Chapter 39: Chase and Escape

When Black Knight Fad was still a ranger, he held barbaric aliens in no regard—disorganized, undisciplined, easily broken with one attack, collapsed after another, and utterly defeated after three. Just a rabble mob.

If Fad was the sharp point of a spear, then the Magic Servants and Magic Shapeshifters were its blade. In their transformed states, they matched the speed of cavalry and had comparable strength. They excelled in both mid-range attacks and close combat. With a necromancer like Eirlys providing support and spells, they advanced as if unchallenged, driving the Stone People, beasts, and demons into chaos. Soon, they broke through their ranks and left behind a group of terrified Blue Ghosts, unsure whether to pursue or not.

The originally surrounded Dark Claws and the few remaining Red Ghosts seized the opportunity to join forces and escape with Fad.

“Let’s leave. Though these Dark Ones are few, they’re elite. Fighting them head-on isn’t worth it,” said Dorgi, sweating and covered in blood, his eyes red. “I won’t go! I refuse to give up! We must quickly take control of the inner city, clean up the battlefield, and hold a strategic position to fight them to the death!”

Dorgi held a high status among the Stone Tribe. Considering this, along with the fact that their other raiding party had come all this way without gaining anything and even losing men, their leader decided to stubbornly insist with Dorgi and ordered his subordinates to clear the battlefield.

By now, all the undead creatures awakened by Fad had been killed. These undead, weakened by the Death Vines and the “Polyhedral” flesh-eating spirits, were weak even as undead and posed little threat to the Blue Ghosts. Nor could they serve as food. Yet the Red Ghosts had reaped plenty in Wotzburg—armors, weapons—all of which were treasures to the Blue Ghosts.

The meat slaves in the inner city had vanished without a trace, infuriating Dorgi once again. He sent several scouting parties to search, but to no avail. However, there was an ample supply of food—cured meat, smoked meat, wine, poultry—which could somewhat soothe Dorgi’s wounded pride. There were also two large iron carts, along with over 20 dwarves from another raiding party’s slave army. This iron could be turned into weapons and armor. Moreover, if they were ruthless enough to destroy buildings, they could gather plenty of iron from various parts of Wotzburg. The two Stone Tribe leaders agreed that Wotzburg was highly valuable to occupy, so they resolved to defend it fiercely. They busied themselves clearing trenches and gathering defensive weapons like arrows and stones.

Meanwhile,Neo was diving underwater with an inflated leather bag. Without any warm clothing, the cold water could kill an ordinary person within 5 minutes due to hypothermia. ThoughNeo was far stronger than an ordinary person, he still struggled. It was a difficult swim. With stiff limbs, he struggled to climb onto a low platform, then curled up and shivered for a full minute before feeling slightly better. After all, the cave was warmer than the outside—around 12 or 13 degrees—truly spring-like.

“Another well?!” Many Dark Claws didn’t say it, but disgust was evident on their faces.

Fade and Fa walked over to the well, took a look, then turned and grabbed a demon servant by the neck, lifting it and throwing it straight into the well.
Thud!
“If you’re not dead, make a sound!”
Though the demon servant was terrified and choked on water, it dared not show any dissatisfaction and quickly replied, “The waterways on the shore have slow currents—jumping in is completely fine!”
Thud! Thud! Thud… All of Fade’s dark minions, including him, descended as well.
The Soul of the Hellhound continued to do its best; tracking became increasingly difficult until it reached the end of the waterway. At that point, the special hound was utterly helpless—the water quickly diluted its energy, causing it to vanish, and it could no longer sense the faint energies used for tracking underwater. Still, it at least pointed the way for Fade’s dark minions.
“Go into the water and search!” Fade ordered grimly. Some of the dark minions prepared to carry out the order recklessly, but Eirlys stepped forward at that moment. “The waterways are complex. It’s likely we won’t be able to breathe for a long time. Let the Corpse Guards explore roughly first.”
The problem with the Corpse Guards was their lack of intelligence. They could distinguish obvious features like gender and age, but identifying individuals among a group was beyond them. Fortunately, since the target was fleeing alone, using the Corpse Guards was still somewhat effective. After thinking it over, Fade agreed.
At that moment, Neo was less than 300 meters away from the dark minions. He had just taken a few sips of strong liquor and rubbed it on his limbs. His tight-fitting clothes had been damaged in the fight with the Blue Ghost Squad, and he was now trying to regain his body temperature, too busy to worry about his scent.
It took a full 5 minutes before Neo finally caught his breath. There, he found all the items he and Valentina had stored earlier—clothes, first-aid kits, two days’ worth of dry food, water bottles, and waterproof bags coated with resin. Now that Valentina was gone, her clothes could be used as bedding, and the food would last Neo for four days. There were even two sticks, some rags, and kerosene to make torches or a small fire. With such ample supplies, Neo became even more confident.
After filling his water bottle, Neo got fully equipped and climbed up to the platform using ropes. He pulled a thin rope, triggering a small mechanism that made the spikes on the rock platform below pop up, pulling the rope back with them. This 40-meter-long rope had been carefully chosen—it was crucial for crossing ravines and gullies, and Neo wasn’t willing to discard it casually.
About 10 minutes after Neo left, a Corpse Guard surfaced. Another 5 minutes passed before a group of dark minions arrived, each carrying a piece of human or beast skin. They had used these skins to trap air and swim underwater. Although they knew the route through the waterways, it was still a risky endeavor.
Fade did not participate in this pursuit. He took 8 demon servants back to the surface, joined forces with other dark minions scattered around, and quickly left Wurtzbourg. The successive battles had left Fade short of manpower. Using the powers granted to him by the high-ranking demon Thore, he planned to summon more dark minions.
“The defenders of justice… Hmph. At least now I know how to deal with you!” The scene of Neo and Valentina risking being surrounded just to help the people of Wurtzbourg escape flashed through Fade’s mind. He understood that, given Neo’s temperament and character, he would not easily leave the migration group.
“Ah…”

Gurgle, gurgle!
Eirith carefully stroked the few sparse strands of long hair on his head, then cursed with a dark expression, “Idiot!”
Near the entrance of the underground cave where Neo had landed, nothing seemed amiss, but halfway in, there was a rapid current. A demonized creature swam past, only to be swallowed by the current and vanish without a trace.
With 6 corpse guards, 4 demon servants, 9 transformed beings, and over 30 demonized creatures, Eirith’s pursuit team was powerful. The only flaw was the lack of supplies.
Wet and shivering, Eirith began casting spells shortly after reaching the rock platform. He summoned bone hounds, then used the Dark Fusion spell to combine them with the spirits of hell hounds, creating evil corpse hounds with powerful detection and tracking abilities.
Woof! The evil corpse hounds barked at the high platform.
“Climb up!” Eirith said as he climbed onto the back of the Soul Armor, his personal bodyguard and means of transportation.
As they climbed toward the platform, another demonized creature accidentally fell into the water and was swept away by the current. Eirith cursed angrily—how could they keep making such basic mistakes? The Dark Claws did not fear Eirith as much as they feared Phaed, and someone brought up a previously overlooked factor: injuries.
During their breakthrough through the Blue Ghost formation with Phaed, the Dark Claws had suffered injuries to varying degrees, especially the less powerful demonized creatures. Their transformed state made them insensitive to pain, so they failed to notice serious tendon ruptures. Ordinary movements didn’t show any issues, but when performing delicate actions, problems arose.
“Return to your normal forms. Rest for 5 minutes. Those who are injured, drink half an energy potion,” Eirith finally ordered after some thought, issuing a somewhat considerate command for his subordinates.
Meanwhile, Neo was still struggling forward. His stamina was fine, but walking through the uneven caves caused his cuts to keep tearing open. Although there wasn’t much blood flowing, the pain was quite agonizing.
Neo chose to endure it. His instinct told him that the Dark Claws hadn’t given up pursuing him—they were still close behind. And for now, he hadn’t found any suitable place to rest.
He had chosen this platform entrance because it was a wind passage. But after walking a while, Neo realized he still knew too little about the dark underground. Did the presence of cold wind necessarily mean there was an exit to the surface? The answer was no. Many things that seemed obvious above ground became uncertain underground. Neo had merely encountered one representative example.
After another stretch of uneven terrain, the tunnel clearly sloped downward, with more and more forks appearing.
Faced with this, Neo didn’t have time to try new routes. Those routes might bring surprising changes, but they could also be dead ends—he couldn’t afford to take that risk.
He continued moving in the direction the wind was blowing, convinced that he would find the answer—the answer carried by the wind.

In fact, he did find it. After about two hours of arduous trekking, Neo arrived at the edge of a chasm. The new direction of the wind led downward. Neo faced a new choice: to continue following the wind or try other routes. After all, according to his estimates, they were now at a vertical depth of over 500 meters below the surface.

Sweat seeped into his wounds, causing constant pain. With no one around, there was no need to pretend. Neo frowned, took out a piece of dried meat, and chewed it fiercely while scanning the surroundings.

Over 250 meters long, with a span of over 50 meters and an average height of more than 30 meters, this was an underground corridor that could be described as magnificent. His 120-meter range of vision allowed him to barely see one end of the corridor, while the other end remained hidden in darkness.

The chasm lay right in the center of this corridor, over 20 meters wide, with its length and depth impossible to estimate.

Neo had no idea if there were other exits in this underground corridor or if they could lead to the surface. All he knew was that if he continued following the wind, he would be going against his original intention—at least for now.

Clang!

Neo heard a faint sound coming from the cave behind him. It was the simple warning trap he had set using stones. It turned out that enemies were indeed chasing closely behind.

“Hmph… hmph…” Erulus let out a series of sinister laughs. The fact that the trap and the evil dog moved forward without hesitation made him realize that the target was not far away. “Everyone, speed up! We’re less than 5 minutes away from the target.”

Ding! Ding! Ding!

Hanging ropes with iron spikes were cleverly arranged. Neo pulled the ropes with both hands and jumped down step by step. Soon he reached the 30-meter mark. He wrapped the rope around his legs, freed his hands, and drove a second spike into the rock wall. He used a short sling to suspend himself from that spike, shook the thin rope to release the mechanism and spike above, then retracted it and drove it back into the rock wall before jumping down again. This was how Neo descended deeper into the chasm.

Ding! Ding! Ding!

In the silence, Erulus and his dark minions heard sounds coming from below the chasm. They estimated it to be about 200 meters away—far beyond their line of sight.

Hiss! Bang!

The Bloodish Hell Flower, a low-level magical item used for warning, had now become a flare.

“We see him! We see him! It’s him!” The dark minions were extremely excited, no less so than those in the desert who saw an oasis.

“Good. Transform and chase!” Erulus was equally excited. Pursuing a target versus blindly chasing were two completely different things. After more than two hours of pursuit, all doubts were resolved. What remained was a race of endurance.

The dark minions transformed and climbed down. The magic servants and transformed beings with combat powers channeled their energy into their claws to clear a path, followed by the demonized and corpse guards.

At first, the Dark Claws descended at great speed, especially those particularly fierce ones that dared to fall and cling on, gathering massive amounts of dark evil energy between their claws. After descending over ten meters, they would plunge their claws deep into the rock, using this method to brake quickly before stalling. However, it consumed a great deal of energy and placed a severe strain on their bodies. At first, they didn’t notice, but after a few times, they began to feel the strain. After ten or eight such descents, it became increasingly difficult. Those transformed demons realized that continuing like this could be fatal to them.

Eirith was tied to the armor with temporarily made leather ropes, sparing him the pain of climbing, but he knew that descending this way was no easy task. Especially for those leading the way, they couldn’t control the dark evil combat energy throughout their bodies and could only rely on their arms to support their weight alternately, with their feet rarely being used. Seeing the lowest-ranked transformed demon stop to rest, Eirith shouted, “Throw stones at them to prevent them from descending smoothly!”

Bang! Bang! Whoosh!

Stone fragments rained down. Though none were large rocks, falling from over a hundred meters high, they still carried significant force—enough to kill an ordinary person. Neo tried his best to dodge and block, but still ended up covered in bruises and small cuts from the stones on his head, arms, and shoulders.

Neo could deviate from his path by making slight side swings 30 meters along the rope, but it mainly depended on perseverance and endurance. He summoned a Life Wave for himself and continued descending using his old method, adding a twist this time: every 30 meters, he would swing sideways to deviate as much as possible from a straight vertical path. After a few attempts, if the Dark Claws wanted to continue raining stones on Neo, they had to move sideways, which was much more strenuous for them—requiring careful, step-by-step movement with no room for error.

To harass Neo further, Eirith ordered four demon servants to form a specialized team dedicated to raining stones, taking turns leading the way and throwing stones. Neo’s perseverance and endurance were aimed at countering them.

After about half an hour, everyone’s initial enthusiasm had worn off. Everything was dark around them, with only the cold, steep rock walls in sight. Twenty meters behind them was another equally steep wall. Their physical and combat energies were nearly exhausted. Fear and despair settled over everyone without hesitation, including Neo, and grew increasingly intense.

The Dark Claws stopped raining stones. Originally, there were eight columns descending, but now it had been reduced to three. They took turns opening the way while the others followed. Even so, they still felt exhausted, their bodies pressed tightly against the rock walls, constantly demanding energy, especially from their limbs. The cumulative strain was considerable.

What followed was a silent struggle—of courage, stamina, and endurance…

The depth of this chasm seemed endless, or perhaps it led straight to the Earth’s core. Both sides had been descending monotonously for nearly three hours, about ten thousand meters, yet they still hadn’t reached the bottom.

“Damn bastard, what a jerk! Is this guy really going straight to hell?” Eirith could no longer hold back and finally roared out loud. His subordinates not only drank the other half of the energy pills but also used an entire extra pill—consumption was simply too high. More importantly, there was a sense of psychological despair. Neo was falling much faster than them; by now, he was at least a kilometer away. But at this point, could he possibly say he wouldn’t chase after him?

“Everyone, curse this bastard with me! I’ll recite the spell first, then we’ll shout it all together!” Eirith had his own peculiar ideas. What he recited wasn’t a real spell at all—just some simple, meaningless nonsense. The real purpose was to let his dark minions vent their emotions. If they continued to suppress them silently like this, problems would definitely arise.

“Loudly! Roar! That’s right! The stronger the curse, the better!” …

A group of dark minions screamed frantically on the icy rock walls with nowhere above or below them, their faces red and throats swollen. Some even included vulgar curses in their shouts. This moment was truly worth capturing as a classic memory.

Neo looked up. He couldn’t see anything, but he could hear clearly. “A bunch of fools, come chase me! Let’s see who kills whom!” …