts aside because the boy was his only chance at survival.
Stafon knew that if the boss were to wake up, there was no possible way he could outrun it.
Closing the distance between them, Stafon desperately tried to touch the boy's shoulder.
However, just before his hand could make contact, his entire body froze in shock, like a deer caught in headlights.
His eyes widened and his eyebrows raised as he witnessed a frighteningly dangerous aura emanating from the boy's intense gaze.
It was as if he was standing right next to a being whose power was superior to that of even the boss of this cave.
As Lyrian stared angrily, Stafon fell back on his rear, subconsciously raising his hand in front to protect himself, whilst still gazing into the boy's eyes.
"Wh–who are you?" He lightly spoke with fear behind his voice.
Through Stafon's current point of view, Lyrian looked like a demon. A god of death standing before his enemy, waiting to cast final judgment.
No matter how much he wanted to move, he simply couldn't.
'This is… killing intent.' Stafon thought to himself.
"Why?" Lyrian asked with a simple yet piercing question.
Stafon stammered, caught off guard. "Wha-what?"
"Why did you sacrifice those adventurers?" Lyrian pressed, though he already had a good idea of the answer.
Despite his two lifetimes, he still struggled to grasp the depths of human behavior.
There was a glimmer of hope within him, however small, for a plausible explanation.
Confusion washed over Stafon. To him, the answer should have been obvious to anyone with a shred of decency.
He was a fraud, a murderer who exploited others for his own gain.
But then, it struck him: the person before him was just a child.
A sly smile formed on Stafon's face. Lying came naturally to him, and he believed he could survive this dire situation with a few well-crafted falsehoods.
"I swear I'm innocent! We thought this cave would be a cakewalk, but it deceived us! We encountered a goblin horde, and I did my best to fight, but they drove me away while the others stayed to battle. You have to understand, you're my only hope!" he pleaded, pouring conviction into his words.
Lyrian's expression darkened. "No," he whispered silently.
"No?" Stafon replied, bewildered. "I--" His words were abruptly cut off.
"That's not a good enough reason," Lyrian interjected, his eyes revealing a ruthlessness previously unseen. "You led them to believe it would be easy, and when it wasn't, you should have stayed and faced the consequences with them."
"Fair... It's only fair," Lyrian declared, his skewed sense of justice contrasting sharply with the world.
In the blink of an eye, a knife swept across Stafon's neck, swiftly severing it in a clean cut.
As his lifeless body slumped to the ground, Lyrian summoned Gramr once again before continuing through the tunnel.
He clenched his jaw while looking forward. He just killed someone. The feeling wasn't like killing an animal or seeing other people die, it was indescribable.
But after a deep breath, Lyrian made a choice. He couldn't dwell on what he had done.
ραndαsΝοvεl ƈοm In his mind, killing Stafon was the right thing to do, and there was no room for regret or turning back.
The only path ahead was to keep moving forward.
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