Fortunately, the tunnel could only fit one person at a time, so Roy could pick the nekkers off one by one. He fired a shot, the first nekker dying on the spot, a hole bored through its head. That didn’t stop the attack, for the second nekker quickly leaped across the corpse and pounced at him on all fours.

Roy couldn’t reload in time, so he put his weight on one leg and swung his crossbow from right to left. Gabriel slammed against the nekker’s chin and crushed all its fangs. The nekker fell back, howling in pain.

“Switch with me, boy! Take the rear!” Letho said hoarsely. He cast Agni, and the circle illuminated the tunnel, slowing down the nekkers. “My leg’s hurt, but my arm isn’t.”

“Shut up, Letho.” Roy gripped his crossbow before grabbing the air and brandishing Gwyhyr out of nowhere. “I can’t hide behind an injured man like a coward. Time for me to protect you now.” He thrusted the sword forward, stabbing the nekker’s chest. Then Roy kicked the nekker and yanked his sword out. The blood splattered across his face, but he didn’t care. His eyes started turning crimson from the mess.

Then he slashed diagonally, and the blade sliced through the nekker’s chest like butter. Fighting in a narrow tunnel was great, since there was no place to hide. All he needed to do was swing the sword around, and it’d hit a target. However, since his strength and technique were inferior to Letho’s, he couldn’t slice the nekkers in half in one blow.

That flaw gave the nekkers a chance to attack. Even though their entrails were already spilled, they managed to claw at his left arm and drew blood. Roy winced.

The scent of blood worsened their frenzy. The nekkers pushed their fallen comrades ahead like they were shields, slamming into Roy. Gwyhyr was stuck in the meat shield, and before Roy could get it out, he was pushed back by a great force. He was still far too weak compared to a tribe of nekkers.

Then Letho supported Roy from the back. He tried to hold himself up despite his bones almost being broken. He forced his muscles to give him one last push, and he stood up. At the same time, he extended his right arm across Roy’s shoulder before making a blue triangle in the air, and then he pushed it forward.

The air itself exploded, and Aard’s impact sent the nekkers flying back, clearing the ground for them. “Fine. If you’re not backing off, then stay in the vanguard. I’ll cast the signs whenever you need it.”

“Alright!”

The duo worked together once more, though their positions had switched. Roy, who had always been the rear guard, was standing in the vanguard, attacking with Gabirel and Gwyhyr, changing his weapons to fit the situation. Sometimes he’d bore a hole through a nekker’s head, then he’d change weapons and slice their body open.

Blood was starting to drench him, and wounds were starting to pile up, but Roy showed resolve by refusing to take a step back. Letho stayed behind him, using his battle experience to cast signs in the most appropriate situations so he could sustain himself longer. He kept Yrden up at all times to slow the nekkers, making them easier to kill.

If it were just a single nekker attacking Roy, he’d cast Axii to confuse it, creating an opening for Roy, but if they came in a group, he’d send them flying with Aard.

It didn’t take long for them to mesh well together. Two minutes later, more than fifteen nekkers lay dead at their feet, but new nekkers clawed their way through a few moments later.

***

Once again, Roy stabbed a nekker’s eyes with Gwyhyr, piercing its head, and then he pulled the sword out. Blood trickled down the blade, and at the same time, it was trickling down Roy’s trembling wrist. His breathing was heavy, and he started wobbling.

The battle hadn’t been long, but already his chest, shoulders, and arms were wounded. The nekkers’ venom started to work, making matters worse. He felt himself heat up, and pain coursed through his body like needles. His strength was leaving him, and his vision started to blur. And if that wasn’t bad enough, Letho was almost running out of mana.

Then, Roy vaguely saw a big monster come out of the nekker wave. It roared at Roy before pouncing on him, like a carriage hurtling toward its destination. Roy reflexively fired a bolt at it, and it hit the target in the eye, but oddly, the shot didn’t kill it. The big monster howled in pain, but it didn’t falter, though the arrow stuck out of its left eye like a sore thumb.

Letho cast one final Axii to confuse it, and it was stunned for one second. Roy took the chance to stab it in the abdomen, and then he mustered the last of his strength to slash up, destroying its insides. Then blood spurted out of the wound.

Most nekkers would’ve lost their strength from the pain and blood loss at that point, but the big one was stronger than most. Even after being injured grievously, it could still make one final attack. It howled into the heavens and glared at Roy with malice. A moment later, it slitted Roy’s throat open with its claw, and its attack didn’t stop until it sliced Roy’s chest open.

Roy’s blood, flesh, skin, and bones flew through the air, and his blood spurted on the chieftain’s face. An intense pain that was beyond the one he’d felt with the first potion coursed through Roy. He almost blacked out from it, but before he realized what was happening, he died. His eyes were unfocused, their gleam lost. All he could feel was the great darkness enveloping him, dragging him down to his final rest, never to see the sun again.

“Boy!” Letho’s familiarly hoarse voice became that one little ball of light that woke him for a split second, but that was enough for him. Level up. He saw a golden light flash before him, and then every cell in his body screamed in pleasure. Roy’s eyes became focused once more, and they shone crimson.

Roy cast Fear, freezing the chieftain in place. In the final moments of its life, all it saw was a boy holding a sword, aiming for its neck. As the gleam of the sword illuminated the chieftain, everything around it started to spin, and it saw a headless body standing before the boy before everything faded to black.

Blood spurted out of the chieftain’s neck, and it fell back with a thud.

‘You have killed a nekker chieftain. EXP +100. Level 4 Witcher (600/2000).’

Roy had leveled up, but he didn’t have time to check the details, for the fight wasn’t over yet. He held Gabriel and Gwyhyr, preparing to fight, but the nekker tribe ignored them. Instead, they dragged their dead chieftain’s body out of the tunnel. Obviously, that was a far better reward than two humans, so the nekkers engaged in a skirmish over it. They started killing their brethren brutally all for a bigger share of the chieftain’s body.

Letho snapped him out of it. “We’d better leave now, boy.” He looked at Roy’s chest and neck, but there weren’t any wounds, much to his shock. He had questions, but those could come later. “You don’t want to stay around and wait for a new chieftain to be born.”

***

They moved ahead in the tunnel, but the nekkers didn’t give chase anymore. The sun was getting brighter and brighter, while things were starting to get more lively around them. Millipedes and spiders scurried between the cracks of the boulders, while star-nosed moles were burrowing out of the cracks, squeaking at the weird creatures before it.

Roy was going ahead, working as hard as a mule. He was waiting for Letho to shoot his questions, but Letho hadn’t seemed to notice the magical change that had happened in Roy. Even Roy couldn’t believe it. The moment he leveled up, Full Recovery not only healed the lethal wounds, but also the injuries caused by the leshen. The skin of his injuries looked like it had been reborn. It was clear, clean, and didn’t seem scraped.

His whole body was healed, inside and out. His wounds weren’t the only things that went away. Hunger, fatigue, poisoning, diseases, and even the exasperation after the long battle in the tunnels, had disappeared. He was, in a sense of the word, perfect. Full Recovery is more powerful than I thought. There were a lot of new messages in his character sheet, but he’d leave that until they escaped successfully.

“Letho — ”

Letho knew what he wanted to say, and a smile broke out on his blood-caked face. “I don’t want to know about your secret for now, boy. Not even if you’re going to tell me you’re Melitele’s son. You can tell me when you really want to.”

***

The atmosphere finally returned to its peaceful state. After passing through three cobwebs, Melitele finally smiled at them. A hole appeared not far ahead of them, though it was high in the air. Dried vines and broken rope were dangling around the hole, and a broken ladder swayed beside them.

The weather became warmer after they left the Mahakams. Roy didn’t feel too cold, even though he wasn’t wearing much. A golden light was shining down on them. Once Roy had settled Letho down, he put his hand above his eyes and went to the space under the hole.

The light was blinding after the week of darkness in the tunnels. He had to squeeze his eyes shut when he looked up. After taking a while to adapt, he slowly opened his eyes. “Gods, are you kidding me? I can’t fly.”

Fate seemed to be pulling another prank, for the exit was thirty feet in the air. Even witchers couldn’t jump that high, and they were a lot stronger than most people. Roy was most people. He could see the blue sky, the glaring sun, and some dried grass through the hole. It was alluring, but he couldn’t reach it.

“Which bastard cut the rope?” He was like a lost traveler who saw an oasis in a desert, but when nearing it, found that it was nothing but a mirage. Roy didn’t want to give up, so he fiddled with the ladder. Dammit! Even if Letho could stand above the ladder and lift me up, we still wouldn’t reach the exit. And with how he is right now, Letho can barely walk.

They had no choice but to give up on that exit and they went ahead, finding something a short while later. On the wall was a sign with a pair of crossed hammers on it. “Looks like Melitele hasn’t given up on us.”

A wall stood at the end of the tunnel, seemingly blocking their path, but a few meters ahead, the ground sloped steeply downward. Roy went to take a look and noticed an underground pond that gleamed.

The bit of light wasn’t enough to shine on the whole pond, but Roy could vaguely see conical stalactite jutting out of it, as if they were the fangs of a beast. It was a nice pond, but its surface and the ground around it was covered in heaps of foul excrements. The pond was a shithole made by the nekkers. This is probably one of their toilets. It’s flowing, so it probably leads outside. How else would those nekkers get their food? But a shithole at the end of the tunnel? Is this a joke? Roy felt disgusted, and he had a bad feeling about this.

“No. I have to find a way to escape through that hole. I can tie a rope to Gwyhyr and toss it up. Th-that might work.”

“Keep this for me, boy.” Letho unraveled the bandage around his leg and handed the short sword that was holding it in place to Roy.

“Okay.” Roy kept the short sword and looked at the pond again. “Why did you do that though?”

“We don’t have time for questions. Can you swim?” Letho asked.

“Yeah. My home’s near a river, you know. I always went swimming.” Roy was talking about his previous world. “Hey, wait.” He knew something was up, so he made a break for the hole, but Letho was faster. He pulled Roy back and shoved him into the pond.

Roy’s eyes widened in horror, and then he held his breath and scrambled to grab something, but to no avail. He fell into the pond with a splash, plunging into the area with foul-smelling water.

“Congratulations. You’re one big step closer to being a witcher now.” Letho hunkered down and took a deep breath before jumping into the pond after Roy.

***

Book Two: The End.