Sklsh, schlk, skrsh- The flesh on my leg squelched and squeaked.

  "Haa, haa, haa-"

  I ran with wild abandon, gasping for air, my leg morphing into a progressively terrible shape.

  I didn't turn back once, running until I could no longer hear any sounds from the giant frog; the crunch and chewing of Fein's body.

  But after an amount of time I couldn't discern, my feet suddenly collapsed below me, and I fell to the ground.

  Thud! Feeling the pain in my knees was almost an insult to my injury. I ran out of energy, curling and huddling to the wall.

  My leg was too deformed now, I wouldn't be able to run anymore. My vision deteriorated so much that I could barely see what was in front of me without immersion.

  I stared down at the ground with my sight dyed in blood.

  "Cael, you understand, right?"

  I remembered Fein's expression as he begged for his life. Yet, the logical part of me couldn't help but wholeheartedly agree that what I did was the best decision I could have made.

  My fists clenched, and I ground my teeth.

  Better yet, if I hadn't grabbed Fein's hand at all and simply let him get dragged off by the frog's tongue the moment it caught him.

  I felt my one good arm tremble in weakness as my fist clenched harder.

  Letting my fist open for a second, I grasped my chest, to feel my living, beating heart.

  It's because of me. I've only met him for a few moments, and yet he's already dead.

  He shouldn't have died. He wasn't supposed to. What will happen to his village now? His parents? His friends?

  My eyes burned, drier than ever. It- it's, it's all because of me! ME! IT'S MY FAULT! He didn't even do anything wrong...

  However, even with my thoughts spiraling uncontrollably, I couldn't rest at all, and needed to be on even higher caution now that I was alone without an escape route. Moreover, it would be wise to forget about Fein to save mental energy for what might come next.

  I forcefully slowed down my breathing, silencing it.

  Now, I could understand, why the students of the Demon Academy called the maze what they did. Instead of simply looking at words on a page, I now truly felt what it was like to live as an inhabitant of this world.

  ..This is hell.

  At that moment, I heard a growl approaching from the darkness ahead.

  I immediately shut my eyes and made sure to keep my breath silent. Some beast-type monsters were able to detect eyes in the dark.

  Thuff, thuff, thuff- I heard its footsteps approaching closer. It wasn't hurried; it was slow and cautious.

  Hearing its soft footfall, I speculated what type of monster it could be. It's a beast with fur. The growl sounds familiar to what I imagined for some monsters I designed. Then, a cat-type of beast?

  Suddenly, the ground shook.

  BOOM!! A loud explosion sounded a far distance away.

  "!", the beast immediately halted its footsteps, and sharply turned to run in the direction of the sound.

  I looked up to catch a glimpse of the beast. It was a beast resembling a saber-toothed tiger. I was right.

  At the same time, as I listened to more and more explosions sound, a small inkling of what it could have come from surfaced.

  Could it be..?

  After the tiger got a little farther away, I stood up and went to follow it.

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  The sounds got louder with every step I took.

  Boom! Boom! Boom!! Explosions and flames erupted.

  In the midst of it, I heard a scream.

  "Ahh! Get away, get away! Just you wait, I'll kill all of you!"

  The voice was familiar.

  I approached an intersection in the maze, and went in the direction with the most prominent burning smell.

  Ugh, it smells like a rotten barbeque party. I paid attention to how much smoke I smelled. Magic-conjured flames don't typically exude smoke unless the spell is incomplete.

  And a few steps later, I was right next to it. The path forward turned left.

  "Die, die! Burn away!!-", the screams grew more blood curdling by the second.

  I crouched, and peeked over the turn at the hallway. How predictable.

  As expected, the person wielding and screaming bloody murder was Lully. Panic was visible across his face and he cast flame spells hastily.

  But when I took a look at his surroundings, I froze.

  ...What..?

  His targets were already dead.

  Corpses of numerous animals and monsters piled up until you could no longer see the floor. They appeared almost mutilated, with guts and intestines pouring all over the place while the blood was set on fire the moment it pooled out. The light that came from his flames was so bright and numerous that it lighted up the entire masscare without effort.

  I looked at Lully again, and noticed something I hadn't before. He looked pale, his eyes slightly bloodshot, with his breathing uncontrolled. He didn't have his staff, so his spells were slightly inaccurate.

  The next second, a ball of fire hurled toward my direction, and I quickly ducked behind the wall again.

  BOOM! I covered my ears, but they still hurt from the loud explosion.

  "WHO'S THERE?!", he screamed again.

  My lips pursed. This is bad, has fear overtook him? Since he's casting spells like that, he probably already has a fully fledged mana core, but if he collapses from mana exhaustion, then that would put me in trouble too.

  I clicked my tongue. If the penalty for breaking the mana contract was a little less, even something like losing a limb, I wouldn't bother with it, but because it directly concerned my life, I had no choice but to take it seriously.

  I frowned slightly. How can I make him calm down? He seems quite agitated and knows my position already...

  "COME OUT! COME OUTTTTT!!!", he hurled several more fireballs in my direction, looking completely out of his mind.

  Sweat ran down my back, and I retreated from the intense heat of the exploded fireball. Well...no time to think again, tsk. I need to just go for it!

  Conjuring up a mana arrow, I prepared it in my palm and talked from behind the corner, "So reckless, seems like a trial like this isn't a good fit for you."

  I sent the mana arrow on its way.

  Noticing the flying mana arrow, Lully stepped back and prepared another fire spell.

  "Are you sure you won't collapse from mana exhaustion?", I mocked, provoking him further.

  Krriiii! The sound of grinding teeth could be heard from a distance away.

  Running out of mana to use in both the surroundings and what is stored in your mana core is a death sentence for any mage with common sense.

  Lully tried channeling another, bigger flame spell this time in response. Observing him quietly, I poured out a wave of killing intent.

  A threat of calm, imminent death.

  For a moment, the flame spell faltered, until it dispersed forcefully.

  "!", unable to focus clearly on the quickly approaching mana arrow, he couldn't manipulate his body correctly to dodge. His body instantly became tense as I accelerated the arrow until- Poof! The mana arrow disappeared and dissolved right before it went through his face.

  Shaking incessantly, Lully stuttered and lowered his posture, putting up his hands, "W-w-wait! Don't kill me, I'm sorry, okay? I-I wasn't trying to offend you.."

  Finding his sudden change of heart amusing, I stepped out from the corner, smiling, "You don't recognize me?"

  "...", Lully stared absentmindedly for a second, before revealing a shaky smile, "Ah, haha, it's you!! IT'S YOU! I knew you didn't have a death wish! I can't believe you dodged all my spells. That arrow was just a joke, right? Right?"

  "Right?", nearly tripping a few times, he made his way over, "Cael, if I die here, you know you won't make it out alive either."

  How threatening... I gulped quietly. Looks like my improvised plan worked. But I need to figure out which extra he was immediately. He's much more capable than I thought.

  "Of course. Everything was just a joke. Now, we need to go. More monsters will arrive soon.", I stepped a little closer to rip out a large tooth from a monster resembling a saber-toothed tiger on the ground. I guessed I would be able to resolve this cleanly from how unstable his breathing was, but this was still really risky.

  Shkrieek. Flesh ripped roughly.

  I breathed in and out deeply to further calm myself.

  Lully nodded desperately, "Yeah, yeah. It's so dark, I can't see. I was just, you know, trying to light up the way, and then I ended up panicking and I-"

  He began explaining what had happened while I stuffed some pieces of meat in my pockets. When I was done, I pointed where we would go--back the way I came from to move through a different intersection, and led the way.

  Upon turning my back, Lully paused his explanation, before exclaiming in panic, "W-wait! Wait for me!"

  Shtriick. From behind me, I could hear more ripping flesh, and I turned around.

  But, I saw nothing.

  "Oh, thanks!", Lully interpreted it as some sort of kindness to wait for him, and promptly caught up with hurried steps. He glanced at my missing hand and messed up leg briefly before looking away without a change in his expression, "Can you run? Let's go! You said we need to hurry, right?"

  Without being able to pinpoint where the sound previously came from, I turned my head away, murmuring under my breath.

  "No, I can't run."

  At that moment, just when both me and Lully turned the corner, another voice, this time female, exclaimed from some distance behind us.

  "Ah!", I heard a gasp, "Oh my-...What sort of massacre..?"

  I froze, then immediately put a hand on Lully's shoulder, and mouthed two words.

  Don't talk.