Ellis had stopped in the middle of the crowd to watch Michael destroy the doorway, and found himself as awe struck as the rest. Every eye in the cavern was on him, every person was casting side long glances at one another, all formulating plans to get out or kill the man stopping them. And Michael ignored their silent scheming by tapdancing towards the palace guards, all huddled up together and terrified of what was coming towards them.

  Leon still had his sword drawn, and Ellis knew the man could escape. But he doubted the Ant Killer could pull out that door and not draw Michael’s attention while he did so. Psyching himself up, Ellis walked up next to him and whispered, “I can get us out of here. But help me kill that bastard.”

  The big man glanced at Ellis like he’d seen an ugly lizard. “I think that lady friend of yours has the Archduke dead to rights.”

  The Archduke screamed once again, Ellis cast a glance over towards Ameena, to see she had cut off one of his fingers and was starting with the next. Ellis shrugged in agreement with Leon’s assessment, and said, “Not him.”

  Ellis nodded at Michael, who took a swordswing to the back, ignored it completely, and continued ravaging the palace guards with that big smile on his face. “Him. Help us kill him. He murdered most of your men. I can’t kill him by myself.”

  Leon curled his lip and didn’t respond, instead walking away as Helena’s eyes peeked at him from behind Leon's shoulder. Ellis couldn’t stay here, bargaining with the man stomping towards the exit in the hopes he would come around. Ameena was occupied, so he couldn’t rely on her for help either.

  He needed to kill Michael. Right now was the best time to do so. The only time, in Ellis’s mind. And yet despite the dozens of men fighting Michael, who would no doubt spare Ellis long enough to make a difference if they saw him fighting at their side, he found himself hesitating.

  Hesitating, to kill the man who butchered his future wife and little sister all because he wanted to have ‘fun’. Ellis had never felt like more of a coward, despite the hundreds of potential allys and people surrounding him.

  But one look at Michael fighting now, made Ellis want to prepare even more. Just one more level. Just one more ally, fighting for him. The one thing his father had taught him about being a hunter was patience, after all.

  Ellis screamed at the top of his lungs, “No!”

  No! No. I’ve been more than patient. He dies today.

  Ellis turned to the ant killer, striding towards the exit with his daughter in his arms, cutting his way through the palace guards that had peeled off from fighting Michael to stop him, and sprinted at his back.

  He didn’t know what he was doing. But he had to do something. So he bounded over all the bodies, cowering nobles and screaming men he had left in his wake, loading a crossbow as he did so, and when he was close enough he jammed his weapon into the back of Leon’s head and spoke through his teeth, “You will not leave! You will help us—”

  The Ant Killer wrench his head out the way and threw himself backwards before Ellis could finish that thought. Leon cracked the back of his skull against Ellis’s nose that let loose a loud thud, causing Ellis to stumble backwards.

  The man whirled after him, getting into a wide stance as he winded his fist back. Ellis got his forearms in the way of the punch aimed at his stomach, but it never came. The man had feinted, and instead of the punch grabbed Ellis around his left arm. With a spin, he flung Ellis towards the carnage in the middle of the room with one hand, the other still clutched around his daughter.

  “Kill him yourself!” he called out, before running to the exit once again.

  Ellis’s shoulder groaned in pain as he soared through the air, clearing most of the cavern in his flight. He started dipping after five seconds of falling sideways, and crashed into the back of a palace guard who yelped in surprise. Ellis used him to break his fall, rolling over the man’s shoulder and back onto his feet.

  He came face to face with Michael. “Well, gotta say it's surprising to see you here Ellis.”

  A spear thrust towards his face over Ellis’s head. He grabbed the spear and broke it in half. Using the half spear he had just made, he threw at a man behind Ellis’s back.

  “I was trying to fight the Ant Killer!” he shouted as he turned back to face the group surrounding Michael.

  They had wisened up, most of the time using spears to try and keep him at bay as men with bows and crossbows took shots at him from the back of the circle. Ellis had to dodge out of the way of a few, and had to use the butt of his crossbow to intercept an arrow heading towards his head.

  Michael took many of the shots like usual, but every time one came below his waist he would dodge out the way. Which is how Ellis got shot in the back of his thigh, making him wince as he tried to fire back at the crowd.

  Laughing all the while, Michael asked over his shoulder as he threw a spear at another man, “That must have been fun!”

  “Sure!” Ellis called back, his mind sprinting like a horse as he tried to figure out how to kill him.

  He doubted the guards' help would amount to much, half of them were dead or injured and the rest looked terrified enough not to pose too much of a threat. Shouts filled the air away from them, causing Ellis to squint through all the heads in the way to see Leon’s back near the entrance. He was surrounded by a smaller contingent of palace guards, and was cutting his way through them. He had hidden his daughter behind the double door Michael had ripped out and left on the floor, but her wide eyes peaked over the wood to watch the chaos around her.

  Ellis needed Michael and Leon to fight. Purely so that Leon could wound the man enough so that he could swoop in and kill him at the last moment. He hadn’t known how when he was chasing the Ant Killer through all those nobles, who were cowering along the cavern walls now. But the answer came to him like all the other lies over the last few weeks. Easily, and fully formed like they were planted there by something else.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  So Ellis ignored the carnage, and the bolt that grazed past his shoulder as he turned to the man who frowned over all the people’s heads, and asked, “Michael, I’ll keep them busy. Can you kill that bastard for me?”

  Michael’s frown turned upside down as he hummed and hawed, cutting a man’s head in half when he got too close.

  He turned back to Ellis with a wink. “Sounds like fun. See you in a bit.”

  And with that, Michael leaped out of the encirclement with almost no bend to his knees, and landed far outside of their reach, almost half way through the cavern. The moment his feet touched the ground he was sprinting towards the entrance, shouting at the top of his lungs, “round 2 fuck face!”

  As Michael ran away, Ellis held up his bow and whisper shouted at the men around him, “I’ll surrender! Help me—”

  A spear was shoved into his face before he could even dream of finishing the thought.

  “Oh come on!” he complained as he stumbled out of the way, “I’m trying to help you!”

  “Then drop your weapon sorcerer!” the man who had shoved a spear in his face shouted, still wide eyed in fear.

  Men started to peel off from the encirclement and run towards Michael and Leon, which actually caused Ellis to feel a bit jealously annoyed. He shook his head clear of those childish notions and said, “I promise I am trying to help you! We just need to kill him!”

  He pointed to Michael. None of the guards turned their heads.

  “Shut up, witch! We know your kind only speaks falsehoods! Drop your weapon and you shall be given a quick death!” He shouted once again, still stabbing towards him.

  Gods give me strength.

  Ellis copied Michael, squatting down as far as his injured leg would go and pushing off with the good one. He made it quite far through the encirclement before a hand reached out from the crowd and snagged his foot, making him tumble just outside of the encirclement they had set up.

  He landed with a thud, and looked up just in time to see a sword coming for his face. Ellis rolled out the way, but still received a nasty gash across his back from something he didn’t see, but the sharp metal slicing the skin apart told him it wasn’t good.

  Activating his truth necklace was almost difficult, the silence eluding him as he rose to his feet, elbowing a man in the face on his way up. The palace guard fell, and the men seemed even more enraged until Ellis held up his hands.

  “Jon! Daud! Rian! Peter! Please stop!” he called to the first line of men trying to kill him.

  All the men stopped what they were doing, and stared wide eyed before one of the men called out. “It’s sorcery! Brace yourselves boys! He’s cast a spell on us!”

  “No you fool! I said your fucking names! Jon! Come on, help me! Just attack—”

  Ellis glanced over his shoulder to see Michael spewing fire from his wrist that engulfed almost the entire doorway. In the middle of the flames stood Leon, holding up two palace guards as shields, moving forward step by step as Michael moved backward at the same pace, trying to keep him pinned down.

  Ellis stopped talking to the guards and checked on Helena, but he saw her status screen moving slightly, and his ears could just make out the scared whimpering of a child. He breathed a sigh of relief and turned back to the men in front of him, who had followed Ellis’s gaze in the split second he looked away.

  “Just attack the man spewing fire! It’s the only trick you need to worry about!” Ellis said, trying to sound like Ameena as he shouted at them.

  While Ellis talked, the men behind the four Ellis had picked out tried circling around his sides, to once again complete the encirclement. And from the glances the men were giving each other, he doubted his plan was going to work.

  Until a simple lever, hidden by a man’s severed torso caught his eye. It was on the cavern wall on the throne's side of the room if the giant white wall came back down. A small status screen hung above it.

  Lever: 1 meter high, 15 centimeters thick. Pull to drop the salt wall, push to raise it.

  The status screen acted like a beacon, focusing his eyes through all the noise. A new plan struck him now, far more dangerous than the last, but if he pulled it off…

  He would trap Michael and Leon together. That monster would die. And that meant Ellis was going to go for it without a second thought.

  “Seriously boys! I will even help you! Just follow me!” he shouted once again, before turning around and sprinting towards the entrance, even as flames that covered the ruined doorway spewed towards them.

  Michael and Leon were locked in a duel to the death, and now that Leon didn’t have a child in the way, Ellis could finally see why the man had earned such a fearsome reputation.

  The Ant Killer bent so far back as to almost touch the top of his head to the ground just to dodge a single swing of the sword, and recovered in time to parry the punch Michael threw when he thought Leon was unbalanced, moving the hand spewing fire inches away from his face in the nick of time.

  He dodged under the outstretched arm and grabbed Michael by the throat, before throwing him at the top of the doorway five meters in the air. Michael bounced off the rocky frame and landed on his feet, dodged two sword swings before he cracked Leon across the face with a kick. Leon stumbled back, giving Michael enough time to jump, place both his feet on Leon’s chest in midair, and kick outwards. Leon flew into the door Michael had used to cut off their escape, and he cracked the wood as he bounced off it.

  He shook it off with a shake of his head, and strode forward with a snarl.

  The sound of all the men who had encircled Ellis earlier sprinting towards Leon’s and Michael’s duel sounded like a thousand drums as they sprinted towards Ellis’s back. He ignored them, as he ignored Leon and Michael, who both glanced his way as he sprinted past them towards the door hanging on its side, where he could hear the whimpering.

  Michael started moving towards him, his eyes darting between Leon and Ellis as he jogged in Ellis’s direction. Channeling his inner Michael, Ellis sprinted full tilt at the wall, ignoring the screaming of his leg and the blood dripping down his arm and back, sliding to a stop beside the huge door laying next to the exit to find Helena, crying as softly as she could. She had placed a single finger on her lips and kept whispering, “shhh! Shhh! Shhh!” to herself over and over again, ignoring Ellis completely.

  The sight made Ellis’s chest tighten, but he ignored the feeling as he scooped her up in his arms and jumped over the wooden door she was hiding behind. Michael had just taken the corner, and he tried to stop his momentum, reaching towards Ellis with an outstretched hand, his fingers grazing Ellis’s shirt.

  “Agh!” Michael shouted, spittle flying from his lips as Ellis gave him the slip.

  Leon was barreling towards Ellis just as he landed. Taking two steps towards the Ant Killer, he built up enough momentum to slide on his knees under the Ant Killer’s legs, and Leon’s grabbing hands filled the space Ellis’s head had occupied the split second before. Leon crashed into Michael as he stumbled forward, and they both slammed into the wedged door.

  “Give me my daughter you fucking sorcerer!” Leon called at Ellis’s sprinting back. He was heading towards the loudest screaming in the room, all other whimpers and shouts of agony ignored as he raced towards the throne.

  Ellis took a deep breath, before filling the cavern with his voice. “I’m trying to save her, you idiot! But if you want her so bad, come and get her!”